A classic by Ryan, one of the finest war reporters of the last century, the story of the Battle of Berlin, the last battle of World War II. The author shows the tragedy from the inside, through the eyes of eyewitnesses and participants in the events: from a soldier to a marshal, from an SS man to a nun. Achieving the “effect of presence”, the feelings of the defeated dictator and the flurry of released tension of the attackers are explored with amazing objectivity. Not a single aspect of the life of the human community is bypassed, not a single atrocity is forgotten, not a single “tear of a child.”