Buttar, Prit Berlin

Endgame 1945

This saga takes us to the banks of the Oder River, where the Red Army began its relentless advance on the still-beating heart of the Third Reich, Berlin. Only the Seelow Heights stood between the Soviet troops and the capital. Over the course of three days in May 1945, nearly a million Soviet soldiers attacked these last entrenched positions. Once these defences were breached, it was clear that fierce street fighting between the vengeful Red Army and desperate, fanatical Nazis would ensue in the city itself until final surrender. Using vivid eyewitness accounts, Prit Buttar describes the brutal fighting that characterised the last convulsions of the Third Reich. It was not only the outcome of the war that was at stake. When the Red Army marched into Berlin, it was already a foregone conclusion, even if it would take a heavy toll in blood. The battle lines for the coming Cold War had already been drawn. Stalin, who feared that the Western powers would not honour their agreements, was determined to station troops on the ground to secure his control over the area that was to become the Soviet occupation zone. Berlin. Endgame 1945 is the account of the gruesome climax of the Second World War and the terrifying prologue to the Cold War.