During the Battle of Berlin in the final stages of World War II, a German half-track carrying an anti-aircraft gun was destroyed by Soviet machine gun fire on April 19, 1945, in the Kotbus district. The German crew members were killed.

 　　During the Battle of Berlin in the final days of World War II, a self-propelled anti-aircraft gun mounted on a half-track (Sd.Kfz.7/2) used by the German Wehrmacht and Waffen-SS was destroyed by Soviet machine gun fire on April 19, 1945, in the Cottbus area. The half-track was fired upon by Soviet machine guns, killing the German crew inside. The bodies of the slain German soldiers were laid out beside the wrecked half-track. After three days of intense fighting, units of the Soviet Red Army's 1st Ukrainian Front captured the city of Cottbus on April 22, 1945.

　　The Cottbus area was a crucial sector in the Battle of Berlin. The German 9th Army was ordered to defend Cottbus at all costs and halt the northward advance of the Soviet forces. The Cottbus-Potsdam Offensive, conducted from April 16 to April 27, 1945, was one of the final Soviet offensives on the Eastern Front during the Battle of Berlin.

　　After shifting positions within the Central Army Group's sector and continuing defensive operations, by the time of the Soviet Union's final major offensive starting April 16, they were deployed east of Spreenberg, about 20 km south of Cottbus. The offensive by the 1st Ukrainian Front quickly broke through the front line along the Neisse River. Pressed northeastward, the German forces were encircled by the Soviets on April 19 along with various retreating units. With no forces remaining to halt the Soviet advance, an escape to the southwest was attempted on April 21. The escape operation ended in near annihilation; the few surviving soldiers retreated on foot, reaching Dresden on May 3.