Unlike the Pacific war, the war in Europe did not experience the atomic bomb so fighting there continued until almost all German territory had been taken by the Allies. The choicest piece of real estate to grab was the German capital of Berlin. Though the British wanted to be the first there, it was Stalin who made it the goal of his army and would allow nothing to stand in his way of capturing it. In fact so obsessed was he, that during the brief 3 week push, several generals were relieved and over 300,000 Russian troops were killed with even more wounded.

During all this, the Germans, whose forces were nearly spent, put on a desperate struggle to try to stop the Soviet onslaught. Though the forced the Russians to pay a heavy toll, in the end, it was a futile effort that resulted in the heads of the Nazi regime committing suicide rather than turn themselves over to the Soviets. Indeed, of the nearly 400,000 Germans taken prisoner during this action, most never returned from prisoner of war camps and those that did were not released until the early 1950s. The Berlin civilians did not fare much better as many Soviet troops killed the men and raped the women and girls, including Russian women released from labor camps. This typical Soviet barbarism towards civilians is what made them so feared and hated by those they conquered.

The authors go into surprising detail of the push towards the capital and the fighting that takes place within. Assisted by quality maps and some period photos, one gets a sense of the confusion of the time as the Germans first try to send in reinforcements, and later try to keep the Soviets at bay so that units can escape west to the British and American lines.

There is also the story of how the surrender was negotiated and the various post-war machinations of the Soviets which led to the Cold War. Fortunately, this is now a thing of the past and there are generations being born today who will never know of the oppression of their parents.

For a story of the difficulties of urban warfare, this volume is a superb example of what that sort of fighting can be like. It is an excellent volume on the closing chapter of the Third Reich and is highly recommended.

September 2005

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