In two words: utterly compelling. Antony Beevor's widely praised account of the ultimate battle for the heart of the Nazi Reich, and the pure horror of it all, is a book worthy of high praise indeed. The scene is ably set in the opening chapters with the setting of the various battle orders, the intricacies of the political machinations in fearsome effect, and the descriptions of lives interrupted on the home fronts; Beevor expertly brings the reader with him into the new year of 1945 as the final battle for Europe's fate is about to play out. As the front moves ever nearer to the Reich's own frontiers the Soviet political officers and the commissars tell their charges that the Germans had -"...sown the wind, and now they are harvesting the whirlwind."The overwhelming sense is one of 'total war'. Nevertheless, his approach is one that manages to keep the facts clear and uncluttered, and the potentially complicated maneuverings of multiple military units are brought across to the reader without confusion. The book also succeeds in that it gives the reader a good impression of the human aspects of the conflict. The research for this book must have been a labour of love of sorts, as the amount of detail imparted from such a wide variety of first-class primary sources is very impressive. From the archives of the former Soviet Union and the two Germanies, as well as those of British, US, French, Swedish and countless other origins, the author manages to convey with complete authenticity the experiences of those involved at every conceivable level of the 20th century's defining event. The use of source material - a combination of diaries, letters to or from the front, memoirs written at a distance of years, interviews during PoW interrogations - is highly effective at getting across the sheer size and impact of the whole conflict in Europe. We hear the voices of individual 'normal' people (peasants, conscripts, the urban poor and the middle classes alike) as frequently as those of the generals, politicians, or the privileged few. Writers and journalists such as Vassily Grossman are often reporting from the front (or sometimes more interestingly from just behind the front). At once you are in the icy trenches or the firing positions with the Soviets' 1st Guards Tank Army, the next you are in the operations room of an opposing German Panzer division, or a retreating SS regiment. The reader has the dubious privilege of being privy to the Machiavellian orchestrations of Stalin and Beria, as they play off the competing rivalries of Generals Zhukov and Koniyev against each other for both egotistical and self-serving strategic reasons; as well of course as the persistent mutual mistrusts of the Red Army's front line units with those of the party's NKVD political detachments. I had not previously been quite so aware either of quite how much contempt Stalin had for his leading generals, and how despicably he wouldn't hesitate to treat them when he considered it politically expedient to. Obviously he shares this odious trait (along with countless others) with his opposite number in Berlin.Similarly, the chaos and mayhem afoot in the various German organisations: of the Reich, the Nazi Party, the SS, and the different branches of the armed forces becomes clear. The disorder and sense of an empire collapsing all around, while Hitler fiddles in his 'Fuhrerbunker' is at once both a fascinating and grimly captivating thing to behold. I found myself wondering quite what Uncle Dolfi (as the Goebbels children called their leader) thought to himself as he sat in his quarters, resting between blood vessel bursting fits of temper at the daily strategic conferences, staring at his favourite portrait of Frederick the Great...Less frequently we are kept reminded that this is indeed a world at war, and the picture will momentarily broaden to include aspects of the various alliances and the varying degrees of cooperation or sometimes non-cooperation. The ever-present paranoia on the part of Stalin towards Roosevelt and particularly Churchill becomes an increasingly noticeable element in the story of the race to Berlin's conquest. Nevertheless, the story of the western allies' advance across the Rhine and into the heart of Germany is referenced when relevant to the narrative. The roots of the looming Cold War face-off between the western allies and the Soviets are clearly visible here. The grisly downfall unfolds in more or less chronological order as the chapters rotate from one aspect of the conflict to the next. The now well documented horrors of the Nazi Holocaust are not a central theme in this book, as it is more a case of the different camps' liberations being acknowledged in the narrative as they occur during the course of the Germans' hasty and destructive withdrawal from the advancing armies. The book is certainly not for the fainthearted though as there are necessarily countless and almost relentless accounts of the many horrors conducted by all sides in this war - in particular the many atrocities towards the civilian populations by the Red Army. (The German forces had of course "sown their wind" as they Blitzkrieged their way across the continent between 1939 and 1942, to say nothing of their monstrous racial atrocities.) Beevor tackles the subject of rape by Soviet soldiers head on. He notes that the victims were not restricted to German women, but that many Soviet or Polish citizens, including former concentration and prison camp inmates (some Jewish survivors among them too), were also brutally attacked. He actually defines four distinct stages of this most awful of crimes: The first when the initial wave of advancing soldiers occupies a civilian area; the second when the vanguard moves on and the following wave of combat units arrives (often the most indiscriminate and horrific of the phases); the third and fourth stages as with the war's end, the horrors of survival for some women in post-Nazi Germany include committing themselves to the 'protection' of one particular Red Army soldier or other. Certainly not easy subject matter at all, and not without academic controversy either, but I think that Beevor covers the subject as sensitively as could be reasonably expected. I listened to the audiobook edition, read superbly by British actor Sean Barrett. His voice is somewhere between Olivier (think BBC's 1970s "The World at War") and Burton's noble authority. Never a distraction, and often enhancing somehow the authenticity of the whole production. I loved the way he says the Russian and German generals' names, especially "Rokossovsky"! Also the subtle accenting he put on occasionally when quoting the slogans of advancing/retreating troops for example. I realised early on that I would need to get out a decent map of Germany to help me picture the movement of the various events as the Germans capitulated, though a quick check online tells me that the print edition has reasonably good maps of the key stages covered.Maybe my 'review' should have ended after the first sentence, I'm not sure. But for anyone with an interest in the history of modern Europe, or in the dehumanisation that accompanies warfare - and the everyman's and everywoman's experience of that process, this book is a must.
As you know from my previous posts, I am a huge World War II fan. Anything having to do with this topic I will pick up and start reading whether it’s about the Holocaust, the military aspect, viewpoints from the citizens, etc. While I do realize not everyone enjoys this, I would recommend this book for anyone who does or who likes reading historical materials. For the general public, however, this might not pique your interest. Having said that, I was intrigued by this book as it covered things I had never really read about before. The Fall of Berlin 1945 is about just that- the last few months of the Third Reich and the experiences of the general German population as the empire is crumbling and the Red Army is taking over. I found this particular part of the book dark and horrifying as Antony Beevor does not sugarcoat the types of atrocities the citizens had to live through; tanks crushing them, mass rape, pillage, and complete destruction, not to mention daily bombings and attacks as well as leaders who wouldn’t let them evacuate as the Russians came closer. Seeing this side of things was very eye opening as well as disturbing. Another huge part of this book is the military tactics and battles. While I am a fan of military books and like learning about the specifics, at times I felt that this book went a little overboard even for a pretty educated reader as myself. The book is obviously well-researched and he wanted to follow every detail that led up to the takeover of Berlin, but at the same time it is so overloaded with literally every intricate battle that I found myself getting lost or confusing some of the many mentioned generals, soldiers, leaders, etc. He mentions many Russian military leaders but doesn't really go into much detail about them so I wasn't able to truly get a sense about their personalities or who they were. It was interesting seeing the path that Hitler and his highly appointed leaders followed towards the end of the war and how they were brainwashed by him until the very end. Hitler would not give up fighting and he never admitted that things were not going well. Instead, he insisted that no German surrender and that if they did they should be killed. His health was deteriorating and he was in no shape to be the leader of the Nazis any longer, but he decided to hold on to his false hope until the bitter end. Overall, this was a very long book (490 pages, whew!) that had a massive amount of information. It is not a quick read and is something that will definitely take you some time to process. But, if you are interested at all in learning more about World War II from a different perspective than the American solder, you will find this book to be extremely informative and eye opening. A knowledgeable and haunting read.
Do You like book The Fall Of Berlin 1945 (2003)?
Some would think reading Ian Kershaw's The End: The Defiance and Destruction of Hitler's Germany, 1944-1945 and reading Beevor's book about the fall of Berlin at the same time would be redundant. But actually I'm enjoying the different tracts on similar events. Kershaw's book deals much more with the mentality of the Nazi leaders and their hold on the people, their ability to urge them to continue the fight to the bitter end. Beevor's book is much more of a detailed narrative of specific events leading to that end. I'm on 121 with Beevor and 139 with Kershaw.
—Randall Smith
Liikaa (minun makuuni!) tarkkoja lukumääriä siitä montako ja mitä tykkiä ampui minäkin päivänä millaisia kranaatteja minnekin. Ehkä jotain jaksaa kiinnostaa sellainenkin mikrohistoria. Minusta ko. jaksot olivat turhaa teknorunkkausta, jotka katkaisivat tarinalta jännitteen. Silti Berliini ja Stalingrad ovat Beevorin parhaat teokset.
—Matti Karjalainen
Soviet soldiers hoist the red flag over the Reichstag in May 1945http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/world...http://www.theguardian.com/commentisf...The grramazon description is a naff affair, I shall find proper information on a better site:Berlin: The Downfall 1945 (aka The Fall of Berlin 1945 in the US) is a narrative history by Antony Beevor of the Battle of Berlin during World War II. It was published by Viking Press in 2002, then later by Penguin Books in 2003. The book achieved both critical and commercial success. It has been a number-one best seller in seven countries apart from Britain, and in the top five in another nine countries. Together with Beevor's Stalingrad, first published in 1998, they have sold nearly three million copies.The book revisits the events of the Battle of Berlin in 1945. The book narrates how the Red Army defeated the German Army and brought an end to Hitler's Third Reich, as well as an end to the war in Europe. The book was accompanied by a BBC Timewatch programme on his research into the subject. Wiki sourced"I cannot forecast to you the action of Russia. It is a riddle, wrapped in a mystery, inside an enigma; but perhaps there is a key. That key is Russian national interest." Churchill
—Bettie☯
