The Germans had repulsed every Russian attempt to drive across the Oder river to Berlin. During early April, however, Stalin concentrated a tremendous force between Stettin And Breslau in preparation for a final blow against Germany.
During the night of April 16, 1945 the Russians struck, No one in Berlin had any hope of stopping the massive Russian offensive involving over 3000 divisions. Left to defend the 321 square miles of the city were 60,000 untrained home guardsmen who ranged from 15 year old Hitler youths to men in their seventies; one third of these men were unarmed. Even though the Americans and British were advancing rapidly in the west the terribly outnumbered German forces along the Oder fought desperately to stem the Russian advance.
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