ENDGAME 1945 victory, retribution, liberation (David Stafford World War II History)

THE DEFINITIVE ACCOUNT OF THE FINAL CHAPTER OF WORLD WAR TWO IN EUROPE.

‘A harrowing masterpiece of modern history.’ Sunday Express

‘A vivid reminder of the misery that persisted across Europe long after the shooting stopped in 1945.’ Max Hastings, Daily Mail

‘Stafford’s gripping and moving book . . . makes brilliant use of the individual stories of ordinary people caught up in extraordinary events.’ The Sunday Times

‘David Stafford weaves an often majestic tapestry of testimony.’ The Observer

‘A seamless, urgent and richly textured history.’ Scotsman

‘Superb but grim . . . Stafford brilliantly weaves his individual human stories into the wider picture.’ Sunday Telegraph

‘Stafford skilfully provides a connecting framework for a narrative of almost Tolstoyan proportions . . . which only a writer of the first calibre, strongest nerve and monumental intellectual stamina could tackle.’ The Spectator

‘In a magisterial account, David Stafford essentially closes the book on the cruel and chaotic last chapter of the war in Europe.’ News Star Louisiana

World War Two did not end when the fighting stopped.

In this compelling narrative, acclaimed historian David Stafford delves behind the dramatic headlines proclaiming victory to reveal the horrors and hardships of the war’s final days and aftermath.

Drawing upon diaries, letters, and personal testimonies, he brilliantly interweaves the lives of ordinary people with the actions of military and political leaders. The result is a vivid evocation of a continent scarred and traumatized by a war whose effects continued long after the fighting stopped.