Book Review: Imagining Nuclear War in the British Army, 1945-1989 by Simon J. Moody

fortresses against the Soviet tide. The concept of the ‘fortress city’ had originated on the Eastern front. Though ultimately unsuccessful there, the Nazi leadership and Wehrmacht commands hoped it could now prevail thanks to the supposed practical benefits of fighting on home soil. These included the ability to harness a ‘battle community’ encompassing civilians also, whether by deploying them in home guard units or via other measures. Willems argues that although the fortress strategy was unrealistic, it was also rational; he thus challenges assertions that theWehrmacht was actively facilitating a conscious choreography of self-destruction during the war’s final months. Willems’ study employs copious, varied empirical evidence encompassing official and personal-level material drawn from the German federal military archive in Germany, from Kaliningrad, and from sources from the city that found their way into the west during the immediate post-war period before being housed in Duisburg. It is original, analytically rigorous, and engagingly written. It significantly deepens and refines understanding of the Third Reich’s collapse and of the Wehrmacht’s role within it, and deserves attention from specialists and students alike.