The Greatest Battles in History: The Battle of Verdun
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The Greatest Battles in History: The Battle of Verdun
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Narrated by:
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Richard Wayne Stageman
About this listen
The names of history's most famous battles still ring in our ears today, their influence immediately understood by all. Marathon lent its name to the world's most famous race, but it also preserved Western civilization during the First Persian War. Saratoga, won by one of the colonists' most renowned war heroes before he became his nation's most vile traitor. Hastings ensured the Normans' success in England and changed the course of British history. Waterloo, which marked the reshaping of the European continent and Napoleon's doom, has now become part of the English lexicon. In Charles River Editors' Greatest Battles in History series, listeners can get caught up to speed on history's greatest battles in the time it takes to finish a commute, while learning interesting facts long forgotten or never known.
It is difficult to overemphasize the importance of the Battle of Verdun. For the French, it possesses a grim significance which endures to this day - the churned, furrowed earth of the battlefield still visible a century later a stark reminder of waste of life, strategic failure and tactical inadequacy on a monumental scale. For the German people, had it not been eclipsed by the shame and horror of Nazism and the Holocaust, it would doubtless carry equal importance.
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3 out of 5 stars
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Good enough
- By Val Shebeko on 05-28-15
By: Lloyd Clark
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Korsun Pocket
- The Encirclement and Breakout of a German Army in the East, 1944
- By: Niklas Zetterling, Anders Frankson
- Narrated by: Dick Hill
- Length: 12 hrs and 26 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 89
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Performance4 out of 5 stars 81
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Story4 out of 5 stars 81
During the second half of 1943, after the failure at Kursk, Germany’s Army Group South fell back from Russia under repeated hammer blows from the Red Army. Under Erich von Manstein, however, the Germans were able to avoid serious defeats, while at the same time fending off Hitler’s insane orders to hold on to useless territory. Then, in January 1944, a disaster happened.
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5 out of 5 stars
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A wonderful historical narative
- By Joseph on 04-16-13
By: Niklas Zetterling, and others
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A Dark and Bloody Ground: The Hurtgen Forest and the Roer River Dams, 1944-1945
- By: Edward G. Miller
- Narrated by: Peter Hassinger
- Length: 9 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 47
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Performance4 out of 5 stars 46
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 44
victorious American army, having driven through Belgium almost unopposed, ran head-on into German soldiers on their own home ground, in some of the most rugged country in western Germany - and at the beginning of the worst fall and winter weather in decades.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Gripping story of a little known corner of WW2.
- By The Bookwyrm Speaks on 09-24-16
By: Edward G. Miller
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How Great Generals Win
- By: Bevin Alexander
- Narrated by: James Slattery
- Length: 10 hrs and 19 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 358
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 273
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 271
Throughout history great generals have done what their enemies have least expected. Instead of direct, predictable attack, they have deceived, encircled, outflanked, out-thought, and triumphed over often superior armies commanded by conventional thinkers.
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2 out of 5 stars
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The Problem with Case-Study-Centric Analysis
- By Horace on 03-30-14
By: Bevin Alexander
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Three Armies on the Somme
- The First Battle of the Twentieth Century
- By: William Philpott
- Narrated by: James Adams
- Length: 26 hrs and 29 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 84
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Performance4 out of 5 stars 77
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Story4 out of 5 stars 77
On July 1, 1916, British and French forces launched the first attack on the German armies lined up along the Somme in what was to become the defining battle of World War I. To this day, July 1 is often remembered for being the bloodiest day in British military history. Indeed, the British suffered some 62,000 casualties in that one day of fighting alone. As gruesome as that statistic is, it's just one of the many dark legacies left by the Somme Offensive.
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4 out of 5 stars
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An insightful and exhaustive analysis of the Somme
- By Anthony on 06-07-12
By: William Philpott
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Okinawa
- The Last Battle
- By: Roy E. Appleman, James MacGregor Burns, Russell A. Gugeler, and others
- Narrated by: Joe Barrett
- Length: 15 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 43
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 39
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 38
On 1 April, 1945, the largest amphibious assault of the Pacific Theater began. The battle for the island of Okinawa would last for the next 82 days. Through the course of this dramatic battle, over 20,000 Americans would lose their lives, and over 75,000 Japanese were killed in one of the bloodiest clashes of World War II. Okinawa: The Last Battle is a remarkably detailed account of this monumental event by four soldiers who witnessed the action first-hand.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Good Okinawa History
- By Derail on 03-10-20
By: Roy E. Appleman, and others
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The Tank Killers
- A History of America's World War II Tank Destroyer Force
- By: Harry Yeide
- Narrated by: Bob Souer
- Length: 9 hrs and 24 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 173
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 149
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 148
The Tank Killers follows the men who fought in the tank destroyers from the formation of the force in 1941 through the victory over the Third Reich in 1945. It is a story of the American Tank Destroyer Force in North Africa, Italy, and the European Theater during World War II, and of American flexibility and pragmatism in military affairs.
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3 out of 5 stars
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Dry and without detail
- By Vernon D. Burt on 08-06-18
By: Harry Yeide
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The Battle of the Somme: A Captivating Guide to One of the Most Devastating Events of the First World War That Took Place on the Western Front
- By: Captivating History
- Narrated by: Colin Fluxman
- Length: 1 hr and 32 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall5 out of 5 stars 22
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Performance5 out of 5 stars 20
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Story4 out of 5 stars 20
The Battle of the Somme was a significant battle for all those who took part, but it was especially important for the British because it was the first time in World War One that they were forced to shoulder the main responsibility for an offensive, and they did not have enough time to fully prepare for the assault.
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5 out of 5 stars
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tragic tale told by a master.
- By WalterZamora on 09-05-19
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The Last Battle
- Victory, Defeat, and the End of World War I
- By: Peter Hart
- Narrated by: Julian Elfer
- Length: 13 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 59
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 55
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 54
Much has been made of - and written about - August 1914. There has been comparatively little focus on August 1918 and the lead-up to November. Because of the fixation on the Great War's opening moves and the great battles that followed over the course of the next four years, the endgame seems to come as a stunning anticlimax. At the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month of 1918, the guns simply fell silent. The Last Battle definitively corrects this misperception. As Hart shows, a number of factors precipitated the Armistice.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Is it over yet?
- By Rick B on 11-17-20
By: Peter Hart
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A Storm in Flanders
- The Ypres Salient, 1914-1918: Tragedy and Triumph on the Western Front
- By: Winston Groom
- Narrated by: David Baker
- Length: 10 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 628
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 555
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 555
Novelist and prizewinning historian Winston Groom's gripping history of the four-year battle for Ypres in Belgian Flanders, the pivotal engagement of World War I that would forever change the way the world fought - and thought about - war. This is Groom's account of what would become the most dreaded place on Earth.
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5 out of 5 stars
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I love, love, love this book!
- By Amazon Customer on 08-16-16
By: Winston Groom
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Case Red
- The Collapse of France
- By: Robert Forczyk
- Narrated by: Michael Page
- Length: 14 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 172
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 154
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 153
Even after the legendary evacuation from Dunkirk in June 1940 there were still large British formations fighting the Germans alongside their French allies. After mounting a vigorous counterattack at Abbeville and then engaging a tough defense along the Somme, the British were forced to conduct a second evacuation from the ports of Le Havre, Cherbourg, Brest, and St. Nazaire. Case Red captures the drama of the final three weeks of military operations in France in June 1940.
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2 out of 5 stars
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Not Forczyk's best offering
- By S.C. James on 01-30-18
By: Robert Forczyk
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Retribution
- The Soviet Reconquest of Central Ukraine, 1943-44
- By: Prit Buttar
- Narrated by: Matthew Waterson
- Length: 17 hrs and 51 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 136
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 122
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 123
Making use of the extensive memoirs of German and Russian soldiers to bring their story to life, the narrative follows on from On A Knife's Edge, which described the encirclement and destruction of the German Sixth Army at Stalingrad and the offensives and counter-offensives that followed throughout the winter of 1942-43.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Solid, substantial military storytelling
- By Rodney W. Schmisseur on 12-21-19
By: Prit Buttar
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The Somme
- The Darkest Hour on the Western Front
- By: Peter Hart
- Narrated by: Mark Ashby
- Length: 20 hrs and 13 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 641
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 565
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 566
The Somme: these words conjure the image of war rigidly fought by traditional means even when catastrophe clearly loomed. Relying on personal testimonies never before published, this study of those who survived the first day of battle (July 1, 1916) captures this epic conflagration from all angles. Follow the action as soldiers crawl across No Man’s Land in the face of German guns, struggle with the conditions in the trenches, and survey the scene from the air as the RFC tries to control the skies above the battlefield.
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2 out of 5 stars
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Harrowing Story Badly Produced
- By Bob on 02-15-14
By: Peter Hart
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Sons of Freedom
- The Forgotten American Soldiers Who Defeated Germany in World War I
- By: Geoffrey Wawro
- Narrated by: Geoffrey Wawro
- Length: 20 hrs and 19 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 61
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Performance4 out of 5 stars 53
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 54
The American contribution to World War I is one of the great stories of the 20th century, and yet it has all but vanished from view. Historians have dismissed the American war effort as largely economic and symbolic. But as Geoffrey Wawro shows in Sons of Freedom, the French and British were on the verge of collapse in 1918 and would have lost the war without the Doughboys. A major revision of the history of World War I, Sons of Freedom resurrects the brave heroes who saved the Allies, defeated Germany, and established the US as the greatest of the great powers.
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1 out of 5 stars
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Don't let authors narrate.
- By Bramante on 01-25-19
By: Geoffrey Wawro
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Breakout from Juno
- First Canadian Army and the Normandy Campaign, July 4 - August 21, 1944
- By: Mark Zuehlke
- Narrated by: Dan Woren
- Length: 15 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 34
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Performance4 out of 5 stars 32
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 32
The ninth book in the Canadian Battle Series, Breakout from Juno, is the first dramatic chronicling of Canada's pivotal role throughout the entire Normandy Campaign following the D-Day landings.
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2 out of 5 stars
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Disappointing narration and geography
- By Gary on 04-13-14
By: Mark Zuehlke
What listeners say about The Greatest Battles in History: The Battle of Verdun
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall1 out of 5 stars
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Performance1 out of 5 stars
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Story1 out of 5 stars
- Sean F. Norton
- 02-09-16
Execrable reading.
Would you ever listen to anything by Charles River Editors again?
No.
Would you be willing to try another one of Richard Wayne Stageman’s performances?
No.
Any additional comments?
I had hoped this would be a helpful brief overview of this historical tragedy, but the social and chronological contextualization is so perfunctory that it might as well not have been included at all. What you are presented with is a litany of military mumbo jumbo that might help a first year cadet at a military academy prep for a quiz on industrial siege warfare, but it is of little interest to the civilian reader. The reader is horrendous, mispronouncing words many Americans know how to pronounce, and interpreting the text with an awkward rising and falling of pitch--it is almost as if the reader thought the entire book was in French, rather an a few place and personal names. The worst book I have ever purchased from Audible.
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