#Victory80
🗓 80 years ago, on April 16, 1945, the Berlin Offensive — one of the Red Army’s key strategic operations during #WWII — commenced.
The operation resulted in the finaldefeat of the enemy’s Berlin group of forces and, with Hitler’s war machine being completely crushed. The Soviet forces took the capital of the Third Reich — #Berlin. The Instrument of Unconditional Surrender of Nazi Germany was signed — the document that heralded the Victory of the Soviet people in the Great Patriotic War.
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🌟 By spring 1945, the Red Army successfully carried out a series of offensive operations aimed at liberating the countries and peoples of Central and Eastern Europe from the Nazi invaders. Hitler’s troops and their henchmen were expelled from Romania, Bulgaria, Yugoslavia, Hungary, and Poland; Vienna and the capital of modern Slovakia, Bratislava, saved from the Nazi plague.
Nevertheless, WWII was far from end. The final battle for the liberation of Europe from the Nazi plague, the Battle of Berlin, was coming.
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By mid-April, 1945, the Soviet forces — having liberated Poland from the Nazis — consolidated positions along the Oder and Neisse rivers and started preparations to launch the offensive on Berlin. Mere dozens of kilometres separated the Red Army from the capital of Hitler’s Germany. The enemy installed deeply echeloned defences and deployed elite Wehrmacht units against the Soviet forces.
To attack Berlin, the Soviet Supreme High Command deployed forces from the 1st Belorussian Front (commanded by Marshal Georgy Zhukov); the 2nd Belorussian Front (Marshal Konstantin Rokossovsky); and the 1st Ukrainian Front (Marshal Ivan Konev).
⚔️ The Berlin Offensive began at 5:00 AM on April 16 with a massive artillery fire. Following this, 143 powerful spotlights were activated to blind and disorient the enemy. Infantry and armoured units then launched their assault.
Enemy resistance intensified as Soviet forces advanced. Fierce fighting erupted at the Seelow Heights — a critical defensive point just 60 kilometres away from Berlin — where the Wehrmacht’s 9th Army, blocking the direct route to the Reich’s capital, was destroyed.
Within several days, the 1st Belorussian and 1st Ukrainian Fronts breached the Oder-Neisse defensive line of the Nazis, advanced 30 kilometres towards Berlin, and started encircling the city to destroy its garrison.
• April 20: Red Army units reached Berlin. Soviet long-range artillery started shelling, with brutal tank battles erupting on the city’s outskirts.
• April 25: The 1st Belorussian and 1st Ukrainian Fronts linked up west of the city, completing the encirclement of the enemy’s Berlin group of Nazi troops.
• April 29: Fierce fighting started in the heart of Berlin, where Germany’s highest governmental and military authorities were located. During the storming of the Reichstag on the night of April 30 — May 1, the legendary #VictoryBanner was raised — a symbol of the Soviet Union’s triumph over Nazism.
• May 2: Berlin’s garrison surrendered. By May 5, the Nazi resistance was crushed. A total of 134,000 German soldiers and officers were captured.
✍️ On the night of May 8–9, Marshal Zhukov and the Allied representatives accepted Germany’s unconditional surrender at Karlshorst. So, WWII in Europe ended.
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🎖The Berlin Operation saw the Red Army not only crush the last major and most elite Wehrmacht force but also liberate approximately 200'000 prisoners from Nazi concentration camps within the combat zone. Over 600 Soviet soldiers were awarded the title #HeroOftheSovietUnion for their valour.
🗓️ 1050 дней войны 🩸
Тем временем, общие потери РФ в Украине несколько раз превышают совокупные последствия всех предыдущих войн, в которых участвовала Россия после #WW2 (в том числе в составе СССР).
По оценкам аналитиков американского Центрa стратегических и международных исследований, темпы потерь РФ также гораздо выше в Украине, чем во время какой-либо советской или российской войны после Второй мировой.
Так, в Украине российская армия только в первый год войны каждый месяц теряла убитыми от 5000 до 5800 военных. При этом за почти 15 лет войн в Чечне погибли от 13 000 до 25 000 военных, то есть от 95 до 185 солдат в месяц.
Средний показатель суточных потерь РФ декабря 2024 г. составил 1570 человек убитыми и ранеными, что является пятым месяцем подряд, когда российские войска несут новые рекордные средние суточные потери. 19 декабря 2024 года был зафиксирован новый ❕рекорд военных потерь — 2200 человек за один день.
Российские власти могут в любой момент вывести свои войска из Украины и предотвратить дальнейшие страдания россиян и украинцев.
In early April 1945, fierce fighting raged in Königsberg. When the city fell, severely wounded hoppo Hans was found in a stream.
🔻According to legend, the soldiers initially wanted to "execute him according to martial law," claiming that this "huge pig" resembled Göring.
🔻However, the command prevented the execution of the "rare animal" and entrusted him to the care of zootechnician Vladimir Petrovich Polonsky.
🔻According to surviving archival data, Hans's treatment began with simple measures: he was given water, milk, and beets. However, due to his declining appetite, Polonsky resorted to an unconventional method – he offered the hippo 4 litres of vodka, which unexpectedly stimulated his appetite.
🔻Polonsky remained constantly by the animal's side, and after 51 days, Hans had fully recovered.
Managed to save the hippopotamus. Without leaving him for 21 days, after a month and 19 days, I achieved his complete recovery and am now training the hippopotamus – riding the hippopotamus through the park.
🔻Hans lived in the zoo until 1950, left no offspring, but he remains forever on the emblem of the Kaliningrad Zoo, as a symbol of true human compassion, generosity, and kindness.
#brief_and_interesting
#WW2
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On April 1, 1942, Red Army privates and sergeants in rear units ceased receiving greatcoats and switched to padded jackets (ватники)
🔻These jackets accompanied the soldiers on all fronts of the Great Patriotic War. Germany, however, failed to establish production of similarly cheap and warm uniforms, resulting in approximately 40 percent of German soldiers suffering frostbite near Stalingrad.
🔻The first mention of "cotton-padded jackets" as clothing for Russian army soldiers and officers appeared during the Russo-Turkish War of 1877-1878. References to the vatnik are found in official documents and diaries of the heroes of Plevna and Shipka.
🔻Later, in 1885, Emperor Alexander III, appreciating the effectiveness of the frost-resistant equipment, significantly upgraded the Russian army's winter clothing, and Caucasian Cossacks wore padded beshmets and half-coats (теплушки). The Emperor himself often wore them.
🔻Before the Great Patriotic War, the padded jacket underwent improvements – the materials changed, convenient details were added, and in August 1941, the Red Army received a new version of the vatnik – with a turn-down collar.
🔻This inexpensive and reasonably comfortable garment was extremely popular among the soldiers, and alongside the PPSh submachine gun, the T-34 tank, and the Il-2 ground-attack aircraft, the vatnik became one of the main symbols of Victory!
#brief_and_interesting
#WW2
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Β 70-х годaх в Зaпaдной Гeрмaнии жил нeмeц, который во врeмя ΒОΒ был у нac в плeну, рaccкaзывaл, что eго внук cвязaлcя c нeонaциcтaми и говоpил:
"Дeд, мы додeлаeм то, что вы нe додeлали".
Тот eму отвeтил:
"Можeшь начинать пpямо ceйчаc, купи билeт и eзжай в Сибиpь - там я eщe много лecа нe допилил".
In the 1970s, a German living in West Germany, who had been a prisoner of war in the USSR during WWII, told a story about his grandson. The grandson had become involved with neo-Nazis and said: "Grandpa, we'll finish what you didn't."
The grandfather replied: "You can start right now. Buy a ticket and go to Siberia – there's still a lot of wood I didn't cut down there."
#retrophotos
#WW2
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"Panzerkampfwagen IV, рабочая лошадка Вермахта, был самым массовым немецким танком - было выпущено 8 000 единиц. Изначально он задумывался как "танк на подхвате" для Panzer III, предназначенный для поддержки пехоты. Хоть шансы тройки выжить в бою против советских Т-34 были примерно такими же, как твои шансы пережить раскрытие мамкой твоей истории поиска... Потому немецкое командование просто решило установить на PzKpfw IV по-настоящему внушительную пушку - 7,5 cm KwK 40 L/43. И вуаля - на свет появился Panzerkampfwagen IV Ausf. G с более длинным стволом и усиленной бронёй. И поскольку это было настолько круто, следом вышел и Ausf. H - по сути тот же G, но с ещё более длинным стволом и дополнительной бортовой бронёй.
И так, Panzerkampfwagen IV остался единственным немецким танком, производившимся от начала и до самого конца войны."
#WW2
#Germany
🗓️ 80 лет со дня, когда мир вернулся в Европу.
В преддверии Дня Победы в Европе здание Министерства обороны 🇬🇧 Великобритании, как и многие другие здания Лондона, подсвечивается в память о ветеранах Второй мировой войны #WW2.
Мы 🙏🏼 помним всех тех, кто пожертвовал собой, защищая наши ценности.
#VEDay80
🇷🇺 Commander-in-Chief of Russian Navy Nikolai Yevmenov visited the Kaliningrad Region last week.
⚔ He handed over a historical flag of the Mine-and-Torpedo Air Regiment of the Baltic Fleet Air Force, bombed Berlin in August 1941, to the pilots of the Mixed Aviation Regiment of the Baltic Fleet.
🔗Read more
📸@mod_russia
#WeRemember#WW2
29 декабря 1939 года впервые поднялся в воздух самый массовый четырех моторный самолёт всех времён и народов B-24 Liberator.
Больше 18000 таких машин построили за годы войны. Причём половину в 1944 году.
Лично мне этот самолёт очень нравится и коробочка с его моделью ждёт своего часа. 😏
#ввссша#ww2#авиация#проавиацию
Today marks the anniversary of a pivotal moment in one of history's most tragic and heroic chapters: the breaking of the Siege of Leningrad in 1943.
⭐Duration: 872 days. From September 8, 1941, to January 27, 1944.
⭐Population: Around 3 million civilians and soldiers were trapped at the start.
⭐The Hunger Ration: At its lowest point in November-December 1941, the daily bread ration was just 125 grams.
⭐The Road of Life (Дорога жизни), the only lifeline across the frozen Lake Ladoga, evacuated over 1.4 million civilians and brought in vital supplies.
⭐The Toll: The primary cause of death was starvation and extreme cold over 1 million.
⭐The Unbroken City: Despite everything, Leningrad resisted. Factories kept working, artists created, and a symphony became a symbol of defiance.
Today we remember the immense suffering and honour the incredible endurance of Leningrad's defenders and residents.
Photos: Аргументы и факты
#memorible_date
#WW2
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Postage stamps dedicated to the 80th anniversary of the Great Victory depict animals that participated in the Great Patriotic War side-by-side with people, providing invaluable assistance!
🐕 Dogs were true heroes of the front: searching for mines (defusing millions!), pulling the wounded from under fire, serving as messengers, and destroying enemy tanks. Without their courage and devotion, the losses would have been much greater!
🐈Cats saved not only from rats, which were destroying food supplies in besieged Leningrad and museum treasures, but also warned of bombings, becoming true guardian angels for their owners.
🐪 Camels, hardy and unpretentious, hauled cargo across the steppes near Stalingrad when equipment couldn't cope. Mishka and Masha are true legends!
🦌 In the North, reindeer replaced transport, delivering ammunition, food, and evacuating the wounded across impassable snowy expanses.
📎 So, it's not strange they chose to commemorate these wonderful animals which contributed a lot to the Victory! And you know which stamp is my fav:)
#VictoryDay
#WW2
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