Description

‘Terrific . . . a tour de force’ Sir Richard Evans

‘Military history at its very best’ Keith Lowe

A gripping and authoritative account of the year that sealed the fate of the Nazis, from the bestselling historian

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June 1944: In Operation Bagration, more than two million Red Army soldiers, facing 500,000 German soldiers, finally avenged their defeat in Operation Barbarossa in 1941. The same month saw the Allies triumph on the beaches of Normandy, but, despite the myths that remain, it was the events on the Eastern Front that sealed Hitler’s fate and destroyed Nazism.

In his new book, bestselling historian Jonathan Dimbleby describes and analyses this momentous year, covering the military, political and diplomatic story in his evocative style. Drawing on previously untranslated German, Russian and Polish sources, we see how sophisticated new forms of deception and ruthless Partisan warfare shifted the Soviets’ fortunes, how their triumphs effectively gave Stalin authority to occupy Eastern Europe and how it was the events of 1944 that enabled Stalin to dictate the terms of the post-war settlement, laying the foundations for the Cold War . . .

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‘Visceral and compelling authoritative’ Sinclair McKay

‘Extraordinarily vivid and absorbing’ Brendan Simms

Publisher Review

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. — Sir Richard Evans, author of The Third Reich in History and Memory Dimbleby has unearthed some powerful voices to producing an engaging mix of the familiar and the new. Fascinating stuff. — Roger Moorhouse, author of The Forgers 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. — Sir Rodric Braithwaite, author of Moscow 1941 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. — Colonel Robert Kershaw, author of Tank Men Magnificent . . . draws on so much good material. — Dr David Stahel 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. * Sir Rodric Braithwaite, author of Moscow 1941 * 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. * Frederick Taylor, author of Dresden: Tuesday, 13 February, 1945 *