I've always wondered why it is that the battle of Berlin is rarely talked about as one of those interesting or pivotal battles.

Of course it as obvious who would win, and of course it was not a tide turning battle and so on...but it was finally the end of the Riech. The end of Hitler and their rule...etc.

For me the this is one of the more interesting battles, but for different reasons than others. Just imagine what the defenders of the city must have felt like, their thoughts, questions, knowing that this is it...the end. The story of how the last two King Tigers in the city lasted to take out something like 100+ Russian tanks between them. The battle for Riechstag. The feelings and mood in the bunker...the feelings of joy and overwhelming sense of victory the Russians must have felt to have taken Berlin after being on the brink of destruction.

And of course Stalins and the general's totally unessary willingness to waste away soliders live in a rush to get there and take the city.

Any one else see the Battle of Berlin as one of the more interesting ones? Of is it just me?

Here a few images of the battle I found at another forum (they are 4 or 5 years old). To see the rest, go to Battle of Berlin, 1945. - Military Photos

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"Faint heart never won fair maiden", so I say "Go for it!"

Lou

Here is a link to an article written for the BBC News on the Battle for Berlin. The author used Anthony Beevor's work to take another look at the battle. Pretty good reading.
BBC - History - The Battle for Berlin in World War Two

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"Faint heart never won fair maiden", so I say "Go for it!"

Lou

The battle of Berlin is extremly interesting...How the hell did Hitler and anyone else possibly think Germany was going to recover from the situation they were in?

AWESOME!!! THANK YOU SO MUCH! Haven't seen these yet!

And Thank you for this!!!

One has to be very "not right in the head" to really and truly believe believe that Germany could recover from that. Even when only a hand full of defenders remained in the city, and no outside armies could even come close to breaking through, Hitler and many others still believed in the final victory. Even a lot of the fighters did as well...tell the last breath...

I think in today's terms you could say that Hitler was a 'glass half full' kind of person!

I think there are more and more books being released that cover this battle, one of the newest & a very good book is Bloody Streets by A. Stephan Hamilton (ISBN:978-1-906033-12-5). It is a big format book but packed with narrative, photos and a good series of aerial photos with the position of the various units superimposed on them to show the daily change of positions etc.
You also have the two recent releases by Tony Le Tissier, The Siege Of Kustrin (ISBN:978-1848840225) & Marshall Zhukov At The Oder (ISBN: 978-0750948388), and not forgetting one of his earlier works Slaughter At Halbe (ISBN: 978-0750945899).

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Main Collecting Interests: WW II German Soldbucher, Wehrpasses & Award Citations.

good call hucks..

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ray w.

see www.amazon.co.uk/berlin-battle and also I would recomend a book by Douglas Botting, In The Ruins Of The Reich.Read this many years ago and found it to very good, he has also written another great book with a guy called Ian Sayer, called Nazi Gold, the story of all the 'Assets' moved from the Reichsbank at the end of the war.

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WHEN YOU GO HOME, TELL THEM OF US AND SAY, FOR YOUR TOMORROW,WE GAVE OUR TODAY. Epitaph on the Kohima memorial .

Ian Sayer is well known in the area of document collecting. He has a vast collection of historical paperwork I believe and he has made a few contributions to books by opening his collection for the authors research.

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Main Collecting Interests: WW II German Soldbucher, Wehrpasses & Award Citations.

Hitler was basically trapped, he lived in his "cloud cuckoo land" as Rommel called it, because it was the only place on earth he could possibly go by April 1945.
The rest of the Germans who chose to fight to the death, did it for a couple reasons i think - love of the motherland, unto death; and some fought because of the German SS execution squads roaming behind them, who had authority to summarily execute any soldier found guilty of cowardice, "defeatism", or "treasonous acts".

OOOH OOOH I got some pictures!


English Russia » Russian Army in Berlin, Germany

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The war against Russia will be such that it cannot be conducted in a knightly fashion. This struggle is one of ideologies and racial differences and will have to be conducted with unprecedented, unmerciful and unrelenting harshness. -Adolf Hitler

Great find, Sloniksp. Amazing photos of a destructive battle.

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"Faint heart never won fair maiden", so I say "Go for it!"

Lou

Ive only ever read C.Ryans book on berlin. How does this compare to beavors?

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Prepare to repel borders...William Mcgonagle US Liberty.

It was a very interesting battle

Great! Thanks!

Man.....you always have the greatest pictures!

Let's not forget how many of them fought to the death because they knew what they would have to face if they were caught alive..both in the sense of the Russian prisons and the crimes that many committed.

It must have been so very interesting (not exactly in a good way of course) to be around Hitler and all his managers in the bunker the days of the battle and the last few weeks of the Reich. It would be a case study like no other.

Of course I don't support Hilter, the nazies etc....and boy am I glad they got they're asses handed to them...

But one has to wonder what it must have felt like to be in their position to have everything crumbling down around them, their little fantasy worlds, the depression and the desperation...deep down knowing that your "elite race" really aint all that elite and so on...

It can make one think for hours on end....

Oh an I almost forgot....

Just imagine the how most of the generals and commanders felt around him at that time...

Many already knew that they had just spend so many years following a mad man, the crimes they committed etc....the regrets...

Of course a lot of them just said they were "doing their duty" as well...

you forget that the Battle of Berlin was no just fought in the streets of this large city but encompassed many others plus a foresight by 99 % of the historians is look upward..............the air battle for Berlin as it was called by the Luftwaffe was from mid Febraury 45 till wars end.

interesting you bet it was and still so much unknown information slowly ah but slowly some of it is coming out of the woodwork and into some interesting reads.

E `

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E ~

Great point! While it's technically not the same battle of course I always tie in Seelow Heights along with the battle of Berlin as well.

actually it is if flights were over and the outskirts of the city and they were even in the night between LW nf's and the Soviets night bombers

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E ~

Hi All

Battle of Berlin is of Intrest for me--Along with CCC Docs) As a small time Document Collector, I'm always keeping my eyes Pealed for documents to this Battle. However there few and Far between. And Pricey! If only I started collecting Many years ago. I was lucky enough to pick this up Few years back. If you have Dorr's Book check page 493 Notes section. This Doc is Mentioned in Book.

Attached Images

CCCIG Oder Battle_final.jpg (96.7 KB, 8 views)

Thanks for uploading this! Any idea what it says?

I have always been fascinated with the battle of Berlin. The damage the last few soldiers of the Reich inflicted upon the Russians was nothing less than devastating. Especially since a lot of their strength was made up by Volksterm (sorry about the bad spelling).

How the 10,000 or so Germans managed to survive in the city center while being attacked from all sides I think is amazing. I think that it is definitely one of the most interesting battles of World War 2.

captured ss soldiers dressed as women,serious tank battle...berlin..when you look at the devastation and destruction you have to ask yourself,where or how do you start rebuilding?

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ray w.

What rebuilding? Actually in 1945 all Germany was meant to be turned into one huge potato field and the Germans the farmers.....So no problem there I guess...

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