frank,
have you read this book?
i'm very much interested and will value your review of this book.
sincerely.
I'm still in the first section (Prelude) but this is an impressive work providing both high level and detailed information about the final assault on Berlin and the defeat of the Nazi regime. There are maps/aeriel photgraphs of the various districts throughout the assault with unit positions along with the photos and text.
The stunning Soviet losses are a testament to the Soviet contempt of human life in conjunction with their crude tactics. I found one excerpt attributed to a conversation between Zhukov and Eisenhower particularly indicative of the Soviet mentality. Zhukov's description of the Soviet method of dealing with minefields, "There are two types of mines; one is the personnel mine and the other is the vehicular mine. When we come to a minefield our infantry attacks exactly as if it were not there. The losses we get from personnel mines we consider only equal to those we would have gotten from machine guns and artillery if the Germans had had chosen to defend that particular area with strong bodies of troops instead of with mine fields
Some interesting Soviet casualty statistics:
Berlin Operation (April 16 1945 - May 8 1945, 23 days) - The bulk of the fighting was done by May 2 so daily losses were actually higher than reported for the entire operation since these are averaged.
Total Soviet force: 2,062,100 (including 155,900 Poles)
Total Soviet casaulties (killed, sick and wounded): 361,367 (17.5%)
This works out to 15,000 soldiers or the equivalent of a WWII U.S. Infantry division per day of operation.
Total Small Arm losses: 215,900 (9,400 per day)
Total Tank and Self Propelled Gun losses: 1,997 (87 per day)
Totsl Guns and Mortar losses: 2,108 (92 per day)
Total Aircraft losses: 917 (40 per day)
Compare the armor losses with Kursk (19 day operation)
Total Tank and Self Propelled Gun losses: 1,614 (84 per day)