Customer Reviews

BERLIN BATTLEFIELD GUIDE: Third Reich and Cold War

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BBG does a good job of going into deep detail about what happened where in the Battle for Berlin. If you want to know which units, both German and Soviet, were where--down to streets and blocks-- plus the path of the advance, then this book is a great resource. For a detailed researcher, it's so good that it can be a forensic tool that helps you easily find the exact places where the outlined events took place.

The big drawback of this book is that if you're new to researching the Battle for Berlin, this book is not for beginners. It presupposes that you have big picture knowledge of who and what happened where. If you are a beginner start with Cornelius Ryan's, "The Last Battle" or Anthony Bevor's, "The Fall of Berlin 1945".

The book also does a good job of detailing Cold War sites which you could use whether you were a beginner or seasoned researcher. However, it is an incomplete Cold War resource. Really, it is only one of many you could use to figure out what happened where. Consider others such as the excellent, well organized book by Maik Kopleck, "Pastfinder Berlin 1945-1989: Traces of German History". Kopleck also publishes a Pastfinder Berlin book for the Nazi period, 1933-1945 which is outstanding. You might have to order Kopleck's books from amazon.de or amazon.co.uk.

BERLIN BATTLEFIELD GUIDE: THIRD REICH & COLD WAR
TONY LE TISSIER
PEN AND SWORD, 2009
HARDCOVER, $60.00, 320 PAGES, ABBREVIATIONS, SYMBOLS, NOTES, BIBLIOGRAPHY, INDEX, MILITARY INDEX, PHOTOGRAPHS, MAPS


In January, 1945, much of Berlin lay in rubble. The city was littered with bombed-out structures, the result of years of air attacks and saturation bombing. The city, in fact, endured more than 450 bombing raids and was the target of 45,517 tons of bombs dropped during the war. Beginning in mid-February, 1945, Berlin experienced almost continual aerial bombardment from U.S. and British aircraft for thirty days and nights. Many of the ruins, however, were cleared out and the lots used to raise a few crops as the populace attempted to survive until the end of the war. With the almost complete destruction of he social and economic system, black markets flourished, as did a variety of other illegal war-related activities, such as theft, break-ins, and roving teenage gangs. Transportation lines within the city and interconnecting with other cities lay in ruins, and the city was increasingly isolated. Berlin was vulnerable to the final onslaught and conquest. The Allies decided to have the Soviet Union conquer and occupy Berlin. The planning for the final assault on the German capital began in April, although the Soviet armies began redeployment for the attack a month earlier. In preparation for the operation, more than two and a half million Soviet troops under the command of Marshals Georgy Zhukov and Ivan Konev were assembled outside the city. Responding to the imminent Soviet threat, the Germans declared Berlin to be a "Defensive Area," on 1 February 1945, when the Soviet soldiers had already reached the Oder River. Three defensive rings were set up around the city, one along the sixty-mile-long city boundary, a second following the city's rail lines, and a third around a core area encompassing the more important government buildings. The arrangements and preparations at each of these defensive lines depended heavily on local commanders. The operation to capture Berlin began at 0430 hours on 16 April. The Red Army had on overwhelming superiority, including 40,000 artillery pieces, 6,000 tanks, and 7,500 aircraft. The Wehrmacht could muster only 10,000 artillery pieces, 1,500 tanks, and 3,000 tanks with about 767,000 soldiers commanded by Lt. General Helmuth Reymann. Following an intense artillery preparation delievered by 20,000 guns, Zhukov's 1st Byelorussian Front (army group) attacked the northern part of the city while Konev's 1st Ukrainian Front attacked directly into the city center. On 20 April, General Konstantin Rokoossovsky's 2nd Byelrussian Front joined the attack to neutralize what was left of Colonel General Gotthard Heinrici's German Army Group Vistula along the Baltic coast. By 21 April, the Red Army occupied the outlying areas of the city. German leaders rejected a demand to surrender, hoping the troops from the Western Front, particularly the 12th Army, would come to the city's aid. On 23 April, Hitler appointed General Helmuth Weidling the defense commandant of Berlin. Two days later, Berlin was completely surrounded, with nine Soviet armies positioned for the final assault. The advance proceeded methodically. By the end of April, only the area around the Reich Chancellery and the zoo remained in German hands. With the final defeat clearly imminent, Hitler and Goebbels took their lives on 30 April. On 1 May, Zhukov's troops raised the Soviet flag over the ruined Reichstag building. The following day, the last of the defenders put down their arms in response to Weidling's order to surrender. The victorious Red Army took 134,000 German soldiers and officers prisoner. In vivid detail, BERLIN BATTLEFIELD GUIDE: THIRD REICH AND COLD WAR describes the course of the battle, from the tense initial struggle for the Seelow Heights and the house-by-house fighting through the streets to the final act-the assault on the Reichstag. Author Tony Le Tissier provides a series of driving and walking tours of the key sectors of the battlefield which allow the visitor to see for himself where the armies clashed, the terrain over which they fought, and the obstacles they faced. His encyclopedic knowledge of the battle and the subsequent Cold War aspects of the Soviet occupation of East Germany-enables him to give a compelling and moving account. Tony Le Tissier's account is highly impressive and it shows that he is a superb writer, a diligent researcher, and a master of battlefield detail.


Lt. Colonel Robert A. Lynn, Florida Guard
Orlando, Florida