The Battle for Berlin was the cumulative battle in the European theater in World War II. Three massive Russian Fronts aligned from north to south (Second Belorussian, First Belorussian and First Ukrainian Fronts) had battered two German Army Groups (Vistula and Center) and the three armies (Third and Fourth Panzer Army and Ninth Army) westward from October 1944 to mid-April 1945 to set the stage for the final onslaught and bloody Battle for Berlin.

Author Ian Baxter has once again provided a succinct, well researched and presented book on a complicated and seminal campaign.Using period photographs, illustrated pages, tables and immaculate references, this book provides the reader with the harrowing and horrifying last months and days of the Third Reich.

The Soviet Battle for Berlin, 1945 is composed of eleven chapters:

1. Timeline of Events
2. Prelude to Berlin: Soviet Advance, October 1944-April 1945
3. The German Situation
4. Soviet Preparations
5. Phase 1: Seelow–Berlin Offensive Operation, April 16–April 19
6. Phase 2: Stettin–Rostock Offensive Operation, April 16–May 5
7. Phase 3: Cottbus–Potsdam Offensive Operation, April 16–April 27
8. Phase 4: Spremberg–Torgau Offensive Operation, April 16–April 25
9. Phase 5: Russian encirclement of the Reich Capital
10. Battle for Berlin
11. Aftermath

Ian Baxter states,

The five phases that were part of the strategic operation were more important than the defeat of Berlin itself. The already-doomed capital had few defensive structures and measures implemented for the Stavka to be concerned about.The most important factors of the battle were Zhukov’s 1^st Belorussian Front reaching the fortified Seelow Heights, Rokossovsky’s 2^nd Belorussian Front supporting Zhukov from the south, and Konev’s 1^st Ukrainian Front advancing in the Cottbus area and south of Berlin to destroy the German defenses.

If this doesn’t make sense, then this book is perfect as it simply outlines how the Soviet offensive picked apart the German defenses piecemeal. So well did the Soviet strategy work that the final battle began with Berlin isolated, pitting over one million Soviet soldiers against 45,000 German defenders, including Waffen-SS, Wehrmacht, Kriegsmarine, Luftwaffe, Berlin Police, Volkssturm, Hitler Youth, and even postal units, whatever the Germans could scrape together.

The isolated German armies fought westward to surrender to American and British troops, avoiding the certain fate of surrendering to the Soviet forces. The author does a great job of highlighting the desperation of the Germans to defend the homeland, and the Soviet retribution for ending a war the Germans started. Profiles of key leaders are provided, along with illustrations and photos central to the chapters.

Modelers will have a lot of inspiration for their models, vignettes, and dioramas. Both Soviet and German soldiers are shown, along with their weapons, equipment and surrounding terrain, including flooded and marshy lands, forests and the urban hellscape that Berlin was transformed into under the unrelenting onslaught of artillery and close-in fighting. The Germans were desperate and there are great images of very young and very old men fighting with whatever weapons they could scrounge. The Soviet soldiers show the strain of the hard march to the west and final fighting.

The Soviet Battle for Berlin, 1945 will find a place next to The Soviet Baltic Offensive, 1944-45 - German Defense of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania in my reference library and will soon be dog-eared and marked with post it notes for future German and Soviet model builds. After reading fellow Review Corps Tomasz Menert’s great review on The East Pomeranian Offensive, 1945: Destruction of German Forces in Pomerania and West Prussia, I will have to procure that book as well to improve my understanding of the Soviet road to Berlin.

Profuse thanks to Casemate and IPMS/USA for providing the review sample.