Product Description

'Fascinating, extraordinary, gripping' Jeremy Paxman The Storming of Berlin had been the Red Army's dream of vengeance ever since the German's invasion of Russia in the summer of 1941. Antony Beevor has reconstituted the experience of those millions caught up in the nightmare crescendo of the Third Reich's final defeat.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #198766 in Books
• Published on: 2003-04-03
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 528 pages

Amazon.co.uk Review
Military history, even at its best, can be a cold art. It's easy to lose sight of the fact that wars involve individuals, each with their own hopes, fears and desires. Berlin: the Downfall, 1945, is Antony Beevor's account of the bloody Götterdämmerung that brought the Second World War in Europe to an end, and in which he has fused the large and the small scale effects of war. Beevor paints the broad picture of Marshals Zhukov and Konev, competing for glory and Stalin's attention, as they race their armies towards Berlin. He gives the reader a gripping account of the brutal street-by-street fighting in the German capital and provides an unforgettable portrait of the last, insane days of Hitler and his entourage in the bunker.

His attention to emotional detail is what made his previous book Stalingrad such a magnificent work, combining a sweeping hisorical narrative with a remarkable sensitivity to human drama. Yet he also highlights the small details of ordinary people caught in the nightmare of history--the sick children evacuated at the last minute from a Potsdam hospital; the Soviet soldiers shaving themselves for the first time in weeks so that they would make appropriately presentable conquerors; and the Nazi Youth teenagers peddling their bikes in despairing, last-ditch attacks against the Red Army's tanks.

The story Beevor tells is an almost unremittingly terrible one--one of death, rape, hunger and human misery--but he tells it with both an epic sweep and an alertness to individuality. The result is a masterpiece of narrative history that is as powerful as Stalingrad. --Nick Rennison

Review
'Fascinating, extraordinary, gripping' Jeremy Paxman

While researching his successful and highly acclaimed study of the battle of Stalingrad, Antony Beevor read the promise given by Russian guards to German prisoners marching into captivity through the battle-ravaged city ruins: 'That's how Berlin is going to look.' Beevor decided immediately where his talents would take him next - the Gotterdammerung of Berlin in 1945. His winning formula has remained the same, with a more polished writing style, making this book even better than its predecessor, and a seminal work on the subject. Admittedly the subject is not the history-changing struggle that was Stalingrad; in 1945 Nazi Germany was in its death throes, the battle for Berlin merely the coup de grace. However, this makes the story all the more poignant, and it is certainly a gripping one. The capture of Berlin was a bloody, protracted struggle with nearly 80,000 Russian casualties. Beevor meticulously documents the course of events, dispelling myths as he goes (for instance, he proves that there were no British SS volunteers defending Berlin, but there were divisions from France and Scandinavia). Until the last moment German soldiers, generals and civilians believed the Western Allies would somehow join with them and attack the Bolsheviks. Many civilians refused to believe Germany had actually declared war on America; Goebbels had told them the opposite. Perhaps the most controversial issue is the constant reference to the violent rapes that took place as the Russian armies advanced remorselessly on the capital, brutalizing any women they could find - including Russian ones. There were an estimated 100,000 rapes in Berlin (often multiple) and 1.4 million in the approach to the city. Suicides, venereal disease, abortions and illegitimate births were the virtually unspoken of revenge for Stalingrad. Antony Beevor has produced an exhaustively researched bestseller that will stir up controversy for years to come. The quality of the writing comes over on many levels; the detached and yet understated portrayal of the rapes makes the information all the more credible, as the author neither condemns nor condones, but reports the facts. When Hitler came to power in 1933, he vowed, 'Give me ten years and you will not recognize Germany.' His prophecy came true, but not as he had envisaged. (Kirkus UK)

About the Author
Educated at Winchester and Sandhurst, Antony Beevor served in the British Army for five years. He then lived and worked in Paris for two years where he wrote his first novel. His works of non-fiction have included PARIS AFTER THE LIBERATION, THE SPANISH CIVIL WAR and CRETE. He is best known for STALINGRAD which became an international number one bestseller.