Mr Beevor is keener than Mr Hastings on detailing the horror. He is particularly vivid in describing the barbarities that became commonplace during the carnage on the Eastern front. Frozen German corpses littering the battlefield were frequently missing their legs, not because they had been blown off, but because Red Army soldiers wanted their boots and could only pull them off after the legs had been defrosted over camp fires. Outside the besieged city of Leningrad, amputated limbs were stolen from field hospitals and bodies snatched from mass graves as a source of food. Within the city, 2,000 people were arrested for cannibalism. Those most at risk were children, who were eaten by their own parents.

安东尼·比弗也比马克斯·哈斯丁花了更多笔墨详细描述二战所带来的恐惧。他对士兵暴行的描述特别生动，后来这些暴行在东部战线的大屠杀中司空见惯。冻僵的德军尸体遍布战场，其中很多没有腿，但那不是被炸掉的，而是苏联红军想要德军的靴子，但不用火烤脱不下来。在被包围的列宁格勒外，战地医院中被截下来的腿被人偷走，尸体被人争相从乱葬岗中挖出来果腹。在列宁格勒，有2000人因吃人而被捕。受害者大多是被父母吃掉的小孩。

The cruelties perpetrated by the Japanese against civilians in China (Mr Beevor sees the Sino-Japanese conflict that began with the Nanking massacre in 1937 as the true opening chapter of the second world war) and any of the countries unfortunate enough to come within the “Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere” were nearly as systematic as any of the crimes committed by the Nazis. Japanese commanders actively encouraged the dehumanisation of their troops in the belief it would make them more formidable. Prisoners were burned on huge pyres in their thousands and killing local people for meat was officially sanctioned.

日军在中国（安东尼·比弗视1937年南京大屠杀后开始的中日军事冲突为第二次世界大战的真正开端）以及其他不幸被他们纳入所谓“大东亚共荣圈”的国家对无辜平民犯下的暴行与德国纳粹的行径一样是有组织有系统的战争罪行。日军的司令积极鼓励士兵采取灭绝人性的行动，相信这样会使士兵更加勇猛。数千战俘在大柴堆上被烧死，杀死本地人取其肉为食的行为也得到日本军方的认可。

Mr Beevor also gives more attention than Mr Hastings to the appalling acts of violence suffered by women when invading armies arrived. Again, it was the Japanese who set about mass-rape with methodical zeal. Hundreds of thousands of Chinese and Korean girls were press-ganged into becoming “comfort women”; 10,000 women were gang-raped after the fall of Hong Kong. But revenge-fuelled Red Army soldiers were little better. Soviet forces looting and pillaging their way through East Prussia on their way to Berlin raped around 2m women and girls.

同样，安东尼·比弗也比马克斯·哈斯丁更关注妇女在侵略军到来时所遭受的残忍对待。日军还犯下了有组织有计划的大规模强奸妇女的罪行。数十万的中国和韩国女孩被强征为“慰安妇”；香港沦陷后有一万名妇女被轮奸。不过，为报仇而来的苏联红军也没好到哪去。苏联军队穿过东普鲁士前往柏林时，一路抢掠，还强奸了近两百万名妇女。

This is, however, a less satisfying book than Mr Beevor’s earlier, more focused works. There is an unevenness of quality. The author has a tremendous grasp of the things he has written about before, in particular the titanic struggle between Hitler and Stalin. But he is dutiful rather than exhilarating when dealing with some other passages and theatres of the war. The account of the campaign in north Africa plods, and American readers may be disappointed by his handling of the war in the Pacific. The battle of Midway, arguably the defining naval engagement between Japan and America, gets two pages. At other times, there is too much detail: a succession of generals, armies and battles come and go. Second world war anoraks and students of military history will get more of what they are looking for from Mr Beevor, but less committed readers will find Mr Hastings’s work easier to get to grips with and a better read. Is there room for both books? Absolutely.

不过这本书并不如安东尼·比弗之前的那些内容更为集中的著作，这本书的内容质量参差不齐。安东尼·比弗对他以前所写的主题钻研得十分透彻，尤其是希特勒和斯大林之间的剧烈争斗。不过在处理一些其他章节和战区时，他只是尽了提到的责任，并没有写得出彩。他描写北非战役的笔墨十分沉重，而美国读者可能会他所写的太平洋战争感到失望。被公认为日美两国战事转捩点的中途岛战役只占了两页的篇幅，一些其他内容的细节却太多：一连串的将领、军队和战役如走马灯似地出现。二战发烧友和学军事史的学生会在安东尼·比弗的书中找到更多他们想要的东西，但没那么狂热的读者会觉得马克斯·哈斯丁的书更容易理解，读起来更舒服。能不能两本一起看？当然没问题。