 There was an assault over Wilhelmplatz and into the building with a howitzer to blast open the front doors and several battles within the building.Major Anna Nikulina, a political officer with Lieutenant-General I. P. Rossly's 9th Rifle Corps of the 5th Shock Army carried and unfurled the red flag on the roof.However, Beevor suggests that the official Soviet description is probably an exaggeration, as most of the German combat troops had left in the breakouts the night before, and resistance must have been far less than that inside the "Reichstag".