War chronicles: day-by-day. April 30

April 30, 1945. Troops of the 1st Belarusian Front fight their way towards Reichstag, street-to-street, house-to-house, under crisscross enemy fire from well-hidden positions. Southeast of Berlin, surrounded German troops, in a desperate attempt to break the encirclement, launch a counterattack, trying to engage in close combat, but come under a barrage of artillery and machine-gun fire and sustain heavy losses.