1945: The War That Never Ended

This is a well written and perceptive account of the end and aftermath of the WWII fighting in Europe. The author excels at descriptions of the events, personalities and motives that made the aftermath of that war in Europe, in a real sense, worse than the war itself.

I purchased this book for my son who is doing his HSC in Oz - he says it has been very helpful and interesting

A very readable, well-written work, this author both knows his subject area and is not afraid of expressing STRONG opinions. The author makes points, or at least states positions, that will make you think. Opinions about Roosevelt, Eisenhower, Montgomery, Truman, etc., are well thought out and quite provocative. I particularly enjoyed some of the author's thoughts about the Holocaust & Holocaust studies. Gregor Dallas has some very unkind things to say about Eisenhower, but he backs them up. Also, the author sets out some matters which I had forgotten about, such as Patton's anti-semetism. I also enjoyed that Dallas is a British writer not afraid to use his "foreign" point of view when discussing the United States. Its the difference between a British band that sings its songs in flawless English, as opposed to with a natural English accent. The book also has a glossary of individuals & entities at the end of the book which gives concise and interesting "definitions". This book has interested me enough in some of the areas it touched upon to influence me to have just ordered a book on the Soviet General Vlasov, and on the Venona de-crypts. Its a 4 1/2 star book, and I recommend reading it.

This book taugh me some things about the conduct of WW II that I had not known, and for that I found it extremely interesting. The author,however, does a lot of second-guessing about many of the decisions made during the war, particularly by the American politicians and General Eisenhower in particular. Churchill and Montgomery are given credit for having the right ideas at the right time, unlike FDR and Ike. I agree with the author about the way Roosevelt treated Churchill in relation to Stalin, for that has been featured in many books. Of course, the American decision not to attempt to reach Berlin before the Russians is also not new. Hindsight is always 20-20, and this book engages in a lot of that type of statement. Overall, however, I found it a very useful book on many aspects of the end of the war, particularly as it related to Poland and the countries of Eastern Europe.

Perhaps for those who have yet to turn gray, this treatment of WWII is merely excellent and compelling history. But for those, like me, who grew up through the late 1940s and 1950s, Dallas' well researched recounting of the events surrounding that war goes a long way in explaining the war's bizarre aftermath. Let me begin by confessing that during the early 1980s, while I was stationed for three years in Germany with the USAF, I had no idea that a peace treaty ending WWII had yet to be agreed upon. My understanding of WWII rested on having read Churchill's eight volume history, which peevishly ends when he is turned out of office. Granted, Gregor Dallas has the advantage of a half-century of retrospection, but he is also not encumbered by the live political sensitivities with which Churchill tempered his writing. This book sheds light on the following issue that had always puzzled me: Why the British Empire faded Why the French government tends to be so contrary with the US Why Europeans in general are so cautious in dealing with the US Why the Nuremberg Trials happened Why the Western Allies tolerated so much bad behavior from the USSR Why Warsaw was obliterated Why the USSR so rapidly shifted from ally to opponent Why the USSR and the US confronted each other in the Middle East Why the Korean Conflict happened Why the US ended up fighting on behalf of colonial France in Indo-china The list is much longer. Does Dallas offer the final word on these issues? Of course not. But he raises many points of fact that tend to be minimized by American histories of the conflict. While it is difficult for an American to feel compassion for defeated Germany in the immediate aftermath of the war, we can certainly sense the tragedy of it in reading Dallas' account of the systematic rape of the inhabitants of Berlin by the conquering Soviet army. And not to let the US off the hook too easily, Dallas details the US policy of forcibly repatriating anti-communist Russians in Western Europe to the welcoming arms of Stalin. Certain sections of this book are burdened with a ballast of names that were unfamiliar to me. This was more than compensated by the wealth of candid history. While I can not attest to the validity of all of Dallas' assertions, most of them, including some of the more outrageous, have a ring of truth about them. It portrays the war as a messy business laboring under the pressures of politics, both local and global. Finally, I should point out that the book's title is misleading. Although the author uses the year 1945 as a pivot, he reaches back to WWI and forward well into the end of the twentieth century.