The Russians dismissed the much hyped allied landings on Normandy on D-Day as of little consequence. Which is true to a great extent. If the Russians had not dug in at Moscow in the winter of 1941 and stubbornly stopped all German assaults, there would have been no D-Day. If the Russians had not taken heavy losses at Stalingrad and defeated the Germans there would have been Britain from where the Americans launched D-Day.
The Eastern Front in WW2 was a harsh place which saw some of the most brutal and inhuman fighting between two great proud peoples, the world has ever seen.
Below are some images of the last months of the war on the Ostfront. The Russians with lot of men and arms are moving inexorably towards Germany... to Berlin. A desperate Nazi regime is exhorting its men to fight till the end. The German defence was fierce, born out of desperation. They knew the Russians would take no prisoners. And deservedly, after what the Germans did in Russia...
Soviet heavy artillery fires at Danzig
Street fighting in Koenigsburg
The Russians cross the border into Austria. April 1945
Street fighting in Vienna. April 1945
Russian bombers over the skies of Berlin. April 1945
Soviet soldiers storm the Reichstag
The war is over for these German soldiers. They file past triumphant Russians in silence.
German defenders of Berlin lay down arms
The end of the Third Reich
The victorious march. Russian soldiers march past the reichstag, once the symbol of the might of Hitlerite germany
Berliners return home after the guns fell silent
Russian soldiers feed the people of Berlin. May 1945
Berliners rebuild their life from the ruins
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