Fight alongside Sgt. Reznov in the even more historically accurate scenarios and challenging experiences, for most of Call of Duty World at War's Single Player missions. Recommend playing it since "Their Land Their Blood ~ Downfall", while Vendetta and Ring of Steel are recommended to be played with the other sibling mods of ours. In addition, this Fall of Berlin mod is also compatible with 'Co-op' mode as well, and we recommend playing with the OFFICIAL versions would be a suitable choice to prevent any further technical issues. Please read our instructions in 'read me' files and/or the mod's article CAREFULLY to install this mod and its siblings.
Before you ask why it has to be this flag, well, let's me say first that there were some other flags and banners raising up on the top of the Reichstag between the night of April 30th and May 1st, 1945 alright. However, some sources claimed that most of them were destroyed/ruined by either German arty or mortar bombardments, or even heavy fighting inside the building. In the end, this "Victory Banner #5" is the only 'official' flag still remain intact.
At some point later, they took the flag down, add the inscriptions (letters) on it before sent the flag to Moscow.
For more info: Either Escholarship.org or Escholarship.org
And according to the source above:
1. The original Victory Banner #5 flag raisers are: Lieutenant Aleksei Prokop’evich Berest (a Ukrainian), Sergeant Mikhail Alekseevich Egorov (a Russian), and Junior Sergeant Meliton (sometimes written as Mel’ton) Var-lamovich Kantariia (a Georgian). According to memoir of battalion commander S.A.Neustroev.
2. While the Khaldei's flag raisers (the famous staged photo taken by Evgenii Anan’evich Khaldei, Soviet Jewish photographer from the Ukraine) are: Aleksei “Alyosha” Kovalëv from Ukraine, Abdulkhakim Ismailov (from Dagestan, holding Kovalëv’s feet), and Leonid Gorychev (a Russian, standing behind Ismailov).
And if you ask me, a variety of nationalities among both flag(s) raisers really represent the diversity of Soviet Union's population pretty much...
According to the same source I mentioned in the description:
- Although no one know exactly who raised the first Soviet flag (not Victory Banner #5) on the Reichstag building. However, one soldier with a plausible claim was Mikhail Petrovich Minin. He was part of a unit led by Captain V.N.Makov, which joined with the battalion of Captain S.A.Neustroev in the effort to take the Reichstag. Minin’s group included Gazi Zagitov (sometimes called Giya Zagitov), Aleksandr Lisimenko, and Aleksei Bobrov. They reached the roof on either 30 April or 1 May, and planted their flag above "a sculpture of a bronze horse and a large woman in a crown" on the roof, western/front side of the building.
- The statue is possibly the 'Germania' statue above the Reichstag (on the western side of its roof, right above the main façade/western entrance). Its partly fictional counterpart was represented in COD Vanguard's Dome map (Multi-player).
- And If the claimed is actually real, then this Minin group is literally the Reznov squad in real life, if you ask me.