Earl Ziemke’s chronicle of the end of the Third Reich is among the best volumes in Ballantine’s series of illustrated histories of World War II. As a historian with the U.S. Army’s Center for Military History, he was well versed with the subject, having written several works pertaining to German military operations during the war. Using this expertise, he provides a short overview of the war against Germany from the autumn of 1944 – when Ziemke contends Germany should have sued for peace – to the establishment of the occupation government in Berlin in the summer of 1945. Much of the text is devoted to a dry recounting of unit deployments, yet this matter-of-fact recitation of events only enhances the surreality of the events Ziemke describes, with Adolf Hitler increasingly waging a war in his bunker that had little to do with the fighting taking place around him. Combined with maps and a plentiful selection of photographs, it’s a book that remains an excellent resource for readers seeking a concise yet detailed overview of its subject. ( )