Read more
Informationen zum Autor Martin Dugard is the New York Times bestselling author of several books of history, among them the Killing series, Taking Paris, Into Africa , and The Explorers . Klappentext From Martin Dugard, #1 New York Times bestselling coauthor of Bill O'Reilly's Killing series, comes a nonfiction thriller about the race between the Allies and Soviets to conquer the heart of Nazi Germany. “ Gripping, popular history at its page-turning best.”—Alex Kershaw • “With the precision of a smart bomb, Martin Dugard puts the reader directly into the campaign to destroy Hitler.”—Bill O’Reilly • “Spectacular . . . Taking Berlin is certain to be a massive hit with fans of both history and thrillers alike.” —Mark Greaney, bestselling author of the Gray Man series Fall, 1944. Paris has been liberated, saved from destruction, but this diversion on the road to Berlin has given the Germans time to regroup. The American and British armies press on from the west, facing the enemy time and again in the Hurtgen Forest, during the Market Garden invasion, and at the Battle of the Bulge, all while American general George Patton and British field marshal Bernard Montgomery vie for supremacy as the Allies’ top battlefield commander. Meanwhile, the Soviets begin to squeeze Hitler’s crumbling Reich from the east. Led by Generals Zhukov and Konev, the Red Army launches millions of soldiers, backed by tanks, artillery, and warplanes, against the Germans, leaving death and scorched earth in their wake, pushing the Wehrmacht back toward their fatherland. As both the Anglo-American alliance and the Soviets set their sights on claiming the capital city of Nazi Germany, Churchill seeks to ensure Britain’s place in a new world divided by Roosevelt’s America and Stalin’s Soviet Union. With a sweeping cast of historical figures, Taking Berlin is a pulse-pounding race into the final, desperate months of the Second World War and toward the fiery destruction of the Thousand-Year-Reich, chronicling a moment in history when allies become adversaries. Leseprobe 1 May 31, 1944 Camp Bewdley Stourport, England Day General George S. Patton is being introduced. Blustery English weather. Forecast calls for rain. Officers and enlisted brace in formation before the reviewing stand. Patton stands at attention next to an American flag and unit standards. The general took command on January 26. He has already given this speech to other divisions of his Third Army several times. Its words will be unlike anything these men have heard before. Patton, a general unlike any these men have seen before, is counting on that. These soldiers watched him drive up in a chauffeured black Mercedes, noted the polished cavalry boots and Caesar-like entrance-motorcycle escort, brass band, honor guard. It's impossible to believe that four years ago this regal being was a washed-up colonel trying to decide whether his future lay in riding a cavalry horse into battle or embracing armored warfare. Patton wisely chose armor. Animals have no place in modern tactics. The general's genius for tank warfare has been the making of him, fueling his rise to three-star general. These assembled soldiers don't know that. They just know he's their commander, soon to lead them in battle. Curiosity courses through the audience as they wait to pass judgment. "We are here to listen to the words of a great man," begins General William H. Simpson, today's bald and lean three-star master of ceremonies. The audience is so large that Simpson uses a microphone and loudspeaker. "A man who will lead you into whatever you may face, with heroism, ability, and foresight. A man who has proved himself amid shot and shell. My greatest hope is that someday soon, I will have my own great army ...
