Accomplished historian?.
Hastings is a very over-rated journalist turned ‘historian’ (which he isn’t). His books claim to uncover/shatter myths, but in fact don’t say anything you cant read in much better books by actual UK military historians. They are meant for the mass market history audience.
He is no more an actual historian than Clarkson, who has made some (excellent) historical documentaries for the BBC.
Hasting’s work is OK, but there’s a much better crop of historians. John Keegan, Robert Conquest (for all thing’s Soviet), Paul Johnson, and Richard Overy.