Endgame 1944

Reviews

Pacily written . . . The detail is terrific, and the extracts from diaries, letters and so on make an indelible impression. The description of the last months of the war in Budapest is a tour de force. Dimbleby has unearthed some powerful voices to producing an engaging mix of the familiar and the new. Fascinating stuff. This impressive book describes how Stalin’s armies shattered the Wehrmacht in Operation Bagration - which too few people have heard of - and gained him effective control over post-war Eastern Europe. A chillingly objective appraisal of the relationship between the ‘Big Three’ Allied leaders who influenced the outcome of the Second World War. It shines a light for general readers on a period of history often the preserve of Eastern Front academics . . . The human interface between the ‘Big Three’ is exposed in fascinating detail. Magnificent . . . draws on so much good material. Based on an impressive range of sources, Endgame describes how Stalin’s armies shattered the Wehrmacht in Operation Bagration in 1944. It was these victories, not the Western “betrayal” at Yalta, which gained him effective control over post-war Eastern Europe. It’s a story too little known, and Dimbleby tells it brilliantly. Extraordinary . . . Dimbleby paints a unique picture of the vast, unremitting living hell that was the Eastern Front in the final full year of the war. Expand reviews