Checkmate in Berlin
The Cold War Showdown That Shaped the Modern World
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'Brilliantly written and completely absorbing, this is Milton's masterpiece' ANTHONY HOROWITZ
BERLIN'S FATE WAS SEALED AT THE 1945 YALTA CONFERENCE.
The city was to be carved up between the victorious powers - British, American, French and Soviet - with four all-powerful commandants ruling over their sectors. On paper, it seemed a pragmatic solution; in reality, it marked the start of a ferocious battle of wits. As relations between east and west broke down, these rival commandants fought a desperate battle for control. In doing so, they fired the starting gun for the Cold War.
From America's explosive Frank 'Howlin' Mad' Howley, a sharp-tongued colonel with a loathing for Russians, to his nemesis, Russia's charmingly deceptive General Alexander Kotikov, CHECKMATE IN BERLIN tells the exhilarating, high-stakes story of kidnap, skullduggery, sabotage, murder and the greatest aerial operation in history. This is the epic story of the first battle of the Cold War and how it shaped the modern world.
'An excellent storyteller' ANDREW ROBERTS
'A book full of heroes' THE TIMES
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Historian Milton (Soldier, Sailor, Frogman, Spy) captures in this immersive account the drama and intrigue of Berlin in the immediate aftermath of WWII. At the 1945 Yalta conference, Berlin was divided into three zones of occupation to be controlled by the U.S., Great Britain, and the Soviet Union. However, the border of Soviet-controlled East Germany was drawn 110 miles west of Berlin, which meant that the American and British sectors of the city would be surrounded by the Red Army. The Allies hoped that any difficulties could be overcome by diplomacy, but problems arose from the beginning. Soviet troops entered Berlin first and began a program of rape, violence, and plunder; by the time the Allies were allowed in, the Russians had looted everything of value from the Western sectors. Milton notes that the basic ration card providing Berliners with only 1,504 calories per day was known as the "death card," and documents high-level Soviet defections that brought to light Russian infiltration of U.S. and British atomic research programs, Stalin's rigging of local elections, the kidnapping of German scientists by the Soviets, the diplomatic tensions leading up to the 1948–1949 Soviet blockade of the city's western half, and the resulting airlift that helped bring the siege to an end. Full of vivid details and intriguing personalities, this is a page-turning chronicle of a noteworthy period in world history.
