The Battle of the Seelow Heights was part of the Soviet assault on Berlin and lasted three days in April 1945. Estimates of Russian casualties range from 5,000 to 33,000, with 12,000 Germans killed. The Association for the Recovery of the Fallen have rescued the remains close to Klessin, Brandenburg.

Still wearing their boots and helmets, and carrying their weapons, the bodies of German soldiers who died in the Battle of the Seelow Heights have finally been unearthed. A team of archaeologists - the Association for the Recovery of the Fallen - have uncovered the skeletons of men who died defending Berlin from the soldiers of the Red Army in the final days of the Second World War. The dig, in Klessin, Brandenburg, brought to the light weapons, helmets, boots and the bones of those fighting to protect the murderous Third Reich...

1. In memoriam: A cross is planted in the ground above a trench and adorned with a German helmet.
2. A German tin helmet, a boot, a gun, a belt and what looks like a thigh bone are all that is left of a German soldier....