Remains of 120 German soldiers who died fighting Red Army as it advanced on Berlin are laid to rest

Hitler’s lost soldiers: Remains of 120 German servicemen who died fighting Red Army as it advanced on Berlin are laid to rest at ceremony in Lietzen war cemetery

  • The men died 76 years ago during the fierce Battle of the Seelow Heights
  • Soldiers died during fighting on the River Oder, trying to stop Russian advance
  • Soviet Union troops breached German defences and marauded into Berlin 

The remains of 120 German soldiers who were killed during fighting to prevent the advance of the Red Army on Berlin at the end of the Second World War have been reburied in a war cemetery.

The men died 76 years ago during the fierce Battle of the Seelow Heights, which marked the beginning of the Soviet Union’s final push to Berlin after Nazi Germany had been largely defeated.

The men who died were hastily buried where they fell, before being discovered and exhumed last year across a 60-mile-wide area.

At least a third of the men were identified by their ‘dog tags’ – the common term given for the identification discs given to all soldiers.

The soldiers died during fighting on the River Oder, whilst unsuccessfully trying to stop Russian troops from reaching the German capital.

It was where Nazi leader Adolf Hitler was holed up in his bunker before he killed himself on April 30, 1945.

The men’s remains were packed into 92 small coffins, each of which had a small rose put on it, before they were covered over in the ceremony in Lietzen, 40 miles east of Berlin, the Times reported.

The remains of 120 German soldiers who were killed during fighting to prevent the advance of the Red Army on Berlin at the end of the Second World War have been reburied in a war cemetery. Pictured: The men were packed into 92 small coffins and buried in Lietzen’s war cemetery, east of Berlin

The men died 76 years ago during the fierce Battle of the Seelow Heights, which marked the beginning of the Soviet Union's final push to Berlin after Nazi Germany had been largely defeated. Pictured: Soviet troops bombarding German positions during the battle

The men died 76 years ago during the fierce Battle of the Seelow Heights, which marked the beginning of the Soviet Union’s final push to Berlin after Nazi Germany had been largely defeated. Pictured: Soviet troops bombarding German positions during the battle

The ceremony, from which descendants were barred because of coronavirus restrictions, was just the latest in a series of reburials of German soldiers which have taken place in recent years.

It is part of an effort by Germany’s Wolksbund war graves commission since the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1991 to find war dead on what was the Eastern Front.

Astonishingly, 15,000 remains have reportedly been exhumed since 1993 alone, many of them in fields and forests east of Berlin.

They were among 50,000 German and Soviet soldiers who died during intense fighting which took place over the course of just three days in April 1945.

The men who died were hastily buried where they fell, before being discovered and exhumed last year across a 60-mile-wide area

The men who died were hastily buried where they fell, before being discovered and exhumed last year across a 60-mile-wide area

The soldiers died whilst unsuccessfully trying to stop Russian troops from reaching the German capital – where Nazi leader Adolf Hitler was holed up in his bunker before he killed himself on April 30, 1945. Pictured: The ceremony in Lietzen last week

The soldiers died whilst unsuccessfully trying to stop Russian troops from reaching the German capital – where Nazi leader Adolf Hitler was holed up in his bunker before he killed himself on April 30, 1945. Pictured: The ceremony in Lietzen last week

A pastor offered a blessing and prayer during the ceremony to re-bury the German soldiers

A pastor offered a blessing and prayer during the ceremony to re-bury the German soldiers

The ceremony, from which descendants were barred because of coronavirus restrictions, was just the latest in a series of reburials of German soldiers which have taken place in recent years

The ceremony, from which descendants were barred because of coronavirus restrictions, was just the latest in a series of reburials of German soldiers which have taken place in recent years

The conflict saw Soviet troops breach Hitler’s defences outside of Berlin.

The Volksbund has so far found the remains of 964,329 soldiers who died in Eastern Europe and countries which once made up the Soviet Union.

However, there are still 1.5million missing soldiers who investigators hope to find. But because of decades of building work covering up where their bodies are, many are likely to remain where they fell.

Russian soldiers are seen marauding into Berlin as a German soldier lies dead in the street, during the final battle for the capital in late April and early May, 1945

Russian soldiers are seen marauding into Berlin as a German soldier lies dead in the street, during the final battle for the capital in late April and early May, 1945

This iconic image showed a Russian soldier hauling the Soviet Union's flag above the ruined Reichstag after troops took Berlin

This iconic image showed a Russian soldier hauling the Soviet Union’s flag above the ruined Reichstag after troops took Berlin

Diane Tempel-Bornett, a spokeswoman for the Volksbund, said in The Times: ‘We would of course like to find all of them but we assume that a third can no longer be retrieved because shopping centres or whatever have been built on them.’

Because the Germans were fighting for the Nazi regime, she said the reburial ceremonies were not about ‘honouring’ them.

Instead, the aim was to give them a ‘dignified grave’ and allow people to mourn their loss.

The Battle of the Seelow Heights: The fighting which began the Soviet Union’s final push to Berlin

The Battle of the Seelöw Heights (fought over three days, from April 16 to 19, 1945) was one of the last assaults of the Second World War.

It was part of what was known as the Seelow-Berlin Offensive Operation, which lasted until May 2, 1945. 

This battle is often incorporated into the Battle of the Oder-Neisse, which was the opening phase of the Battle of Berlin – after which Soviet troops marched into Berlin.

Seelow Heights was where the most bitter fighting in the overall battle took place, but it was only one of several crossing points along the Oder and Neisse rivers where the Soviets attacked.

Close to one million Soviet soldiers, commanded by Marshal Georgi Zhukov, attacked the position known as the ‘Gates of Berlin’

They were opposed by around 110,000 soldiers of the German 9th Army, commanded by General Theodor Busse.

By the end of 19 April, the German Eastern Front line had ceased to exist. 

All that remained were pockets of resistance, and the road to Berlin was wide open for the final assault

Four days later the capital was encircled and the battle for the city entered its last stage. 

Within two weeks, Adolf Hitler was dead and the war in Europe was effectively over.