Book read: All Hell Let Loose by Max Hastings

Hastings has written many historical accounts of war, mainly books focusing on an operation of a certain aspect of a war.

This books takes on the ambitious task of describing all of the 1939-1945 era. It does so from a top down analysis of events and their relative context to the wider war, and also from individuals accounts to convey the events themselves.

It is a great combination, the book is long but well edited - each chapter is concentrated on a single campaign or war aspect.

Hastings is particularly dispassionate about the British contribution, praise where it is due but also bringing up the failures (mainly in the far east). He also leaves no doubt as to where the most brutal fighting was on the eastern front, and the fact the allies had lighter fighting, this perhaps more reflects the brutality of the eastern front than anything else.

The eyewitness accounts are well inserted, and sometimes harrowing and saddening to read - but form an important part of the story away from reeling off cold figures about the war.