''The Last Battle'' is a 1966 book by

Cornelius Ryan Cornelius Ryan (5 June 1920 – 23 November 1974) was an Irish-American journalist and author known mainly for writing popular military history. He was especially known for his histories of World War II events: '' The Longest Day: 6 June 1944 D- ...

about the events leading up to the Battle of Berlin in

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

. The book, which was published by

Simon & Schuster Simon & Schuster () is an American publishing company and a subsidiary of Paramount Global. It was founded in New York City on January 2, 1924 by Richard L. Simon and M. Lincoln Schuster. As of 2016, Simon & Schuster was the third largest pu ...

, is structured as an historical narrative. It is based on interviews with hundreds of persons actually involved, including Americans, British, Germans and Russians. Ryan was granted unique historical access to Soviet archives and Soviet generals involved in the battle, which was rare at the time."Book--Authors". - ''

New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

''. - December 22, 1965. The book was published simultaneously in the United Kingdom, France, West Germany, Italy, Spain, Norway, Denmark, Sweden, the Netherlands, Finland and Portugal, when it appeared in March 1966.

Reception

''The Last Battle'' made news at the time it was published. The book revealed that the German capture of a top-secret Allied plan for dividing and occupying Germany (Operation Eclipse) helped stiffen German resistance and prolonged World War II. Also receiving publicity were assertions of an American general quoted in the book, General

William Hood Simpson General William Hood Simpson (May 18, 1888 – August 15, 1980) was a senior United States Army Officer (armed forces), officer who served with distinction in both World War I and World War II. He is best known for being the Commanding officer, ...

, commander of the

Ninth United States Army The Ninth Army is a field army of the United States Army, garrisoned at Caserma Ederle, Vicenza, Italy. It is the United States Army Service Component Command of United States Africa Command (USAFRICOM or AFRICOM). Activated just eight weeks bef ...

in World War II, that he is convinced his Army "could have captured Berlin well ahead of the Russians if it had not been stopped on the

Elbe River The Elbe (; cs, Labe ; nds, Ilv or ''Elv''; Upper Sorbian, Upper and dsb, Łobjo) is one of the major rivers of Central Europe. It rises in the Giant Mountains of the northern Czech Republic before traversing much of Bohemia (western half of ...

on 15 April 1945". The Soviet Communist Party newspaper ''

Pravda ''Pravda'' ( rus, Правда, p=ˈpravdə, a=Ru-правда.ogg, "Truth") is a Russian broadsheet newspaper, and was the official newspaper of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, when it was one of the most influential papers in the ...

'' accused Ryan of trying to smear the Red Army in his depiction of the Battle of Berlin. After Ryan's death, it was revealed that the author had written to the publisher of the works of

Stephen Ambrose Stephen Edward Ambrose (January 10, 1936 – October 13, 2002) was an American historian, most noted for his biographies of U.S. Presidents Dwight D. Eisenhower and Richard Nixon. He was a longtime professor of history at the University of New O ...

, accusing Ambrose of plagiarism: in September 1970, Ryan addressed a letter to Doubleday, alleging the use of two quotations from ''The Last Battle'' in the Eisenhower biography ''The Supreme Commander'' without proper attribution.Lewis, Mark.
"Dueling D-Day Authors, Ryan Versus Ambrose"
- ''

Forbes ''Forbes'' () is an American business magazine owned by Integrated Whale Media Investments and the Forbes family. Published eight times a year, it features articles on finance, industry, investing, and marketing topics. ''Forbes'' also r ...

''. - January 29, 2002.

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc., also known as Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures and abbreviated as MGM, is an American film, television production, distribution and media company owned by Amazon through MGM Holdings, founded on April 17, 1924 ...

planned a joint American-Soviet co-production film version to be released in 1968 but due to financial trouble experienced by the studio, the project was never produced.

References

1966 non-fiction books History books about World War II Works about the Battle of Berlin Simon & Schuster books {{Germany-hist-book-stub