On April 16, 1945, the Soviet Union gathered 2.5 million troops from three fronts and launched an attack on the German capital Berlin, which was also the last strategic offensive of the Soviet Union against Germany in World War II, and a month later, the Soviet Union finally occupied Berlin at a cost of 300,000 casualties, but at that time
Germany's defeat was doomed
Why, then, did the Soviets send such a large number of troops to attack Berlin and inflict so much damage on themselves?
In fact, for the Soviet Union, at that time, they ignored Germany's combat capabilities, although the German army was exhausted in the early war, but the officers in the German army at that time were Hitler's die-hard supporters, and at that time, In order to maximize the consumption of the Allied forces, Germany should have gathered 48 infantry divisions and 6 armored divisions around Berlin with about 1 million troops, although this strength can not be compared with the Soviet Union, but the combat effectiveness is still very strong, or can bring huge casualties to the Soviet army.
On the other hand, although the Soviet Union at that time had already attacked the city of Berlin, the troops of the United States and Britain and other countries were actually advancing towards Berlin, and if the Soviet Union did not seize the time to take action to capture Berlin, it was likely that Berlin would eventually be taken by Britain and the United States, which was completely unacceptable to the Soviet Union, so even if it was necessary to pay such a huge casualty, the Soviet Union must also capture the city of Berlin.
And the last point, at that time, World War II had entered the end, and the signs of the Cold War had actually begun to appear, so the Soviet Union at that time wanted to show its powerful military power in front of Britain and the United States and other countries, which was actually a warning to these countries, in order to be able to divide more interests after the war.