The Fall of Berlin is a magnificent account of the last days of the Second World War and the German surrender of their nation to the Soviet Union. I just read it for a second time and think it a valuable contribution to our overall history of that horrific era. No, it is not a comprehensive tale of the Russian 1945 spring campaign, but it certainly provides readers with a dense, richly textured portrait of one of the world's most famous cities and its obliteration from bombing and invasion. Anthony Read is a fine historian and despite my being familiar with several accounts covering the exact same events, most of its stories and first-hand testimony was new to me. The Fall of Berlin is strong on fact but is also a great story...which is precisely what draws us to devouring history in the first place.