lakecake's review against another edition
3.0
Really battle heavy in the details, which was confusing because I don't understand all the weaponry terminology AND the names are all Russian and hard to remember. I wanted more of an inside look at what was happening in Berlin, and less of the outside battle details.
So good for what it is, but not what I expected.
So good for what it is, but not what I expected.
tarmstrong112's review against another edition
5.0
Very very good. I found this book extremely interesting. Beevor's writing is engaging and entertaining, making this an easily digestible and entertaining history book.
mcsangel2's review against another edition
3.0
Honestly, seems to be painstakingly researched, but at the end of the day, a strict military history isn't too likely to hold my interest. I often pick things up hoping there will be something from the civilian perspective. I would love to find something like "Wartime: Britain 1939-1945" from the German side. Three stars is the highest rating I'll allow myself to give for a book I couldn't finish.
nerdofdoom's review against another edition
5.0
Fucking amazing account of the end of the third reich ending with the climactic fall of Berlin. Definately read Stalingrad before this if you can but they are both amazing works that really have no equal. Hopefully historians will start writing more in this hyper honest vain about the second world war which is still so shrouded in folklore to us here in the west.
sleepyboi2988's review against another edition
5.0
Beevor doesnt disappoint, an unflinching look at the fall of Nazi Germany, the struggles of the soldiers, civilians, and politicians.
fourtriplezed's review against another edition
4.0
I do have issues with some of the text not being footnoted in a manner I find useful but there is a fine bibliography and a section of interviews, diary and unpublished accounts.
In the end though an interesting read on the appalling fall of Berlin that showed that the enemies each had no idea as to the humanity of each other. Propaganda by the opposing sides was always fierce and in the end with the Eastern Front being probably the most brutal event in history this book bought to the fore the never ending question of man’s inhumanity to man and how propaganda can cause appalling events to happen.
As the Red Army crossed into East Prussia and had seen German wealth in comparison to their own homes, towns and cities Senior Lieutenant Klochkov said he could not understand why Germany had attacked them and risked such a prosperous life. Zhukov’s divisional commander General Maslov said “What was surprising was that they were crying in exactly the same way as our children cry" as he watched these children weeping for their lost parents. Revenge propaganda had convinced its citizens that all Germans were ravening beasts wrote the author. The same was true of the Nazi’s propaganda.
The Nazis use of “soft faced children” in the final battle was an utter indictment on their moribund ideology and latter attempts to blame the Nazis by Wehrmacht officers holds no water with this reviewer. The final toll of rape, as well as the death and destruction, that the eastern front was from the start to the fall of Berlin is not pretty reading in this very competent telling.
Gertraud "Traudl" Junge once said of Nazism after WW2 had ended “………..at that moment I actually sensed that it was no excuse to be young and that it would have been possible to find things out.” Quite.
In the end though an interesting read on the appalling fall of Berlin that showed that the enemies each had no idea as to the humanity of each other. Propaganda by the opposing sides was always fierce and in the end with the Eastern Front being probably the most brutal event in history this book bought to the fore the never ending question of man’s inhumanity to man and how propaganda can cause appalling events to happen.
As the Red Army crossed into East Prussia and had seen German wealth in comparison to their own homes, towns and cities Senior Lieutenant Klochkov said he could not understand why Germany had attacked them and risked such a prosperous life. Zhukov’s divisional commander General Maslov said “What was surprising was that they were crying in exactly the same way as our children cry" as he watched these children weeping for their lost parents. Revenge propaganda had convinced its citizens that all Germans were ravening beasts wrote the author. The same was true of the Nazi’s propaganda.
The Nazis use of “soft faced children” in the final battle was an utter indictment on their moribund ideology and latter attempts to blame the Nazis by Wehrmacht officers holds no water with this reviewer. The final toll of rape, as well as the death and destruction, that the eastern front was from the start to the fall of Berlin is not pretty reading in this very competent telling.
Gertraud "Traudl" Junge once said of Nazism after WW2 had ended “………..at that moment I actually sensed that it was no excuse to be young and that it would have been possible to find things out.” Quite.