Tony Le Tissier’s classic account of the battle for Berlin dispels the myths
created by Soviet propaganda and describes in graphic detail the Red Army’s
final offensive against Nazi Germany – the race for the
Reichstag.
Among the soldiers of the Red Army, Berlin – and the
Reichstag in particular - was seen as the victor's prize. Stalin had promised
Berlin to Marshal Zhukov, but the latter's blundering in the preliminary battle
forced a dramatic change of plan. Stalin chastened his subordinates, then
allowed Marshal Koniev, Zhukov's rival, to launch one of his powerful tank
armies at the city.
The advancing Soviet forces were confronted
by a desperate, inadequate German defence. General Weidling's panzer corps was
dragged into the city in a futile attempt to prolong the existence of the Third
Reich, whose leaders squabbled and schemed in their underground shelters, a
world apart from the reality outside where their subjects suffered and died. Ten
days later, after the suicides of Hitler and Goebbels, the survivors had to
choose between breakout and surrender.
Race for the Reichstag offers a
compelling insight into the terrible final days of the Second World War in
Europe.
