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Summary: Amazing insight, fascinating stories, and it's all true!
Review: I can't put this book down for long. It reads like a novel, but this really happened. His interviews and stories of civilians, soldiers, commanders and leaders, brings out a deep and sensitive understanding of the tragedy, triumph, and precarious moments leading to the capture of Berlin. I watch as many documentaries on WWII as I can, and I learned so much more in this book. His description of the beginning of the Russian offensive on the Oder and Neisse Rivers transported me there. He paints a beautiful calm before the storm. WOW, what a moment that must have been. The insight to what the Germans were doing and thinking as the Russians approached was laughable. They panicked! Hehe, oh that feels good. Buy this book and see for yourself, it's amazing.
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Summary: A Masterful Account of the Last Days of the Third Reich
Review: I could not put this one down. Ryan's book combines the documentarian's eye with the instincts of a first-rate suspense writer. The Last Battle is filled with fascinating information about military and political strategy that does not appear in Shirer's Rise and Fall. If you are a WWII scholar, read this.
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Summary: Fascinating
Review: I enjoy Ryan's style of using personal stories to document the event of the fall of Berlin in 1945. I found this or to be excellent. I had no idea of the complexities involved in the planning of the capture of the city and just how terrified the citizens were of capture by the Soviets and close the Americans came to taking the city on their own. A fascinating book.
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Summary: A Real Page Turner!
Review: I got interested in this book by reading Ambrose's D-Day and his Band of Brothers. Both books made me realize that I knew next to nothing about how the war in Europe actually came to a close. The so-called Battle of Berlin was unknown to me.Ryan has done an unbelievable job of gathering information for the book: interviews with Soviet military leadership, common Berliners, Wermacht commanders, Allied leaders. He weaves it all together with such a sense of irony in the various aspects that the book makes a wonderful and informative read. Get the book!
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Summary: Very well written
Review: I orginally bought all three of Ryan's books at the same time since his book "The Longest Day" was the basis of the movie "The Longest Day", and the reviews of all three books were very good. I decided to read "The Last Battle" first, since my strong interest in WWII is dealing with the Americans, British, & Germans; the Russians have held little interest to me. With that in mind, I figured this book would be the least interesting to me of the three books.
Boy, was I in for a surprise! "The Last Battle" was a very interesting and very well written book about the battle for Berlin. The book takes turns telling the story from all sides; the Americans, the British, the Germans, & the Russians. The book is so very well written that it just keeps flowing, very smoothly. The book is hard to put down. Inaddition to telling the story of the military side, you also get the horrible stories of what it was like to live in Berlin as a civilian, during its final battle.
If you read some other reviews for this book, they all say the same thing: this is a great book, very well written. You wiil not be disappointed!!
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Summary: L83rdinf@aol.com has changed addresses, see below
Review: I wrote a review in regards to this great book that deserves more than the 5 stars alloted. I have changed my address to L83rdinf@zbzoom.net and will gladly communicate with anyone that desires to. " The Last Battle " the true final weeks of WW II and Cornelius Ryan wrote another great book. Sincerely, Louis Gomori
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Summary: Superlative account of Berlin's fall
Review: I'm more of a fan of historical war novels like The Triumph and the Glory, and rarely read non-fiction, but The Last Battle by Cornelius Ryan, which a fellow student recommended to me, is beyond compare. Too may in the West have never acknowledged the horrific struggle the Red Army endured to conquer Berlin. A fascinating book!
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Summary: Very well written
Review: In The Last Battle, Cornelius Ryan presents the battle of Berlin in shocking, realistic detail. Rather than the usual broad stroked, glossed over version of history that we usually get in movies and textbooks. Rather Ryan shows the events unfold through the stories of individuals that were there. From civilians to foot soldier, politicians to high ranking command officers. All sides are presented to the reader. This the real nitty gritty of the events, not just history told from one point of view or perspective. A must have for any serious World War II reader and a highly recommended read for anyone else!
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Summary: The way history should be presented.
Review: In The Last Battle, Cornelius Ryan presents the battle of Berlin in shocking, realistic detail. Rather than the usual broad stroked, glossed over version of history that we usually get in movies and textbooks. Rather Ryan shows the events unfold through the stories of individuals that were there. From civilians to foot soldier, politicians to high ranking command officers. All sides are presented to the reader. This the real nitty gritty of the events, not just history told from one point of view or perspective. A must have for any serious World War II reader and a highly recommended read for anyone else!
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Summary: Death throe of the Third Reich.
Review: Mr. Ryan was the Stephen Ambrose of his time. The books THE LONGEST DAY and A BRIDGE TOO FAR stand as World War Two classics, these books were even made into 2 pretty fine movies. THE LAST BATTLE which was re-released in May 1995 to comemorate the end of the European conflict in WW2 is another of Mr. Ryan's books, it is an outstanding and hair-raising account of the final orgasm of violence involved in the death of Nazi Germany. The author presents all sides to this conflict American, British, Russian and German as the allied armies rush in from all sides to dismember the Reich. The author was able to interview personalities involved from top Soviet generals down to a simple milkman who made his daily runs through the Berlin suburbs which were to become a hellish landscape of slaughter, rape and mass destruction. The Soviets were cooperative in letting Mr. Ryan interview key personalities and view important documents, but I agree with Mr. Ryan that they likely held back several important aspects of their part in the battle such as the existence of The Rape Memo which was an instruction read to Soviet troops encouraging them to put the German in his place and claim the victors spoils by raping German women. There is almost an entire chapter filled with rape stories, horrifying stuff. The meat of the story involves the clash of Soviet and German arms. With the destruction of Army Group Center in the spring of 1945 most German commanders knew that the best thing they could do was to hold off the Soviet onslaught long enough to allow German civilians and then slodiers enough time to escape west, towards the Americans and British, some German commanders even hoped that by buying time in the east the Anglo-Allies would reach Berlin first. What they did not know was that the Anglos were not coming to the rescue, ordered to stop in an amazing chain of events that 50 years hindsight clearly shows as a mistake. In any case Hitler decided that Berlin should be a "Fortress" which was his favored term for a no surrender, no withdrawl fight to the death. Berlin had little protection, the city was never really fortified. The troops protecting it were tired, ill-equiped veterans, old men of the Volksturm or Hitler Youth, the were some well equiped and fanatic Waffen SS formations (several were foreign volunteer groups) in the area but as the command and control structure was destroyed they could do little but local holding actions. The combat descriptions are outstanding, the descriptions of the Soviet build-up for the assualt are particularly chilling, rockets, mortars, tanks even heavy artillery being used as a sniper weapon. There are descriptions of roving SS execution squads, Allied bombing raids, suicides to avoid capture and/or rape. I found the descriptions of the gigantic Flak Towers facinating, these 13 story forts complete with generators, water supply and even hospital were able to house about 10,000 soldiers and civilians. There are before and after photos which I have never seen before. One can almost imagine Hitler pounding his fist on the table "Where is Steiner? Where is Wenke?" I highly recommend the film THE BUNKER to anyone reading this outstanding book, they must have used it to produce the screen play.
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