In April and May 1945 the city of Berlin was the site of the final
destructive act of the Second World War in Europe. The German capital
became a battleground. After three weeks of ruthless fighting against a
desperate, sometimes suicidal, defense, the Red Army took the city and
crushed the last remaining German armies in the East. This momentous
battle and the elaborate preparations for it were recorded in graphic
detail by photographers whose images have come down to us today. These
images, which give us an unforgettable glimpse into the grim reality of
mid-twentieth-century warfare, are the raw material of Nik Cornish's
evocative book.
Using a rich selection of rare photographs from the Russian archives as
well as images from German sources, most of which have not been
published before, he traces the course of the entire campaign. The
battles fought in East Prussia, eastern Germany and Hungary - in
particular the assault on Budapest - are covered. But the body of his
book is devoted to the battle for Berlin itself - the monstrous
onslaught launched by Zhukov's armies on the Seelow Heights, the bitter
street fighting through the suburbs, then the ultimate confrontation,
the merciless room-by-room struggle for the center of the city and the
Reichstag.
