Race for the Reichstag

Tony Le Tissier’s classic account of the battle for Berlin dispels the myths created by Soviet propaganda and describes in graphic detail the Red Army’s final offensive against Nazi Germany – the race for the Reichstag. Among the soldiers of the Red Army, Berlin was seen as the victor’s prize. Stalin had promised Berlin to Marshal Zhukov, but the latter’s blundering in the preliminary battle forced a dramatic change of plan. Stalin chastened his subordinates, then allowed Marshal Koniev, Zhukov’s rival, to launch one of his powerful tank armies at the city. The advancing Soviet forces were confronted by a desperate, inadequate German defence. The leaders of the Third Reich squabbled and schemed in their underground shelters, a world apart from the reality outside where their subjects suffered and died. Race for the Reichstag offers a compelling insight into the terrible final days of the Second World War in Europe.

During many years working in senior official positions in Berlin TONY LE TISSIER accumulated a vast knowledge of the campaign that led up to the fall of the city in 1945. He has researched every aspect of the battle 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, Slaughter at Halbe, Berlin Battlefield Guide: Third Reich and Cold War and The Siege of Küstrin 1945: Gateway to Berlin.