Brief History
The Battle of Berlin was designated the Berlin Strategic Defensive Operation by the Soviet Union, also known as the fall of Berlin. It was one of the largest Offensives of the European theatre of World War II. After the Vistula-Oder Offensive of January and February 1945, the Red Army had temporarily halted on a line 60 km East of Berlin. On March 9th, Germany established its defence plan for the city with Operation Clausewitz. The first defensive preparations at the outskirts of Berlin were on the 20th of March under the newly appointed commander of Army Group Vistula, General Gotthard Heinrici.
When the Soviet offensive resumed on the 16th of April, the Soviet Army created two fronts. Two army groups attacked Berlin from the East and South, while a third overran German Forces positioned north of Berlin. Before the main battle in Berlin commenced, the Red Army encircled after the successful battle of the Seelow Heights and Halbe. On the 20th of April 1945, Hitler's birthday, the 1st Belorussian front led by Marshal Georgy Zhukov, which was advancing from the east and north, started shelling Berlin's City centre, while Marshal Ivan Konev's 1st Ukrainian Front broke through Army Group Centre and advanced towards the southern suburbs of Berlin.
On the 23rd of April, General Helmuth Weidling assumed command of the forces within Berlin. The garrison consisted of several depleted and disorganised army units and Waffen-SS divisions, along with poorly trained Volkssturm and Hitler Youth members. Over the next week, the Red Army gradually took the entire city.
On the 30th of April, Hitler killed himself. The city's garrison surrendered on the 2nd of May; however, fighting continued to the North-West, West, and South-West of the City until the end of the war in Europe on the 8th of May (9th of May in the Soviet Union), as some German units fought westward so that they could surrender to the Western Allies rather than the Soviet Union soldiers.
First Impressions
Having some of the older Zvezda figure sets, I was unsure what I would see, as some of their older sets weren't the best.
So, I was impressed by the artwork on the box, not stunning, but a lot better than some of the previous art on the older boxes. First impressions on taking out the plastic-sealed bag, which contained two Sprues, brown in colour, with an instruction leaflet and a single piece of paper with details in several different languages, I am guessing on returns?
So, back to the first impressions, I am going to say they have come a long way since my first Zvezda figures, 3520 Soviet Navy Infantry World War II. I am dam sure they were a new box in 1995? so predated 1995.
So what do we have in a new, tooled figures set, 30 ish years or so later? albeit Soviet Infantry Berlin 1945, and not the Soviet Navy
Figure 1.
So starting with which ironically is on sprue (B) and not (A), the facial features are way much better than those I have seen previously. So this figure reminds me of an Iconic moment at the end of World War II, and this figure you have an option of the Soviet Union Flag waving as per the box art or rolled up and tied to the pole, which he will still be carrying at arms length upright. So, looking at the face itself, we have very good features, raised eyebrows, prominent high cheekbones, and eyes are present. There is a chin strap which I believe is slightly off scale, as it goes up his face to the helmet, the ears are not great, and the strap itself masks the ears. The flag is a nice approach, waving in the breeze. He has a nicely modelled Soviet PPSh-41 with the round disc magazine strapped to his back
Figure 2.
It is an infantry soldier of the Soviet Union in a squatting position, about to throw an RGD-33, which looks as I would have expected it to look, the real grenade itself. He is carrying the PPS-43 Soviet 7.62mm submachine gun, which was greatly appreciated as there was no overheating, and mud and dirt did not affect its performance. The face was similar to Figure 1, but slightly narrower and a similar issue with the helmet strap and ears that were at best slightly visible.
Figure 3.
Has a Pilotka hat on and is in a jogging/running stance with a raised gun; he has a slightly larger head than the previous two figures, but not any different to real-life people, his facial features are better than the last two figures. His expression is one of concentration, as though looking at a target, he is also using a PPS-43
Figure 4.
This figure is in a kneeling position with carrying a very impressive-looking LMG of the Soviet Union called a DP-27/DP-28, which looks like the real thing; the face has a good nose, mouth and eyes that look realistic
Figure 5.
The final figure in this box is an assault figure with a flamethrower, ROKS-2 (Ranzewuj Ognemjot KS-2) is a man-portable used by the Soviet Union in World War II It was designed to look like a Mosin-Nagant rifle, thus hopefully protecting the user. The fuel tank, carried on the back, resembled a knapsack for the same purpose. The kit that they carry is well-representative of the Soviet Union in World War 2 and does look realistic.
Conclusion
This is, to all intents and purposes, a huge upgrade on what I have seen before but I still have a few niggles some of the weapons look slightly chunky especially the Moisin Nagant, There is some small descripances like the chin strap that is not quite right three of the figures have very little or no ear detail.
There are still some seams that will need some work done on them before you paint the figures
Other than that, these figures are a huge improvement on the older sets.