Dissension

Well read, and researched. I did not realise that Montgomery had managed to alienate the Americans to such a large extent. With hindsight that was rather stupid, given that 2 out of 3 soldiers on the western front were American. I'm unsure if this was an oversight, but there was no mention that Churchill instructed the British army to allow captured Wehrmacht troops to retain their personal weapons in case Uncle Joe decided to take the whole of western Europe. That was what my father claimed, after serving in Germany during the Winter and Spring of 1945.

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Well written history but short compared to the written version

I enjoyed the audio version of this analytical and well written history of the period covering late 1944 through to the end of the war and the consequences for a Germany that until then had been largely untouched within her borders apart from aerial bombing. However, having read the book when it first came out this seemed light on all the detail and statistics that are an essential part of the full story. Regardless, very enjoyable.

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Superb

Concise and excellent guide to the ending of the second world war . .

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Masterful history. Story telling at its best.

Absolutely stunning. Hastings takes the closing chapter of the war and shows it for all its complexity and horror. It’s easy to listen to and engaging even for a history buff like myself. Well done. I would recommend this work to anyone and is one of the best audio’s I have chosen in 6 years !! (I started with .com)

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12 people found this helpful

Compelling narrative, thorough analysis

Yet another Max Hastings WW2 book has just kept me spellbound for the last couple of days. As usual the author highlights certain themes which may not be very palatable to anyone brought up on jingoistic history lessons and Hollywood movies, with plucky Brits and dashing Americans. Namely, that the Germans were darned good fighters; that the Western Allies were often slow or seemingly reluctant to get stuck in; that Montgomery was a vain man who got up the noses of all his peers and superiors; that Eisenhower was no military strategist but generous-spirited to the point of saintliness in his diplomacy and forbearance in his dealings with the likes of Monty; that Roosevelt was as slippery as an eel but totally hoodwinked by Stalin while being decidedly bitchy to Churchill; that the Western Allies were blind to the threat that Stalin would simply replace one tyranny in Eastern Europe with another, equally brutal; that the RAF was often reluctant to offer airborne support, their commanders’ preference being to bomb civilians in German cities.
But Sir Max is not antagonistic, axe-grinding or finger-pointing in revealing these truths. He is always fair, and prepared to find another side to every coin. Montgomery, he emphasises, was loved and revered by his men and a meticulous planner. The wickedness and duplicity of a Stalin were unimaginable to most Western leaders and peoples (with the exception of Churchill). So why hurry to Berlin first? The Germans had been re-arming, training and brainwashing for a decade, so little wonder their soldiers were more competent. And so on.
Where Max Hastings leaves no quarter is in his treatment of the Wehrmacht. Again, the prevailing myth seems to be that the “traditional” army were upright officers and men just doing their job relatively humanely (as opposed to the SS divisions, composed of brutal fanatics) but the author can find few if any redeeming features in their behaviour: he cites example after example of atrocities, and cravenness on the part of the generals, from the Wehrmacht as well as the SS. Likewise he gives short shrift to claims that ordinary people “knew nothing” about the camps or slave labour - this, in a book that is meticulously researched and evidence based. Rather, he hints at the dangers of a whole nation brainwashed, coerced and sleepwalking into total depravity.
The book takes us through the main battles on the way from the Rhine to Berlin, mentioning also the hosts of smaller ones because there was attrition and severe loss of life every step of the way, often because of botching or sluggishness on the part of the Allies. There are sections devoted to certain themes, such as the reactions of rescuers arriving at the camps, the attitudes of the Hitlerjugend, the atrocities of the Soviet soldiers, the treatment of returning Russian POWs, the mania of the Nazi upper echelons.
But a main theme, reiterated in nearly all Hastings’ books, is how futile it is to expect fighting forces from “citizens’ armies” in the democracies to perform with similar conviction to those conscripted in totalitarian and brutal regimes. In the latter you would expect execution for poor performance, even if you went in unarmed, while in the former even the generals were very careful about expending life. We in the West avoided conquest by the Nazis because we allowed the Soviets to take the brunt for 4 years and with the loss of millions. I don’t suppose our leaders at the time enquired too closely into how this was achieved, let alone the general population!
John Sessions narrates this book masterfully. Not so certain other books, alas.

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2 people found this helpful

horrible war

again max Hastings get below the surface of the second world war and tells a horrible truth

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Very short.

Fascinating, as ever from Hastings. However, I wish it were a longer book.

Narrator very easy to listen to too.

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Another Hastings success

What can you say about a Max Hasting book, it is fantastic, the research that must have gone into this book must is beyond my imagination. It really is a worthwhile read. Highly commend it.

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3 people found this helpful

A broad brush history of Sept 44 to May.

Good introduction to this period of WW2 in the West. Good use of eye witness statements.

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The destruction of the east

Eye watering, informative and brilliantly told. The inhumanity and horror of Europe 1944-45 and the despicable cruelty of the Nazis and Red armies bought to light.

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