Permission Form General Youth Ministry Event: Fill & Download for Free

The fall of Berlin was the last major effort to end WW2 on the European Theatre. This was truly a devestating battle and many lives were lost. Let us delve into how the Germans were finally defeated, and conquered.BACKGROUND -Starting on 12 January 1945, the Red Army began the Vistula-Oder Offensive across the Narew River; and, from Warsaw, a three-day operation on a broad front, which incorporated four army Fronts. On the fourth day, the Red Army broke out and started moving west, up to 30 to 40 km (19 to 25 mi) per day, taking East Prussia, Danzig, and Poznan, drawing up on a line 60 km (37 mi) east of Berlin along the Oder River.The newly created Army Group Vistula, under the command of Reichsfuhrer-SS Heinrich Himmler, attempted a counter attack, but this had failed by 24 February. The Red Army then drove on to Pomerania, clearing the right bank of the Oder River, thereby reaching into Silesia.In the south the Siege of Budapest raged. Three German divisions attempted to relieve the encircled Hungarian capital city, which failed, and Budapest fell to the Soviets on 13 February. Adolf Hitler insisted on a counter-attack to recapture the Drau-Danube triangle. The goal was to secure the oil region of Nagykanizsa and regain the Danube River for future operations, but the depleted German forces had been given an impossible task.By 16 March, the German Lake Balaton Offensive had failed, and a counter-attack by the Red Army took back in 24 hours everything the Germans had taken ten days to gain.On 30 March, the Soviets entered Austria; and in the Vienna Offensive they captured Vienna on 13 April. Between June and September 1944, the Werhmacht had lost more than a million men, and it lacked the fuel and armaments needed to operate effectively. On 12 April 1945, Hitler, who had earlier decided to remain in the city against the wishes of his advisers, heard the news that the American President Franklin D, Roosevelt had died.This briefly raised false hopes in the Fuhrerbunker that there might yet be a falling out among the Allies and that Berlin would be saved at the last moment, as had happened once before when Berlin was threatened.No plans were made by the Western Allies to seize the city by a ground operation. The Supreme Commader(Western) Allied Expeditionary Force, General Eisenhower lost interest in the race to Berlin and saw no further need to suffer casualties by attacking a city that would be in the Soviet sphere of influence after the war, envisioning excessive friendly fire if both armies attempted to occupy the city at once. The major Western Allied contribution to the battle was the bombing of Berlin during 1945. During 1945 the United States Air Force launched very large daytime raids on Berlin and for 36 nights in succession, scores of RAF Mosquitos bombed the German capital, ending on the night of 20/21 April 1945 just before the Soviets entered the city.PREPERATIONS -The Soviet offensive into central Germany, what later became East Germany, had two objectives. Stalin did not believe the Western Allies would hand over territory occupied by them in the post-war Soviet zone, so he began the offensive on a broad front and moved rapidly to meet the Western Allies as far west as possible. But the overriding objective was to capture Berlin.The two goals were complementary because possession of the zone could not be won quickly unless Berlin were taken. Another consideration was that Berlin itself held useful post-war strategic assets, including Adolf Hitler and the German Atomic Bomb Programme. On 6 March, Hitler appointed Lieutenant Generla Hwlmuth Reymann commander of the Berlin Defence Area, replacing Lieutenant General Bruno Ritter von Hauenschild.(March 1945: Photo of 16-year-old Willi Hübner being awarded the Iron Cross II Class medal for his defense of Lauban)On 20 March, General Gotthard Heinrici was appointed Commander-in-Chief of Army Group Vistula replacing Reichsfuhrer-SS Heinrich Himmler.Heinrici was one of the best defensive tacticians in the German army, and he immediately started to lay defensive plans. Heinrici correctly assessed that the main Soviet thrust would be made over the Oder River and along the main east-west Autobahn. He decided not to try to defend the banks of the Oder with anything more than a light skirmishing screen. Instead, Heinrici arranged for engineers to fortify the Seelow Heights, which overlooked the Oder River at the point where the Autobahn crossed them.This was some distance 17 km (11 mi) west of the Oder and 90 km (56 mi) east of Berlin. Heinrici thinned out the line in other areas to increase the manpower available to defend the heights. German engineers turned the Oder's flood plain, already saturated by the spring thaw, into a swamp by releasing the water from a reservoir upstream. Behind the plain on the plateau, the engineers built three belts of defensive emplacements reaching back towards the outskirts of Berlin (the lines nearer to Berlin were called the Wotan position).These lines consisted of anti-tank ditches, anti-tank gun emplacements, and an extensive network of trenches and bunkers.On 9 April, after a long resistance, Konigsberg in East Prussia fell to the Red Army. This freed up Marshal Rokossovky's 2nd Belorussian Front to move west to the east bank of the Oder river.Marshal Georgy Zhukov concentrated his 1st Belorussian Front, which had been deployed along the Oder river from Frankfurt in the south to the Baltic, into an area in front of the Seelow HeightsThe 2nd Belorussian Front moved into the positions being vacated by the 1st Belorussian Front north of the Seelow Heights. While this redeployment was in progress, gaps were left in the lines; and the remnants of General Dietrich von Saucken’s German II Army, which had been bottled up in a pocket near Danzig, managed to escape into the Vistula Delta.To the south, Marshal Konev shifted the main weight of the 1st Ukranian Front out of Upper Silesia and north-west to the Neisse River.The three Soviet fronts had altogether 2.5 million men (including 78,556 soldiers of the 1st Polish Army), 6,250 tanks, 7,500 aircraft, 41,600 artillery pieces and mortars, 3,255 truck-mounted Katyusha rocket launchers (nicknamed 'Stalin's Pipe Organs'), and 95,383 motor vehicles, many manufactured in the US.BATTLE OF ODER-NEISSE -The sector in which most of the fighting in the overall offensive took place was the Seelow Heights, the last major defensive line outside Berlin. The Battle of the Seelow Heights, fought over four days from 16 April 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. The Soviet forces led by Zhukov broke through the defensive positions, having suffered about 30,000 dead, while 12,000 German personnel were killed.During 19 April, the fourth day, the 1st Belorussian Front broke through the final line of the Seelow Heights; and nothing but broken German formations lay between them and Berlin. The 1st Ukrainian Front, having captured Forst the day before, was fanning out into open country.One powerful thrust by Gordov’s 3rd Guard Army and Rybalko’s 3rd and Lelyushenko’s 4th Guards Tank Armies were heading north-east towards Berlin while other armies headed west towards a section of the United States Army's front line south-west of Berlin on the Elbe. With these advances, the Soviet forces drove a wedge between the German Army Group Vistula in the north and Army Group Centre in the south.By the end of the day, the German eastern front line north of Frankfurt around Seelow and to the south around Forst had ceased to exist. These breakthroughs allowed the two Soviet Fronts to envelop the German 9th Army in a large pocket west of Frankfurt. Attempts by the 9th Army to break out to the west resulted in the Battle of Halbe.The cost to the Soviet forces had been very high, with over 2,807 tanks lost between 1 and 19 April, including at least 727 at the Seelow Heights.In the meantime, RAF Mosquitos were conducting large tactical air raids against German positions inside Berlin on the nights of 15 April (105 bombers), 17 April (61 bombers), 18 April (57 bombers), 19 April (79 bombers), and 20 April (78 bombers).ENCIRCLEMENT OF BERLIN -On 20 April 1945, Hitler's 56th birthday, Soviet artillery of the 1st Belorussian Front began shelling Berlin and did not stop until the city surrendered. The weight of ordnance delivered by Soviet artillery during the battle was greater than the total tonnage dropped by Western Allied bombers on the city. While the 1st Belorussian Front advanced towards the east and north-east of the city, the 1st Ukrainian Front pushed through the last formations of the northern wing of Army Group Centre and passed north of Juterbog, well over halfway to the American front line on the river Elbe at Magdeburg.To the north between Stettin and Schwedt, the 2nd Belorussian Front attacked the northern flank of Army Group Vistula, held by Hasso von Manteuffels III Panzer Army.The next day, Bogdanov's 2nd Guards Tank Army advanced nearly 50 km (31 mi) north of Berlin and then attacked south-west of Werneuchen. The Soviet plan was to encircle Berlin first and then envelop the IX Army.(April 1945: a member of the Volkssturm, the German home defence militia, armed with Panzershreck, outside Berlin.)The command of the German V Corps, trapped with the IX Army north of Forst, passed from the IV Panzer Army to the IX Army. The corps was still holding on to the Berlin-Cottbus highway front line.Field MarshalFerdinand Schorner's Army Group Centre launched a counter-offensive aimed at breaking through to Berlin from the south and making a successful initial incursion (the Battle of Bautzen) in the 1st Ukrainian Front region, engaging the 2nd Polish Army and elements of the Red Army's 52 Army and 5th Guards Army.When the old southern flank of the IV Panzer Army had some local successes counter-attacking north against the 1st Ukrainian Front, Hitler gave orders that showed his grasp of military reality was completely gone. He ordered the IX Army to hold Cottbus and set up a front facing west. Then they were to attack the Soviet columns advancing north. This would supposedly allow them to form a northern pincer that would meet the IV Panzer Army coming from the south and envelop the 1st Ukrainian Front before destroying it.They were to anticipate a southward attack by the III Panzer Army and be ready to be the southern arm of a pincer attack that would envelop 1st Belorussian Front, which would be destroyed by SS-General Felix Steiner's Army Detachment advancing from north of Berlin. Later in the day, when Steiner explained that he did not have the divisions to do this, Heinrici made it clear to Hitler's staff that unless the IX Army retreated immediately, it would be enveloped by the Soviets. He stressed that it was already too late for it to move north-west to Berlin and would have to retreat west. Heinrici went on to say that if Hitler did not allow it to move west, he would ask to be relieved of his command.On 22 April 1945, at his afternoon situation conference, Hitler fell into a tearful rage when he realised that his plans, prepared the previous day, could not be achieved. He declared that the war was lost, blaming the generals for the defeat and that he would remain in Berlin until the end and then kill himself. In an attempt to coax Hitler out of his rage, General Alfed Jodl speculated that General Walther Wenck’s XII Army, which was facing the Americans, could move to Berlin because the Americans, already on the Elbe River, were unlikely to move further east. This assumption was based on his viewing of the captured Eclipse documents, which organised the partition of Germany among the Allies.Hitler immediately grasped the idea, and within hours Wenck was ordered to disengage from the Americans and move the XII Army north-east to support Berlin.It was then realised that if the IX Army moved west, it could link up with the XII Army. In the evening Heinrici was given permission to make the link-up. Elsewhere, the 2nd Belorussian Front had established a bridgehead 15 km (9 mi) deep on the west bank of the Oder and was heavily engaged with the III Panzer Army.The IX Army had lost Cottbus and was being pressed from the east. A Soviet tank spearhead was on the Havel River to the east of Berlin, and another had at one point penetrated the inner defensive ring of Berlin.The capital was now within range of field artillery. A Soviet war correspondent, in the style of World War II Soviet journalism, gave the following account of an important event which took place on 22 April 1945 at 08:30 local time:“On the walls of the houses we saw Goebbles' appeals, hurriedly scrawled in white paint: 'Every German will defend his capital. We shall stop the Red hordes at the walls of our Berlin.' Just try and stop them!Steel pillboxes, barricades, mines, traps, suicide squads with grenades clutched in their hands—all are swept aside before the tidal wave.Drizzling rain began to fall. Near Bisdorf I saw batteries preparing to open fire.'What are the targets?' I asked the battery commander.'Centre of Berlin, Spree bridges, and the northern and Stettin Railway stations,' he answered.Then came the tremendous words of command: 'Open fire on the capital of Fascist Germany.'I noted the time. It was exactly 8:30 a.m. on 22 April. Ninety-six shells fell in the centre of Berlin in the course of a few minutes.”On 23 April 1945, the Soviet 1st Belorussian Front and 1st Ukrainian Front continued to tighten the encirclement, severing the last link between the German IX Army and the city.Elements of the 1st Ukrainian Front continued to move westward and started to engage the German XII Army moving towards Berlin. On this same day, Hitler appointed General Helmuth Weidling as the commander of the Berlin Defence Area, replacing Lieutenant General Reymann. Meanwhile, by 24 April 1945 elements of 1st Belorussian Front and 1st Ukrainian Front had completed the encirclement of the city. Within the next day, 25 April 1945, the Soviet investment of Berlin was consolidated, with leading Soviet units probing and penetrating the S-Bahn defensive ring. By the end of the day, it was clear that the German defence of the city could not do anything but temporarily delay the capture of the city by the Soviets, since the decisive stages of the battle had already been fought and lost by the Germans outside the city.By that time, Schorner’s offensive, initially successful, had mostly been thwarted, although he did manage to inflict significant casualties on the opposing Polish and Soviet units, slowing down their progress.BATTLE IN BERLIN -The forces available to General Weidling for the city's defence included roughly 45,000 soldiers in several severely depleted German Army and Waffen-SS divisions.These divisions were supplemented by the police force, boys in the compulsory Hitler Youth, and the Volkssturm.Many of the 40,000 elderly men of the Volkssturm had been in the army as young men and some were veterans of World War I. Hitler appointed SS Brigadefuhrer Wilhelm Mohnke the Battle Commander for the central government district that included the Reich Chancellery and Fuhrerbunker.He had over 2,000 men under his command. Weidling organised the defences into eight sectors designated 'A' through to 'H' each one commanded by a colonel or a general, but most had no combat experience. To the west of the city was the 20th Infantry Division. To the north of the city was the 9th Parachute Division. To the north-east of the city was the Panzer Division Muncheberg. To the south-east of the city and to the east of Tempelhof Airport was the 11th SS Pansergrenadier Division Nordland. The reserve, 18th Panzergrenadier Division, was in Berlin's central district.On 23 April,Berzarin’s 5th Shock Army and Katukov’s 1st Guards Tank Army assaulted Berlin from the south-east and, after overcoming a counter-attack by the German LVI Panzer Corps, reached the Berlin S-Bahn ring railway on the north side of the Teltow Canal by the evening of 24 April.During the same period, of all the German forces ordered to reinforce the inner defences of the city by Hitler, only a small contingent of French SS Volunteers under the command of SS Brigadeführer Gustav Krukenberg arrived in Berlin. During 25 April, Krukenberg was appointed as the commander of Defence Sector C, the sector under the most pressure from the Soviet assault on the city. On 26 April, Chuikov's 8th Guards Army and the 1st Guards Tank Army fought their way through the southern suburbs and attacked Tempelhof Airport, just inside the S-Bahn defensive ring, where they met stiff resistance from the Müncheberg Division.But by 27 April, the two understrength divisions (Müncheberg and Nordland) that were defending the south-east, now facing five Soviet armies—from east to west, the 5th Shock Army, the 8th Guards Army, the 1st Guards Tank Army and Rybalko's 3rd Guards Tank Army (part of the 1st Ukrainian Front)—were forced back towards the centre, taking up new defensive positions around Hermannplatz.Krukenberg informed General Hans Krebs, Chief of the General Staff of (OKH) that within 24 hours the Nordland would have to fall back to the centre sector Z (for Zentrum).The Soviet advance to the city centre was along these main axes: from the south-east, along the Frankfurter Allee (ending and stopped at the Alexanderplatz); from the south along Sonnenallee ending north of the Belle-Allaince-Platz, from the south ending near the Potsdamer Platz and from the north ending near the Reichstag.The Reichstag, the Moltke bridge, Alexanderplatz, and the Havel bridges at Spandau saw the heaviest fighting, with house-to-house and hand-to-hand combat. The foreign contingents of the SS fought particularly hard, because they were ideologically motivated and they believed that they would not live if captured.BATTLE FOR THE REICHSTAG -Battle for the Reichstag. In the early hours of 29 April the Soviet 3rd Shock Army crossed the moltke bridge and started to fan out into the surrounding streets and buildings.The initial assaults on buildings, including the Ministry of the Interior, were hampered by the lack of supporting artillery. It was not until the damaged bridges were repaired that artillery could be moved up in support.At 04:00 hours, in the Führerbunker, Hitler signed his last will and testament and, shortly afterwards, married Eva Braun.At dawn the Soviets pressed on with their assault in the south-east. After very heavy fighting they managed to capture Gestapo headquarters on Prinz-Albrechstrasse, but a Waffen-SS counter-attack forced the Soviets to withdraw from the building.To the south-west the 8th Guards Army attacked north across the Landwehr canal into the Tiergarten.By the next day, 30 April, the Soviets had solved their bridging problems and with artillery support at 06:00 they launched an attack on the Reichstag, but because of German entrenchments and support from 12.8 cm guns 2 km (1.2 mi) away on the roof of the zoo flak tower, in Berlin Zoo, it was not until that evening that the Soviets were able to enter the building.The Reichstag had not been in use since it had burned in February 1933 and its interior resembled a rubble heap more than a government building. The German troops inside made excellent use of this and were heavily entrenched.If you played “Call of Duty World at War” you probably remember fighting in brutal conditions while taking the Reichstag.Fierce room-to-room fighting ensued. At that point there was still a large contingent of German soldiers in the basement who launched counter-attacks against the Red Army.On 2 May 1945 the Red Army controlled the building entirely.The famous photo of the two soldiers planting the flag on the roof of the building is a re-enactment photo taken the day after the building was taken.To the Soviets the event as represented by the photo became symbolic of their victory demonstrating that the Battle of Berlin, as well as the Eastern Front hostilities as a whole, ended with the total Soviet victory.As the 756th Regiment's commander Zinchenko had stated in his order to Battalion Commander Neustroev "... the Supreme High Command ... and the entire Soviet People order you to erect the victory banner on the roof above Berlin".BATTLE FOR THE CENTER -Front lines 1 May (pink = Allied occupied territory; red = area of fighting)During the early hours of 30 April, Weidling informed Hitler in person that the defenders would probably exhaust their ammunition during the night. Hitler gave him the permission to attempt a breakout through the encircling Red Army lines.That afternoon, Hitler and Braun committed suicide and their bodies were cremated not far from the bunker. (Supposedly - We may never know what truly happened)In accordance with Hitler’s last will and testament, Admiral Karl Donitz became the "President of Germany" (Reichsprasidnet) in the new Flensburg Government, and Joseph Goebbels became the new Chancellor of Germany.As the perimeter shrank and the surviving defenders fell back, they became concentrated into a small area in the city centre. By now there were about 10,000 German soldiers in the city centre, which was being assaulted from all sides. One of the other main thrusts was along Wilhelmstrasse on which the Air Ministry, built of reinforced concrete, was pounded by large concentrations of Soviet artillery.The remaining German Tiger tanks of the Hermann von Salza battalion took up positions in the east of the Tiergarten to defend the centre against Kuznetsov's 3rd Shock Army (which although heavily engaged around the Reichstag was also flanking the area by advancing through the northern Tiergarten) and the 8th Guards Army advancing through the south of the Tiergarten. These Soviet forces had effectively cut the sausage-shaped area held by the Germans in half and made any escape attempt to the west for German troops in the centre much more difficult.During the early hours of 1 May, Krebs talked to General Chuikov, commander of the Soviet 8th Guards Army, informing him of Hitler's death and a willingness to negotiate a citywide surrender. They could not agree on terms because of Soviet insistence on unconditional surrender and Krebs' claim that he lacked authorisation to agree to that. Goebbels was against surrender. In the afternoon, Goebbels and his wife killed their children and then themselves.Goebbels's death removed the last impediment which prevented Weidling from accepting the terms of unconditional surrender of his garrison, but he chose to delay the surrender until the next morning to allow the planned breakout to take place under the cover of darkness.BREAKOUT AND SURRENDER -On the night of 1/2 May, most of the remnants of the Berlin garrison attempted to break out of the city centre in three different directions. Only those that went west through the Tiergarten and crossed the Charlottenbrucke (a bridge over the Havel) into Spandau succeeded in breaching Soviet lines.Only a handful of those who survived the initial breakout made it to the lines of the Western Allies—most were either killed or captured by the Red Army's outer encirclement forces west of the city.Early in the morning of 2 May, the Soviets captured the Reich Chancellery. General Weidling surrendered with his staff at 06:00 hours. He was taken to see General Vasily Chuikov at 08:23, where Weidling ordered the city's defenders to surrender to the Soviets.The 350-strong garrison of the Zoo flak tower left the building. There was sporadic fighting in a few isolated buildings where some SS troops still refused to surrender, but the Soviets reduced such buildings to rubble.BATTLE OUTSIDE BERLIN -At some point on 28 April or 29 April, General Gotthard Heinrici, Commander-in-Chief of Army Group Vistula, was relieved of his command after disobeying Hitler's direct orders to hold Berlin at all costs and never order a retreat, and was replaced by General Kurt Student.General Kurt von Tippelskirch was named as Heinrici's interim replacement until Student could arrive and assume control. There remains some confusion as to who was in command, as some references say that Student was captured by the British and never arrived.Regardless of whether von Tippelskirch or Student was in command of Army Group Vistula, the rapidly deteriorating situation that the Germans faced meant that Army Group Vistula's coordination of the armies under its nominal command during the last few days of the war was of little significance.On the evening of 29 April, Krebs contacted General Alfred Jodl (Supreme Army Command) by radio:“Request immediate report. Firstly of the whereabouts of Wenck's spearheads. Secondly of time intended to attack. Thirdly of the location of the IX Army. Fourthly of the precise place in which the IX Army will break through. Fifthly of the whereabouts of General Rudolf Holste's spearhead.”In the early morning of 30 April, Jodl replied to Krebs:“Firstly, Wenck's spearhead bogged down south of Schwielow Lake. Secondly, the XII Army therefore unable to continue attack on Berlin. Thirdly, bulk of the IX Army surrounded. Fourthly, Holste's Corps on the defensive.”NORTH -While the 1st Belorussian Front and the 1st Ukrainian Front encircled Berlin, and started the battle for the city itself, Rokossovsky's 2nd Belorussian Front started his offensive to the north of Berlin. On 20 April between Stettin and Schwedt, Rokossovsky's 2nd Belorussian Front attacked the northern flank of Army Group Vistula, held by the III Panzer Army.By 22 April, the 2nd Belorussian Front had established a bridgehead on the east bank of the Oder that was over 15 km (9 mi) deep and was heavily engaged with the III Panzer Army. On 25 April, the 2nd Belorussian Front broke through III Panzer Army's line around the bridgehead south of Stettin, crossed the Randowbruch Swamp, and were now free to move west towards Montegomery’s British 21sst Army Group and north towards the Baltic port of Stralsund.The German III Panzer Army and the German XXI Army situated to the north of Berlin retreated westwards under relentless pressure from Rokossovsky's 2nd Belorussian Front, and was eventually pushed into a pocket 32 km (20 mi) wide that stretched from the Elbe to the coast.To their west was the British 21st Army Group (which on 1 May broke out of its Elbe bridgehead and had raced to the coast capturing Wismar and Lubeck), to their east Rokossovsky's 2nd Belorussian Front and to the south was the United States 9th Army which had penetrated as far east as Ludwigslust and Schwerin.SOUTH -The successes of the 1st Ukrainian Front during the first nine days of the battle meant that by 25 April, they were occupying large swathes of the area south and south-west of Berlin. Their spearheads had met elements of the 1st Belorussian Front west of Berlin, completing the investment of the city.Meanwhile, the 58th Guards Rifle Division of the 5th Guards Army in 1st Ukranian Front made contact with the 69th Infantry Division (United States) of the United States First Army near Torgau, on the Elbe River. These manoeuvres had broken the German forces south of Berlin into three parts. The German IX Army was surrounded in the Halbe Pocket. Wenck's XII Army, obeying Hitler's command of 22 April, was attempting to force its way into Berlin from the south-west but met stiff resistance from 1st Ukrainian Front around Potsdam.Schörner's Army Group Centre was forced to withdraw from the Battle of Berlin, along its lines of communications towards Czechoslovakia.Between 24 April and 1 May, the IX Army fought a desperate action to break out of the pocket in an attempt to link up with the XII Army.Hitler assumed that after a successful breakout from the pocket, the IX Army could combine forces with the XII Army and would be able to relieve Berlin.There is no evidence to suggest that Generals Heinrici, Busse, or Wenck thought that this was even remotely strategically feasible, but Hitler's agreement to allow the IX Army to break through Soviet lines allowed many German soldiers to escape to the west and surrender to the United States Army.At dawn on 28 April, the youth divisions Clausewitz Scharnhorst, and Theodor Korner, attacked from the south-west toward the direction of Berlin. They were part of Wenck's XX Corps and were made up of men from the officer training schools, making them some of the best units the Germans had in reserve. They covered a distance of about 24 km (15 mi), before being halted at the tip of Lake Schwielow, south-west of Potsdam and still 32 km (20 mi) from Berlin. During the night, General Wenck reported to the German Supreme Army Command in Fuerstenberg that his XII Army had been forced back along the entire front. According to Wenck, no attack on Berlin was possible. At that point, support from the IX Army could no longer be expected.In the meantime, about 25,000 German soldiers of the IX Army, along with several thousand civilians, succeeded in reaching the lines of the XII Army after breaking out of the Halbe pocket. The casualties on both sides were very high. Nearly 30,000 Germans were buried after the battle in the cemetery at Halbe. About 20,000 soldiers of the Red Army also died trying to stop the breakout; most are buried at a cemetery next to the Baruth-Zossen road.These are the known dead, but the remains of more who died in the battle are found every year, so the total of those who died will never be known. Nobody knows how many civilians died but it could have been as high as 10,000.Having failed to break through to Berlin, Wenck's XII Army made a fighting retreat back towards the Elbe and American lines after providing the IX Army survivors with surplus transport. By 6 May many German Army units and individuals had crossed the Elbe and surrendered to the US Ninth Army. Meanwhile, the XII Army's bridgehead, with its headquarters in the park of Schonhausen, came under heavy Soviet artillery bombardment and was compressed into an area eight by two kilometres (five by one and a quarter miles).SURRENDER -On the night of 2–3 May, General Hasso von MAntueffel, commander of the III Panzer Army along with General Kurt von Tippelskirch, commander of the XXI Army, surrendered to the US Army. Von Saucken's II Army, that had been fighting north-east of Berlin in the Vistula Delta, surrendered to the Soviets on 9 May. On the morning of 7 May, the perimeter of the XII Army's bridgehead began to collapse. Wenck crossed the Elbe under small arms fire that afternoon and surrendered to the American Ninth Army.AFTERMATH -(A devastated street in the city centre just off the Unter Din Linden, 3 July 1945.)According to Grigory Krivosheev’s work based on declassified archival data, Soviet forces sustained 81,116 dead for the entire operation, which included the battles of Seelow Heights and the Halbe; another 280,251 were reported wounded or sick during the operational period.The operation also cost the Soviets about 1,997 tanks and SPGs.Krivosheev noted: "All losses of arms and equipment are counted as irrecoverable losses, i.e. beyond economic repair or no longer serviceable".Soviet estimates based on kill claims placed German losses at 458,080 killed and 479,298 captured, but German research puts the number of dead at approximately 92,000 – 100,000.The number of civilian casualties is unknown, but 125,000 are estimated to have perished during the entire operation.(German women washing clothes at a water hydrant in a Berlin street. A knocked-out German Scout Car stands beside them, 3 July 1945.)In those areas that the Red Army had captured and before the fighting in the centre of the city had stopped, the Soviet authorities took measures to start restoring essential services.Almost all transport in and out of the city had been rendered inoperative, and bombed-out sewers had contaminated the city's water supplies. The Soviet authorities appointed local Germans to head each city block, and organised the cleaning-up. The Red Army made a major effort to feed the residents of the city.Most Germans, both soldiers and civilians, were grateful to receive food issued at Red Army soup kitchens, which began on Colonel-General Nikolai Berzarin’s orders. After the capitulation the Soviets went house to house, arresting and imprisoning anyone in a uniform including firemen and railwaymen. During and immediately following the assault, in many areas of the city, vengeful Soviet troops (often rear echelon units) engaged in mass rape, pillage and murder.Oleg Budnitskii, historian at the Higher School of Economics in Moscow, told a BBC Radio programme that Red Army soldiers were astounded when they reached Germany. "For the first time in their lives, eight million Soviet people came abroad, the Soviet Union was a closed country. All they knew about foreign countries was there was unemployment, starvation and exploitation. And when they came to Europe they saw something very different from Stalinist Russia ... especially Germany. They were really furious, they could not understand why being so rich, Germans came to Russia".Despite Soviet efforts to supply food and rebuild the city, starvation remained a problem. In June 1945, one month after the surrender, the average Berliner was getting only 64 percent of a daily ration of 1,240 calories (5,200 kJ). Across the city over a million people were without homes. Truly a brutal battle, one surely to be remembered for centuries to come.*^above is a star for those who stuck with it the whole time :)Thanks for reading, Cheers!

I've received an A2A for this but I must admit, I'm not someone who can make any valid conclusions on this issue.What I can contribute is the articles I had read and collected overtime so people can skim through the headlines or read and make up their own mind.There are a few things I believe:1. This controversy partly has its roots in history even before these two joined office, they were bound to clash because both of their existence depends on eliminating the other.2. The history is more important than the present events.3. Its a long story and not the whole of it is really relevant, so I've divided the answer in following sections:- A little bit of history (Who is Najeeb Jung, Who is Kejriwal plus whats happening in Delhi) - Up to 2013- A little more of history, laying the ground for Kejriwal vs. Jung (There have always been differences in the ways in which Kejriwal works and the ways in which Jung works, its evident from the time Kejriwal was first elected, to Kejriwal's resignation. BJP coming to power and threatening Jung's position while starting a major Reshuffle in Delhi's administration and weakening it in the process) - 2014- This year before the official Kejriwal vs. Jung (What is interesting about this year is the hidden role of the center to retain control and the work of the elected government in improving administration. For example: it is ironic how Modi was elevated to a top position in the party surpassing many old experienced leaders but Home Ministry finds it difficult to surpass senior IAS officers to appoint a junior officer that Kejriwal recommended to the post of his Chief Secretary) - 2015- Kejriwal vs. Jung is now official (What is relevant here is the timeline of events that are discussed about in April that lead up to the events of May and June causing the famous tussle between the LG & CM)- Conclusion - While Najeeb Jung is clearly upset over the fact that a CM who he does not report to should take an interest in what comes under his jurisdiction, AAP is upset because it needs to have more control over issues to fulfill the promises it made and ensure Delhi is not reverted to a full fledged UT as the Narendra Modi government seems to want.Details:A little bit of history1. Who is Najeeb Jung?For those of you who may not know him, he was born in 1951 and has done his post graduation in History from Delhi University and later did MA in Social Policy and Planning from London School of Economics, UK. He had joined Indian Administrative Services (IAS) in 1973 and served in Madhya Pradesh government and at several key positions for 22 years.Jung's real break came in 1984 when Madhavrao Scindia became the railway minister in the Rajiv Gandhi government. Scindia asked Jung and another officer, Asif Ibrahim (director, Intelligence Bureau), to become part of his immediate personal staff.Scindia did a lot of modernization of the railways but it was Jung who ran his office.In early 1990s, When Scindia became minister for civil aviation in PV Narasimha Rao's tenure, Jung was no longer available: he had become joint secretary (exploration) in the ministry of petroleum and natural gas. This is when the privatization of the Panna-Mukta oil fields (The Second Enron Scam: The Saga of Mukta-Panna Oil Fields By Prabir Purkayastha) took place and the contracts were given to a consortium. It was here that Jung came into contact with business houses.He then quit the civil services and went on to work with one of the private companies part of the same consortium.He also did a stint at the Asian Development Bank in the mid-1990s. His interest in energy took him to Oxford where he did a PhD in energy research.A corporate outlook helped: he worked as director (energy research) with the Reliance India-funded Observer Research Foundation, having worked in London earlier with Reliance Global Management Services.He returned in 2008-09 and, after doing this and that, was appointed vice-chancellor of the Jamia Millia University by then human resources minister, Kapil Sibal, overlooking the claim of Mushir ul Hasan, already in situ.Jung ran the university with an iron hand, sacked many students and also some teachers. To friends he said new ideas were needed on how to run universities and make them more productive. Jung also faced immense criticism from the University’s students and teachers for removing tenured professors, making senior positions contractual in an attempt to curb dissent and granting a minority status to a University famed for its non-denominational character.2. Who is Kejriwal? (Plus what is happening in Delhi)We all know him so I'll be very brief hereWhat exactly happened between the years 2010 - 2011In 2010, Kejriwal was protesting against corruption in the Commonwealth Games.Meanwhile in Delhi, Tejendra Khanna had completed three years as L-G Delhi when the CWG ended. Many were wanting him out including Sheila Dikshit and P. Chidambaram among the politicians.In 2011, Kejriwal joined several other activists, including Anna Hazare and Kiran Bedi, to form the India Against Corruption (IAC) group.Meanwhile in Delhi, March 2011 the then L-G had sent a nine-page report to the President on allegations of financial irregularities in the CWG scam against him.2011 also saw the discussion of the controversial splitting of MCD, a move supported by both Congress and BJP. The idea here was of course to weaken the administration and question the need for an elected government in Delhi.In Mar 2011, BJP to boycott meet on plan to split MCD - The Times of India. We had sought a change in the terms of reference. Why should it only look at MCD? There should be simultaneous dialogue on DDA, police and law and order. But since the terms of reference have not been amended, we have decided not to join the committee.In May 2011, Sheila Dixit's Delhi govt decides to split MCD into three parts, this was perceived as a smart manoeuvre to negate the BJP influence by ‘helping’ the Congress to get control of some part of the old municipality.In Nov 2011, Delhi Mayor Writes to Sonia Against MCD Split Opposing the proposed MCD split, Delhi Mayor Rajni Abbi shot off a letter to Congress chief Sonia Gandhi appealing to her to rise above party politics and "help realise the dreams of Rajiv Gandhi" by not supporting the demand of Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit. In her letter to Gandhi, the BJP leader said the demand for trifurcation will not only weaken the local self government but will also be harmful in the long run for Delhiites.In April 2012, BJP strikes gold in MCD elections, Cong stunned - The Times of IndiaIn November 2012, Kejriwal formally launched the Aam Aadmi Party.2013At the beginning of the year 2013, one thing was clear. Sheila Dixit's image was ruined already and Congress had realized they were going to have to let go of Delhi. Then LG Khanna had also come under criticism following the December 16 gang-rape of a 23-year-old girl, he also did not have a very cordial relationship with the Chief Minister as both were at loggerheads on range of issues.So, just five months before the national capital goes to assembly polls, probably as the last attempt by Congress to save their position in Delhi:On July 1, 2013 Dr. Najeeb Jung was named the Lieutenant Governor of Delhi by President of India. The first muslim to become Delhi's Governor. A lesser known newbie with a so called passion for service and no family connections in politics (kind of person Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi was looking for), Jung had said he had no apprehensions about his new job, "I have no thoughts. Life is a flowing river and it continues to flow" when he was appointed. In the media though, he was hailed Najeeb Jung: The man who may run Delhi.In November 2013 Sheila Dikshit failed to get full statehood for Delhi, says Harsh VardhanIn December 2013 the Delhi Legislative Assembly elections were also held.Lieutenant Governor Najeeb Jung has recommended the imposition of President's rule in Delhi among other options to break the deadlock over formation of a new government after assembly polls returned a hung verdict in the state.But in the same month, The Congress party had offered unconditional support to the AAP to form a government and Kejriwal formed government in Delhi.A Little more of History, laying the ground for Kejriwal vs. JungJan 2014: Arvind Kejriwal as Delhi CM demanded the suspension of three police personnel and sat on dharna outside Rail Bhawan. Jung then played a somewhat constructive role, holding dialogues and appealing to Kejriwal to call off the protest. During the dharna, the LG also sent home-cooked parathas for Kejriwal.(We don't know for sure if Kejriwal ate the parathas - Pun intended!)Next month..Feb 3: Chaired by Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, Delhi cabinet cleared the draft of the Jan Lokpal bill.Feb 6: Solicitor General Mohan Parasaran writes to Lt. Governor Najeeb Jung terming the Jan Lokpal Bill “unconstitutional”.Feb 7: Unfazed by solicitor general’s opinion, Kejriwal said he will write to Jung on plans to enact the Jan Lokpal bill without the centre’s concurrence.Feb 10: Kejriwal met Jung and discussed various issues relating to the Jan Lokpal bill. In a statement, the Lt. Governor’s office said to avoid any dispute in the matter and to obtain full clarity, Jung has referred the issue to the law ministry for a “final opinion”.Feb 12: Union law ministry upheld Jung’s stance that centre’s nod is mandatory for introducing the Jan Lokpal bill.Feb 13: Despite law ministry’s ruling, Kejriwal decides to introduce the bill in the assembly on the first day of the special session. However, the bill could not be introduced because of repeated disruptions in the house, which finally had to be adjourned.Feb 14: Kejriwal and his cabinet ministers resigned after the bill could not be introduced. While 42 legislators - including from the Bharatiya Janata Party, the Congress, the JD-U and an Independent - voted against its introduction, 27 AAP lawmakers were for it.Feb 17: Based on the report of the Delhi Lt Governor Najeeb Jung and the recommendation of the Union Cabinet on April 15, the President has accepted the resignation of Mr. Kejriwal and also approved the imposition of President’s rule while keeping the Legislative Assembly in suspended animation.Mar 14: Addressing the 91st Annual Convocation of University of Delhi, Jung noted that the country had been blessed with great leaders and thinkers, it was now a task of the youth to build the future of the country and for that they should not only dream big but achieve them as well.Apr 14: Hold election in Delhi, Prashant Bhushan urges Lt Governor Najeeb Jung | Latest News & Updates at Daily News & AnalysisMay 14: BJP wins Lok Sabha elections. Some news reports stated Sheila Dikshit and Najeeb Jung among 18 state governors who may lose post | Latest News & Updates at Daily News & Analysis and Kejriwal Meets Najeeb JungHarsh Vardhan demands full statehood for Delhi, from the new Prime Minister | Latest News & Updates at Daily News & AnalysisJune 14: Delhi saw power cuts while Piyush Goyal asks Najeeb Jung for plan to permanently end Delhi's power woes | Latest News & Updates at Daily News & Analysisand Arvind Kejriwal meets Lt Governor Najeeb Jung over over e-rickshaw issuesJuly 14: The LG, who is in charge of administration of the Capital since February 14, said in an interview to a daily newspaper that he would call for elections the moment he was convinced that there was no possibility of any government being formed. Stating that elections were an expensive process, Jung had said that the city had been through two elections in the past six months and another election would stop the normal administration from functioning. A state can be under President's rule for up to two years, with extensions every six months.Meanwhile at Delhi administration, IAS Officers in Delhi government reshuffled | Latest News & Updates at Daily News & Analysis23 July 2014: Meanwhile at the center, Home Ministry and Centre issued a notification which favors to minimize the power of ACB of Delhi government.Aug 14: Govt formation efforts not over yet: Najeeb Jungand AAP accuses Central Government of minimising ACB's powersMeanwhile in Delhi's Admin departments, over 200 IAS officers get reshuffled.Chief Secretary D M Spolia, who was removed from the post when the Aam Aadmi Party came to power in the capital and was reappointed to the post in August replacing S K Srivastava. Of the 30 important departments, 12 departments have remained without their heads for more than a month now—Finance, Home, General Administration, Tourism, Planning, IT, Power, Social Welfare, Revenue, Higher Education, New Delhi Municipal Council and Chief Electoral Office.Such transfers have increased in frequency over the last six months and have just created confusion in the mind of the officer.Sep 14: Delhi L-G Najeeb Jung seeks permission from President to invite BJP to form government in DelhiOct 14: Meanwhile Delhi Administration sees a major reshuffle of IAS officers:Principal Secretary (Services) Shakuntala Gamlin has been given the additional charge of New Delhi Municipal Council Chairperson as current Chairman Jalaj Srivastava is going abroad for special training. Srivastava has been empanelled to the rank of Additional Secretary.Gamlin is likely to take charge on October 25. She has also been given the additional responsibility of General Administration after 1983-batch IAS officer Lalmalsawma, who was heading General Administration besides being the Principal Secretary of Social Welfare and Women and Child Development Department has been transferred to Mizoram.Environment Department Secretary Sanjiv Kumar will hold additional charge of Social Welfare and Women and Child Development Department.A 1984-batch officer, Arvind Ray has been holding the additional charge of Home Department after its head Archna Arora, a 1983 batch IAS officer, retired on September 30. Ray is the Principal Secretary (SC/ST/OBC/Minorities), and Chairman and MD of Delhi State Financial Development Corporation.S S Yadav, who heads Food and Supply Department as well as Directorate of Information and Publicity, holds the additional charge of the Tourism Department.While an IAS officer has been assigned to head two or three departments in Delhi administration, many officers serving outside the city are reluctant to join the administration that is witnessing “political uncertainty”.Nov 14: Delhi set for fresh polls, Union Cabinet approves dissolution of assembly | Latest News & Updates at Daily News & AnalysisHarsh Vardhan shunted to a low profile ministry, may not be BJP CM candidate for Delhi elections (remember he was the BJP guy publicly asking for full statehood!)As far as state administration is concerned:Nearly 60 per cent of the total budgetary allocation of Rs.16,700 crore, under the Plan head, remains un-utilised with only about a quarter of the current fiscal remaining. This while the expenditure under the non-Plan budget had crossed 60 per cent.Revenue collections declined by `3,000 crore in the current fiscal between April 14 and November 14.Of the 30 important departments, 12 were lying headless for the last three months which has led to the reshuffle of 14 IAS officers and eight Delhi, Andaman and Nicobar Islands Civil Service (DANICS) officers.The finance department was left lying almost headless after IAS officer MM Kutty joined Ministry of Environment and Forests.Shakuntala Gamlin, a 1984 batch IAS officer, who was already heading four departments, was temporarily given charge of the finance department.This year, before the official Kejriwal vs. JungJan 2015: Delhi sees more shuffles (Page on newindianexpress.com)Till Dec 2014, Shakuntala Gamlin was holding the charge of five departments. Now, Gamlin has been transferred to Power and Industries departments to replace IAS officer Arun Goyal was transferred to Mizoram in Oct 2014.Feb 2015: Exactly an year after he had resigned as Delhi Chief Minister, AAP Arvind Kejriwal took an oath as the CM again on February 14 at Ramlila Maidan after winning Delhi Elections.Kejriwal and Deputy CM Manish Sisodia had met Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh and requested him to appoint 1984 batch IAS officer Ramesh Negi as the chief secretary.The Home ministry rejected kejriwal's plea and appointed Sanjeev Nandan Sahai as the acting Chief Secretary of Delhi on February 28. (Sahai appointed as interim CS, Delhi after MHA's ‘No’ on Negi)March 2015: Home Minister Rajnath Singh approved the appointment of KK Sharma, currently serving as Chief Secretary of Delhi, to be the Delhi government’s top bureaucrat.April 2015:1 Apr 2015: Garbage piles up on Delhi roads, AAP-BJP continue fight2 Apr 2015: NGT orders Arvind Kejriwal-led govt to clean up garbage from Delhi streets04 Apr 2015: Page on dailypioneer.com5 Apr 2015: AAP to Relaunch Anti-Corruption Helpline in Delhi Today5 Apr 2015: Delhi Chief Secretary directs city administration to submit compliance of NGT orders | Latest News & Updates at Daily News & Analysis10 Apr 2015: Delhi farmers appeal to CM Arvind Kejriwal for conducting crop loss survey10 Apr 2015: Determined to make Delhi world-class city: Arvind Kejriwal11 Apr 2015: Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal announces compensation for farmers11 Apr 2015: AAP-Led Delhi Government Now Wants CCTVs in Police Stations11 Apr 2015: CM Arvind Kejriwal writes to Bassi, demands a say in policing matters13 Apr 2015: Truckers seek Kejriwal's intervention over NGT ban17 Apr 2015: BJP asks Delhi LG Najeeb Jung to probe AAP govt's Delhi Dialogue Commission | Latest News & Updates at Daily News & Analysis18 Apr 2015: AAP govt's new anti-corruption branch makes first arrests20 Apr 2015: Janta Ka Budget: AAP begins experiment in direct democracy20 Apr 2015: Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal suspends two NDMC employees for dereliction of duty23 Apr 2015: Farmer hangs himself at AAP rally28 Apr 2015: NGT Bans Burning of Waste in the Open in Delhi-NCR30 Apr 2015: Not obliged to send files to CM: JungMay 2015: This year, Kejriwal vs. Jung is now official01 May 2015: Arvind Kejriwal led AAP govt to enhance punishment for denial of minimum wages02 May 2015: Jung-Kejriwal faceoff: Don’t bother LG with all files, orders CM04 May 2015: Media conspiring to finish off Aam Aadmi Party, claims Kejriwal04 May 2015: Delhi L-G asserts his authority after Chief Minister order, launches Najeeb Jung against Arvind Kejriwal15 May 2015: Delhi Chief Secretary K K Sharma goes for 10-day leave.16 May 2015: Shakuntala Gamlin takes charge as Delhi chief secretary despite CM Arvind Kejriwal's directive19 May 2015: Delhi govt. replaces Principal Secretary Anindo Majumdar- Mr. Majumdar had cleared the appointment of Shakuntala Gamlin as acting CS for 10 days during the absence of K.K. Sharma25 May 2015: Delhi Chief Secretary K K Sharma resumes charge26 May 2015: Kejriwal vs Jung: Lt Governor must respect people’s mandate, says Delhi High Court- Anti-Corruption Bureau can act agianst Delhi Police: Arvind KejriwalJune 2015:1 Jun 2015: Shakuntala Gamlin writes to L-G Najeeb Jung: Minister Satyendra Jain putting pressure on me2 Jun 2015: Kejriwal-Jung Power Tussle Intensifies- Three inspectors and two sub-inspectors of Bihar Police have joined Delhi government's ACB after a request in this regard by the AAP government to Chief Minister Nitish Kumar's office. Reacting strongly to the decision, Jung's office virtually rejected the appointment of the five police officials from Bihar and reaffirmed that the ACB functions under his direct authority and control.8 Jun 2015: L-G Najeeb Jung appoints new chief of Delhi's Anti-Corruption Branch; AAP fumes9 Jun 2015: Kejriwal government rejects police commissioner appointed by L-G JungKejriwal government rejects police commissioner appointed by L-G Jung10 Jun 2015: Delhi govt moves to clip ACB chief MK Meena’s wings- This effectively means that MK Meena, who was appointed as joint commissioner in the ACB by lieutenant governor Najeeb Jung, will not able to take any key decisions on his own.19 Jun 2015: Complaint filed against Delhi ACB Chief Meena for alleged involvement in "20 lakh curtain purchase scam". - Janta Ka Reporter21 Jun 2015: Yogendra Yadav backs Arvind Kejriwal, says LG Najeeb Jung an agent of Centre for long - The Economic TimesConclusion: - Some of the politics behind Kejriwal vs. Jung has its roots in the age-old BJP vs. Congress battle and Delhi's age old status controversy, should Delhi be reverted to a UT or given full statehood?And some of it is an inevitable struggle between two different philosophies rather than a power-struggle that needs to be sorted by shifting the capital.On one side we have the bureaucrat trying to maintain Center's control over Delhi's administration, to save his own position (the point here is there will always be difference in opinion and there will always be a bureaucrat who has a job to save). He has worked in a certain manner for a considerable time and is used to seeing the big picture only (which today looks prettier than it did a few years back) and on the other side we have a young man, wanting to move at a very fast pace to clean up the debris that creates chaos in his immediate neighborhood, besides trying to save democracy in the state.Sources:Profile: Najeeb Jung, first Muslim to become Delhi’s Lt. GovernorNajeeb Jung's forefathers held positions of great powerArvind Kejriwal to form govt in Delhi, but can he deliver? - FirstpostSheila Dikshit and Najeeb Jung among 18 state governors who may lose post | Latest News & Updates at Daily News & Analysishttp://www.khaleejtimes.com/kt-article-display-1.asp?section=international&xfile=data/international/2014/February/international_February373.xmlYouth should ensure that poorest find a voice in society: Lt Governor Najeeb Jung | Latest News & Updates at Daily News & AnalysisA case to dismiss Delhi’s Lieutenant Governor Najeeb Jung | Latest News & Updates at Daily News & AnalysisAAP-Jung tussle started a year ago - The Times of IndiaHeadless at Helm in Delhi AdministrationPage on newindianexpress.comDeadlock over Delhi chief secretary as Kejriwal stands by Ramesh NegiPage on indianexpress.comChallenges for a Mega CityDelhi doesn’t need StatehoodOther Quora answers about the issues:Rohit Nigam (रोहित निगम)'s answer to Has Delhi developed under the leadership of Arvind Kejriwal?Vanita Ashar's answer to Why do people still support Arvind Kejriwal even when we can see clearly how inefficient he is in running a good government?Vanita Ashar's answer to What makes Arvind Kejriwal think that without paying lakh corporation employees civil amenities will improve in Delhi?Vanita Ashar's answer to What is the complete story behind the turmoil going on in the Aam Aadmi Party centering around Yogendra Yadav and Prashant Bhushan?Gourav Pathak's answer to Why are the IAS officers applying to be transferred from Delhi?Rohit Nigam (रोहित निगम)'s answer to New Delhi: Is it true that the municipal corporation of Delhi (MCD) is a very corrupt body? Are there any proofs or experiences to justify it?Rohit Nigam (रोहित निगम)'s answer to According to the AAP, Najeeb Jung was initially a congress agent and then a BJP agent. Is this true?***********************************

Shri George Fernades was himself used to wash his clothes and lived a very simple life.He never ironed his clothes.He was also one of man behind pokharan test as a defense minister.He was dead honest person..His life summary and works are as under.A native of Mangalore, Fernandes was sent to Bangalore in 1946 to be trained as a priest.In 1949, he moved to Bombay, where he joined the socialist trade union movement. Becoming a trade union leader, Fernandes organised many strikes and bandhs in Bombay in the 1950s and 1960s while working with the Indian Railways.He defeated S K Patil of Indian National Congress in the 1967 parliamentary elections from the South Bombay (now south Mumbai) constituency.He organised the 1974 Railway strike, when he was President of the All India Railwaymen's Federation.Fernandes went underground during the Emergency era of 1975, while challenging Prime Minister Indira Gandhi for imposing a state of emergency,but in 1976 he was arrested and tried in the infamous Baroda dynamite case.In 1977, after the Emergency had been lifted, Fernandes won the Muzaffarpur seat in Bihar in absentia and was appointed as Union Minister for Industries. During his tenure as union minister, he ordered American multinationals IBM and Coca-Cola to leave the country, due to investment violations.He was the driving force behind the Konkan Railwayproject during his tenure as railway minister from 1989 to 1990.He was a defence minister in the National Democratic Alliance(NDA) Government (1998–2004), when the Kargil War broke out between India and Pakistan, and India conducted its nuclear tests at Pokhran.A veteran socialist, Fernandes has been dogged by various controversies, including the Barak Missile scandal and the Tehelka affair. George Fernandes won nine Lok Sabha elections from 1967 to 2004.He died on 29 January 2019 at the age of 88.[Early lifeGeorge Fernandes was born on 3 June 1930 to John Joseph Fernandes and Alice Martha Fernandes (née Pinto), in Mangaluru then Mangalore to a Mangalorean Catholicfamily.The eldest of six children, his siblings are Lawrence, Michael, Paul, Aloysius, and Richard.His mother was a great admirer of King George V (who was also born on 3 June), hence she named her first son George. His father was employed by the Peerless Finance group as an insurance executive, and headed their office of South India for several years. George was fondly called "Gerry" in close family circles.He attended his first few years of schooling at a government school near his house called "Board school", a municipal school and a church school.He studied from fifth grade at the school attached to St. Aloysius College, Mangalore, where he completed his Secondary School Leaving Certificate (SSLC).In an interview with E TV, he described his decision to stop studies after matriculation despite his father wishing him to study and become a lawyer.His premise was that he did not want to become a lawyer and fight cases for his father who often evicted tenants from a patch of land that they owned on the outskirts of Mangalore.He was instead enrolled in a seminary for studies to become a priest.He went to St Peter's Seminary in Bangalore at the age of 16, to be trained as a Roman Catholic priest, studying philosophy for two and a half years from 1946 to 1948.At the age of 19, he left the seminary due to sheer frustration because he was appalled that the rectors ate better food and sat at higher tables than the seminarians.He later confessed that, "I was disillusioned, because there was a lot of difference between precept and practice where the Church was concerned."Though he was born in a Christian family, he rejected religion, ran away from the seminary, and he was a practising freethinker.He began work at the age of 19, organising exploited workers in the road transport industry and in the hotels and restaurants in Mangalore.Life in MumbaiAfter leaving the seminary, Fernandes moved to Bombay in 1949 in search of a job. His life was tough in Bombay, and he had to sleep on the streets, until he got a job as a proofreader for a newspaper.He relates to the beginning of his career by saying, "When I came to Bombay, I used to sleep on the benches of Chowpatty Sands. In the middle of the night policemen used to come and wake me up and ask me to move on."He came into contact with veteran union leader Placid D'Mello, and the socialist Rammanohar Lohia, who were the greatest influences on his life.Later, he joined the socialist trade union movement.He rose to prominence as a trade unionist and fought for the rights of labourers in small scale service industries such as hotels and restaurants. Emerging as a key figure in the Bombay labour movement in the early 1950s, Fernandes was a central figure in the unionisation of sections of Bombay labour in the 1950s.As a labour organiser, he served many prison terms when his workforce engaged in fights with company goons.He served as a member of the Bombay Municipal Corporation from 1961 to 1968. He won in the civic election in 1961 and, until 1968, continuously raised the problems of the exploited workers in the representative body of the metropolis.The moment that thrust Fernandes into the limelight was his decision to contest the 1967 general election.He was offered a party ticket for the Bombay South constituency by the Samyukta Socialist Party against the more popular S. K. Patil of the Indian National Congress in Bombay. Patil was a seasoned politician, with two decades of experience. Nevertheless, Fernandes won by garnering 48.5 per cent of the votes, thus earning his nickname, "George the Giantkiller".The shocking defeat ended Patil's political career.Fernandes emerged as a key leader in the upsurge of strike actions in Bombay during the second half of the 1960s but, by the beginnings of the 1970s, the impetus of his leadership had largely disappeared.In 1969, he was chosen General Secretary of the Samyukta Socialist Party, and in 1973 became the Chairman of the Socialist Party.[After the 1970s, Fernandes failed to make major inroads in Bombay's growing private-sector industries.1974 railway strikeThe most notable strike organised by Fernandes, when he was President of theAll India Railwaymen's Federation, was the All India Railway strike of 1974, where the entire nation was brought to a halt.The strike was the result of grievances by railway workers that had been built up over two decades before the strike. Though there were three Pay commissions between 1947 and 1974, none of them increased the standard of living of the workers.In February 1974, the National Coordinating Committee for Railwaymen's Struggle (NCCRS) was formed to bring all the railway unions, the central trade unions and political parties in the Opposition together to prepare for the strike to start on 8 May 1974.In Bombay, electricity and transport workers, as well as taxi drivers joined the protests. In Gaya, Bihar, striking workers and their families squatted on the tracks.More than 10,000 workers of the Integral Coach Factory in Madras marched to the Southern Railway headquarters to express their solidarity with the striking workers. Similar protests erupted across the country.The strike, which started on 8 May 1974, at the time of economic crisis, provoked strong government reactions and massive arrests.According to Amnesty International, 30,000 trade unionists were detained, most held under preventive detention laws. Those arrested included not only members of the strike action committee and trade unionists, but also railwaymen who participated in the strike.The strike was called off unilaterally on 27 May 1974 by the Action Committee. As explained later by Fernandes, "the strike was called off because those conducting the strike had started speaking in different voices."Although large number of prisoners were released, among them Fernandes, thousands remained in detention, charged with specific offences.The strike led to a sense of insecurity and threat that led to Indira Gandhi's imposition of the Emergency era in 1975.Previous strikes were aimed at companies or industries, but this strike was aimed at the government and from its ramifications proved to be the most successful of disastrous industrial actions in Indian history.Emergency era and union ministryMain articles: The Emergency (India) and Baroda dynamite caseThe reigning Prime Minister of India, Indira Gandhi, declared a state of emergency on 25 June 1975 due to internal political disturbances.Accordingly, all fundamental rights enjoyed in the Indian Constitution were suspended. Political dissidents, newspaper reporters, opposition leaders who opposed the emergency were jailed.George Fernandes, along with like-minded leaders, opposed what he saw as a blatant misuse of power.A warrant was issued in Fernandes' name and subsequently he went underground to escape arrest and prosecution. When the police failed to capture him, they arrested and tortured his brother, Lawrence Fernandes, to reveal his brother's whereabouts. Snehalata Reddy, a chronic asthmatic was arrested for being in touch with George Fernandes and, as she was not given adequate care in the prison, died soon after her release.In July 1975, Fernandes arrived in Baroda. There, he met Kirit Bhatt, who was president of Baroda Union of Journalists, and Vikram Rao, a staff correspondent of The Times of India at Baroda, both who opposed the Emergency. They used to meet and discuss on what could be done to topple the autocratic Indira Gandhi Government. An industrialist friend, Viren J. Shah, managing director of Mukand Ltd., helped them find contacts for procuring dynamite, used extensively in quarries around Halol (near Baroda). They aimed at blowing up toilets in government offices and cause explosions near the venue of public meetings to be addressed by Indira Gandhi. The idea was not to injure anybody, but only create a scare. The explosions were to be carried out either late in the night or hours before the public meeting was to begin to avoid injury.A plan was hatched to blow up a dais four hours before Indira Gandhi was to address a meeting in Varanasi. The conspiracy later came to be known as the infamous Baroda dynamite case.According to Bhatt, there were two more plans that never worked out. Fernandes also wanted to rob a train used to carry weapons from Pimpri (near Poona) to Bombay. The weapons were to be used to blast government offices. Yet another plan was to take the help of other countries by using ham radio.]On 10 June 1976, he was finally arrested in Calcutta on charges of smuggling dynamite to blow up government establishments in protest against the imposition of emergency, in what came to be known as the Baroda dynamite case.]After his arrest, Amnesty International members cabled the Government requesting that he be given immediate access to a lawyer and that his physical protection be guaranteed.]Three world leaders from Germany, Norway and Austria were believed to have cabled Indira Gandhi and cautioned her against harming Fernandes.From Baroda, the accused were shifted to Tihar Jail. The accused were never chargesheeted.]Union Minister and Muzaffarpur MP post-1977EditAfter the emergency was subsided in January 1977, so that elections could be held on 21 March 1977 in India. The Congress Party, led by Indira Gandhi, suffered a defeat at the hands of the Janata Party, a coalition created in 1977 out of several small parties that opposed Gandhi's Emergency era.][36]The Janata Party and its allies came to power, headed by Morarji Desai, who became the first non-Congress Prime Minister of India.]Fernandes won the Muzaffarpur seat in Bihar by an over 300,000 vote margin in 1977 from jail where he was lodged in the Baroda dynamite case,]despite his not even visiting the constituency.39]He was also appointed the Union Minister for Industries.]During his union ministership, he clashed with American multinationals IBM and Coca-Cola insisting they implement FERA, the Foreign Exchange Regulation Act, which had been passed under Indira Gandhi's government. Under the FERA, foreign investors could not own more than 40 per cent of the share capital in Indian enterprises.The two multinationals decided to shut down their Indian operations, when Fernandes pressed ahead with rigid enforcement of FERA.]During his first tenure as MP, Fernandes set up a Doordarshan Kendra (1978), Kanti Thermal Power Station (1978) and the Lijjat papadfactory to generate employment in Muzaffarpur.]]Fernandes also insisted on women's empowerment. In November 2014, Kanti Thermal Power Station was renamed as George Fernandes Thermal Power Station (GFTPS).]Party memberships and railway ministryFernandes (left) with Russian President Vladimir Putin in 2000During his tenure as a minister in the Janata Party, he continued to be uncomfortable with certain elements of the broad-based Janata coalition, especially with the leaders of the erstwhile Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Jan Sangh in the Union Cabinet.In a debate preceding a vote of confidence two years into the government's tenure in 1979, he vehemently spoke out against the practice of permitting members to retain connections to the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) while being in the ministry in the Janata Party. The leaders of the Bharatiya Jan Sangh, among them Atal Bihari Vajpayee and Lal Krishna Advani, refused to give up their allegiance with the RSS, leading to a split within the Janata Party.The issue of "dual membership" caused Morarji Desai to lose the vote of confidence, and his government was reduced to a minority in the Lok Sabha.]After the Janata Party started disintegrating in 1979, Charan Singh left it to form the Janata (Secular) Party and with support from the Congress Party, replaced Desai as Prime Minister.]In the seventh general elections held in 1980, the Janata (Secular) ministry failed to maintain a majority in the Lok Sabha, and Congress once again became the ruling party.Fernandes retained his Parliamentary seat from Muzaffarpur in 1980, and sat in the opposition.He contested for the Lok Sabhain 1984 from Bangalore North constituency against future Railway minister and Congress candidate C. K. Jaffer Sheriff, but lost the election by a margin of 40,000 voteHe then decided to shift his base to Bihar in 1989, when an anti-Congress wave was sweeping the country in the wake of the Bofors scandal,and won Muzaffarpur in the 1989and 1991 general elections,He later joined the Janata Dal, a party which was formed from the Janata Party at Bangalore in August 1988.His second tenure as Minister of Railways in the V. P. Singh's government from 1989 to 1990, though short-lived, was quite eventful.He was one of the driving forces behind the Konkan Railway project, connecting Mangalore with Bombay.The project happened to be the first major development in the history of rail transport in India since independence.]Fernandes broke away from the erstwhile Janata Dal and formed the Samata Partywhich became a key ally of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), a party which is the current form of the erstwhile Bharatiya Jana Sangh.BJP formed a short-lived government in the 1996 general electionsalong with the Samata Party and other allies. The government survived only for 13 days, since the BJP could not gather enough support from other parties to form a majority.Fernandes later served in the opposition along with BJP during the two United Front governments (1996–1998) led by Janata Dal ministers H. D. Deve Gowda and Inder Kumar Gujral.After the collapse of the United Front ministry led by Gujral, BJP and its allies won a slender majority in the 1998 general elections. The government lasted only for 13 months, due to the non-co-operation of All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) leader Jayalalitha.After the collapse of the second BJP-led coalition government, BJP and its allies formed a 24 party alliance called National Democratic Alliance (NDA), which became the first non-Congress coalition government in post-independence India to survive a full five-year term (1999–2004).Later, Fernandes became the convenor of NDA.On 27 July 1999, the Janata Dal again split into two factions, the Janata Dal (United) and the Janata Dal (Secular).In 2003, Fernandes reunited with the Janata Dal (United), and also merged his Samata Party with it.Defence ministerEditMain articles: Kargil War and Pokhran-IIFernandes (left) with US Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld in 2002Fernandes served as the Defence Minister of India in both the second and third National Democratic Alliance governments (1998–2004). During his tenure as the defence minister, the Kargil war over Kashmir broke out between India and Pakistan in 1999.The war began when heavily armed Pakistan-backed intruders dug themselves in at heights of 16,000 feet (4,900 m) – 18,000 feet (5,500 m) on the Indian side of the Line of Control (LOC) along an 80 kilometres (50 mi) stretch north of Kargil. They began attacking the strategic highway linking Srinagar and Leh.As a result, the Indian army undertook the Operation Vijay to push back the Pakistani intruders and regain the occupied territories.]The inability of the Indian intelligence and military agencies to detect the infiltration early received criticism, both by the opposition as well as the media. However, Fernandes has refused to acknowledge the failure of intelligence agencies in detecting infiltration along Kargil sector.]In May 1998, India conducted five nuclear tests at the Pokharan range in Rajasthan.Earlier a staunch supporter of nuclear disarmament, Fernandes openly endorsed the NDA government's decision to test the nuclear bombs.He was also involved in skirmishes with the then Chief of Naval Staff of the Indian Navy, Vishnu Bhagwat, over promotion of Vice-Admiral Harinder Singh as Deputy Chief of the Naval Staff. Bhagwat was subsequently sacked over the issue.After the Tehelka defence scandal broke out in March 2001, Fernandes quit as defence minister, but was reappointed to the post later.Fernandes is the only defence minister of a nuclear power who had a picture of Hiroshima bombing in his office. He made 18 visits to the icy heights of the 6,600 metres (4.1 mi) Siachen glacier in Kashmir, which holds the record of being "the world's highest battlefield".He was known for overseeing a huge increase in India's defence budget as compared to the allocations made by previous governments.[MMAfter the defence ministershipEditThe NDA Government lost power to the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance(UPA) in the 2004 general elections.[71]Later, political observers alleged that Fernandes was locked in a bitter party rivalry with his one-time friend, Samata Party co-founder, Nitish Kumar.[72]In the 2009 general elections, he contested from Muzaffarpur as an independent candidate after being denied a ticket by the Janata Dal (United) on health grounds,[73]but he lost the election.[74]On 30 July 2009, Fernandes filed his nomination as an independent candidate for the mid-term poll being held for the Rajya Sabha seat vacated by Janata Dal (United) president Sharad Yadav.[75]The Janata Dal (United) did not field any candidate against him, which led to his being elected unopposed. He was sworn in on 4 August 2009.[76]Other activitiesEditSupport to secessionist groups in Sri LankaEditFernandes supported and endorsed many secessionist movements and groups. He was a long time supporter of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), an organisation which sought to create an independent state in the north and east of Sri Lanka.[77]Before 1997, he organised a controversial public convention of pro-LTTE delegates in New Delhi.[77]In July 1998, he reportedly prevented the Indian Navy from intercepting ships that were suspected of carrying illegal weapons to Tamil guerrilla groups.[77]Fernandes was also a patron of the Fund Raising Committee backed by the LTTE, with an objective to help the 26 accused in the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case.[77]The Sri Lankan government stated that, "the LTTE's biggest supporter in India is Defence Minister George Fernandes."[77]He also expressed support for Tibetan refugees fighting for freedom against China, and Burmese pro-democratic rebel groups fighting against the military government in Myanmar.[78]He revealed the infamous "Operation Leech" incident, which resulted in the capture of Arakan Army insurgents on one of India's islands in the Andaman Sea. He also fought for the welfare and release of anti-Burmese rebels held by the Indian Government.[79]CIA fundingEditMain article: Kissinger cablesDuring the Emergency, as chairman of the Socialist Party of India, he faced prosecution for alleged conspiracy against the government of Prime Minister Indira Gandhi.[80]He allegedly sought to obtain funding from the US Central Intelligence Agency and the French government to organise underground sabotage activities. US diplomatic cables said that after an initial request to seek funding from the French government was turned down, he was "prepared to accept money from the CIA".[80]Tehelka scandalEditMain article: Operation West EndFernandes' name figured prominently in Operation West End, a sting operation in which journalist Mathew Samuel, armed with hidden cameras, from a controversial investigative journal, Tehelka, posing as representatives of a fictitious arms company, appeared to bribe the Bharatiya Janata PartyPresident, Bangaru Laxman, a senior officer in the Indian Army and Jaya Jaitly, the General Secretary of the Samata Party and Fernandes' companion.[81]The scandal caused uproar all over India and Fernandes was forced to resign from his post as a Defence Minister. He was subsequently cleared by the one man commission headed by retired Justice Phukan. The Phukan Committee Report was rejected by the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) Government headed by the Congress Party and a new committee headed by Justice K Venkataswami was appointed. The Committee investigated the case in detail, but Justice Venkataswami resigned before submitting the report in the case.[82]Barak Missile scandalEditMain article: Barak Missile scandalOn 10 October 2006, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) registered a First information report (FIR) against Fernandes, his associate Jaya Jaitly, and former navy chief Admiral Sushil Kumar for alleged irregularities in purchasing the ₹7 billion(US$97 million) Barak 1 system from Israel in 2000.[83]Fernandes, however, said that the scientific adviser to the Defence Minister in National Democratic Alliance (NDA) Government (1998–2004), who later became the President of India, A. P. J. Abdul Kalam, had cleared the missile deal.[83]As defence ministerEditFollowing the Pokhran nuclear tests in 1998, he openly branded China as "India's enemy number one".[84]He later expressed regret for his statements, saying it was wrongly interpreted by the media.[7][70]He has also criticised China for providing sophisticated weapons to Pakistan to build its missiles, and has rapped the Chinese for strengthening their military across the Himalayas in Tibet.[70]Fernandes has claimed that he was strip searched twice at Dulles Airport in the US Capital area, when he was defence minister—once on an official visit to Washington in early 2002 and another time while en route to Brazil in mid-2003. The details of the strip-search were mentioned in American foreign policy analyst Strobe Talbott's book Engaging India – Diplomacy, Democracy and the Bomb.[85]However, the US embassy in Delhi issued a formal denial that Fernandes had been strip-searched,[86]and said that, "Fernandes was not strip-searched but a security wand was waved over him when a key in his pocket set off the metal detector."[87]Subsequently, the then United States Deputy Secretary of State, Richard Armitage, personally apologised to Fernandes over the matter.[87]This was one in a series of incidents involving the detention and search of Indian VIPs at US airports that marred Indian–US relations post 9/11.[88]He was accused in the 2002 coffin scam, following allegations that 500 poor quality aluminium caskets were bought from the United States at rates 13 times more than the actual price, to transport the bodies of slain soldiers, after the Kargil War.[89]However, the CBI gave a clean sheet to Fernandes in the scam in its 2009 charge sheet.[90]Critics have charged the Congress Party for hounding George Fernandes for speaking out against Sonia Gandhi and the Nehru dynasty as looters.[91]Writings, journalism and other contibutionsEditFernandes liked writing and journalism in his student days. He was the editor of a Konkani language monthly Konkani Yuvak (Konkani Youth) in 1949. The same year, he was the editor of the Raithavani weekly in Kannada.[92]The Dockman weekly in English, which had ceased publication, reappeared under the editorship of Fernandes in 1952–53.[93]Though not a prolific writer, Fernandes wrote several books on politics including What Ails the Socialists (1972),[94]Socialist Communist Interaction in India,[95]In the year of the disabled: India's disabled government(1981),[96]Dignity for All: Essays in Socialism and Democracy (1991),[97]and his autobiography titled George Fernandes Speaks(1991).[98]He was the editor of an English monthly, The Other Side, and the chairman of the editorial board of the Hindi monthly Pratipaksh.[4]A human rights activist, Fernandes was been a member of Amnesty International, the People's Union for Civil Liberties and the Press Council of India.[99]Family and personal lifeEditFernandes met Leila Kabir, the daughter of former Union minister Humayun Kabir, on a flight back to Delhi from Calcutta. Fernandes, then the general secretary of the Samyukta Socialist Party, was returning from Bangladesh while Kabir was on her way back from the battlefront where she had gone as an assistant director of the Red Cross. They began dating and were married on 22 July 1971.[100]They had a son, Sean Fernandes, who is an investment banker based in New York.[101]Fernandes and Kabir separated in the mid-1980s.[101]Jaya Jaitly was Fernandes' companion from 1984.[101]Fernandes spoke ten languages—Konkani, English, Hindi, Tulu, Kannada, Marathi, Tamil, Urdu, Malayalam, and Latin. Konkani was his mother tongue. He learnt Marathi and Urdu in jail, and Latin while he was in the seminary in his early youth. He was fluent in Hindi and English.[102]Fernandes was reported to be suffering from Alzheimer's and Parkinson's diseases, and in January 2010 was undergoing treatment at Baba Ramdev's ashram at Haridwar[103]for the diseases at the request of Leila Kabir, who had recently returned to his life.[104]In February 2010, Fernandes' brothers were reported to have been considering a court order for medical treatment and visitation; Kabir and Sean Fernandes are alleged to have forcibly removed Fernandes to an undisclosed location.[105]In July 2010, the Delhi High Court ruled that Fernandes would stay with Kabir and that Fernandes' brothers would be able to visit.[106]In August 2012 the Supreme Court of Indiagranted permission to Jaya Jaitly, a former aide, to visit him, a move which was opposed by his wife on the ground of her locus standi.[107]He died at the age of 88 on 29 January 2019, in Delhi following a prolonged illness.Thanks.Courtesy; Google.