RACE FOR THE REICHSTAG (Hbk)

The 1945 Battle for Berlin. The soldiers of the Red Army identified the Reichstag as the German equivalent of the Kremlin, and this became the victor's prise to be taken in Berlin. Stalin had promised Berlin to Marshal Zhukov, but the latter's blundering in the preliminary breakthrough battle disturbed his schedule and forced a complete change of plan for reducing the city. Stalin used the opportunity to chasten his subordinates by allowing Marshal Koniev, Zhukov's rival, to introduce one of his tank armies into the competition unbeknownst to Zhukov. Abandoning the rest of his army group, Koniev personally directed this army in the hope of grabbing the prise, only to be humiliated himself in turn. Meanwhile, the Germans improvised a defence with inadequate resources. The remains of General Weidling's 56th Panzer Corps were reluctantly dragged into the city to prolong the life of the Third Reich, whose leaders squabbled and schemed in their underground shelters, a world apart from the reality of the city above, where their people suffered and died unheeded. Ten days later, following the suicides of Hitler and Goebbels, the survivors had to choose between breakout and surrender.