Lecture | The Battle For Berlin 16 April – 2 May 1945

Wednesday 30th April
6.30pm-8.00pm

In his final talk about some of the major events of the Second World War, eighty years on, Major General Mungo Melvin will describe the Battle for Berlin that effectively concluded the conflict in Europe. He will cover first the dire strategic situation facing Nazi Germany in early 1945, which had seen Hitler’s last gamble, the Ardennes counter-offensive (the Battle of the Bulge) in the West fail with heavy, irreplaceable losses, while the next Soviet major offensive in the East, the Vistula-Oder Offensive Operation, was brought forward to 12 January at Churchill’s request. This massive attack crushed the German resistance bringing the Red Army to the river Oder, only 60 miles from Berlin, by the end of January 1945. Meanwhile, the Western Allies were clearing the Rhineland, and preparing to cross the Rhine in late March. By early April the stage was set for the war’s dénouement in Berlin. But to reach the German capital, Soviet forces had to storm first the German defences of the Seelow Heights that overlooked the Oder. With this position lost after a fierce battle (16 – 19 April), it was only a few days before the Red Army encircled then entered Berlin. Despite desperate fighting in the city, Hitler only realised the game was up as Soviet tanks neared his bunker and the Reichstag. Germany’s downfall was completed with his suicide on 30 April and the capitulation of German forces in Berlin on 2 May. The final German surrender ceremony in Berlin to took place on 8 May, known subsequently as VE Day, with ‘Victory Day’ being declared in the USSR on 9 May 1945.

Mungo Melvin retired from the British Army in 2011, following a career of 37 years in the Royal Engineers and the General Staff. He attended the German Armed Forces Command and Staff College in Hamburg, 1986-88, served as the chief planner in 1st (UK) Armoured Division in the First Gulf War and commanded an engineer regiment in the Balkans. Later career highlights included Chief Engineer of the Allied Rapid Reaction Corps and General Officer Commanding of the British Army’s Support Command in Germany. He also taught strategy at the Royal College of Defence Studies. Following his retirement from active service, he served as a reservist 2011-2018, employed mainly as a military historian and senior mentor. He was a specialist military advisor to the UK’s House of Commons Defence Committee from 2012 until 2017. During this period he was also President of the British Commission for Military History. Since 2012 he has been a Senior Associate Fellow of the Royal United Services Institute, London. From 2016 to 2024 he served as Chairman of the Royal Engineers Historical Society, and has been an Honorary Vice President of the Western Front Association since 2018. His biography, Manstein: Hitler’s Greatest General published in 2010 was awarded as the best military biography of the year by the United States Society for Military History in 2012. As the British Army’s senior advisor for the First World War centennial commemorations, Mungo Melvin edited the Army’s Battlefield Guide to the Western Front of the First World War (2nd edition, 2015). His next major work, Sevastopol’s Wars: Crimea from Potemkin to Putin, was published in April 2017. Having co-written and edited the latest volume (XIII) of the Royal Engineers history (2000-2019), published in April 2024, he has several new literary projects underway. Mungo Melvin continues to advise NATO and UK forces.

6.30pm Drinks Reception (Drink included in ticket price), 7.00pm Lecture Commences

£11 non members | £9 Friends

Become a Friends Member here

Why not Stay for a post lecture supper in the Castle Bistro (See Menu)

2 courses £25

3 courses £30