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Endgame 1944

How Stalin Won The War. The Sunday Times bestselling WW2 book about the year that sealed the Nazis' fate

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Endgame 1944

By: Jonathan Dimbleby
Narrated by: Jonathan Dimbleby
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Summary

Brought to you by Penguin.

A Sunday Times Bestseller

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

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 this 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 . . .


©2024 Jonathan Dimblebye (P)2024 Penguin Audio

 20th Century Eastern Europe Military Modern Russia War Stalin Imperialism Soviet Union Red Army Cold War
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Critic reviews

Titanic . . . This book is his best yet . . . For all their popularity, many books about the world wars are immensely boring and inelegantly written. Dimbleby’s work is in a different league, told with such skill and judgment that, despite the harrowing subject, it is still a pleasure to read. As in all good narrative histories, it is the human details that linger in the mind. (Dominic Sandbrook)
Jonathan Dimbleby’s best book yet
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)
Magnificent . . . draws on so much good material. (Dr David Stahel)
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.
One of the strengths of this book is the line it draws between the awful then of 1944 and the grim events of today . . . Endgame 1944 is thus as much a primer for the present as it is sound history (Patrick Bishop)
Endgame 1944 paints a vivid picture of the fighting at both the bayonet end and at high command, but rightly probes the complex relationship between Churchill, Roosevelt and Stalin, powered by different and incompatible visions of the purpose of victory (Allan Mallinson)
Mr. Dimbleby is a sure-footed guide to the labyrinthine military operations alonga front line that extended nearly 2,000 miles, from the Baltic to the Black Sea
All stars
Most relevant
I saw the author give a talk at Chalke History Festival in June and went straight out to get this via Audible. Following on from his excellent book on Operation Barbarossa, this is another fantastic telling of one of the most brutal episodes of warfare in the history of humanity. It is a compelling account of the strategy from a political and military perspective as well as a brutal description of much of the fighting.

Another fantastic book from this author

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Interesting account of how Stalin played off Roosevelt and Churchill to gain control of Eastern Europe.

Good historical link to current conflict

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Having really enjoyed Jonanthan's Russia: A Journey to the Heart of a Land and its People I was looking forward to this very much. However I think Jonathan had a cold when narrating which was a little off-putting. The story is of course excellent and beautifully written. The greatest history telling of this period is Alexander Werth's Russia At War but this is a good addition.

Interestingly the Afterward is the basis for a potential great book by Jonathan. I hope he writes it.

Good

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well written and delivered giving insight to the eastern front russian push and German retreat

factual round up of the eastern front WW2

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Absolutely love it. Definitely a piece i will come back to over the years. However, I feel like I need a loooong break before I come back again to listening about all the atrocities.

Highly Recommended.

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