Reddit reviews Berlin: The Downfall, 1945

Maybe read some books on the subject by actual historians. I can recommend this one, which coincidentally has a whole chapter on this subject i.e. the Red Army atrocities.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Berlin-Downfall-1945-Antony-Beevor/dp/0141032391/ref=lp_10960071_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1510165401&sr=1-1

Reading Antony Beever's Berlin he states that Russian tanks would regularly drive through columns of fleeing German civilian refugees. Not entirely surprising considering the hatred they had for the Germans, following the nature of the war on the Eastern Front, but crimes nonetheless.

Most of my knowledge regarding the matter is European, so I'm going to give a list of my favorites regarding the European / African front.

To get the German perspective of the war, I'd recommend:

• Panzer Commander - Hans von Luck - One of my favorites
  
  
• Panzer Leader - Heinz Guderian - He developed Blitzkrieg tactics
  
  
• The Rommel Papers - Erwin Rommel - Written by my favorite German Field Marshal up until his forced suicide by Hitler. Good read of the Western and African theaters of war. Also a good book to read if you're interested in what German command was doing on the lead up to D-Day.
  
  I have a few battle-specific books I enjoy too:
  
  
• Stalingrad: The Fateful Siege 1942-1943 - You really don't know the brutality of Stalingrad till you've read this book. You'll see it in a whole new light I think.
  
  
• Berlin: Downfall 1945 - Battle of Berlin at the end of the war, another good book.
  
  Now if you want to play games, Hearts of Iron series is great (someone recommended the Darkest Hour release of the game. Allows you to play historical missions based on historical troop layouts, or play the entire war as a nation. Historical events are incorporated into the game. While you'll rarely get a 100% accurate game as it is abstracted, it is an excellent way to see what challenges faced the nations of the time. You could play as Russia from 1936 and prepare yourself for the eventual German invasion. Or maybe you decide to play as Germany, and not invade Russia. But will Russia invade you when they are stronger? Will warn you: It does not have a learning curve. As with almost all Paradox Interactive games, it is a learning cliff.

If you are looking for something about WWII and want to keep it as simple as possible I recommend Antony Beevors new book called The second world war.

He has also written some other books on different WWII topics if you really want to know all the details:

• About the Battle of Stalingrad
  
  
• About D-Day and Operation Overlord
  
  
• About the Battle of Berlin
  
  
• About the Spanish Civil War
  
  
• About the Battle of Crete
  
  I have them all and I really recommend them if you want to keep things simple yet informative.

Anything by Anthony Beevor.

I finished Stalingrad and am currently reading Crete and they are two of the best history books I've ever read.

Apparently everything he's done is just as good (a friend highly recommends Berlin but apparently it's as draining as Stalingrad, which was incredibly harrowing to read so I'm going to let a bit of time pass).