Helion- Bloody Streets: Armor, Artillery, and Assault Groups in the Battle of Berlin

Book Specifics

Author: Aaron Stephan Hamilton

Price: $89.95

ISBN 978-1-804516-64-5

Hardcover, 458 Pages, 11 x 8 in, 89 color profiles, 143 color photos, 273 b/w photos, 33 b/w illustrations, 6 b/w maps, 11 tables

What's Inside

Bloody Streets is an extensive look at all aspects of the Soviet incursion into Berlin late in the war. Addressed inside is a thorough look at Soviet armor, artillery, and assault vehicles as well as the German side of things with a breakdown of the various defenses-- from panzerfausts to civilian made obstacles and turret emplacements at intersections to stave off Soviet advances. Indicative of this is the Berlin Bear Crest on the cover- showing a bear with crisscrossed shovel (representing the anti-tank fortifications built throughout the city) and panzerfaust (representing the thousands of Volksstrum and civilians now trained to use these early RPGs). 

After the Preface and Introduction, the first chapter is related to Red Army Tank Formations. This is an exhaustive breakdown of the preparations leading up to and the dispersal of forces throughout the city during the occupation. Tables abound through this section, as well as some maps.

 Chapter 2- Red Army Armor Anti-Panzerfaust Screens, Recognition Markings, and Tactical Symbols is pretty self-explanatory and we get some great photos of the screens in use, as well as a key to some of the aforementioned symbols. My apologies for the shoddy scans, but this book is quite heavy and difficult to get good orientation in some sections.

Soviet Armor in Pictures is broken down into the following armor types and locations- with select photos for each:

• T-34/76
• T-34/85
• IS-2
• SU-76M
• SU-100
• ISU-122/ISU-152
• Lend-Lease M4A2 Shermans
• Moltke Bridge and Reichstag
• Non-Armored Lend-Lease and Captured Vehicles

There are abundant photos throughout this chapter with detailed descriptive captions. The section on the T-34/85 goes in-depth into the three factory productions (Krasnoye Sormovo Factory No. 112 in Gorky, Omsk Lenin Factory No. 174 in Omsk, and Ural Tank Factory No. 183 in Nizhny Tagil) and how to identify them by their engine plate hinges and turret lifting hooks. 

Chapter 4 looks at the various Wreckage Parks in Berlin with maps and keys to what tanks were what...

Chapters 5 & 6, the Assault Groups and Artillery and Assault Group Formations chapters are full of text and diagrams illustrating the various tactics emplyed by the Soviets as they advanced further into the city and by the Germans as they tried to stop them to no avail. This is followed by a chapter of photos of Soviet Artillery.

Chapter 7 is all about the German Defense and goes into Tactics. It is followed by photos of these in chapter 8...and German Panzers in Pictures in Chapter 9. All sorts of photos of Volksstrum and civilians being trained to use panzerfausts and build barricades and turrent emplacements are present. Armor photos include Panzer IVs, Tigers, Panthers, assault guns, and a section on the King Tiger.

Chapter 10 is a collection of Color Illustrations of everything mentioned in the book from tanks, vehicles, artillery, mortar, and rocket photos including all the different types of panzerfaust. These are great pieces of artwork and I have a small sampling of them here below...

The last chapter is an extensive Color Photo Reference Section. A series of wartime color photos are accompanied by photos of museum pieces as well as those from outside displays and reenactment events. 

Conclusion

This is indeed a hefty tome-- and while a bit pricey, it is indeed jammed with excellent photos and reference materials for the armor enthusiast or modeler. Definitely not a summer beach read, unless you enjoy hefting a heavy landscape book around in your backpack. This would be a great book to go alongside your buildup of that new Rye Field Models JS-2 kit- or any Soviet armor kit you have in the stash for that matter!

Highly Recommended for anyone interested in this latter stage campaign in Berlin.

Thanks goes out to Casemate Publishing for this review sample.

Reviewed by Michael Reeves, AMPS Albany

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