Hitlers Last Bastion: The Final Battles for the Reich 1944-1945 [Hardcover]

Franz Kurowski (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 1, 2004

The final stage of the Second World War, with the enemy across the Reichs borders, saw final desperate battles for numerous fortified places and blocking positions. Hitler ordered the defense of these fortified places such as Königsberg and Breslau, We

Editorial Reviews

Language Notes

Text: English (translation)
Original Language: German

Product Details

• Hardcover: 432 pages
• Publisher: Schiffer Publishing, Ltd.; First edition. edition (January 1, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0764305484
• ISBN-13: 978-0764305481
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 6 x 1.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 2.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #968,287 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Not a bad book. Translation - poor., March 4, 2000

By 

Fedorov Maxim (Moscow, Russia [e-mail]) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Hitlers Last Bastion: The Final Battles for the Reich 1944-1945 (Hardcover)

The problem with this book and many others published by Schiffer is not the books themselves but their translations from German into English. It is, to say the least, poor. I advise you to avoid Schiffer books translated by Joseph Welsh, as this one.

11 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars This book is poorly served by a miserable translation., June 29, 1999

By 

Michael P. Shea - See all my reviews

This review is from: Hitlers Last Bastion: The Final Battles for the Reich 1944-1945 (Hardcover)

From the outset it is obvious that this book is a translation from German. The word-for-word nature of the translation makes the text near unreadable. What ever nuggets of information that are left are scattered in oddly constructed paragraphs filled with obfuscating passive sentence constructions. Terms were translated inconsistently: panzerfauts (a single-shot shape-charged anti-tank infantry weapon) were written panzerfautens and panzerfaeusten. The dates were written in German order dd.mm.yy, but with the American separaters; so May 4th 1944 became 4/5/1999.

The organization of the text was confusing. The story shifted backward and forward in date and time so that it was no longer clear what happened in what order.

I can't say if the author did this in the German edition as I did not read that one, but it looks as if the author is prone to make pronouncements of how things were without providing any evidence to back it up. Typifying this was the description of the Soviet armies closing in on Berlin. Here the author describes overwhelming Soviet fire power crashing into depleted German units only to be turned back. Well, how did these inferior German units do this time and time again? If they performed so well, why did they only defend a given site for 24 hours? I don't know if I call that turning them back. I almost suspect the author of letting his sympathies infect his historical perspective.

Finally I found the book far too general in its description of the action. This is not a fault of the author/book if this is what he intended. It's just that my expectations were not met.

13 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars A Big Disappointment, November 30, 1999

By 

Julian Cheah - See all my reviews

This review is from: Hitlers Last Bastion: The Final Battles for the Reich 1944-1945 (Hardcover)

Having read Kurowski's "Infanterie Aces" and "Panzer Aces", I was expecting this book to be action-packed and filled with first-hand personal accounts of fighting from the German side. I was severely disappointed as this is not the Kurowski I know. It was overall not a readable book even for the lack of battle action. I would not recommend this book to anyone. But I do highly recommend Kurowski's other books that I have mentioned.