CONTENTS PAGE Introduction v List of Illustrations X Author's Preface XII BOOK ONE THE ROAD TO DEFEAT PART I THE CAUSES CHAPTER I. Men Make Wars 1 II. Hitler 3 III. Discipline 8 IV. Ignorance 13 PART II THE BEGINNINGS V. The Wehrmacht is Reborn 21 VI. Hitler versus the German General Staff 25 VII. The Phoney War 33 VIII. Victory — and Defeat 39 PART III THE MISTAKES IX. The Early Mistakes — Gibraltar and Crete 54 X. The Greatest Mistake — Russia 60 XI. The Decisive Mistake — United States 74 XII. The Final Mistake — El Alamein 78 BOOK TWO DEFEAT IN THE WEST PART IV THE INVASION XIII. The Atlantic Wall and the Men Behind It 88 XIV. Watching and Waiting 95 XV. The First Days 100 XVI. The Battle of the Bridgehead 109 XVII. The German Soldier Still Hopes 116 PART V THE DECLINE XVIII. July Twentieth 122 XIX. Defeat in Normandy 136 XX. Mortain 145 XXI. The Hell of Falaise 148 XXII. Paris and the Seine 162 XXIII. The Retreat 177 XXIV. The Fortresses 187 XXV. Manning the Siegfried Line 202 PART VI THE COUNTERBLOW XXVI. Offensive in the Ardennes 222 XXVII. The Parachutists and the Saboteurs 235 XXVIII. Elation and Despair 248 XXIX. The Thunder of Collapse 253 PART VII THE END XXX. Defeat West of the Rhine 262 XXXI. Defeat East of the Rhine 277 XXXII. Resistance that Never Came 286 XXXIII. Defeat 294 XXXIV. The Vanquished 309 APPENDIX A Senior German Officers interviewed by the Author 320 APPENDIX B Bibliography 321 Notes 322 Index 330 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS Plate I. Field Marshal Werner von Blomberg with Colonel General Hans von Seeckt At a ceremony in Berlin in March 1935 are Field Marshal von Mackensen, Hitler and Field Marshal von Blomberg, Colonel General von Fritsch, Goring and Admiral Raeder Inspecting a guard during manoeuvres in August 1938 are Colonel General Blaskowitz, Field Marshal von Rundstedt, Field Marshal von Brauchitsch and Hitler Plate II. Colonel General Franz Haider, Chief-of-Staff of the German Army, September 1938 to September 1942 Field Marshal Fedor von Bock, Commander Army Group 'B' in France (1940)and Army Group South in Russia (1941-42) Colonel General Werner von Fritsch, Commander-in-Chief of the German Army, February 1934 to February 1938 Hitler and his field marshals, August 1940: Field Marshal Keitel, Field Marshal von Rundstedt, Field Marshal von Bock, Reichsmarshal Goring, Adolf Hitler, Field Marshal von Brauchitsch, Field Marshal von Leeb, Field Marshal List, Field Marshal von Kluge, Field Marshal von Witzleben and Field Marshal von Reichenau A STUDY IN VICTORY AND DEFEAT Plate III. Victorious Generals: Field Marshal von Rundstedt, Commander Army Group 'A' in France (1940), Army Group South in Russia (1941), Commander-in-Chief West (1942-45); Field Marshal von Leeb, Commander Army Group 'C' in France (1940), Army Group North in Russia (1941); Field Marshal List, Commander Army Group 'A' in the Caucasus (1942) Defeated Generals: Field Marshals von Rundstedt, von Leeb and List as prisoners-of-war Plate IV, Field Marshal Erwin Rommel, Commander 'Afrika Korps' (1941-43), Army Group 'B' in France (1944) Colonel General Kurt Student, Commander Army Group 'H' (1944-45), Commander-in-Chief German Airborne Troops (1943-45) Adolf Hitler congratulating Admiral Raeder, Field Marshal von Brauchitsch, Field Marshal Keitel and S.S. Reichsfiihrer Himmler at Berlin in April 1941 Plate V. S.S. Brigadefiihrer (Major General) Kurt Meyer, Commander 12 S.S. Panzer Division 'Hitler Jugend' General Gunther Blumentritt, Chief-of-Staff to the Commander-in-Chief West (1942-44), Commander Twenty-fifth Army and First Parachute Army (1945) Field Marshal Rommel in May 1944 inspecting 21 Panzer Division led by Lieutenant General Edgar Feuchtinger Plate VI. S.S. Oberstgruppenfiihrer (Colonel General)Joseph 'Sepp' Dietrich, Commander Fifth Panzer Army and SiXth S.S. Panzer Army Colonel General Heinz Guderian, Commander-in-Chief East (1944), Chief-of-Staff of the German Army, July 1944 to May 1945 Field Marshal Walter Model, Commander Army Group North and Army Group Center in Russia (1944), Army Group 'B' in France (1944-45) Colonel General Ludwig Beck, Chief-of-Staff of the German Army (1936-38), and military leader of the 20 July assassination plot against Hitler Plate VII. Field Marshal Gunther von Kluge, Army Group Center in Russia (1943), Commander-in-Chief West (July-August 1944) Field Marshal Albert Kesselring, Commander-in-Chief South (1942-43), Commander-in-Chief South-west (1944-45), Commander-in-Chief West (March-May 1945) Colonel General Alfred Jodi signing the surrender terms on behalf of the German Supreme Command at Rheims on 7 May 1945. At the eXtreme right is Admiral Hans von Friedeburg Plate VIII. Wehrmacht (rear view), Nuremberg, September 1936 Wehrmacht (front view). The Elbe, May 1945 (These plates, which are all in one Section, will be found following page 144.) MAPS The Invasion That Never Came 45 (September 1940) The Normandy Bridgehead 117 (29 June 1944) The Falaise Pocket 159 (19 August 1944) The Retreat from France 181 (17 September 1944) The Ardennes Offensive 227 (24 December 1944) The Allied Advance to the Rhine 273 (February-March 1945) The Final Collapse 285 (April-May 1945) Digitized by Google.

Bibliography: p. 321. Bibliographical references in "Notes" (p. 322-330)

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