The Wehrmacht's Last Stand: The German Campaigns of 1944-1945

Modern War Studies

By: Robert M. Citino

Narrated by: Tom Beyer

By 1943, the war was lost, and most German officers knew it. What kept the German army going in an increasingly hopeless situation? Where some historians have found explanations in the power of Hitler or the role of ideology, Robert M. Citino, the world's leading scholar on the subject, posits a more straightforward solution: Bewegungskrieg, the way of war cultivated by the Germans over the course of history. In this book, Citino charts the path by which Bewegungskrieg, or a "war of movement," inexorably led to Nazi Germany's defeat.

The Wehrmacht's Last Stand analyzes the German Totenritt, or "death ride," from January 1944-with simultaneous Allied offensives at Anzio and Ukraine-until May 1945, the collapse of the Wehrmacht in the field, and the Soviet storming of Berlin. In clear and compelling prose, and bringing extensive reading of the German-language literature to bear, Citino focuses on the German view of these campaigns. Often very different from the Allied perspective, this approach allows for a more nuanced and far-reaching understanding of the last battles of the Wehrmacht than any now available. With Citino's previous volumes, Death of the Wehrmacht and The Wehrmacht Retreats, The Wehrmacht's Last Stand completes a uniquely comprehensive picture of the German army's strategy, operations, and performance against the Allies in World War II.

©2017 the University Press of Kansas (P)2024 Tantor

simply brilliant

comprehensive and detailed yet still clear, original and unbiased, must read for any WWII history buff

Entertaining and informative listen with good historical context.

I enjoyed this audio book. Robert Citino is a very knowledgeable author and historian who is also a very talented story teller. I enjoyed hearing more about the last two years of Wehrmacht as well as how their performance was grounded in German / Prussian history. The narrator did a great job to keep my attention and I appreciated the variation in tone and accent as the sort went on. There were parts of the book where I would have wished to have had a map in front of me, but that is the audio book category weakness and not specific to this book. I would highly recommend this book to anyone who is interested in ww2.

Readers Style Distracts Heavily

Citano's work is very interesting and seems thorough. Unfortunately for this audio book the reader was either allowed to use awful and distracting fake German accents when quoting German officers or was directed to do so. This is childish and very distracting. He also reads slowly for no reason.

Very Insightful & Interesting Book

I enjoyed the military aspect of the book. Some explanations were a little silly, though. WW2 was caused primarily by the Treaty of Versailles and the overly-punitive conditions given to Germany after WW1. Especially when you consider that Germany was not in a panicked retreat, was still in another country, and was still capable of fighting. The overly-simplistic notion that stab in the back was a “myth” is one of the many opiates that the victors like to smoke. WW2 was not caused by Hitler’s psychosis, evilness, or racism. I wish authors would leave these silly gross-oversimplificstions to middle school history teachers, and not feel the need to repeat them ad-nauseum simply to elicit approval from the reader, as we’ve heard it all since the day we were born and we got it.

That said, I enjoyed the majority of the book and I thought the narrator did a great job. I do not really get the other readers complaints. How many people can do numerous spot-on accents one after the other? This isn’t a play. It’s a book reading. In a book reading the author has to play every single character themselves. How many trained actors could pull that off flawlessly? Yet we expect it of a narrator?

Then again, I see this complaint in nearly EVERY book. The public’s expectations are grandiose. I just want to know who is speaking, and the narrator accomplished that well. I thought he did a stellar job conveying the feel of the book, and it contributed to my enjoyment thereof.

Good but slow and long

I enjoyed the info but it’s written like a textbook. You can listen to it on 1.4 speed just fine. The attempt at various nationalities ascents was awful and not needed. You’ll like the book if you’re hardcore into WWII but there is no real new info.