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Summary: After Stalingrad, All Roads Lead to Berlin
Review: There is little doubt that one of pivotal events of the Second World War was the capture of the German Sixth Army in Stalingrad. It was here that Hitler's maniacal plans truly collapsed. His army was routed and the Soviet Union began the process of driving his forces all the way back to Berlin. Beevor captures much of the depravity of war. How ordinary soldiers became beasts and how civilian populations were trampled by all those under arms. Beevor describes all with great clarity. However, from a literary point of view, it is inevitable that Beevor's "Stalingrad" will be compared with his "Berlin". In this regard, "Stalingrad" triumphs as it deals with the great battle in detail without losing the reader in its arcane intricacies. "Berlin", by contrast, seems overloaded with the miseries inflicted upon the civilian population without satisfactorily explaining the military movements that created the civilian miseries in the first place. Although I am firmly of the view that "Stalingrad" is the better read, this should not put off readers from delving into "Berlin". To understand the eastern front in World War II helps in understanding subsequent political changes in Europe. So, just as the battle for Stalingrad begat the fall of Berlin, so the fall of Berlin begat the emergence of Churchill's iron curtain and the creation of the Soviet bloc.
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Summary: I liked it better when Ryan wrote it
Review: This book adds nothing to what Cornelius Ryan wrote in 1966. In fact, Ryan's book is vastly superior since Beevor had no first-hand access to participants. This hurts the book's immediacy; Beevor himself is so far removed from events that everything is reported in a rather detatched fasion. Ideed, his personal accounts are second-hand at best, typically with sparse documentation to assure us of authenticity. This concerns me greatly, as one of the main points of Beevor's book seems to be to document the suffering of German civilians at the hands of the Red Army. Therefore, as a social history, the book is sorely lacking in both immediacy and believability. On the military aspects, Beevor is also lacking. It is clear he does not understand issues of command, operations, or tactics. Consequently, as a military history, the book fails. I do not recommend this book; instead read Ryan's "The Last Battle" for the more social aspects, and Le Tissier's "Race for the Reichstag" for the actual battle.
Rating:
Summary: I liked it better when Ryan wrote it
Review: This book adds nothing to what Cornelius Ryan wrote in 1966. In fact, Ryan's book is vastly superior since Beevor had no first-hand access to participants. This hurts the book's immediacy; Beevor himself is so far removed from events that everything is reported in a rather detatched fasion. Ideed, his personal accounts are second-hand at best, typically with sparse documentation to assure us of authenticity. This concerns me greatly, as one of the main points of Beevor's book seems to be to document the suffering of German civilians at the hands of the Red Army. Therefore, as a social history, the book is sorely lacking in both immediacy and believability. On the military aspects, Beevor is also lacking. It is clear he does not understand issues of command, operations, or tactics. Consequently, as a military history, the book fails. I do not recommend this book; instead read Ryan's "The Last Battle" for the more social aspects, and Le Tissier's "Race for the Reichstag" for the actual battle.
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Summary: Great detail about Berlin's fall, & it destroys some myths
Review: This is an excellent and enlightening look about what happened on the Eastern Front of World War II. Being an American, I'm often exposed to the Western slant about what happened in the war, so this was quite refreshing. I have a natural inclination to question whatever I read - I don't just automatically believe anything. But, from what I have read, and I've done a fair amount of reading on the European theater, this book seems to confirm and expand on what is well documented - the German butchers' behavior was atrocious and indefensible when they invaded in the east (and wherever they conquered peoples and nations), and the Red Army doled out severe retribution when they conquered German territory. Two wrongs don't make a right, but war is ugly, brutal and deadly, and one can at least understand WITHOUT CONDONING the Red Army's actions. Most Red Army soldiers had lost comrades and were eager to settle the score.
Beevor's writing gets bogged down at times, but in the middle of the book, when one can almost see the Red Army's brutal advance, the pace, quality and descriptions of the fighting gain fine form. The reader can almost sense the death, smell, brutality and desperation that defined Berlin in the spring of 1945. Beevor doesn't describe Berlin, he transports the reader there.
This is a fine addition to any World War II library, and a great tome that describes the bitter closing days of the war in Europe.
Rating:
Summary: Brilliant account of the tragedy of our time
Review: We're still puzzled by the pathetic line in all the "B" movies, 'how did all this happen?' Two psychopathic "Kings" slugging it out on the bloody chessboard that was Western Europe
with hundreds of thousand pawns, eventually totalling millions, sacrificed to the horrific carnage.
Beevor again does a stupendous job in researching the end of a German dream that became a nightmare for everyone else. It is perhaps ironic that it came to the end that it did. It is difficult, maybe impossible, when one realizes the true extent of the killings, murders, tortures and combat related deaths from 1935 to 1945 surpassing anything in history, not to be overwhelmed with the deepest sadness.
Beevor occasionally is criticized for his journalistic approach to history. I think it's brilliant. You be your own judge. Larry Scantlebury. 5 stars.
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