We Stormed the Reichstag - Hardcover

Subbotin, Vassili; Le Tissier, Tony

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 147387775X ISBN 13: 9781473877757

Publisher: Pen and Sword Military, 2017

Synopsis

In 1941 when Germany invaded the Soviet Union Vassili Subbotin was caught up as an ordinary soldier in the Red Army’s great retreat. In 1945, during the final days of the war, as a war correspondent, he went into Berlin with the troops who fought the ferocious final battles in the streets and sealed Germany’s defeat. Later he recorded in vivid impressionistic detail the climax of the last act of the campaign and of the entire war in the east – the storming of the Reichstag which came to symbolize of the Soviet victory over the Nazis.

His firsthand experience of that final operation – and his insight into the small band of ordinary soldiers who played a part in it – is graphically conveyed in this memoir. In his description of the confusion and violence of the street fighting around the Reichstag and the vicious hand-to-hand floor-by-floor struggle to capture the huge shattered building, the personalities of the soldiers are revealed, as are their fears and determination.

Vassili Subbotin served as a conscript in the Red Army during the Second World War, first as an infantryman during the Soviet retreat after the German invasion in 1941, then as a divisional war correspondent during the Red Army’s long advance towards Germany. He was present throughout the final battle for Berlin and observed the capture of the Reichstag at first hand. After the war he wrote this evocative memoir recording his experiences and those of the soldiers who took part, and in later life he was reunited with those who survived the fighting.

About this title

About the 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 campaign the led up to the fall of Berlin. He has researched every aspect of the 1945 battle for the city 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, The Third Reich Then and Now, With Our Backs to Berlin, Death Was Our Companion, Berlin Battlefield Guide: Third Reich and Cold War and The Siege of Kstrin 1945: Gateway to Berlin.

Review

“The book reads very much as if written by a reporter of the times, which it was. The author, and expert on the Eastern Front, served in Berlin during the Cold War and it is to his credit he has brought this work to English-speaking readers, providing more source material on the Red Army in World War II.” (WWII History)

About this edition

• Publisher: Pen and Sword Military
• Publication date: 2017
• ISBN 10: 147387775X
• ISBN 13: 9781473877757
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 176