Customer Reviews

Berlin 1945: End of the Thousand Year Reich (Campaign)

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The fall of Berlin 1945 has not received the type of in-depth, detailed and accurate historical writing that other Second World War campaigns have attracted. Even the better efforts, like books by Cornelius Ryan or Antony Beevor, are essentially journalistic accounts with limited military detail. To date, a good, focused military history of the Berlin campaign has not been written. Unfortunately, Osprey's Campaign #159 by Peter Antill is not that book either. Indeed, it is hard to assess Berlin 1945 as anything but a weak effort, entirely based upon easily-available secondary sources, with no attempt at analysis or original research. The author's narrative does not offer any new insights or information on the campaign, although it does provide a useful day-by-day summary framework.

The author's campaign chronology reveals an inability to retain focus on this subject, with many events included that occurred either decades before or decades after the actual campaign, such as "JFK's speech in Berlin in 1963" or the "renovation of the Bundestag in 1999." The chronology section, intended to highlight key dates andevents in the campaign, was wasted as a general history of 20th Century Germany. The sections on opposing commanders is adequate, although the capsule biographies provide little insight into the strengths and weaknesses of various leaders. The section on opposing plans seems to miss the fact that many of the best German forces still available were diverted to Hungary and that Hitler had not expected such a quick attack on Berlin. The section on opposing armies is little more than boilerplate material, with little discussion of how many men, guns, tanks, etc were available to defend Berlin. The changing nature of the Wehrmacht (ie less, but better-armed infantry and a greater reliance on small, but powerful armored units) is not discussed. Nor is there any real discussion of the hodgepodge of units that appeared around Berlin in the final weeks, such as the RAD Divisions - which the author mentions, but does not explain the acronym (Labor Service Divisions). Just what exactly was the "SS Anhalt Regiment" in Berlin? The German order of battle presented in this volume has some significant omissions, such as the 33rd SS Charlemagne `Division' and the 503rd SS Heavy Tank Battalion, both of which played major roles in Berlin. Furthermore, the author's tendency to constantly refer to this or that German unit as a `division' without any attempt at qualification offers a very inaccurate view of the battle, since many units like SS Nordland or the Muncheburg Panzer had never reached division size even before the battle and were little more than battlegroups. Even many of the Soviet units were so burnt out from casualties (over 300,000 in a few weeks) that many `rifle divisions' were more like `regiments.'

This volume includes four 2-D maps (Soviet offensive operations, January-February 1945; the encirclement of Berlin; squeezing the Berlin pocket; breakout of the 9th Army) and three 3-D BEVs (attack on the Seelow heights; into the center of Berlin; assault on the Reichstag). The three battle scenes are: the Seelow Heights; urban warfare in Berlin and the attack on the Reichstag. It is interesting that there are no civilians or Volksturm prominently depicted in any of the battle scenes, despite there noticeable presence on the Berlin battlefield. The veracity of the scene on the Seelow Heights is quite questionable, since it depicts the 9th Fallschirmjager as properly-equipped paratroopers, with perfect kit,' rather than the rag-bag, late-war formation that it actually was comprised. Noticeably, there is no photographic evidence to support this depiction of the German defenders. Furthermore, does anyone believe that lightly armed paratroopers could stop a Soviet Tank Army, even on marshy terrain, or survive one of the heaviest artillery barrages of the war? The really tough nut on the Seelow Heights was in fact several assault gun units, which racked up huge kill tallies and were relatively impervious to Soviet artillery. Looking at the battle scenes in this volume, a reader might conclude that the defenders of the Nazi capital were all well-uniformed Waffen SS and paratroopers, rather than the under-age Hitler Youth and over-age Volksturm (as well as many foreign nationals). While model builders might enjoy these battle depictions, they do not accurately convey the actual conditions in this battle.

The actual campaign narrative employs a day-by-day structure, which is a good approach for a short campaign like this, but descriptions like "the 5th Shock Army attacked the SS Nordland Division" really don't describe much. Furthermore, the intensity of the fighting in Berlin is muted in this account, due to the lack of first-person accounts or descriptions of small unit actions, except around the Reichstag. The author's account also tends to lean toward the Soviet-version of the battle, with scant mention of German counterattacks at Kustrin or inside Berlin. For example, the 503rd SS Heavy Tank Battalion's King Tigers launched a very powerful counterattack near the Reichstag in the last few days of the battle, destroying over thirty T-34 tanks outside the Reichstag, but there is no mention of such disruptions to the Soviet timetable. Indeed, the loss of over 2,000 Soviet tanks in this short campaign - far more than at Kursk - indicates that the Wehrmacht inflicted some painful rebuffs even in its death throes.
The aftermath section is a bit overblown for a volume this size, with too many events that occurred well after the campaign (while leaving out relevant items, like the major effort it required to demolish the three flak towers). The Battlefield today section also has little relevance to the campaign. The bibliography is particularly weak, including films, pulp history magazines, general histories and four other Osprey titles. It does not appear that any primary source material from either Germany or Russia were consulted and even the best secondary sources are absent.

A challenging task in writing a large scale campaign for Osprey is to wisely choose the most important facts from the universe of knowledge about the topic. In his earlier campaign on Stalingrad, the author had problems with this task and once again he chooses unwisely, presenting some secondary or tangential aspects over small but primary aspects.
In the introduction, five pages are consumed talking about the whole war. The December 1940 plans for Barbarossa is mentioned, the attempted negotiations with Britain the same year, Kursk, Operation Bagration, Warsaw Uprising and the Polish Home Army, the Courtland Pocket, Bulgaria, Hungary, East Prussia and finally reaching the Oder. These are all credible issues but not all of them belong in this issue, consuming five pages.

The Chronology is next and three pages are devoted to it and spans 60 years from 1939 to 1999. One page would've been adequate to cover the campaign. There are many events during the last month that weren't covered that take priority over events of 20 to 50 years later.
The Opposing Commanders section was good, covering the top echelon commanders. The Opposing Armies section was OK but a little too generic. It did include an Order of Battle for both sides. In Opposing Plans, the German plan was OK but the Allied Plan was off the mark. The author devotes too much time discussing Montgomery, Eisenhower and the Western Front. It didn't seem appropriate for this venue.

If you deduct the photos, maps, and illustrations, there is only 26 pages of battle coverage. When you consider the extent of the battle with all the key people, the many Armies involved in the many engagements throughout the different sectors that included rivers and canals, this coverage is insufficient to do an excellent job. The coverage does cover key issues but there are some missing or included but not covered sufficiently. The prose is choppy as well.

There are four 2-D maps and three 3-D maps. They are: the Vistula Campaign, the encirclement of Berlin Apr 16-28, Squeezing the Pocket Apr 23-28 and the Breakout of 9th Army. The 3-D maps are: the assault on Seelow Heights, center of Berlin, the assault on the Reichstag.
The maps are good but could've been better. The Vistula map was the best of the group but it doesn't belong in this campaign. The timeframe and scale of the other three 2-D maps was off, not giving the best presentation of the Soviets closing the noose. The 3-D map of Seelow Heights was of little benefit. The photos were good and the three illustrations were eye catching.
In Aftermath, the author starts out well but then loses focus again and extends his coverage to the Berlin airlift, the wall, John Kennedy's visit in 1963. Gorbachev's Glasnost etc. There were no mention of costs of the campaign or the fact the German Army was on life support by April but was still able to inflict heavy casualties on the Soviets. The author briefly mentions the care of Berliners after the surrender but it could have been greatly expanded and been more germane than talking about future events. A brief mention of war crimes also seems relevant.
A Bibliography of secondary sources which Mr Antill relied on heavily and an Index complete the campaign.

The first review of this book does a good job of highlighting its many weaknesses. Recognizing that Osprey volumes are not intended to be heavyweight history, and that some are better than others, Berlin 1945 would perhaps be okay for a beginner though even there it has some omissions even the novice would find unhelpful (as previously noted, lack of real discussion about Wehrmacht forces: quality - numbers - misleading titles such as "divisions" that are little better than regiments, etc.) I found the "chronology" laughable, only a portion of it listing wartime events. The "Battlefield Today" section was worse: it lists almost nothing about visiting the sites of the battle, while making any number of irrelevant remarks off-topic. Captions are problematic at times, such as the photo of a "column of Soviet armor, probably T-34s" when even the novice can see they are clearly JS-2s. The maps are infrequent and generally poor and difficult to read. Most annoying would be the several 2-page paintings that litter the book. The artistic quality is at best mediocre, the portrayals look pretty campy, and constitute a waste of the limited pages - a couple more (better) maps and perhaps a few more photos might have been a better use of those wasted pages. On the whole, Berlin 1945 is a bit disappointing.

Osprey's campaign series continues with an excellent volume devoted to the Battle of Berlin. The Osprey folks provide a consistent format, which gives a great overview of the primary officers for both Soviet and Wehrmacht forces as well as a detailed Order of Battle. Then they lay out the narrative framework of the events that lead up to the battle.

The three color plates are outstanding and contribute heavily to why I purchased this and other Osprey Campaign books. I particularly enjoyed the first color plate depicting the 9th Parachute Division's attempt to hold the Seelowe Heights. I can think of no other source that gives you such an outstanding visualization of that desperate struggle.

As other reviewers have pointed out, there is not a tremendous amount of new material, but for those needing more, Cornelius Ryan, Anthony Beevor and others have written far more indepth accounts. Osprey's Campaign Series does a tremendous job with such a limited number of pages. The reader certainly comes away with a more than generalist understanding of the battle. And even the hardcore historian will enjoy the color plates, maps and quality of pictures accompanying the text.

Wargamers in particluar will find this volume and others in the series to be of particular use in the creation of scenarios for Advanced Squad Leader or Flames of War.

considering the space limitations that are imposed on opsprey's campaign series, the book does a very good job of describing the battle and offers excellent illustrations.