1st Belorussian Front The 1st Belorussian Front ( Russian : 1 - й Белорусский фронт , alternative spellings are 1st Byelorussian Front and 1st Belarusian Front ) was a Front of the Soviet Army during World War II . As such it was a Soviet formation equivalent to a Western Army group . Creation and initial operations . Initially , the Belorussian Front was created on 20 October 1943 as the new designation of the existing Central Front . It was placed under the command of General Konstantin K . Rokossovsky , who had been commanding the Central Front . It launched the Gomel - Rechitsa Offensive in 1943 and then the Kalinkov - Mozyr Offensive in 1944 . Redesignation and 1944 operations . It was then renamed the 1st Belorussian Front ( 1BF ) on 17 February 1944 following the Dnieper – Carpathian Offensive . A few days later , on 21 February , the Rogachev - Zhlobin Operation commenced , which continued until 26 February . The next operation was the Bobruysk Offensive , part of Operation Bagration , and on 26 June the attacks of 1BF encircled Bobruisk , trapping 40 , 000 troops of the German 41st Panzer Corps ( part of 9th Army ) . From 18 July - 2 August the Front was part of the Lublin - Brest Offensive . From 2 August to 30 September the Front was engaged cleaning out Germans to the east of the Vistula ( during which the Battle of Radzymin took place from 1 – 10 August ) . Its 8th Guards , 28th , 47th , 65th , 69th , and 70th Armies were involved at Radzymin . Later during that same period , on 14 September , 1BF with the support of Polish forces captured Praga , a suburb of Warsaw . Operations in 1945 . The next attack was the Warsaw - Poznań Operation , a part of the Vistula - Oder Offensive . On 13 January , 1BF began an offensive toward Pillkallen ( Schlossberg between 1938 – 1945 ) in East Prussia , against which they met stiff resistance from the 3rd Panzer Army . The 1st Belorussian Front opened its attack on the German Ninth Army from the Magnuszew and Puławy bridgeheads at 08 : 30 on 14 January , again commencing with a heavy bombardment . The 33rd and 69th Armies broke out of the Puławy bridgehead to a depth of 30 km , while the 5th Shock and 8th Guards Armies broke out of the Magnuszew bridgehead . The 2nd and 1st Guards Tank Armies were committed after them to exploit the breach . On 25 January , the Front cut off the fortress city of Poznań which held 66 , 000 Germans , and continued its 80 km a day advance , leaving the 8th Guards Army to lay siege to the city , which they finally took on 23 February . While Adolf Hitler dealt with home issues in Germany , Stalin had defeated the German Army near Warsaw . Capture of Berlin . Along with the 1st Ukrainian Front , 1BF then stormed Berlin in the climatic Battle of Berlin . Marshal Georgy Zhukov was appointed commander of the 1BF , in November 1944 , for its last two great offensives of World War II . After the capture of Poland and East Prussia ( its capture was finished on 25 April with capture of Pillau ) from January – March 1945 , the Soviets redeployed their forces during the first two weeks of April . Marshal Georgy Zhukov concentrated 1BF , which had been deployed along the Oder river from Frankfurt in the south to the Baltic , into an area in front of the Seelow Heights . The 2nd Belorussian Front moved into the positions being vacated by the 1BF north of the Seelow Heights . While this redeployment was in progress gaps were left in the lines and the remnants of the German II Army which had been bottled up in a pocket near Danzig managed to escape across the Oder . In the early hours of 16 April the Berlin Offensive Operation started with the objectives of capturing Berlin and linking up with Western Allied forces on the Elbe . The operation started with an assault on the Seelow Heights by 1BF and by Marshal Konev ' s 1st Ukrainian Front ( 1UF ) to the south . Initially the 1BF had great difficulty smashing through the German lines of defence , but after three days they had broken through and were approaching the outskirts of Berlin . By 22 April 1BF had penetrated the northern and eastern suburbs of Berlin . They finished the encirclement of Berlin on 25 April when units of the 1BF and 1UF met at Kietzen west of Berlin . After heavy street by street and house to house fighting , General Weidling , the commander of Berlin ' s garrison , met with General Zhukov and surrendered Berlin unconditionally at 15 : 00 hours local time on 2 May . Post - war . On 8 May , after a signing ceremony in Berlin , the German armed forces surrendered to the Allies unconditionally and the war in Europe was over . Following the war , the Front headquarters formed the Group of Soviet Forces in Germany . Commanders . The Front ' s Commissars included Component armies . The armies that were part of the 1st Belorussian Front included :