The Last Battle Author:Cornelius Ryan The battle for Berlin, the last offensive against Hitler's Third Reich, began at 4 a.m., Monday, April 16, 1945. At that moment, flares burst in the skies above the Oder River, triggering an artillery barrage that opened the Russian assault. Before it ended 250,000 people would be killed. — As the attack began Berliners waited, numb and terri... more »fied, clinging to the only politics that mattered -- the politics of survival. For them, to endure had become most important.« less