Topic

The Second World War

Conquest, siege and the destruction of cities, 1939–45.

The Second World War1943–1946 Mitte lost more than half its homes to the war. Pankow lost fewer than one in ten

The Second World War1939–45 Stalingrad was the smallest of the three cities and the bloodiest battle. Berlin, the largest, was taken in 16 days.

The Second World War1945 Berlin’s 1945 death counts differ sixfold, because they count different ground

The Second World War1945 The 9th Army counted 112,143 men on 16 April 1945. Below it, the order of battle stops counting.

The Second World War1939–41 In less than two years Nazi Germany invaded ten countries. Nine fell. The tenth stopped the Wehrmacht about 30 kilometres from the Kremlin.

The Second World War1945 In seventeen days the Red Army broke Berlin’s three lines of defence and took Hitler’s capital street by street

The Second World War1940–45 Berlin was bombed 363 times. The raids stopped on 21 April 1945 only so the Red Army could begin its assault

The Second World War1945 The Berlin offensive cost Soviet forces 352,475 casualties in 23 days

The Second World War1944–45 Reached from both ends: the camps were freed east to west and west to east, and the last was reached the day after Germany surrendered

The Second World War1945 A gun every 3.7 metres: the Red Army's breakthrough line on the Oder

The Second World War1945 The last fifteen kilometres took as long as the first seventy-one

The Second World War1944–45 Cut through, the Tiger II carries 233 mm of steel across its nose. The SS battalion that fought it in Berlin reported twelve.