"A tale drenched in drama and blood, heroism and cowardice, loyalty and betrayal."—Jonathan Yardley, The Washington Post
Beevor's latest book Ardennes 1944: The Battle of the Bulge is now available from Viking Books
The Red Army had much to avenge when it finally reached the frontiers of the Third Reich in January 1945. Frenzied by their terrible experiences with Wehrmacht and SS brutality, they wreaked havoc—tanks crushing refugee columns, mass rape, pillage, and unimaginable destruction. Hundreds of thousands of women are children froze to death or were massacred; more than seven million fled westward from the fury of the Red Army. It was the most terrifying example of fire and sword ever known.
Antony Beevor has reconstructed the experiences of those millions caught up in the nightmare of the Third Reich's final collapse. The Fall of Berlin is a terrible story of pride, stupidity, fanaticism, revenge, and savagery, yet it is also one of astonishing endurance, self-sacrifice, and survival against all odds.
Chapter 1. Berlin in the New Year
Chapter 2. The 'House of Cards' on the Vistula
Chapter 3. Fire and Sword and 'Noble Fury'
Chapter 4. The Great Winter Offensive
Chapter 5. The Charge to the Oder
Chapter 7. Clearing the Rear Areas
Chapter 8. Pomerania and the Oder Bridgeheads
Chapter 10. The Kamarilla and the General Staff
Chapter 11. Preparing the Coup de Grace
Chapter 12. Waiting for the Onslaught
Chapter 13. Americans on the Elbe
Chapter 15. Zhukov on the Reitwein Spur
Chapter 16. Seelow and the Spree
Chapter 17. The Führer's Last Birthday
Chapter 18. The Flight of the Golden Pheasants
Chapter 19. The Bombarded City
Chapter 21. Fighting in the City
Chapter 22. Fighting in the Forest
Chapter 23. The Betrayal of the Will
Chapter 25. Reich Chancellery and Reichstag
Chapter 26. The End of the Battle
Chapter 28. The Man on the White Horse