From Publishers Weekly
Starred Review. This huge and splendid volume tells the grim tale of the final collapse of the Third Reich. It does so from the viewpoints of the upper millstone (the Western Allies), the lower millstone (the Russians) and the grain being ground in between (the Germans). The research includes previously untapped Russian archives (particularly in the accounts of Soviet veterans) and leads to a gripping and horrifying story that serious students of military history will find almost impossible to put down. The blunders recounted are numerous, from the Allied failure to open Antwerp in the fall of 1944 to the Russian frontal assault on Berlin, and the Wehrmacht is depicted as the best army of the war and also the most atrocious in its treatment of civilians. Indeed, the treatment of civilians is a major theme, since they were slaughtered on a scale unheard of since the Thirty Years' War, and not only the Nazi camp inmates but also the inhabitants of Poland and East Prussia were numbered among the victims. The author hands out praise and blame with his usual edged aplomb (Anglophile readers may be happy to see a partial rehabilitation of Montgomery) and willingness to engender controversy, and also with his usual thorough research and clear writing (along with 24 pages of photos) to sustain every case he makes. His book ranks among the very best military history volumes of the year. Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From The Washington Post's Book World/washingtonpost.com
With an end to the war in Iraq more elusive than ever, it's a fascinating moment to remember the cataclysm that ended World War II. Some would argue that the fate of Hitler's Reich was sealed as early as the Red Army's counteroffensive in December 1941; others would point to the Battle of Stalingrad the following winter. But by the time the Western Allies had successfully stormed through France and the Soviets had made their way to the outskirts of Warsaw, it was clear to everyone but the most fanatic Nazis that the end was only months, or even weeks, away. And yet, as Max Hastings's magisterial new book demonstrates in meticulous detail, the months between September 1944 and May 1945 were among the cruelest and most destructive Europe had ever seen. The end was known, but the path leading there passed through an ocean of blood and terror. Because victory was unavoidable and defeat unthinkable, every loss seemed all the more wasteful. But precisely for this reason, hatred, vengeance and despair propelled the exhausted and brutalized combatants to resort to increasingly ruthless measures so as to finally bring -- as many Germans said at the time -- "an end full of horror to the horror without end." While this is hardly an untold story, Hastings's gripping narrative blends individual accounts, sweeping reconstructions of battles and devastating criticisms of military and political leaders. Armageddon is a classic war history in the style of such masters as Alexander Werth, John Ericksen and, more recently, Antony Beevor. Like them, Hastings has much empathy for the little cogs and victims of war -- and far less sympathy for those who orchestrate it. Consequently, his harsh judgment of the leaders does not always reflect sufficient detachment from the testimonies of his protagonists on the ground. This approach makes for lively reading, but it may provide a somewhat skewed picture of the event as a whole. Hastings, a former editor of the Daily Telegraph, has a low opinion of the U.S. and British strategy and conduct of the war. He concedes that not much could have been done to prevent Stalin's takeover of Eastern Europe but laments the lack of energy displayed by American and British soldiers. Hastings argues that the Anglo-Americans -- with a few outstanding exceptions, including some elite units -- were poorly trained, lacking in motivation and led by generals who were mediocre or, at best, competent but unimaginative. Better leadership from such generals as Montgomery and Eisenhower and less cautious troops would have prevented the disasters of the Battle of Arnhem (where Montgomery launched an extraordinarily badly planned attempt to end the war by grabbing bridges on the Rhine) and the Battle of the Bulge (where Eisenhower failed to destroy the reeling Wehrmacht before it had time to regroup); it also might have spared many lives by ending the war in 1944. Indeed, without the Soviets' immense sacrifices, the Americans and the British would have never defeated Nazi Germany. But the Red Army's far superior fighting power and generalship went hand-in-hand with extraordinary brutality toward its own troops, as well as against enemy soldiers and civilians. Hence Hastings's admiration for the Soviets' military accomplishments is tinged with his contempt for Stalin's policies and for his soldiers' innumerable crimes. Hastings has no doubt that the best army of World War II was the Wehrmacht, which displayed outstanding professionalism and determination even in the final weeks. Awareness of the atrocities committed by Hitler's soldiers has hardly diminished the admiration of many military historians, professional soldiers and military history buffs for this seemingly perfect tool of war. This fascination with the Wehrmacht has a long tradition, going back to the influential British military historian and theorist Basil Liddell Hart's flattering 1948 portrait of Hitler's generals, which conveniently left out their crucial role as instruments of conquest, enslavement and genocide. This view is rooted in a depoliticized understanding of German soldiers that dismisses their ideological motivations and seeks to attribute their performance to skills or organization that could also be acquired by the armies of the democracies. Hastings does acknowledge the fanatic resistance of hopeless foreign SS men and deeply indoctrinated Hitler Youth teenagers. He concludes that the democracies' less effective armies (and heavy reliance on industrial might) was the flip side of their soldiers' greater humanity, despite the unavoidable excesses by some men and the unnecessary destruction of German cities toward the end of the war. But such humanism was, of course, facilitated by what Hastings sees as a pact with the devil; the Anglo-Americans could fight a relatively moral war only thanks to the Soviet Union's terrible sacrifice and subsequent vengeance. This is, at best, qualified morality. Between June 1944 and May 1945, 152,000 Allied soldiers were killed fighting in the west; the Red Army lost well over 500,000 in the same period. Some 400,000 German soldiers and civilians died in ground fighting and aerial bombardment in 1945 alone. Such figures can be understood only by referring to personal accounts, which Hastings uses splendidly. But partly because Armageddon focuses on the war's horrific endgame and partly because Hastings wishes to undermine conventional accounts of the war that gloss over the punishment inflicted on the Reich, the author lingers longest on the suffering of German civilians. Germany now hosts a minor cottage industry on the victimhood of the Reich's civilians. And while Hastings stresses Hitler's particular focus on murdering Jews and dedicates even more space to the Nazi regime's other non-Aryan victims, he too is especially concerned with the fate of the German victims of Allied bombings, the mass expulsions from Eastern Europe and the eastern parts of Germany (where he cites highly inflated fatality figures), and the mass rapes by the Red Army. The genocide of the European Jews has only belatedly come to be seen as part of World War II, and its inclusion often calls for a listing of all other victims. This tends to obfuscate the singular nature of the Holocaust: the Nazis' determination to exterminate the Jews. The mélange of victims includes even the German soldiers who, the late German historian Andreas Hillgruber asserted 20 years ago, sacrificed themselves to protect Germany against the "Asiatic hordes" and the "red flood" from the east. He also maintained that the loss of Germany's eastern provinces was the greatest tragedy of the war. Yet as long as these Wehrmacht troops were protecting "civilization" from the Bolsheviks, the mass murder could continue. Between May 15 and July 18, 1944, a total of 434,351 Jews were deported from Hungary; most of them were gassed in Birkenau. The suffering of the individual needs to be recorded, and it may tell us a great deal about the nature of an historical event. But we must remember the context. The sacrifice of the German soldier was made in the cause of genocide and fascism. The struggle of so many Germans to maintain their Reich kept Hitler in power. It was because Hitler's soldiers fought to the bitter end that their country had to be destroyed. Only then could the reconstruction begin. Reviewed by Omer Bartov Copyright 2004, The Washington Post Co. All Rights Reserved.

From Bookmarks Magazine
Drawing on untapped Russian archives, Hastings (a former war correspondent and leading military historian) rethinks the final year of World War II in this sequel to Overlord (1984), an account of the Normandy landings. He writes with authority, technical mastery, and profound sympathy for the victims of war, particularly German civilians. Although much of this story has been told before, Hastings casts new light on the war’s devastating tolls on lowly GIs, confused civilians, and commanding officers. According to a few critics, he underplays the Allied forces’ strategic errors and paints black-and-white portraits of both sides; he barely masks his disdain for the Anglo-Americans and admiration for the Wehrmacht’s professionalism. He all but ignores the war in southern Europe. But these are minor quibbles. For military buffs, Armageddon is a first-rate history. Copyright © 2004 Phillips & Nelson Media, Inc.

From Booklist
Hastings, former editor of London's Evening Standard and the Daily Telegraph and producer of documentaries for the BBC and CNN, offers a comprehensive and riveting chronicle of the final eight months of World War II. Hastings utilizes Allied and German archives and accounts of survivors to convey the sheer savagery of the daily combat and the physical and emotional toll it took on those who lived through the ordeal. He also offers interesting portraits of the major political and military figures and engages in some provocative speculations about their motivations for various decisions. The text is supported by very useful maps and numerous well-chosen and rarely seen photographs. Both specialists and general readers will appreciate this outstanding examination of the closing months of this life-and-death struggle with the scourge of Nazism. Jay Freeman
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Review
"Huge and splendid volume . . . [Displays Hastings'] usual thorough research and clear writing to sustain every case. His book ranks among the very best military history volumes of the year."--Publishers Weekly, starred review.

"Hastings writes with authority, as well as humanity, about the realities of combat--the fear, smells, hunger, humiliation and the horrendous wounds inflicted. His range spans from the lowliest GI crouched in his foxhole in the dread Hurtgen forest to the commanders in charge. . . Every leader contemplating a military operation, for whatever reason, should read this book and take several deep breats. Armageddon is the name of the last stop on the line."--Alistair Horne, The Wall Street Journal


"Hastings does an excellent job of weaving together the war's multiple layers: from the high command and midlevel officers to infantry grunts and confused civilians. Readers get glimpses of the famous and infamous leaders--Churchill, Roosevelt, Eisenhower, Hitler, Stalin . . . Rich descriptions of displaced families mix with fascinating details..." --Clint O'Connor, Cleveland Plain Dealer




Praise from Britain for Armageddon by Max Hastings

"Magnificent . . . Armageddon is not so much a narrative history as a series of set-piece sections filled with valuable insights and good judgement. . . Hastings in this grand overview of the end of the Second World War has yet again made a great contribution to our understanding of the period." --Anthony Beevor, The Sunday Telegraph

"Armaggedon is a magesterial history of the last year of the war in Europe and a much needed corrective, delivering firm judgments in crisp prose, its acerbic take on the military history is matched by a war correspondent's compassion for human suffering." --Christopher Silvester, Financial Times

"Masterly survey . . . panoramic... Hastings is exceptionally deft at explaining complicated strategy to the layman." --Craig Brown, The Mail on Sunday

"Gripping . . . Hastings, already a supreme exponent of important arguments in military history to a general readership, finds a new dimension." --Hew Strachan, Sunday Times

"Superb . . . Hastings's writing is a model of thoughtfulness and clarity. He conveys the pain, hunger and indignity of the battlefield with the same glittering precision with which he illuminates the plans and personalities of the commanders. Armageddon is deep and dark with the power to invade your dreams. A master historian is back and at the height of his powers." --Patrick Bishop, Telegraph

From the Inside Flap
Armageddon is the epic story of the last eight months of World War II in Europe by Max Hastings–one of Britain’s most highly regarded military historians, whose accounts of past battles John Keegan has described as worthy “to stand with that of the best journalists and writers” (New York Times Book Review).

In September 1944, the Allies believed that Hitler’s army was beaten, and expected that the war would be over by Christmas. But the disastrous Allied airborne landing in Holland, American setbacks on the German border and in the Hürtgen Forest, together with the bitter Battle of the Bulge, drastically altered that timetable. Hastings tells the story of both the Eastern and Western Fronts, and paints a vivid portrait of the Red Army’s onslaught on Hitler’s empire. He has searched the archives of the major combatants and interviewed 170 survivors to give us an unprecedented understanding of how the great battles were fought, and of their human impact on American, British, German, and Russian soldiers and civilians.

Hastings raises provocative questions: Were the Western Allied cause and campaign compromised by a desire to get the Soviets to do most of the fighting? Why were the Russians and Germans more effective soldiers than the Americans and British? Why did the bombing of Germany’s cities continue until the last weeks of the war, when it could no longer influence the outcome? Why did the Germans prove more fanatical foes than the Japanese, fighting to the bitter end? This book also contains vivid portraits of Stalin, Churchill, Eisenhower, Montgomery, and the other giants of the struggle.

The crucial final months of the twentieth century’s greatest global conflict come alive in this rousing and revelatory chronicle.

About the Author
Max Hastings was a foreign correspondent and the editor of Britain’s Evening Standard and the Daily Telegraph. He has presented historical documentaries for BBC TV, and is the author of eighteen books, including Bomber Command, which earned the Somerset Maugham Award for nonfiction, The Korean War and Overlord: D-Day and the Battle for Normandy, 1944. He lives outside London.

FROM THE PUBLISHER

"Armageddon tells the story of the climactic months of the Second World War, the destruction of Hitler's Germany. Max Hastings has researched archives in four countries and interviewed 170 witnesses to piece together a saga that is at once fascinating military history and the greatest human tragedy of the twentieth century." "This book follows Max Hastings's earlier acclaimed studies of the Second World War, including Overlord and Bomber Command, in examining a great sweep of history with massive research and a host of new insights." Armageddon embraces the fates of more than a hundred million people, men and women, old and very young, from the tragic teenage fanatics who died in the ruins of Hitler's Reich to the British 'Tommies' who simply yearned to finish a painful job and go home. Few books on the Second World War have so vividly brought together the story of the battlefields, east and west, with the decisions of the generals and the impact of great events upon ordinary soldiers and civilians.

SYNOPSIS

In September 1944, the Allies believed that Hitler's army was beaten and expected the war to be over by Christmas. But the disastrous American landing in Holland, setbacks on the German border and in the H￯﾿ﾽrtgen Forest, and the bitter Battle of the Bulge stretched the fighting on through the winter and spring. Hastings outlines the last eight months of the war in Europe, drawing on the archives of the major combatants and interviews with 170 survivors to understand how the battles were fought and what the effects were on American, British, German, and Russian soldiers and civilians. Hastings, a journalist based in the UK, has also presented historical documentaries for the BBC and is the author of Bomber Command and Overlord: D-Day and the Battle for Normandy, 1944. Annotation ©2004 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

FROM THE CRITICS

Omer Bartov - The Washington Post

Armageddon is a classic war history in the style of such masters as Alexander Werth, John Ericksen and, more recently, Antony Beevor.

James J. Sheehan - The New York Times

Armageddon is a sequel to Hastings's Overlord his fine account of the Normandy landings published in 1984. Both books display his distinctive virtues as a military historian: a clear, uncluttered style, absolute mastery of the technical details of combat and the ability to combine an analysis of the strategic situation with vivid descriptions of individuals and events. Armageddon is a richer, more ambitious, more challenging and provocative book than Overlord It gives a fuller account of the human costs of war, raises troubling moral questions and probes the social and cultural forces that sustain and limit the ways armies fight. It is a book anyone with an interest in modern warfare will want to read.

Publishers Weekly

This huge and splendid volume tells the grim tale of the final collapse of the Third Reich. It does so from the viewpoints of the upper millstone (the Western Allies), the lower millstone (the Russians) and the grain being ground in between (the Germans). The research includes previously untapped Russian archives (particularly in the accounts of Soviet veterans) and leads to a gripping and horrifying story that serious students of military history will find almost impossible to put down. The blunders recounted are numerous, from the Allied failure to open Antwerp in the fall of 1944 to the Russian frontal assault on Berlin, and the Wehrmacht is depicted as the best army of the war and also the most atrocious in its treatment of civilians. Indeed, the treatment of civilians is a major theme, since they were slaughtered on a scale unheard of since the Thirty Years' War, and not only the Nazi camp inmates but also the inhabitants of Poland and East Prussia were numbered among the victims. The author hands out praise and blame with his usual edged aplomb (Anglophile readers may be happy to see a partial rehabilitation of Montgomery) and willingness to engender controversy, and also with his usual thorough research and clear writing (along with 24 pages of photos) to sustain every case he makes. His book ranks among the very best military history volumes of the year. Agent, Peter Matson. (Nov. 18) Forecast: With a first printing of 100,000 copies and its status as a History Book Club main selection and a BOMC and Military Book Club alternate, this book should reach its intended audience easily; a four-city author tour will win over less regular readers of WWII along the way. Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.

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