Armageddon: The Battle for Germany, 1944-45. Max Hastings

First of all let me state that "Armageddon" is a great history book, very readable, well structured and addressing many different key aspects of the period. Max Hastings is a highly opinionated and to some extent controversial author. Nevertheless he support his points of view with facts collected from diverse sources, some already known and many just recently at disposition of historians and in that sense is a treasure for the readers. Historians from Thucydides onwards have written history as they were able to perceive it. That is to say they "see" the facts influenced by their nationality, social status, political & religious beliefs. Even when they want to be "neutral & detached" these special filters are unavoidable. So it is with Mr. Hastings and this in no way invalidates his statements. Nevertheless the reader should take them and where possible confront them with other authors view-point and make his own mind about "why, who and how" events took place. As a quick reference interested people may consult Toland's "The Last 100 Days" or Beevor's "The Fall of Berlin" to have other perspectives. The book starts in September 1944 when the elated Western Allies were hoping to end war in Europe by Christmas. Alas! Operation Market-Garden and the fateful Battle of the Bulge will dilute their hopes. At the same time the victorious Russian armies after their first great breakthrough take a respite before launching the final assault over Germany. Germans take advantage of all this and prepares to follow their Leader's mad Gotterdammerung to its last consequences. All this issues are minutely described by the author presenting valuable testimonies from front line soldiers, NCOs and low level officers from all participating armies. There are full chapters dedicated to POWs and concentration camps; bombing over Germany and how civil life was like inside floundering Germany. A great stuff to read for historians, students or casual readers. Enjoy!!!. Reviewed by Max Yofre.

Hastings has wriiten a book that is harshly critical of the allies during the Second World War. According to Hastings the Western allies missed numerous opportunities to conquer Germany such as after the capture of Aachen and the Battle of the Bulge. Moreover the Western allies were too reliant on firepower and not able to improvise in combat. Hastings also chatises Soviet miltitary abiltity as well, by criticizing the decision to halt the advance into Berlin by pausing to reinforce the northern flank, and Zhukov's frontal attack on that city. Hastings writes that the allies committed numerous atrocities such as bombing and strafing civilians while the Russians crucified and raped women.Plus Hastings questions the morality of the Western allies by provoking the doomed Warsaw rebellion without having the means to support it. The main fault of Hastings's work is that he leaves out the siege of Budapest and ignores the works by David French, Peter Mansoor, and Michael Doubler that contradict his thesis about the military abilties of the Western allies. Despite these criticisms, I would reccomend this book for those who want a new perspective on the Second World War.

Things were going so swimmingly for the Allies in September 1944. After bitter fighting in Normandy following D-Day, American and British forces had chased the retreating Germans across France and were preparing to deliver the final blow to defeat the Nazis on their home turf. The killing had raged for five years, but now there was hope. Yet the war dragged on for eight more months, spurring millions of additional deaths and the leveling of dozens of cities. Why? Why did all the concentration-camp sufferers, slave laborers, prisoners of war, starving children - not to mention soldiers - have to wait, and die, until May 1945? That question inspired historian Max Hastings to write "Armageddon: The Battle for Germany, 1944-1945." Hastings explains that while the Allies had more planes, more tanks and infinitely more fuel and supplies, the Germans had more men, were more adept at military tactics and fought more tenaciously to defend their homeland. Hastings blames plodding, overcautious Allied generals, poor strategic planning and an unwillingness of some soldiers to fight with fury, preferring to let machines and massive bombing do the dirty work. Germany, meanwhile, considered the Allies a secondary concern. Most of the fighting, and dying, was against the Red Army in the east, where the Soviets bore the brunt of casualties. Hastings, a British foreign correspondent, former newspaper editor and author of "Overlord" among other military histories, does an excellent job of weaving together the war's multiple layers: from the high command and midlevel officers to infantry grunts and confused civilians. Readers get glimpses of the famous and infamous leaders - Churchill, Roosevelt, Eisenhower, Hitler, Stalin - but the more telling stories are often the personal ones. It's one thing to hear a town was destroyed, another to hear it from a woman who lived there and saw her friends repeatedly raped by Red Army soldiers. Rich descriptions of displaced families mix with fascinating details: Hitler, desperately afraid of poison, drank from a thermos marked with a big "F" when dining with the Goebbels; a Soviet soldier's diet consisted of bread, cabbage soup, canned meat, milk powder and 100 grams ("the official daily issue") of vodka; in the final months, "thick dust, generated by countless millions of explosive concussions from end to end of Germany, lay upon everything - windows, furniture, vehicles, houses, corpses, living people." Hastings dismisses many of the generals in the conflict as pompous windbags or incompetent. Two are worthy of high praise: Gen. George S. Patton of the United States, for his cunning and sense of urgency; and Gen. Georgi Zhukov of the Soviet Union, whom Hastings calls simply "the most effective military commander of the second world war." That Zhukov lived to conquer Berlin is amazing, considering that Stalin was his boss. Stalin had learned to defer to his military leaders, writes Hastings. "Stalin's resentme

In Armageddon Mark Hastings has provided an in depth and wide ranging history of the last months of World War II in Europe. This massive tome provides an organized and intimate window into the appalling toll of war, a toll exacerbated by errors overconfidence contributed particularly among the Western allies on the one hand and the incalculable atrocities the vengeance of the Russians contributed on the other. Hastings effectively shows how overconfidence born from the success of the western invasion on D-day led the western allies into a series of questionable decisions of both tactical and psychological nature. The failure to secure the deep water port at Antwerp and the miscalculation as to the willingness and capabilities of the retreating Germans to continue to battle led to unnecessary disaster at Arnheim and the Ardennes. Hastings also provides what may be the first authoritative overview of the raping and pillaging of Prussia by Russian troops, a saga of atrocities unparallel in 20th century history and possibly the most savage actions in Europe sine the days of the Mongol invasions. Although great in scope the book has curious omissions. There is virtually nothing here relating to the war in southern Europe. Although some major characters get the full historical overview, others are given relatively short shrift. And there is a definite element of personal commentary as to certain players (Monty in particular) that are less than objective in my view. However, on the whole this is an awesome historical review of a major historical event with lessons for today. The perils of the end game in Europe may well have implications as to the possible end game in Iraq. If so, the lessons are not heartening. So, in the end, this book has value not only as a historical reference but as a warning about the perils that sill face those who wage war today.