I picked up an excellent book on the Battle of Berlin recently. The title is:
Bloody Streets: The Soviet Assault on Berlin, April 1945 by A. Stephan Hamilton
Author Hamilton has drawn from much of the archival information compiled by Cornelius Ryan, which was tremendous in volume. Ryan himself said that he simply couldn't include but a fraction of all the information, data, interviews, etc. in his book,
Last Battle: The Classic History of the Battle for Berlin. Hamilton has gone well beyond that, including detailed action in the various sections of the city. He covers the prelude to the assault on the city, the battle for the Seelowe heights, and then leads into the terrible struggle for the city.
Details and first person accounts abound, and the book is as dramatic as it is factual. There are many things in this book that were glossed over by history, or simply not included in other books because they were considered embarrassing to the Soviets. The terrible battle between Zhukov and Koniev to be the first to the Reichstag is covered in detail, and this is the first read I've seen where the fratricide is covered in detail. The two Soviet armies literally fought each other tooth and nail for days, not realizing they were firing on each other, with Soviet artillery crashing down on Soviet troops.
There are detailed maps of the city, these being aerial photographs showing streets and buildings. Sometimes the route of an individual tank is shown, so detailed are some of the maps and information presented. Unit positions are shown in advance and retreat, and you can actually follow some of the units from the narrative and then by looking at the maps, as they move through the city streets.
I would highly recommend this book to any student of the Berlin battles. It is exceptionally well done and a necessary addition to anyones military library.
Heinrich505
edited by Koen:
http://www.amazon.com/Bloody-Streets-Soviet-Assault-Berlin/dp/1906033129/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1255368529&sr=8-1
# ISBN-10: 1906033129
# ISBN-13: 978-1906033125
