Battle in Berlin - Preparation

Preparation

See also: Order of battle for the battle in Berlin

On 20 April, Hitler ordered and the Wehrmacht initiated "Clausewitz", which called for the complete evacuation of all Wehrmacht and SS offices in Berlin; this essentially formalized Berlin's status as a frontline city.

The forces available to Artillery General Helmuth Weidling for the city's defence included several severely depleted Wehrmacht and Waffen-SS divisions, in all about 45,000 men. 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 Brigadeführer Wilhelm Mohnke commander of the city's central government district. Mohnke's command post was in bunkers under the Reich Chancellery. The core group of his fighting men were the 800 members of the Leibstandarte (LSSAH) Guard Battalion (assigned to guard the Führer). He had a total of over 2,000 men under his command.

Weidling organized the defences into eight sectors designated 'A' through 'H', each commanded by a colonel or a general, but most had no combat experience. To the west of the city was the XX Infantry Division. To the north of the city was the IX Parachute Division. To the northeast of the city was the Panzer Division Müncheberg (Werner Mummert). To the southeast of the city and to the east of Tempelhof Airport was the XI SS Panzergrenadier Division Nordland (Joachim Ziegler). The reserve, XVIII Panzergrenadier Division, was in Berlin's central district.

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