The Fall of Berlin 1945
by Antony Beevor
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other reviews (showing 1-20 of 227)
Read in August, 2004
This is an excellent and enlightening look about what happened on the Eastern Front of World War II. This book also destroys some myths about the end of the war. Being an American, I'm often exposed to the Western slant about what happened in the war, so this read 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 of the war, th...more
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Read in May, 2005
What readers from the Uk will learn is that the the Allied armies were timid amatuers compared to the serious players that were the battle hardened, professional armies of Germany and the Soviet Union. A couple of interesting facts that emerge from the book are.
1. The War would have been over in 1943 and Germany defeated 2 years earlier. But for the fighting prowess of the Nazis elite soldiers, the Waffen SS. Who time and time again turned back enemy forces against all odds when Soviet fo...more
1. The War would have been over in 1943 and Germany defeated 2 years earlier. But for the fighting prowess of the Nazis elite soldiers, the Waffen SS. Who time and time again turned back enemy forces against all odds when Soviet fo...more
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This book is quite similar in style to Beevor's other book on Stalingrad, so I won't repeat myself on what I said about it. The two books make a nice pair and relate the two major assaults by the Germans and the Russians against each other in the second World War.
I found this book more enlightening from a historical perspective than I did Stalingrad. In addition to relating the actual facts of the battle for Berlin, Beevor's narrative brings to light the distrust between the Allies and the ...more
I found this book more enlightening from a historical perspective than I did Stalingrad. In addition to relating the actual facts of the battle for Berlin, Beevor's narrative brings to light the distrust between the Allies and the ...more
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Read in November, 2007
Imagine being caught between a horribly oppressive government hell bent on denying it is about to collapse and and a self-righteous army convinced it can do no wrong to it's enemies. This is Berlin in 1945, the scene of one of the most brutal battles of World War 2, and in fact history.
Anton Beever is a great writer, not afraid to show the despair at the end of World War 2, with the Nazis building elaborate scenarios in their heads to tell themselves they were still winning the war, and the So...more
Anton Beever is a great writer, not afraid to show the despair at the end of World War 2, with the Nazis building elaborate scenarios in their heads to tell themselves they were still winning the war, and the So...more
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After "Stalingrad" the sequel: This is another magnificent book on the grand scale of Stalingrad. As usual Beevor combines the latest archive findings with a gripping narrative. The grand strategic picture is combined with intimate human stories.
A new revelation is the Russian quest for German nuclear research facilities in Berlin. The gigantic scale of mass rape by the Red army is well known to German readers but seems to have avoided in accounts of the war in the English speakin...more
A new revelation is the Russian quest for German nuclear research facilities in Berlin. The gigantic scale of mass rape by the Red army is well known to German readers but seems to have avoided in accounts of the war in the English speakin...more
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Read in December, 2003
recommends it for:
war book people
I am a slut for WWII books, and I read this one over some christmas break while back in nashville. Sitting at Fido's most mornings, reading and having coffee. If you like books that are depressing and inform/remind you of how awful people can be to each other in the name of their nations, you will like this book.
Seriously, it's really fascinating, and very thorough, but stuck with me to this day are the passages about how the Russian soldiers, racing the American ones to be first to conqu...more
Seriously, it's really fascinating, and very thorough, but stuck with me to this day are the passages about how the Russian soldiers, racing the American ones to be first to conqu...more
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Read in April, 2002
recommends it for:
Any one wanting to learn more about WW2
This is an interesting and knowledgeable book. About a time in history that is not widely know in America. The book covers the lead up to and the battle of Berlin. Let me warn you that this book is also very depressing. Much of the book discuses hopeless battles fought by some German units who had nothing else to do but die fighting and the civilians trapped between the two armies. The most moving sections of the book cover the horrors inflected on the civilians. Do not read this book if you are...more
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Read in May, 2008
Excellent account of the war on the Easter Front between the armies of Hitler and Stalin. What a meat grinder! The book's style is a linear presentation of facts and quotes that allows the reader to form his own judgements about the events. Military strategy is presented in way that is easy to understand and visualize. You will come away assured that the Nazis got what they so richly deserved, and awed by the enormously destructive scope of WW2.
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Read in January, 2002
A brutal, fascinating history of the end of World War II in Europe. It picks up, more or less, where Beevor's excellent Stalingrad left off. The Nazis were unbelievably cruel toward the peoples of the Soviet Union; the Soviet armies repaid them in full. The human mind is stunned by such savagery. Beevor's dispassionate history makes it intelligible, if not comprehensible.
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Read in May, 2002
In the same writing style of Stalingrad. Depicting the last moments of the Reich's capital under a hailstorm of russian and allied bombardments. Military actions, the civilian misery, the fear of the Russian attrocities, the madness of a leader bounded to destroy the empire and its people for their failure and the irony of a last stand being made by foreign soldiers.
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Read in January, 2006
recommends it for:
World war 2 buffs, history buffs
Not the best book by Beevor, in my opinion. It seemed the few months of the battle over Berlin has been overly stretched and filled with way, way too much small details which ended up repeating themselves in the end. It's informative, but you can get the whole picture quite clearly if you read about halfway through it and then skipped to the last chapter.
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Read in March, 2008
recommends it for:
WW2 Nuts
Outstanding... equally as enjoyable as Max Hastings book on the same subject.
Having recently visited Berlin it is easy to personalise the story and see that the effects of the end of the war are still being lived and experienced today, some 60+ years on.
Thank goodness people take the time to produce books such as these.
Having recently visited Berlin it is easy to personalise the story and see that the effects of the end of the war are still being lived and experienced today, some 60+ years on.
Thank goodness people take the time to produce books such as these.
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One of the few texts I've ever encountered that could balance historical fact with a narrative of sorts. Mr. Beevor's prose is objective and embodies the uncertainty that plagued Germany's people in the final hours towards the Red Army's advance on Berlin.
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Picture everyone you've ever met, and then picture them getting blown apart by artillery shells, and burned to death in collapsed apartment buildings. A very depressing look at a chapter of WWII that we rarely hear spoken of in this country.
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Brilliant stuff, but almost unbearably dark. A long litany of human suffering. The callowness of the German high command towards their own citizens and soldiers is as shocking as the scale of destruction accompanying the Russian advance.
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Read in December, 2007
While this book is a natural bookend to "Stalingrad," Beevor's earlier work, I found it to be somewhat less cohesive and not quite as engaging. Nevertheless, a good book on the last stages of the war in Germany.
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recommends it for:
Kate
It's taking me forever to read, because it's so dense, but its really interesting. I pick it up for a while, then read a novel in between. I will be so proud of myself when I finish it!
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Read in April, 2008
This book is simply fantastic. Captures the horrors of the war, the inhumanity of the two regimes and the suffering of the civilian population in eastern Germany all the way to Berlin.
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Almost as good as his previous book Stalingrad. Another excellent read. Recommended to all interested in history and particularly military history. A fast and free flowing read.
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Read in March, 2004
fantastic history on the fall of Berlin. If you're interested to read this, I suggest reading 'Stalingrad' first in order to put the events of 1945 into better perspective
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