Derek Nudd's Blog - Posts Tagged "germany"

Armageddon: The Battle for Germany 1944-45 by Max Hastings

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


On a positive note, Hastings in this enormous volume covers the last phase of the European conflict from the British, American, Russian and German angles and from perspectives ranging from grand strategy to foot soldier or civilian caught up in the maelstrom. It is written with his usual energy and clarity. So why only three stars?
He claims to have learned and grown since writing Overlord: D-Day and the Battle for Normandy. It is not always obvious how - the Hastings haste to get on his soapbox and say how much better things would have worked if so-and-so had done this instead of that is still evident. As is his underlying admiration for the fighting skills of the autocracies' soldiers. This may at times obscure 'home advantage', the edge given to desperate men and women fighting on familiar terrain.
Where he digresses from his main theme some factual lapses creep in. One is his account of the sinking of Tirpitz, another - surprising for a former editor - is when he discusses the US forces' newspaper Stars and Stripes without mentioning Hugh Cudlipp's British equivalent, Union Jack.
So, well written and comprehensive but, despite the length, I can't feel I'm getting the whole story.



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