I voted yes. In my opinion (remember just an opinion), if Hitler would have spent more time in his defenses surrounding the city instead of trying to create city “fortresses” elsewhere and attempting to regain the Danube River, they could of had a fighting chance.
It would of been a tough proposition to dislodge his troops from the western front (with the allies on the river Elbe), but with 300,000 or 400,000 troops (after all the Russian casualty figure was much higher than the Wehrmaut on this front) from the Twelth and Ninth German army to fall back sooner, and have the Voltzstorm (i think that is how you spell it), to instead of waiting for the inevitable, to create more, and more efficient, baracades.
Though I don’t believe they would be able to win the war outright at this point, they could at least of hold off the inevitable by a considerable time. After all, with over 4,000,000 in Berlin, conscription could of taken place on a wider scale.
After all, Moscow seemed to be a hopeless cause in 1941…
No, no question - by the time of the Battle of Berlin, they were well spent. Industry destroyed, and Volksturm units armed with a variety of cobbled-together wpns. They put up a hell of a fight under the circumstances, but it was just a matter of time.
No way. Most Germans by this time had simply enough of the war and were quite ready to surrender. The were no stocks of weapons and ammo left, in Berlin the Germans used anything they could lay their hands on, like Italian and Czech grenades, captured rifles etc… The end was extended by a few weeks, which cost ten thousands of lifes, but it was inevitable.
Jan
Yes, they were tired, but I do believe had the Twelfth and Ninth Army reached Berlin, they could push back the early stages of the Russian assault. Though, they would not be able to hold back the inevitable, it might of made a more interesting fight…
By “more interesting fight”, do you mean the battle being prolonged for a number of days leading to even more deaths? I’m sure it wouldn’t have been more interesting for those involved, or those civilians trapped for longer in Berlin.
Actually by then the civilians just wanted to have the whole thing over. The general opinion then was that whatever might come would be better than the continuation of the battle.
Jan
The Twelfth and Ninth Armies were more interested (with good reason) in fighting westwards to surrender to US/British forces.
Himmler’s Army Group Vistula was a joke (not to those who fought and died) as it was a paper-based formation and a corps at best.
The war in Europe was lost for the Germans from the minute that the Allied Expeditionary Force gained a foothold in Normandy opening up two fronts in the war (three if you include Italy). It could also be convincingly argued that the Red Army alone may have been able to reach Berlin. In any case, from the perspective on the eastern front, Berlin and the war were lost when the Russians crossed the Vistula.
:lol: This is all hypothetical…had the Twelfth and Ninth Army NOT of been so entangled with the Western Allies. And yes, I know, the Germans would eventually lose, but I’m talking about the first assault. Stalin was prepared for a vicious, long, and drawn out battle, and that is why he sent so many troop coverage there. I’m saying if the men were available and such.
I don’t know if I can find the source again, but the western Allies had a backup plan should the Soviet assault on Berlin fail. It was called “Operation Eclipse” and consisted of an airdrop of paratroopers of the 82nd and 101st American airborne divisions on Tempelhof and Gatow airfield of Berlin. As far as I remember the British Airbourne had a drop zone as well. The idea was to use the paratroopers to secure the airfields, which would then be used to fly gliders with heavy equipment and more troops in. Due to the fast collapse of the reich it got scrubbed.
Jan
The only realistic alternatives to the Russian assault on Berlin would have been if Jodl and Keitel had been sacked months before and replaced by capable generals, or if Hitler had committed suicide earlier. In the former case, it may have been possible to delay the Russians and engineer a capitulation to the western Allies. In the latter case, a sensible leader (Speer is the only one who would meet this vital requirement) may have decided to surrender before the commencement of the Russian assault, sparing a lot of people from death and misery.
Do you have any links about this?
I’m quite interested to learn more. 
…and I always wondered what would happen if the Western Allies took Berlin instead of the Popovs.
Could the operation have far more easier success than the Russians due to the willingness of surrendering to the western allies?
I believe many people from Germany including Goebbels was hoping for the Americans and British to “realize their errors” and “save them from the Bolshevik hordes”.
This would surely mean a far less opposition.
Ah, it’s too bad East Berliners faced the consequences for several decades.
Do you have any links about this?
I’m quite interested to learn more.
[/quote]
Check these:
http://www.thehistorynet.com/wwii/blairbornebridge/
Quoted from the first link:
For some time before Allied forces reached the Rhine, Allied Supreme Commander Dwight D. Eisenhower’s headquarters had been working on a plan called Operation Eclipse. It was a daring plan, including an airborne assault on Berlin itself. Before it could be put into action, however, Montgomery’s Twenty-first Army Group would have to cross the Rhine in the north, trapping the Germans between his forces and those of Hodges and Patton driving in from the south. With the enemy caught in that vise, Eisenhower figured the time would be ripe for a daring operation like Eclipse, which could probably end the war.
…
As the Allied forces drove into Germany, the situation rapidly began to change, and several carefully planned airborne operations were scrubbed. A planned airdrop of the 13th Airborne Division near Worms, Germany, was canceled. Finally, Operation Eclipse, the planned airborne assault on Berlin that had necessitated Montgomery’s Rhine crossing, was also canceled, allowing the Soviets the honor and cost of being first into the German capital.
End quote. 
Too little too late for the Germans, its all well and good ordering paper armies around a ficticious map, but the reality was that units were not anywhere near up to strength, there was no fuel and little ammo etc.
i belive that the germans could have done it.
its all a matter of tactics, how they set up their defences, anti tank or other wise.
An army needs more than arrows in their maps.
For example, an army needs an army, something that the Germans didn’t have by April '45 (Berlin)… 
Oh and and a army consists more than kiddies with swiss knives.
If the Germans had successfully defended Berlin from the Allies, wasn’t the english going to drop a chemical bomb on germany so bad that you couldnt live there for the next thousand years…
The english tested the chemical bomb on a island of the coast of Ireland and it still today is inhabitable.
I forget the name of the bomb.
Err, no. We tested anthrax as a weapon on an island off the coast of Scotland in the 1950s, IIRC. Lots of sheep got anthrax & died. It’s this one that’s uninhabitable now.
Where do you get all this stuff from?
Where do you get all this stuff from?[/quote]
Must be the same place a certain ferrous chap gets his “information” from :twisted: