The Fall of Berlin 1945 (Paperback)

For the most part, Beevor concentrates on the Russian front as the Germans face off against the Soviet army. He does have a chapter or two about the other allies, but most of the time that he is talking about them, it is in relation to the Eastern Front and how some of the remaining Germans were trying to retreat to the American and British lines so that they could surrender and hopefully not get killed by the invading Soviet hordes. Beevor also details the Yalta conference and how Stalin completely hoodwinked Churchill and Roosevelt (Roosevelt himself was very ill at this time and certainly wasn't at his best) in regards to his intentions for Poland and for Berlin. Other than this, however, Beevor is completely devoted to action in Poland and in eastern Germany. This isn't surprising, as most of the action in this period of the war was centred here. Not to say there wasn't any fighting in the West, but once the Americans crossed the Rhine river, the Germans seemed more intent on making sure they didn't surrender to the Russians.

Beevor does a good job with the subject. He writes in an interesting manner that doesn't contain the dryness that is prevalent in some history texts. However, he does go deep enough into the subject that it's obviously not intended for light reading. This is a history book, and it certainly feels like one. It's not history-lite for somebody with just a mild interest in the subject. Not being a historian, I can't speak to the accuracy of the research, but he does have a lot of sources, all of which are detailed in the back. He uses archives, interviews, unpublished diaries (including three sources that he insists must remain anonymous, so presumably they are Russian), mostly primary sources. The notes, unfortunately, are in my least favourite format: instead of end or footnotes, the notes are listed by page number and then a brief snippet of a quote to state which section he is referencing. I find this incredibly annoying and hard to follow, so much so that I don't even bother after awhile.

The maps are outstanding as well. Unfortunately, they are all at the front of the book, so you do find yourself flipping back and forth a little bit. It would have been nice to have a couple of full strategic maps at the beginning of the book, but to have the tactical maps begin the section in which they are described. Still, the maps themselves are very well done and definitely worth the time it takes to look at them before reading about the specific operation. They detail every attack, even the attacks on the Western Front. Since the Western Front is not talked about very much, this shows how complete they are.

This is a truly powerful book, especially where Beevor describes the utter devastation that affected Poland and eastern Germany. Berlin was nothing but a pile of rubble with bombs going off everywhere and hardly any buildings without any bomb damage. I think it affected me even more because of the time I was reading it (i.e during the Iraq war). Here I was seeing so little (relatively speaking of course) city and civilian damage, and then I'm reading this book where cities were being bombed into oblivion. It was very disheartening. You certainly should not be reading this book if you're depressed. Beevor details the horrors of war, as German citizens flee from the onrushing Soviets, victorious soldiers rape and pillage to their hearts' content, and there is so much human suffering. Even the Polish and the captured Soviet troops were not spared any of this. It is truly amazing sometimes what the human race is capable of, and Beevor tells us all about it.

That is another small fault with this book, though. While I certainly understand the concentration on the devastation that was inflicted on the Germans, Beevor really seems to centre on the subject of rape. Time and time again he comes back to the subject, and it became a bit annoying after awhile. This is not necessarily because he kept coming back to it, but because every time he did come back to it, he'd go on for a couple of pages about it. It started to get monotonous. I realize that this happened, and that it shouldn't be white-washed, but after the first few times he could surely just briefly cover the fact that more rapes happened at this time. Either that, or he should have just had a chapter detailing the horrors that happened and then not really talked about them again.

Ultimately, though, this is a very worthy book, with just enough minor quibbles to bring it down to four stars. If you like military history, this is definitely the book for you. This period of World War II is not well-documented in book form, at least not that I've seen. Beevor does a great job of covering the subject and I think you'll like it. You certainly won't enjoy it, but you will find it compelling. And isn't that what a history book should be?