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The Battle of the Seelow Heights, fought over four days from 16 until 19 April, was one of the last pitched battles of World War II: almost one million Red Army soldiers and more than 20,000 tanks and artillery pieces were deployed to break through the "Gates to Berlin", which were defended by about 100,000 German soldiers and 1,200 tanks and guns.
Estimates of the number of deaths attributable to the Soviet revolutionary and dictator Joseph Stalin vary widely. [1] The scholarly consensus affirms that archival materials declassified in 1991 contain irrefutable data far superior to sources used prior to 1991, such as statements from emigres and other informants.
However, death toll of civilians due to the bombing has been estimated to have been 40,000, [87] [82] or as many as 70,000, [83] though these estimates may be exaggerated. [88] Also estimated are 150,000 wounded. [89] The Soviet Air Force, the Voyenno-Vozdushnye Sily (VVS), was swept aside by the Luftwaffe. The VVS bases in the immediate area ...
The death rate of German soldiers held by Soviet Union has been estimated at 15% by Mark Edele, [31] and at 35.8% by Niall Ferguson. [35] An even higher estimate of death rate has been suggested for the Italian soldiers held by the Soviet Union: 79% (estimate by Thomas Schlemmer ) [36]: 153 or 56.5%.
During the Battle of Kalach, Fliegerkorps VIII provided the German XIV and XXIV Panzer Corps' with decisive air support as the Soviet 62nd Army was encircled and destroyed west of Kalach from 8–11 August through the application of superior German firepower from all sides and especially from above. 50,000 prisoners were taken by the Germans, 1,100 Soviet tanks were destroyed or captured and ...
Germany's heavy losses of men and tanks ensured that the victorious Soviet Red Army held a strategic initiative for the rest of the war. The Battle of Kursk was the first time in the Second World War that a German strategic offensive was halted before it could break through enemy defences and penetrate to its strategic depths .
The battle in Berlin was an end phase of the Battle of Berlin.While the Battle of Berlin encompassed the attack by three Soviet fronts (army groups) to capture not only Berlin but the territory of Germany east of the River Elbe still under German control, the battle in Berlin details the fighting and German capitulation that took place within the city.
The tentative consensus says that once secret records of the Gulag administration in Moscow show a lower death toll than expected from memoir sources, generally between 1.5 and 1.7 million (out of 18 million who passed through) for the years from 1930 to 1953." [104] Certificates of death in the Gulag system for the period from 1930 to 1956 [105]