Marshal Zhukov at the Oder: The Decisive Battle for Berlin

The story of the last major land battle in Europe that sealed the fate of Berlin – and the Third Reich.

In the dying months of the Second World War on 31 January 1945, the first Red Army troops reached the River Oder, barely forty miles from Berlin. Everyone at Soviet Headquarters expected Marshal Zhukov's troops quickly to bring the war to an end. But despite bitter fighting by both sides, a bloody stalemate persisted for two months. At the end of this time the Soviet bridgeheads north and...