This fascinating collection of primary source accounts focuses on the combat actions of the Wehrmacht in the final battles of the war. The material is drawn from a variety of wartime sources and encompasses fascinating writings concerning the tactical, operational and strategic aspects of the battle for Berlin. Compiled and edited by Emmy Award winning author and historian Bob Carruthers, this absorbing assembly of primary source intelligence reports encompasses rare material originally drawn from both German and Russian original sources to provide the reader with a unique insight into the last battles in the east. This is the unvarnished reality of what it meant to fight in this titanic struggle to the death.??Featured in the book are reports concerning little known and neglected tactical aspects of the war including weapons, street fighting techniques and improvised anti-tank measures. Original illustrations from US wartime intelligence manuals are also featured. This compelling compilation is essential for readers with an interest in discovering more about the last days of the Wehrmacht from a range of unusual and diverse primary sources.

Richard Wagner's fifteen-hour operatic cycle The Ring of the Nibelung ends with this great music drama. Michael Tanner's essay tackles the scale and meaning not just of this work but of Wagner's whole undertaking, showing that Goetterdaemmerung is - for all its length - his fastest-moving drama. Composer Robin Holloway brings the focus of creative genius to his discussion of the score, while Christopher Winkle's article analyses Brunnhilde's concluding monologue. The ninety numbered musical themes of the Thematic Guide are cross-referenced to the other Ring guides.Contents: An Introduction to the End, Michael Tanner; Motif, Memory and Meaning in 'Twilight of the Gods', Robin Holloway; The Questionable Lightness of Being: Brunnhilde's Peroration to 'The Ring', Christopher Wintle; Goetterdaemmerung: Poem by Richard Wagner; Twilight of the Gods: English translation by Andrew Porter

For the title of this book, author Stefan Engel employs an allegory from German mythology: in the götterdämmerung, the "twilight of the gods", the end of the world engulfs the worn-out gods of an antiquated age, and out of the world conflagration grows an admirable new world of peace an full, joyous live. The parallel with the decline of the present ruling stratum of world society and the preparation of a new future well worth living is intended! The book wrests this vision from the realm of mythology and places it on a scientific foundation. It conveys a perspective to all those for whom the götterdämmerung of ruling world finance capital does not signify the end of history but the starting point for an new epoch of the social develooment of humanity - without hunger, exploitation and war.

Despite the fact that he had been trying to withdraw from the world of finance since the early 1980s, Harry's karma always presented situations that managed to keep him in the game. The common thread to these ongoing business dealings now seems, in one way or another, to represent a form of a breach of contract ' either by private parties or the Government. After retiring from a highly successful executive career in the industrial sector, Peggy has now joined Harry to help him fight his way out of his assorted entanglements. Here in Volume IV, we see how these situations evolved and how they are dealt with in a world gone wild with excessive debt creation and social engineering. Throughout it all, Harry and Peggy manage to find comedy in all this social and financial tragedy by treating the whole mess as though it were a soap opera.

Final battles on the Eastern Front during the months of January through May 1945 of World War II.