A Genius For War. The German Army and General Staff, 1807-1945

414 Pages·1977·66.119 MB·English

by  Trevor N. Dupuy

/
GEIMAN ARMY
TIE
Colonel T. N. Dupuy, usA, Ret.
ANI GENEUL
SIAFF,
1807
-1945
AT. N. DUPUY ASSOCIATES BOOK
PRENTICE-HALL, INC., ENGLEWOOD CLIFFS, N.J.
Acknowledgment is made forpermission to reprint maps from
the followingworks:
On page 157, from Winston S. Churchill's The WorldCrisis,
Vol. VI, 1931, reprinted by permission ofCharlesScribner's
Sons, New York.
On pages 14, 71, 78, 111, 161, from R. R. SeUman'sv4 Student's
AtlasofModernHistory, 1952, reprinted by permission of
Edward Arnold, Ltd., London
A Geniusfor War: The GermanArmy and GeneralStaff 1807-1945,
,
byColonelT. N. Dupuy, USA, Ret.
Copyright ©1977 by T. N. Dupuy
Allrightsreserved. No part ofthisbook may be
reproduced in any form orby any means, except
for the inclusion ofbriefquotations in areview,
without permission inwriting from the pubUshers.
Printed in the United States ofAmerica
Prentice-Hall ofCanada, Ltd., Toronto
Prentice-Hall ofJapan, Inc., Tokyo
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
LibraryofCongressCataloging inPublication Data
Dupuy,Trevor Nevitt
A genius for war.
Bibhography: p.
Includes index.
1. Germany-History, Military-19th century.
2. Germany-History, Military-20th century. 3. Germany.
Heer-History. 4. Prussia. Armee-History. I. Title.
DD103.D86 355.3'0943 77-22263
ISBN 0-13-351114-6
7
CONTENTS
Acknowledgments ix
Prologue - The Riddle of 1944 1
ChapterOne
The Inconsistent Myths 7
Chapter Two
Frederick the Great & the Prussian Army 12
Chapter Three
The Reformers & Their New Army 1
ChapterFour
Reform & Reaction; Marriage of Convenience 37
ChapterFive
Institutionalizing Military Excellence 44
ChapterSix
The Prussian Army & the General Staff: Mid-Century 54
ChapterSeven
Moltke Takes Command 70
ChapterEight
The General Staff: The Franco-Prussian War 89
ChapterNine
Avoiding the Nemesis in Warfare 110
Chapter Ten
The Schlieffen Plan: Failure in Perfection 128
ChapterEleven
Trenches, Barbed Wire & Defeat 148
Chapter Twelve
Picking Up the Pieces:
Groener, Seeckt & the General Staff 181
Chapter Thirteen
Clandestine Recovery: the Seeckt Era 200
ChapterFourteen
Into the Nazi Abyss 223
ChapterFifteen
Victories & Defeat 253
ChapterSixteen
Less Than Supermen 290
ChapterSeventeen
The Institution of Excellence 300
Epilogue
Some ImpUcations 308
Appendices:
A. Chronology 314
B. The Pohtical & Mihtary Leadership
of Prussia-Germany, 1808-1945 319
C. German Performance in World War I 328
D. A Defense of Schleicher 333
E. German Performance in World War II 336
F. Haider the Enigma 344
Bibliography 347
Index 353