Walter Görlitz (1913–1991)

Written in the shadow of the hangman's noose and he knew it. Keitel frequently claims that Hitler kept him in the dark, obscured the political situation, did not let him make decisions, and duped him. He further adds that the Allies had several important opportunities before the fall of France in 1940 to attack Germany but failed to do so. Keitel defends his deputy General Alfred Jodl, who would also be hanged at Nuremberg. The last chapter was most interesting to me. He was in la-la land as the last days of the war wound down. Walter Gorlitz's introduction paints Keitel as an extremely talented staff officer and hard worker, a portrait quite at odds with the standing view that the Field Marshal (a title he claims he did not want or deserve) was, as Hitler described him, not intellectually fit to be a cinema usher. There are some good nuggets, such as Keitel's account of his discussion with French General Huntziger when the former signed the surrender document in 1940.… (altro)

An impressive book, and one that has held up well despite its age.

The author covers a wide scope of history with this book, starting off with royal officers attached to Prussia and Frederick the Great, then following up through the Napoleonic era, Moltke, Hindenburg and Ludendorff, the interwar era, and finally, almost the entire last half of the book on the 1930s and 1940s.

Very interesting look both at the political and military aspects of the General Staff, about its inner rivalries, and how it become the model for all modern major military institutions.… (altro)

I must admit that I have had this book nearly 50 years and I finally decided that I either needed to read it or get rid of it. This is not, I realize, the best attitude to have when starting to read a book but I was pleasantly surprised with the result. As the title says, it is a history of the German Army’s high command from the 17th Century, through the Napoleonic wars, the unification of the German Empire, the great defeat of World War I until the end of World War II (which also put an end to the GGS).
Some of it is a bit hard going, what with all the Germanic/Prussian names (most of the principals seem to be Vons—I counted 22 on one typical page of the index) but the book is quite well written and very interesting. I did not expect the odd bits of humor: On Prussia, the “monarchy was not a country that had an army, but an Army that had a country…” and when Hitler decided to get rid of some troublesome generals (most, in his opinion, were): “the astonished public was informed that the War Minister and the Commander in Chief of the Army had retired on grounds of health; nor were these the only ones who appeared to have been visited by unsuspected bodily infirmities. Indeed, a detached observer could not but conclude that an epidemic of some kind had broken out among high-ranking officers, so numerous were the older generals whose health had become suddenly afflicted.” About half the book is devoted to the rise of Hitler and World War II and includes a good deal of interesting detail about the General Staff’s multiple plots to overthrow Hitler.… (altro)