The Conquest of the Reich: D-Day to Ve Day--A Soldiers'
ISBN: , SKU: , AUTHOR: Neillands, Robin, PUBLISHER: New York University Press, ong>Theong> defeat of Nazi Germany in ong>theong> words of those who were ong>theong>re. New Year's Day was not a day for rest or rejoicing on ong>theong> embattled continent of Europe. Hard winter gripped ong>theong> land, from ong>theong> Channel coast to ong>theong> distant Urals. Only ong>theong> thought of victory warmed ong>theong> frozen soldiers huddled in tanks and foxholes as ong>theong> New Year dawned and ong>theong>y faced ong>theong> prospect of battling onwards toward Berlin. This is ong>theong> story of ong>theong> last five months of Hitler's Thousand Year Reich, from New Year's Day to VE Day, May . It is a story told not in ong>theong> words of historians or scholars, but in ong>theong> words of ong>theong> people who lived through it, who fought and endured: soldier and civilian, American infantryman and British paratrooper, Canadian gunner and Australian pilot, New Zealand POW and German civilian. With his unrivalled gift for popular history, Robin Neillands, in his follow-up to ong>theong> enormously successful "D-Day ," recreates in engaging narrative fashion ong>theong> most dramatic and bloody months of ong>theong> war. Drawing on hundreds of interviews, letters, and inside eyewitness testimony from veterans about such subjects as ong>theong> esprit de corps in ong>theong> Allied and Axis armies, ong>theong> discovery of ong>theong> concentration camps, ong>theong> dissension in ong>theong> Allied command, and ong>theong> meeting of Russians and Americans at ong>theong> Elbe, ong>theong> book recounts ong>theong> effects of many of ong>theong> most crucial events of ong>theong> conflict on soldier and citizen alike. ong>Theong> Battle of ong>theong> Bulge, ong>theong> liberation of Auschwitz, ong>theong> Malmedy Massacres, ong>theong> fall of Warsaw to ong>theong> Red Army, ong>theong> destruction of Dresden, ong>theong> lynching of Allied aircrews, Yalta, Hitler's Scorched Earth directive, ong>theong> massive parachutes drops by ong>theong> Allied forces, ong>theong> death of Roosevelt, ong>theong> last days of Hitler, and, finally, ong>theong> surrender of Germany--it's all here, rendered in engrossing and rich detail in this example of military history at its finest. For a comprehensive and thrilling account of ong>theong> end of World War II, ong>Theong> Conquest of ong>theong> Reich will stand as ong>theong> definitive people's history for years to come.