The Battle of Berlin took place from April 20 to May 2, 1945, and it ended with the fall of Berlin to the Soviet Red Army. Britannica describes the city as being defended by 'a small force of stragglers and the remnants of shattered formations,' supported by ill-equipped militia and units of the Hitler Youth.

Britannica identifies the main combatants of World War II as the Axis powers and the Allies, including Germany on one side and the Soviet Union on the other. This provides broader context for why the Battle of Berlin was a confrontation between Soviet and German forces in the war's final stage.

A National Archives caption for a World War II photograph notes that it shows "Soviet troops in the streets of Berlin, Germany, in the final days of the war" and describes them as part of the Red Army assault that captured the German capital in 1945. The archival description highlights the Red Army as the attacking force operating inside Berlin against remaining German defenders.

A scholarly analysis of the campaign describes the Battle of Berlin as the concluding operation of the Red Army’s advance into Germany, in which "Soviet forces of the 1st Belorussian and 1st Ukrainian Fronts converged on the German capital". It explains that the battle "pitted massive Soviet ground and artillery formations against the remnants of Nazi Germany’s army and SS units defending the city" and that other Allied armies remained west of the Elbe while the fighting for Berlin itself was conducted by Soviet and German forces.

The article says Stalin wanted Berlin captured first and that 'an unstoppable force of 2.5 million Soviet troops' attacked the city. This framing identifies the battle as a Soviet offensive against German defenses on the Eastern Front.

In its virtual exhibition on the end of the war in Europe, the German Federal Archives describes how in April 1945 "the Red Army advanced on Berlin from the east" and that "the main burden of the final battle for the Reich capital was borne by Soviet troops." It notes that German defenders consisted of "remnants of Wehrmacht divisions, Waffen-SS units, Volkssturm, and Hitlerjugend" attempting to resist the Soviet assault in the city, indicating that the combat was between Soviet forces and the remaining armed formations of Nazi Germany.

The National Archives explains that it holds "captured German military records" including those of "Army Group Vistula" and other formations that fought in the final stages of the war. It notes that these records document "German operations, orders of battle, and unit histories" for the period up to May 1945, including the defense of Berlin against the advancing Soviet forces. These primary records show that the German side in the Berlin fighting consisted of Wehrmacht and Waffen-SS units, among other Nazi military organizations, facing the Red Army.

The German‑language article identifies the conflict parties (Konfliktparteien) as on one side "Sowjetunion, Polen" and on the other side "Deutsches Reich".[2] It describes the Battle of Berlin as "the last major battle of the Second World War in Europe" and says it resulted in "the capture of Berlin, the capital of the German Reich, by the Red Army of the Soviet Union with the participation of some Polish units".[2] It notes that Soviet high command concentrated about 2.5 million soldiers, 6,250 tanks and self‑propelled guns, 7,500 aircraft and 41,600 artillery pieces for the encirclement and capture of the city.[2]

A release on the Russian Ministry of Defense site marking the 75th anniversary of Berlin’s capture states that the "Berlin offensive operation" had the goal "to defeat the main forces of the German army groups ‘Vistula’ and ‘Center’ to capture Berlin." It specifies that the operation was carried out by the "1st Belorussian Front under Marshal Georgy Zhukov and the 1st Ukrainian Front under Marshal Ivan Konev" and that after "nine days of street fighting" their troops "captured Berlin" and took tens of thousands of German soldiers prisoner, indicating that the fighting was between these Soviet fronts and the remaining German forces.

The National WWII Museum article notes that "on April 16, 1945 the final assault on Adolf Hitler and the Third Reich began as Soviet Red Army forces attacked towards Berlin from the east." It describes "two weeks of desperate but futile fighting by German defenders, many of them old men and young boys, as the city was engulfed by Soviet forces". The piece emphasizes that the city was taken on May 2, 1945, and that about 80,000 Red Army soldiers and over 300,000 Berliners were killed.

The entry states that the battle involved '482,000 Germans vs. 2.5 million Russians' and that the Soviet assault faced German forces led by Army Group Vistula. It describes the operation as the final major offensive in Europe in World War II.

This battle overview states that the Battle for Berlin "took place from 16 April to 2 May 1945 and ended with the capture of the German capital by the Soviet Red Army".[6] It explains that on the attacking side were "Soviet fronts of the Red Army, supported by Polish units" while on the defending side were "remnants of the German Army, SS, Volkssturm and Hitler Youth" attempting to repel the assault.[6] The article notes that Berlin's defence was conducted with greatly reduced and improvised German forces against overwhelming Soviet strength.[6]

War History Online writes that the Red Army assaulted Berlin with "2,500,000 soldiers, more than 6,000 tanks, 7,500 aircraft and approximately 45,000 artillery pieces" in April 1945.[3] It describes the defenders as "the German Army" which, in a desperate attempt to defend Berlin, recruited the Hitler Youth and that "as the last line of defense, the Nazi Party recruited the citizens of Berlin into a rag‑tag militia" called the Volkssturm.[3] Within the Berlin Defence Area, the article notes there were only about "45,000 soldiers with 40,000 Volkssturm and Hitler Youth members" facing the Soviet assault.[3]

The Battle of Berlin was the final major offensive in the European theater of World War II, fought mainly between the Soviet Red Army and German forces defending Berlin and the surrounding approaches. The German side included regular Wehrmacht units, Waffen-SS formations, police, Hitler Youth, and Volkssturm remnants.

The article lists the belligerents as the Soviet Union and Poland versus Germany, and the opposing commanders as Georgy Zhukov, Konstantin Rokossovsky, and Ivan Konev on the Soviet side versus Adolf Hitler, Gotthard Heinrici, and others on the German side. It also notes Soviet and German troop strengths for the battle.