The Last Battle is, at times, written as a history book, and at times, like a novel. Where necessary, the facts are presented economically; armies and their troop strengths, battlefield movements, details of attacks and counterattacks, casualties, etc. Despite the ample information, all that you are given is needed to understand, and even feel, the enormity of the struggle between the Third Reich and Russia in 1945. Nazi Germany had been reduced to just a fraction of its former size, and fanatical and desperate remnants of the German military were trying to hold the Russian onslaught from over running the remainder of Germany, and Berlin. It was hopeless, and the Germans knew it.

Why did they fight? There were many reasons. Perhaps the most compelling is the one revealed to some of the German high command in the early spring of 1945; captured copies of an allied document titled "Eclipse". Simply put, it was the post-war allied plan to not only divide Germany into zones of occupation, but to allow absolutely no compromise or negotiation for Germany whatsoever for surrender. It was to be completely unconditional. Worse, from the German point of view, one of the occupation zones was to be Russian; the Germans had steadfastly believed, and hoped, that the alliance between Britain, the U.S., and Russia was fragile, and that literally any day, it would start to disintegrate. The Germans had hoped that fighting between the allies would prevent a Russian invasion of central Germany; instead, the Americans would fight the last battles, and the German military could surrender to them. Wrong. It was to be a fight to the death against their worst enemy, and there was no other way out.

Seemingly desperate circumstances would make people pull together, especially in a situation as bleak as Germany faced in early 1945, but human nature dictated otherwise, and that's the most fascinating part of The Last Battle. Field Marshals and generals still toadied to Hitler in his bunker; placating him with the few scraps of good news from the front, and whitewashing or ignoring information about the disasters of their military in its last days. Impossible orders were given by members of the high command to those capable generals at the front, orders they knew they could not carry out, but they would still struggle to obey. Only Hitler and a few of his associates in Berlin still believed the war could be won; everyone else only thought about delaying the Russians long enough to let people escape from central Germany, and Berlin. Maybe some of them would even make it to the American lines to surrender, or be taken in. Maybe.

You may have trouble with some of the characterizations of the German commanders who tried to keep their armies from collapsing in the last days. Some of them do not fit the mold we know, or think we know, as "Nazi". Would you believe a deeply religious man in charge of one of the last armies between the Russians and Berlin? How about a sober and thoughtful strategist burdened with planning the defense of Berlin....with almost only old men and children? Would you believe a refined and sensitive man as the German officer in charge of British prisoners of war being led away from the front?

And what of the more infamous characters in the war? They're here too; perhaps their traits will be more familiar to you. Hitler and his psychotic rages. Himmler and his cowardice. Goebbels and his incompetence. They, and many other major, and lesser, leaders are there for you. What were they doing? What were they thinking? What were they feeling?

Though The Last Battle describes the struggles of armies on a vast stage, the common people are also here. What was life like for a shopkeeper, a doctor, a retired veteran from World War I, a housekeeper, or children? What was it like to try to survive daily air raids by the Americans in the morning, and the British at night. How could you live knowing that any day, the Russian invaders might break through the lines of soldiers defending Berlin? What would happen to you? If you were a man, would you be shot? Forced into slave labor? If you were a woman, would you be raped? Would your home be pillaged and burned? And if you survived the war, how would you live? Would there be food? Medical care? Shelter? There was no hope, only desperate questions that went begging for answers.

Obviously, with nearly 60 years of hindsight, we know how things ended, and what happened afterwards. However, The Last Battle lets you see the people who made the final struggle in Nazi Germany happen, and not just the facts.

Recommended:
Yes