The last weeks of World War II on the Western Front in Europe witnessed extraordinary scenes of heroism, horror, melodrama and pathos.
In Plunder, Max Hastings presents a cast of fascinating people British, American and German, in a series of great events in which some distinguished themselves through wonderful deeds, others through the basest crimes.
The book takes its title from Montgomery’s ‘Operation Plunder’, the 23 March 1945 crossing of the Rhine, witnessed by Winston Churchill and embracing huge amphibious and airborne landings. The author describes the American coup in capturing Remagen bridge and the ‘battles of the breakout’ which followed. Thereafter he recounts stories of Nazi Werewolves; of US General George Patton’s reckless and doomed dispatch of an armoured column fifty miles behind German lines to liberate his son-in-law from a prison camp; the heartbreaking liberation of Belsen concentration camp; the wonderful achievement of Ian Liddell of the Coldstream Guards, among the last VC winners of the war and surely one of the most deserving; the last big SAS operation of the war. Finally come accounts of the tortuous succession of German surrenders, and the weeks of Admiral Karl Donitz’s posturing as the Third Reich’s last Fuhrer.
Plunder is the latest history from Max Hastings, and offers his signature narrative of conflict, blending personal experiences into the ‘big picture’, highlighting deeds and personalities that will be unfamiliar to many readers. He mingles accounts of the battles with stories of people – warlords, soldiers, slave labourers, prisoners, fugitives, victims – who played many and various roles in the last European act of history’s most terrible war.
About the Author :
MAX HASTINGS is the author of over thirty books, most about conflict, and between 1986 and 2002 served as editor-in-chief of the Daily Telegraph, then editor of the Evening Standard. He has won many prizes both for journalism and his books, of which the most recent are Chastise, Operation Pedestal and Abyss, bestsellers translated around the world. He is a fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, an Honorary Fellow of King ’ s College, London and was knighted in 2002. He has two grown-up children, Charlotte and Harry, and lives with his wife Penny in West Berkshire, where they garden enthusiastically.
Review :
PRAISE FOR SWORD:
‘The messy, dirty, bloody reality of Operation Overlord comes alive in Sword, Hastings’s portrait of the individual soldiers who risked their lives on the beaches of Normandy. He brings these men to life with sensitivity and beautiful prose'
The Times
‘The transporting of 150,000 troops across the Channel in total secrecy and the feats they did that day is a story we never tire of – and Max Hastings tells it exceedingly well. His is one of the most reliable brands in popular history and Sword meets his usual standards. A cracking tale in the hands of a practised storyteller'
Spectator
‘D-Day was one of the British army’s finest hours, perhaps the finest. The author has matched that hour admirably'
Country Life
PRAISE FOR OPERATION BITING:
'There are few things in life more dependable than a war story told by Hastings… He’s a master of drama, a writer intimately familiar with the mind of the soldier'
The Times
‘An important book, and proof that the detailed telling of a small piece of history can illuminate our understanding of a much greater whole. It’s one in a long line of Second World War books written by Hastings in an engaging and entertaining way. Now that almost all the veterans of the conflict are no longer with us, his work is especially valuable: all that remains is the history, and the historians who tell it'
Daily Telegraph
