In April 1945 the Soviets poured more artillery tonnage into Berlin in two weeks than the Western Allies dropped from the air across the entire war. This episode explores why Stalin raced to take the capital alone and why Eisenhower, bound by the Yalta agreement, chose to step back.

We trace General Heinrici's flooding of the Oder floodplain, the bloodbath at the Seelow Heights, the claustrophobic mouse-holing street fighting, French SS defenders at the Reichstag, and the human cost, including mass atrocities and the physical scars still visible on the city today.

• Why the Western Allies deliberately let the Soviets take Berlin
• Heinrici's defensive gambit at the Oder River and Seelow Heights
• Panzerfausts, flak towers, and brutal three-dimensional urban combat
• Hitler's bunker delusions and the garrison surre ...