Customer Reviews

Berlin: The Downfall 1945

5 star:		(62)
4 star:		(26)
3 star:		(13)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

I had read Stalingrad and was not sure that Berlin could be as gripping a story - the result of the fighting was a forgone conclusion. But its not the description of the progress of the war that really makes this book. Its the individual stories that make this book a 'must read'
What I also did not realise was the reason why the last months of the war ended as they did - ferocious defense by the Germans in the East and rolling over in the West - and the ulterior motives behind the Allies behaviour. If you read Stalingrad in conjunction with Berlin you begin to see that the Russians felt almost justified in their actions. But its the last few pages that are the classic twist in the tail - I won't spoil it but the German Army attitude to the events of the war is stunning. If you think history is a dry affair then read this and get a fresh perspective.

Antony Beevor showed in his excellent Stalingrad how to clearly and accurately portray the chaos and confusion of a vast and sprawling military engagement without losing sight of the individual experience and harrowing minutiae of enormous human tragedy. In this book, he again succeeds in portraying the staggering scale of the battle for Berlin, but also brings out the astonishing and shocking level of suffering that accompanied it.

Beevor successfully measures the human suffering against the "meat-grinder" mentality of the ideological clash of Stalinism and Nazism. He contrasts the pride and vanity of Hitler and the paranoid totalitarianism of Stalin, the meeting of which was guaranteed to result in terrible casualties as combatants, deluded and indoctrinated by continuous and insidious propaganda, fought desperately for every inch of ground.

Tales of gang rape and wanton destruction by the invading forces, particularly in East Prussia, hit heavy notes in the reading, whilst the knowledge of how deeply the Red Army operated under the prying and intolerant eyes of its Soviet masters is also clearly and compassionately portrayed; the dispassionate NKVD reports of summary execution and Gulag imprisonment of liberated Red Army prisoners for simply having surrendered fills one with anger, particularly as the Red Army had suffered over 9 million casualties by this time.

In his Stalingrad book, Beevor shifted his sympathies initially from the Russians gradually toward the Germans as the tide of battle shifted; in Berlin: The Downfall, Beevor's sympathies throughout remain in favour of the German civilians, and the German Army commanders who acted against the Nazi leadership. I found this slightly distasteful in view of the preceding four years; indeed, Beevor quotes an injured German veteran speaking out on a crowded Berlin train that if the Russians repay Germany a quarter what was done to them, then Germany would cease to exist. But this appears to be in keeping with the underlying political subtext of the book, which seems to be a demonstration of the consequences of political indoctrination of totalitarian regimes, at the expense of stifling humanity.

Beevor succeeds in delivering a hard-hitting, compassionate story of needless suffering, bravery and sacrifice woven beside unspeakable cruelty, revenge and butchery. It is by turns a clear and well-researched historical account of military operations, and a barely-disguised polemic on the evils of political extremism and the dire consequences of totalitarian expansionism.

A multilayered historical account with a heavyweight political subtext. This is a fine book which should be read by all.

Berlin by Antony Beevor is a wonderful book in the style of his work on Stalingrad. It mixes the personal with the bigger picture and provides a thrilling and very readable book on the final destruction of the Nazi regime.

This is a superb book and it was so readable and interesting that I finished it within three days of Amazon delivering it to my door. The battle for Berlin is often overlooked since it took place when there war was all but won and no western nations were involved. However like D-Day or Stalingrad it was an event of huge significance and much suffering. In his book Beevor manages to get the balance between military, political and human stories just right so interest is maintained throughout. Excellent!

As soon as you start to read Berlin it becomes clear that Beevor has researched the subject material in immaculate depth. This book doesn't read like a normal book on the war in so far as it feels more like you are reading a fictional work. This feeling is mainly created by Beevor's use of tales from individual perspectives rather than reeling off a list of facts and statistics as so many other books do.

A superb read, even for those with no interest in the period under scrutiny, Some parts will truely shock you.

The author has written two books simultaneously. One is a dry military history, packed with details about units, bridge crossings, hardware etc. The other is an account of a massive, humanitarian catastrophe, brought vividly to life by the authoritative use of eyewitness accounts.

The first suffers from a lack of detailed maps and diagrams, which renders half the text virtually impenetrable, as endless accounts of tank units and bridgeheads trundle past without a context. The second is by far the most successful, carrying the whole. It offers insights into the psychology and culture of 20th century europe which are essential, yet previously overlooked, probably because of the 'difficult' nature of the story.

I would have liked to have been able to follow the military story of units fighting across europe on a usable map, and to have been able to decypher the individual accounts of tactics by reference to diagrams and graphics. The author could really have made a decision as to his audience, and published two, separate, companion volumes, each of which would have been much better.

As a total effort Beevor's book sheds light to hitherto somewhat obscure part of the WWII, as generally 1945 is regarded as a swift downfall of Germany. It is not often remembered what kind of resistance Germany still came up with despite being on the run in every direction. However, the broad picture contains some slightly irritating bits. I had trouble following the various routes of the Red Army referred to by only their commanders, i.e. Konov, Zhukov, Zhuikov, and some remarks to their earlier fame in Stalingrad (Mr Beevor's earlier book is next on my to read list.) Worse, I had to check the maps when it was mentioned that some troops were approaching berlin from the West, and my suspicions got even worse when it was stated that someone went to Soviet embassy to declare war on june 22. 1942. However, these were just irritating pebbles on a well-built road.
One point worth noting is the hurry of the Red Army to capture the German uranium stockpile from the southwest part of Berlin and the effect this had on the agreements with the americans. Maybe the US was duped worse than they still have realised? For this information alone Mr Beevor deserves all his fame. This book may not be exact history nor a novel, but it certainly is a well-packed treasury of information to us amateurs on WWII

I read this captivating yet deeply tradgic account of the catastrophic end to the German third reich, but was even more taken by the audio version. If you can afford the unabridged version, or can borrow it from your library you will be totally absorbed by the wonderful reading of Sean Barrett. After so many hours of listening he became the commanding voice of the text and was a perfect choice and is deserving of an award for its epic power of narration.

This is by no means "another war book". It brings the harsh realities of totalitarianism to the fore. This is the story of the last battle of the European theatre of World War 2, a battle to the end.

It is the story not so much of the downfall of Berlin in 1945, but the crushing of the city and the brutalisation of the population.

Finishing this book you are left with a disgust of war, a disgust of mans inhumanity to man, and a digust of men's inhumanity to women.

A shocking and enthralling read, brilliantly written by a brilliant author. It is unputdownable and eclipses his earlier "Stalingrad" work.

A masterpiece.

I could not put this book down. Reading late into the night when my mind began to slur the names of Russian generals, I could not stop. The disaster of a shattered Wehrmacht, the overwhelming Russian forces and a Fuehrer so mad that he refused to countenance surrender in any form, combined with the terrible retribution of the Red Army on any civilians (including Russian women freed from the camps) is a compelling read. Four days (and three nights) after starting the book, I finished it. This is better than 'Stalingrad.' Anyone interested in the shaping of post-war Europe must read it.