Product Description

In the final months of the Second World War, one strategic question above all occupies the Allies: which liberating army will be the first to march into Berlin. On the western front, Montgomery lobbies for the honour, while Eisenhower becomes more and more determined to thwart him and put an American general -- Bradley or Patton -- in charge of the final thrust; in the east, Stalin's armies advance steadily and ruthlessly towards the apotheosis of their vengeance. David L. Robbins orchestrates the story of the final months of war through the eyes of a gallery of characters both invented and real. We see the western front through the eyes of an American war photographer; Berlin through a mother and daughter hiding a Jewish refugee in the cellar of their house; the eastern advance through soldiers in a punishment battalion, whose fate is to lead every assault. This is another brilliantly authentic and compulsively readable war novel, a worthy successor to WAR OF THE RATS.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #2210279 in Books
• Published on: 2000-12-04
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 416 pages

About the Author
David L. Robbins is the author of two previous novels. A former attorney, he now writes fulltime.

Customer Reviews

An interesting read.
Set during the closing months of the war against Germany, the story is split between the three main allies; Britain, USA and Russia as they determine the post-war fate of Germany. Telling it from three different perspectives does tend to give the storyline a 'bitty' feel as it jumps from character to character and makes it hard to become involved with any one of them. Unlike the author's previous novel, War of the Rats, I found reading harder-going in places and it didn't seem to flow as well.

The main thrust of this book seems to be the development of the Iron Curtain across Europe as the allied coalition fractured and the Russians were given Berlin. In this respect I think the Epilogue may have been better served to explain the division of Berlin and Germany immediately after the war

However, the tension that must have been felt by Berliners as the Russians closed in, was well portrayed and shows how the civilian population suffered as well as the armed forces. For this, I would nudge it to 3 1/2 stars.

An interesting story and it makes you wonder how recent hisory may have been different if the Americans and British had moved in on the capital before the Russians.

The Race for Berlin
The End of War is a gripping account of the last few days of the war and of the significance of the race for Berlin in shaping the map of post war Europe. Each chapter is written from the point of view of a different character including all the main players including Churchill, Rooservelt, Stalin, Eisenhower and three fictional characters; a Russian infantry soldier, an American war photographer and a German musician living in Berlin.

Robbins has obviously researched the period extensively and provides a completely human account showing the emotions involved as the Soviet Army marches relentlessly towards the West and an increasingly desperate Churchill tries to pursuade the Americans of the true value of Berlin.

Knowing that the inevitable outcome will lead to the rise of the Iron Curtain and 50 years of Soviet occupation of Eastern Europe
only serves to heighten the tension towards the end of the book.
A truly wonderful read.

A novel of powerful images
The previous book by David Robbins, WAR OF THE RATS, based on the German siege of Stalingrad during World War II, is an exceptional war novel. THE END OF WAR, using as a backdrop the last few months of the war against Hitler's Third Reich, is equally riveting and compelling.

The legions of the Western Allies are advancing to the Rhine, and the Red Army juggernaught is poised to invade Poland from across that country's eastern border. The logical goal of both: Berlin.

The characters in the second echelon of this fictional work are 20th century giants of political and military history: Roosevelt, Churchill, Stalin, and generals Eisenhower and Zhukov. It is their ideology, pride, suspicion, and desire for glory that determines the paths of armies. It's history that Berlin was taken by Zhukov and the Soviets. Because Robbins apparently did extensive research from a long bibliography to recreate the high-level decisions that directed that outcome, I like to think that much of what I read was factual. But, never mind. The value of THE END OF WAR lies in its fictional characters, the first echelon, who live under the greasy arrows drawn on the warlords' battle maps.

Ilya is a former Soviet Army major, a hero of Stalingrad, reduced to enlisted status in a penal battalion because an uncle, a general, angered Stalin. Lottie is a young cello player of the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, cowering with her mother under the daily (and nightly) rain of British and American bombs. Charley Bandy, whose aspiration is to enter Germany's capital with the first Anglo-American force to get there, is an American photographer working for LIFE magazine.

This novel is one that virtually demands to be read at one sitting. All characters are expertly brought to life, and the dialog is consistently arresting and believable. Above all else, the images Robbins brings to mind are powerful and unforgettable. It's almost as if you're there smelling Winston's cigar, or the brick dust of Berlin's rubble. Consider the scene ...

Ilya commands several Red Army soldiers escorting sixty captured Germans to the rear. On a road far from anywhere, far from any witnesses, one of the POWs collapses to the ground exhausted. The Soviets gather round, exhorting the man to get up with curses and kicks. Suddenly the episode escalates as the guards begin shouting at all the prisoners.

"The guards hurl more names at the Germans. Names of prison camps, Rovno, Ternopol, Zitomir; names of occupied villages, Braslav, Balvi, Vigala; names of death camps, Auschwitz, Sobibor, Treblinka; names of dead comrades ...; names of fathers and mothers, brothers, women. The Red soldiers vent themselves on the Germans ... They have debts to collect ... One of the Germans mutters in Russian, 'Bastards' ... All of these men hate. Back and forth, volleys of loathing ... Two of the Germans reach to the ground to lift their comrade. They put the man on his feet and release him with care. He stays erect, shaking. The rest of the prisoners move by instinct closer, penned animals do the same ... One of the Russians raises his rifle to his cheek, ridiculous, as though he needs to aim this close to his targets ... Ilya's mouth is bone dry. He could speak ... He could say, what? ...Another crow dispatches his voice from the trees ... Ilya turns his back."

Can you see it in your mind's eye, the palpable animosity on that stretch of dusty, country road? Oh, my.

If you enjoy novels of men and women in the firestorm of war, buy this book.