Hitler’s Imperfect Victories

Book excerpt: A comprehensive analysis of Hitler’s role as the supreme military leader of the Third Reich across all the major campaigns. There have been many books on Adolf Hitler and specific military campaigns and battles during the time of the Third Reich. However, there has never been a comprehensive analysis of Hitler’s role as the supreme military leader of the Third Reich across all the major campaigns. He combined every senior position in government and the armed forces until he was at the same time Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces, Chancellor, Minister of War and Commander-in-Chief of the Army. He was involved in every aspect of the German war effort including new weapons development. How well did he perform these roles? He called himself a genius and was described as ”the greatest German military leader of all time” by one of his most senior military leaders – was he? What does the evidence show? This book analyses each of the Third Reich’s military campaigns paying special attention to Hitler’s role in them. The book is based entirely on the evidence of the most senior military personnel who were there at the time, from their contemporaneous diaries and subsequent writings. The sources used include the diaries and recollections of three Chiefs of the Army General Staff, Field-Marshals Rommel, von Rundstedt, von Bock, von Kliest, von Manstein, numerous other senior generals, Hitler’s military adjutants, ministers of his government and evidence from the Trial of the Major War Criminals at Nuremberg. Is there a consistent thread in this evidence? The first Volume is called Imperfect Victories and deals with the Polish, Scandinavian and French campaigns.