Receive Your Copy The Greatest Battle: Stalin, Hitler, And The Desperate Struggle For Moscow That Changed The Course Of World War II Fashioned By Andrew Nagorski Offered In Printable Format

is a gripping story well told, about a crucial battle of World War II that is too often glossed over and forgotten.
I was initially surprised that so much of the book dealt with people rather than fighting, but I came to see it as a good thing.
First, it puts the battle into perspective to see how it affected those involved, from Hitler and Stalin themselves down to individual soldiers and others caught up in the maelstrom.
Second, the actual details of the fighting are so ghastly, so brutal and relentlessly horrific, that Im not sure I could have takenpages of it.


Hitler was an incompetent fool, a megalomaniac corporal who thought himself a military genius and who overrode the advice of generals who actually knew what they were doing.
Stalin was an soulless brute, willing to throw away the lives of as many Russians as it took to achieve his goals, and to terrorize the rest.
I was appalled to learn that the Germans killed,of their own troops during the war as punishment, but the Russians killed around,.
The US executed one.

All war is murder, and madness, but in its neverending torment the battle for Moscow should rank in our consciences along with Verdun, Passchendaele, and Stalingrad.

A Very enjoyable book, and an important one, I have to say this one is very let down by its cover, which is poorly artdirected, Looks like a potboiler is actually a real strong work of history, Nagorski sets out to tell the story of the Battle of Moscow, even the whole first year of the Russian Front Blitzkrieg, not so much via the tactical or strategic story, although those are here, but rather through the human costs of the campaign, and the political machinations, both insie and outside Russia.
It's really the tale of how the Russian overcame Hitler, the Heer, a new style of warfare, the weather, their own incompetence, and the Massive figure of Stalin.
. . to eventual triumph. Most fascinating for the Western reader may be the efforts seen in the book by the Western Allies to assist/exploit their new Russian cobelligerent.
Nagorski follows the various ambassadors and other legates in the rush to help a new ally, In all, many interesting characters emerge to make the story ring true, This is book with many mature themes, but is written in a way that will work for junior readers.
Gamers/Modellers/Military enthusiasts will find this informative, but not required reading, A good book for those who seldom read about conflict, Solid, but a bit rambling and anecdotal, Nagorski continuously compares shortcomings of Hitler and Stalin their refusal to listen to their generals, or listen to anything they didn't want to hear their callous indifference to how many of their own troops were lost to achieve their ends their unrealistic and capricious plans and goals.
These frequent comparisons sidetracked the book at times but were, thankfully, fairly interesting,

Written in two directions, as it were, Nagorski draws from a wealth of material and interviews to portray people at the very top Hitler, Stalin, Zhukov, Guderian, etc.
as well as from the common ranks and the civilian population, Again, this was usually quite interesting but at times I felt he got a little carried away with someone's personal story or war recollections, which made the book lose momentum.


But the major problem for me in listening to this book was that I had difficulty keeping track of what, exactly, was going on in terms of the battle's timing, location, and strategy.
I readily concede that this may primarily be a problem with listening rather than reading the book.
Some maps and the ability to flip back a few pages would no doubt have helped,

Still, it seemed to me that the book was less about the battle than its two major figures of the subtitle, Hitler and Stalin.
It also seemed that claiming the battle was the "greatest" was not that productive, a bit of marketing overreach.
Great, undoubtedly. THE Greatest No one can really say, so why say it It's hard to imagine a book making you feel sympathy for Stalin, but there was a bit of that feeling from this book.
The image of Stalin cowering in his dachau when the German's invaded Russia in fear that his own government would have him shot is striking.


The bungling by Hitler shows yet again just how close they came to winning this war.
A good book that shed new light on a subject that I had been briefly aware of before.
If you know very little about World War II, then this book would be a nice introduction to a crucial battle on the most important front.
But if you know the outlines of the conflict and the battle, then I do not recommend the book.
There are some nice interviews with survivors, and a chapter on a oneday panic in Moscow of which I had not heard, but otherwise, this was very familiar ground.
And it does only a passable job of analyzing why the Germans failed to take Moscow, This was a solid and readable book suited to the general reader, myself included, The author provides a good outline of the build up to the German invasion and then the campaign leading to Moscow's edges mixed with anecdotes and quotes from the political leaderships, commanders, troops and civilians.


My reasoning for three is that whilst book is readable and informative Moscow in terms of battle joined in its specific sense of the German movement and attacks to reach and capture the capital do not feature until near midway through the book.
I'd anticipated the book to be about the Battle for Moscow rather than a wider scoped battle for Moscow that encompassed the buildup to invasion, delays to planned dates, the start of the operation and then the key battles and movements leading to the main event.


That said whilst this was my loss, it is a good book that ably tells that wider story highlighting the strategic mistakes on both sides, including the leaders' approaches and behaviours as well as the treatment of troops and civilians by both sides, preparedness for winter, wider munitions supply, morale and censorship and life as a soldier.


All in all a worthwhile read that for seasoned Eastern front students will offer the author's views and interpretations with good maps and figures.
It should help the new or less experienced reader find areas of interest, in this the largest battle between two armies in history, that decided Germany's fate and consigned millions to unmarked graves in the forests and fields that surround Moscow's western approaches.
I am guessing that this book ended up in my queue as part a desire to know a bit more of the history of WW.
I had also read "Hitlerland: American Eyewitness to the Nazi Rise to Power" by the same author and quite liked it.
I find Nagorski an easy writer to listen to I listened to this as an audio book, I learned a great deal about the main political figures in Europe at the time, the battle of Moscow, and how this event was part of the larger role this battle played in WW.
This is a good book for either the WWaficionado who wants to focus on the Eastern front or the casual enjoyer of history me who wants to know a bit more about an important event.
This one was a brilliant piece of history and had all the points that I want when reading a book like this!!
If youre interested in the personal drama of a lot of

people from the World war II period, then this is for you.
Especially the ones of the Soviet state, from the unknown civilians to some high ranking bureaucrats of even russian generals.

The german are also present, but this peculiar book is more about the situation in and at the outskirts of Moscow when the german war machine was at its doors.

This book had some new for me tremendous facts and events, but also a lot of unforgettable and unjustified crimes from the both sides that makes you instantaneously hate the whole futility of the war.

There are also the stories with facts and events of some of foreign ambassadors in Moscow and a lot of useful information about the communist regime and its actions on that period of time.


Overall, and keeping it short, an amazing read!

Ps: I recommend it also to those that in these time of Covidare feeling that the rules of quarantine imposed by the various states are too harsh yea, right!or that were living the end of the World!!!

No, guys! The Second WORLD WAR was the real End of the World and a true Hell on Earth!!!.