“Never believe any war will be smooth and easy, or that anyone who embarks on this strange voyage can measure the tides and hurricanes he will encounter.” -Winston Churchill PROLOGUE April 29th, 1945 Berlin, Germany It was Hell on Earth. The Soviet siege of Berlin lasted four months, but by the spring of 1945 the end was near. Adolph Hitlers proposed Thousand Year Reich, having spanned from the English Channel to the gates of Moscow, was reduced to sixteen-kilometers of raging fires and charred concrete. All that remained of the Nazi empire was a broken SS division, five regiments of elderly grenadiers and fifty-thousand Hitler youth. Most would die where they stood, pinned amidst dead compatriots and burning rubble. But, for a time, the Reichs core refused to buckle. As death descended Germany held its bite like a crippled pit bull, thrashing in a pool of its own blood. Josef Stalin, leering across a map table at the Kremlin Palace, knew victory was close. Twenty Soviet armies now surrounded Berlin and Germany’s fate was sealed. The Third Siberian Army, weathering fierce resistance in the southern sector, rolled onto Templehof Airfield like a wounded rhinoceros. After overrunning the strategic asset, Marshal Petrovs aerial supply-link was established and the Germans remaining inside the city were officially trapped. As the first Yakolev fighter landed at Templehof, Konevs First Guard Army pushed into the Tiergarten District, striking the Reichs floundering nervous system. But the battle reached its zenith when Marshal Zhukov entered the citadel from the East, igniting a firestorm like none other...
Posted on: Sun, 30 Mar 2014 22:42:21 +0000
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