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Article: The Red Army's revenge Richard Overy on a harrowing account of the fall of Berlin, last great battle of the Second World War
- Article from:
- The Sunday Telegraph London
- Article date:
- April 21, 2002
- Author:
CopyrightCopyright 2002 The Sunday Telegraph London. Provided by ProQuest LLC. (Hide copyright information)
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Berlin: The Downfall, 1945
by Antony Beevor
Viking, pounds 25, 490 pp
pounds 23 ( pounds 1.99 p&p) 0870 155 7222
WHEN ANTONY BEEVOR was researching his best-selling study of the
battle of Stalingrad he came across a comment by a Soviet soldier to
a German prisoner to the effect that one day Berlin would look the
same as the ruins of Stalingrad. The remark intrigued him. Three
years later he has described how the Red Army got its revenge on
Berlin in the last great battle of the Second World War.
There is a great temptation to compare this second grim city-
siege with the dramatic confrontation on the Volga. There are the
fanatical defenders, sniping from ruined buildings, living out ...