Endgame, 1945: The Missing Final Chapter of World War II
By David Stafford. 608 pp. Little, Brown and Co., 2007. $26.99.
This book is fine narrative history in the tradition of Cornelius Ryan’s The Longest Day, The Last Battle, and A Bridge Too Far. The title is a bit misleading, though: instead of a tale about the final strategic maneuvering that the word “endgame” implies, the author relates the personal stories of nine individuals who endured the final three months of the war. This is “bottom-up” history.
Stafford’s story begins in the Führerbunker on April 20, 1945, Hitler’s fifty-sixth birthday, and ends on July 16, 1945, the day before the Potsdam Conference. But neither Hitler nor any other national leader is a main character here. Instead, the major strategic leaders and the events they propelled are used merely as a backdrop for the lives of nine ordinary yet unique people, all heroes in their own way. The author’s chosen cast includes a German mother held captive by the SS, a British commando in the Baltic, an American soldier in Italy, a war correspondent in Patton’s Third Army, a Canadian officer in Holland, an American paratrooper in Berlin, a British secret agent in Austria, a New Zealand intelligence officer, and a female refugee worker. Their viewpoints are representative yet distinctive. One wonders why Stafford did not include the story of a German soldier, even a POW, for a more rounded picture, but the book does not suffer too much for the lack of it.
As a narrative historian must, Stafford relies primarily on diaries, memoirs, and personal interviews. He is to be especially commended for capturing the latter on paper, as those who lived through the Second World War are passing away at an alarming rate. Soon it will not be possible to do personal interviews. When that day comes, something very important will have been lost.
Stafford’s prose is as precise as it is gripping. Still, he does fall victim now and again to the temptation that all narrative historians strive to avoid—projecting too much of himself into the minds of his subjects. For instance, he describes what Sgt. Robert Ellis, an American soldier fighting in Italy with the 10th Mountain Division, was feeling as he tried to evade enemy mortar and machine gun fire. But it is not clear whether the sentiments coming through are those of Ellis or Stafford. It is, of course, a mixture of both.
As he did with Ten Days to D-Day, Stafford uses a novelistic approach to create a sense of immediacy around historical events. And so the reader may find it a bit of a challenge at first to keep track of all nine characters. This is less of a problem as the individual situations and personalities become more distinguishable. Happily, Stafford includes an epilogue that brings us up to date with his characters since the war. This is as rare as it is welcome. Not surprisingly, all of them were deeply marked by their wartime experiences.
But not all of them necessarily saw it as a turning point in their lives. Robert Ellis, for instance, went on to receive a master’s degree from the University of Chicago, then had a successful career with the CIA for twenty-eight years. Apparently, the war was only a brief interruption for him—though it made him “embittered” and “ambivalent” in many ways. A common theme in Ellis’s memoirs, as in many others, is the uncertainty over whether the war’s outcome was “worth the price paid.” The answer, of course, depends on the perspective of the person asking the question.
Readers who enjoyed Cornelius Ryan’s classic works will also like Endgame, 1945. The history of the Second World War, like any history, is more than the sum of its parts. But Stafford provides us with some pretty important parts in a superbly written account.
Originally published in the July 2008 issue of World War II Magazine. To subscribe, click here.
