Hitler's Generals - Hardcover

Correlli Barnett is the author of many distinguished books, among them The Desert Generals, The Sword Bearers and The Collapse of British Power. Since 1977 he has been Keeper of the Churchill Archives Centre and a Fellow of Churchill College, Cambridge. From 1973 to 1985 he was also a member of Council of the Royal United Services Institute for Defence Studies. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society for Literature and of the Royal Historical Society.

"An expertly edited compilation of biographies of the generals who brought Hitler his greates military successes ...An exhaustive portrait." --Frickensmith Review Of Books

This excellent book makes fascinating reading. Previously, I had regarded most German generals as automatons, blindly obeying the increasingly mad orders of their Führer to the bitter end. Having read this book I am now much better informed concerning the inner conflict suffered by most of the generals, the active if unsuccessful opposition to Hitler in which many participated, and the illnesses and breakdowns that cognitive dissonance and a relentless work ethic dealt some of them. Correlli Barnett has done an admirable job of aligning the contributions of his 17 contributors, who between them cover the lives and careers of 26 of Hitler's top generals. Along the way they provide a refreshing perspective on the German war effort and give a glimpse of the human face of even some of the vilest Nazi leaders. If some contributors are perhaps too eager to portray their subjects in a positive light, such shortcomings are frequently corrected by other contributors' passing allusions to those same subjects. In terms of its breadth, consistency and level of interest, I would rate this book even more highly than John Keegan's attempt to cover "Churchill's Generals" in a similar compilation. --S. J. Moore

Corelli Barnett effectively edits this ambitious book, which is a compilation of essays by various historians concentrating on 26 of Hitler's Generals. His skill is to divide the various personalities into groups, from the deskbound administrators like Halder, overseers like Von Runstedt to the battlefield genius of Rommel and innovation of Guderian. Time and space constraints the profile of each General, but in every case much is made of, in virtually every case, their unstinting professionalism and more tragically, their total adherence, via the unswerving loyalty demanded by the Prussian officer "code", to the aims and objectives of the Fuhrer. This provides the most interesting aspect of the book, as it details each General's attitude to Hitler, which in virtually all cases with the exception of Model, was one of distaste. Some readers may find that certain essayists excoriate their subjects more than others, but the overall feeling throughout, as mentioned above, is one of tragic paralysis, cunningly created by Hitler's requirement that all officers swear an oath of loyalty to him, and his own natural ability to divide and rule. What comes across more than anything is a detailed construct of the demands required of a large Army, and in particular, whilst no doubt horribly immoral, the remarkable achievements in the field of a professional Army that threatened to conquer the whole of Eurasia. The Wehrmacht was without doubt the most disciplined, tactically superior mechanized force the world had ever seen, and this book proves to be a fascinating insight into its prime proponents. --Toby Frith