How did top Red Army commanders see the assault on Berlin in 1945 ? what was their experience of the last, terrible battle of the Second World War in Europe? Personal accounts by the most famous generals involved ? Zhukov, Koniev and Chuikov ? have been published in English, but the recollections of their principal subordinates haven't been available in the west before, and it is their role in the final Soviet offensive that is the focus of Tony Le Tissier's fascinating book. These were the officers who were responsible for the execution of the Red Army's plan for the assault, in immediate touch with the troops on the front line of the advance. They saw most clearly where the operation succeeded and where it failed. Their recollections, publication of which was long banned in the Soviet Union, throw a new light on the course of battle and on the inner workings of the Red Army command in the final phase of the conflict. AUTHOR: During many years working in several senior official positions in Berlin - including spells as provost marshal and British governor of Spandau prison - Tony Le Tissier has accumulated a vast knowledge of the final stages of the Second World War in the East - the advance of the Red Army into Germany and the fall of Berlin. He has researched every aspect of the fighting for the city and the battles that preceded it in unprecedented detail and has published a series of outstanding books on the subject? 'The Battle of Berlin 1945', 'Farewell to Spandau', 'Berlin Then and Now', 'Zhukov at the Oder', 'Race For the Reichstag', 'Slaughter at Halbe', 'Berlin Battlefield Guide: Third Reich and Cold War' and 'The Siege of Kustrin 1945'. 20 illustrations
