Wikipedia:WikiProject Military history/News/March 2022/Book reviews




 * By Nick-D

As indicated by its title, this book discusses Adolf Hitler's performance as a warlord and commander of land forces during World War II. It was written by Stephen G. Fritz, an academic historian who has produced several books on Germany in World War II.

This is an interesting, but somewhat uneven, book. Fritz successfully demonstrates that until the end of 1941 Hitler's record as a military leader was at least as good as that of any German general. He shows that the generals frequently got things wrong, and Hitler was often able to identify the best option from those available. The discussion of the incompetence of the army's high command in the planning and execution of the invasion of the USSR is particularly interesting. It was clear from the outset that this was doomed to failure, yet none of the generals was willing to confront Hitler with this fact and the plans they put forward made a bad situation worse by failing to focus on clear goals. Fritz also demonstrates that Hitler generally made rational - but utterly immoral - decisions until about 1944, with many of the disasters during this period being the result of high-risk strategies Hitler adopted to try to turn around what he recognised was a failing war.

The book is less strong on the later years of the war. The level of detail is much less than that on the early years of the war, despite Hitler's role in personally directing the military increasing. His corruption of the military command, with the senior generals being rewarded with bribes of various kinds, is not discussed and nor is the terror he inflicted on senior officers and ordinary soldiers as the war effort collapsed from mid-1944. As a result, the book doesn't really address Hitler's role in keeping the generals and soldiers fighting what was plainly a lost war.

Overall though, this is an interesting and useful book on both Hitler and the German war effort.

Publishing details: