Plunder

From the acclaimed, best-selling historian, a gripping chronicle of the last months of World War II in the European theater.

By 1945, it was obvious that World War II was coming to an end. But the death toll—and the resistance of many Germans—was shocking: The Nazis suffered more losses in the final months of fighting than at any other period. Plunder begins with the planned British crossing of the Rhine in 1945, named “Operation Plunder,” and describes what happened to the millions of soldiers and civilians caught up in what became a continent-wide maelstrom. From the heinous attempts of the Germans to conceal the horrors of the concentration camps, including Bergen-Belsen, to disastrous Allied campaigns led by George Patton and Lord Mountbatten, acclaimed historian Max Hastings depicts the chaos and, in some cases, lesser-known heroism of the war’s final episodes on the Western Front. In enthralling detail, Plunder is an unforgettable portrait of victory and defeat as World War II came to a close.