Originally published: New York, Viking, 2002

Berlin in the new year -- The 'House of cards' on the Vistula -- Fire and sword and 'noble fury' -- The great winter offensive -- The charge to the Oder -- East and West -- Clearing the rear areas -- Pomerania and the Oder bridgeheads -- Objective Berlin -- The Kamarilla and the general staff -- Preparing the coup de grace -- Waiting for the onslaught -- Americans on the Elbe -- Eve of battle -- Zhukov on the Reitwein spur -- Seelow and the spree -- The Fhrer's last birthday -- The flight of the golden pheasants -- The bombarded city -- False hopes -- Fighting in the city -- Fighting in the forest -- The betrayal of the will -- Fhrerd̃mmerung -- Reich Chancellery and Reichstag -- The end of the battle -- Vae victis! -- The man on the white horse

"The Red Army had much to avenge when it finally reached the frontiers of the Third Reich in January 1945. Frenzied by their terrible experiences with Wehrmacht and SS brutality, they wreaked havoc -- tanks crushing refugee columns, mass rape, pillage, and unimaginable destruction. Hundreds of thousands of women and children froze to death or were massacred; more than seven million fled westward from the fury of the Red Army. It was the most terrifying example of fire and sword ever known. Antony Beevor has reconstructed the experiences of those millions caught up in the nightmare of the Third Reich's final collapse. The Fall of Berlin is a terrible story of pride, stupidity, fanaticism, revenge, and savagery, yet it is also one of astonishing endurance, self-sacrifice, and survival against all odds."--Jacket