Hans Schäufler was a second lieutenant and signals officer in Panzer Regiment 35, part of the 4th Panzer Division, on the Eastern Front in 1945\. He took part in the German retreat from Latvia to East Prussia and was trapped in Danzig when the city fell to the Red Army. After the war he wrote this dramatic account of his experiences which has been translated into English for the first time. Among his other books is the best-selling Panzer Warfare on the Eastern Front.

During many years working in several senior official positions in Berlin - including spells as provost marshal and British governor of Spandau prison - Tony Le Tissier has accumulated a vast knowledge of the campaign the led up to the fall of Berlin. He has researched every aspect of the 1945 battle for the city in unprecedented detail and has published a series of outstanding books on the subject - The Battle of Berlin 1945, Farewell to Spandau, Berlin Then and Now, Zhukov at the Oder, Slaughter at Halbe, The Third Reich Then and Now, With Our Backs to Berlin, Death Was Our Companion, Berlin Battlefield Guide: Third Reich and Cold War and The Siege of Kstrin 1945: Gateway to Berlin.