BOOK ARMADEDDON (BATTLE FOR GERMANY 1944-1945) (BOX49)

 COURTESY OF GIBSONS TACTICAL TAVERN                                                                       MILITARY SURPLUS LISTING INDIVIDUALLY PICTURED

 ARMAGEDDON: THE BATTLE FOR GERMANY 1944-1945

AUTHOR: MAX HASTINGS

PUBLISHER: ALFRED A. KNOPF            NEW YORK      2004   (BORZOI BOOK)

COPYRIGHT: 2004 BY MAX HASTINGS

ISBN: 0-375-41433-9

     ARMAGEDDON IS THE EPIC STORY OF THE LAST EIGHT MONTHS OF WORLD WAR TWO 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 ALLIED LANDING IN HOLLAND, AMERICAN SETBACKS ON THE GERMAN BORDER, AND IN THE HURTGEN 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 FOUGH, 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, THE OTHER GIANTS OF THE STRUGGLE.                                                                                                          THE CRUCIAL FINAL MONTHS OF THE TWENTIETH CENTURY'S GREATEST GLOVAL CONFLICT COME ALIVE IN THEIR ROUSING AND REVELATORY CHRONICLE.