Discover unpublished and rarely seen photographs from the Battle of Berlin in 1945, gathered in a unique collection created for history buffs.

Over 200 historical photographs will allow you to retrace the final days of the Third Reich and witness scenes rarely seen in documentaries.
🔥 Access the collection now and experience Berlin 1945 like never before: https://derkommandant.com/pl

The German-Soviet War of 1941–1945 was the most colossal and bloody theater of war of World War II. It all began on June 22, 1941, when Nazi Germany launched Operation Barbarossa, mobilizing millions of soldiers and its allies against the Soviet Union. In just a few weeks, German forces advanced hundreds of kilometers, destroyed or captured vast Red Army formations, and occupied vast territories. From border fighting to the encirclements at Minsk, Smolensk, and Kiev, the Red Army seemed on the brink of total collapse. However, Soviet resistance, the vast distances, and the onset of winter transformed the campaign, which Hitler had hoped to resolve quickly, into a war of attrition.

Between late 1941 and 1942, the front devolved into a brutal struggle for survival. The German offensive on Moscow was halted, followed by a Soviet counteroffensive, but Germany still retained a formidable offensive potential. In the summer of 1942, Hitler directed his forces toward the Caucasus and the Volga, launching a campaign that culminated in the Battle of Stalingrad. For months, both sides fought for practically every building until the Soviet Operation Uranus encircled the German 6th Army. Its surrender in February 1943 was one of the heaviest blows to the Third Reich and proved that Germany could be defeated in a battle of gigantic proportions.

In 1943, the strategic initiative finally began to shift to the Soviets. After the Battle of Kursk, one of the largest armored engagements in history, the Red Army launched a series of offensives that gradually pushed the Wehrmacht westward. Ukraine was retaken, the blockade of Leningrad was broken, and during Operation Bagration in 1944, the German Army Group Center suffered a catastrophic defeat. Day by day, the front approached the Reich's borders, while Soviet forces advanced through Belarus, the Baltic states, Poland, and the Balkans.

In 1945, the final chapter arrived. The Red Army launched the Vistula-Oder Offensive, crossed Poland, and within weeks reached the outskirts of Berlin. After devastating fighting in East Prussia, Pomerania, Hungary, and other sectors of the front, millions of Soviet soldiers converged on the German capital. The Battle of Berlin began in April and ended with the destruction of the Nazi regime's last strongholds, the suicide of Adolf Hitler, and the German surrender in May 1945. Four years after the launch of Operation Barbarossa, the war that began with the German army marching on Moscow ended with Soviet soldiers in the heart of Berlin, leaving behind a scale of destruction and human loss that is difficult to fathom even decades later.