“The Red Army has Berlin… the city was taken by troops of the 1st White Russian front under Zhukov, and those of the 1st Ukranian front under Konev; the formations of the units which particularly distinguished themselves were to be named after Berlin; that the victory would be celebrated in Moscow by 24 artillery salvos from 324 guns…Berlin fell three years, 10 months and 10 days after Hitler attacked the Soviets. The Red Army soldiers had marched 1,000 miles from Moscow and 1500 miles from Stalingrad over broken and burned countryside and city to get at the powerful heart of Nazism pumping death into the arteries of Europe.”
