����ý

After nearly four years of intense fighting, Soviet forces finally launched their assault on Berlin on 16 April 1945.

Nazi Germany had invaded the Soviet Union in June 1941 and killed an estimated 25 million of the country's civilians and military.

But now, Adolf Hitler's Germany was on its knees. A depleted and disorganised garrison of about 95,000 faced two full Soviet army groups attacking from the east and south.

In total, some 1.5 million Soviet troops encircled and then assaulted the capital. It was the last major offensive of the war in Europe.

Adolf Hitler refused to leave the capital, spending the last days of his life underground in the so-called Führerbunker in the centre of the city.

He last appeared above ground on his 56th birthday - 20 April 1945 - to award medals to those defending the city.

That same day, Soviet forces began to shell the city centre. Berlin was completely surrounded by 23 April.

Nazi forces were vastly outnumbered and outgunned, and could do nothing but slow the Soviet advance.

On 30 April 1945, Hitler killed himself, the day after marrying Eva Braun. Their bodies were taken above ground and burned in a bomb crater nearby.

Not long afterwards, Soviet forces captured the shell-damaged Reichstag. A famous staged photo shows a Soviet soldier lifting the flag of the USSR above the historic parliament building.

The city officially surrendered on 2 May, though fighting continued until the end of the war in Europe on 8 May.

Berlin itself was left in ruins. Occupying Soviet troops gave out bread and essentials, but some soldiers also committed atrocities against civilians. Thousands of women were raped.

Berlin was occupied by the victorious Allied powers after the war.

Civilians began to clear up the city, and the leaders of the US, UK and USSR all met in the Berlin suburb of Potsdam just months after the war ended to shape the peace.

All pictures copyright.