Armageddon: The Battle for Germany 1944-45
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Product Description
Douglas Porch in TLS
'Armageddon' offers an impressively researched, beautifully crafted narrative of the Second World War's European finale.
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Product Description
Armageddon tells the story of the climatic months of the Second World War, the destruction of Hitler's Germany
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
69 of 74 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
I had previously read 'Overlord' by Max Hastings and found that he told that story (the battle of Normandy) very well. I read this book in hardback and found that it is similarly well told. As well as the pure facts of the allied & Russian advances and German counter-attacks, Max Hastings adds colour and interest from the personal accounts of many people he has interviewed (I contrast this with Berlin The Downfall - Beevor - which I found too dry in this respect). It also deals well with the problems faced by the allied leaders between themselves.
The book covers the western and eastern fronts and the concentration camps. It does not cover the war through Italy.
One thing I think could be much improved is the maps - there are a few, but not enough (e.g. one per chapter), they are very basic and don't tie in well with the text. There could be many more, illustrating the text, and use colour.
36 of 39 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
...is a very appropriate title for a book about the battle for Germany if ever there was one. Especially at the Eastern Front. Hastings achieves a good balance between the wider picture - embracing the politics and military strategy of the campaign as a whole - with the experience of individuals who were in the thick of the action, whether they are soldiers, civilians, POWs or Hitler's concentration camp victims. This really is a very good book and I recommend it highly. I think this book is complemented particularly well by Norman Davies's "Rising '44: the Battle for Warsaw" and Anthony Beevor's "Berlin: The Downfall", both of which, incidentally, Hastings praises in his acknowledgements at the end of the book.
54 of 59 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
An impressive panoramic narrative of the battle for Germany, "Armageddon" combines a wide range of sources (including many veterans) with Hastings's sharp, often iconoclastic judgement. His criticism of the military folly of Operation Market Garden, the Ardennes offensive, and Zhukov's Oder crossing is hard-hitting, but frequently deserved. Hastings is no apologist for military failings, although he frequently gets moralistic: discussions of the justice of the allied cause or the tyranny of Stalin, which is perceived in downright Manichean terms, should not be part of a work of history. This is not to deny the reality of good and evil, or to say that tales of atrocity should not be included: of course they should, especially in a book that intends to provide a comprehensive narrative. It's just that anti-communist and anti-Nazi polemic should not be part of a work of history; it should be left to philosophers and politicians.
Apart from that criticism, Hastings provides a compellingly readable and frequently heart-wrenching account of the final months of the war, paying almost equal attention to the topics usually ignored in the west, such as the sheer magnitude and ferocity of the war on the eastern front. In "Armageddon", the catastrophic climax of the Second World War comes to life, and although we probably can't imagine accurately that awful time, Hastings comes pretty close.
Two minor criticisms. The first is that Hastings argues that the allied carpet bombing of German civilian homes is justified on the grounds that the workers who got bombed were supporting the German war effort through their labour. This is of course correct, but it's a very slippery slope. Taken to an extreme, this argument completely removes the distinction between civilian and military targets: after all, enemy women are also working and supporting their working husbands, thus contributing to the war effort, and children will grow to become enemy soldiers.
Secondly, the maps Hastings includes (e.g. pp.4-5) are extremely strange, inasmuch as they show Europe in the borders of 1937 (except for Luxemburg, which Hastings for some reason considers a part of Germany). As a consequence, Hastings's maps feature a number of countries which did not in fact exist in 1944-5, such as Austria, Czechoslovakia, or Estonia, and simply do not show several countries which did exist, such as Slovakia and Croatia. Of course, the borders of 1937 are broadly those accepted by the Western allies, but they have nothing to do with the political realities of 1944-5; Austria, for instance, was not an independent country, as "Armageddon" suggests, but an integral part of Germany. The problem is sometimes compounded in the text. What is the reader to imagine when told that a certain regiment was moved "to the Czech border"? What Czech border? The pre-1938 Czech border did not exist in 1944-5 either politically or ethnographically. Thus Hastings causes considerable confusion, as there is no clear sense where exactly the "frontiers of Germany" are, or anything else for that matter.
Apart from that criticism, Hastings provides a compellingly readable and frequently heart-wrenching account of the final months of the war, paying almost equal attention to the topics usually ignored in the west, such as the sheer magnitude and ferocity of the war on the eastern front. In "Armageddon", the catastrophic climax of the Second World War comes to life, and although we probably can't imagine accurately that awful time, Hastings comes pretty close.
Two minor criticisms. The first is that Hastings argues that the allied carpet bombing of German civilian homes is justified on the grounds that the workers who got bombed were supporting the German war effort through their labour. This is of course correct, but it's a very slippery slope. Taken to an extreme, this argument completely removes the distinction between civilian and military targets: after all, enemy women are also working and supporting their working husbands, thus contributing to the war effort, and children will grow to become enemy soldiers.
Secondly, the maps Hastings includes (e.g. pp.4-5) are extremely strange, inasmuch as they show Europe in the borders of 1937 (except for Luxemburg, which Hastings for some reason considers a part of Germany). As a consequence, Hastings's maps feature a number of countries which did not in fact exist in 1944-5, such as Austria, Czechoslovakia, or Estonia, and simply do not show several countries which did exist, such as Slovakia and Croatia. Of course, the borders of 1937 are broadly those accepted by the Western allies, but they have nothing to do with the political realities of 1944-5; Austria, for instance, was not an independent country, as "Armageddon" suggests, but an integral part of Germany. The problem is sometimes compounded in the text. What is the reader to imagine when told that a certain regiment was moved "to the Czech border"? What Czech border? The pre-1938 Czech border did not exist in 1944-5 either politically or ethnographically. Thus Hastings causes considerable confusion, as there is no clear sense where exactly the "frontiers of Germany" are, or anything else for that matter.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Fantastic book!
I came across this book in a second hand bookshop, started reading it and within 2 days I realized is one of the best world war II books I ever read. Read more
Published 8 days ago by ConorPablo
An Epic Work
This is a superb book . As an account of the last eight months of the Second World War in Europe it is a towering work . Read more
Published 28 days ago by Terry J
nagging doubts............
This is a great book on many levels and filled with interesting information on many neglected parts of the 1944-45 story. I heartily recommend it to anyone. Read more
Published 1 month ago by D. Darkin
Looking back and learning.
I was first alerted to this book by watching a TV documentary by Sir Max Hastings on the german "Operation Hannibal" in 1944, when Soviet Forces were closing in on what was then... Read more
Published 4 months ago by G. Smith
Disappointing
Well written, as you would expect, however too much of the lengthy text is devoted to the author's opinion of the fighting qualities of the respective armies involved. Read more
Published 7 months ago by Mr. M. Pearson
Gripping
On the whole I enjoyed ths book. Hastings tells the story of the collapse of the Third Reich, from the successful D-Day landings to the fall of Berlin. Read more
Published 12 months ago by Matthew Turner
Armageddon
This book does not deal with things in a strictly chronological order. Hasting devotes chapters to themes (e.g. Prisoners of the Reich) or particular battles (e.g. Bulge). Read more
Published 13 months ago by Mr. R. Willis
Armageddon
hate to sound like an advert (am indepedendent!) very good value at the price, even for paperback... Read more
Published 15 months ago by a flynn
Better than Beevor
This is a fast-paced and entertaining book. Less weighed down by minor detail that Beevor. Much of what is claimed to be new in Beevor is already here - especially the German... Read more
Published 20 months ago by R. Slee
A superb read
I am a huge fan of Mr Hastings' writing. This book does not disappoint. For me it finds a nice balance between setting out the facts without becoming a school textbook and... Read more
Published 20 months ago by J. Copping
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