The First Soldier: Hitler as Military Leader

493 Pages·2018·7.05 MB·English

by  Stephen G. Fritz

THE FIRST SOLDIER
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TH E F I R ST
SOLDI E R
Hitler as Military Leader
STEPHEN G. FRITZ
YALE UNIVERSITY PRESS
NEW HAVEN AND LONDON
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Copyright © 2018 Stephen G. Fritz
All rights reserved. This book may not be reproduced in whole or in part, in any form
(beyond that copying permitted by Sections 107 and 108 of the U.S. Copyright Law and
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Printed in Great Britain by TJ International Ltd, Padstow, Cornwall
Library of Congress Control Number: 2017963161
ISBN 978-0-300-20598-5 (hbk)
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
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I now wish to be nothing other than the first soldier of the German Reich.
Therefore I have put on that tunic which has always been the most holy and
dear to me. I shall not take it off again until victory is ours, or – I shall not
live to see the day!
Adolf Hitler, speech of 1 September 1939
announcing war with Poland
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Contents
List of Maps viii
List of Plates ix
Preface xii
1 Clausewitz, Hitler, and Absolute War 1
2 Emergence of the Idea 18
3 War in Peace 39
4 Blitzkrieg Unleashed 69
5 The Blitzkrieg Paradox 85
6 The Lure of Lebensraum 123
7 Barbarossa: The Last Blitzkrieg (June–August 1941) 157
8 Barbarossa: Catastrophe (September 1941–March 1942) 200
9 A World Power or Nothing at All (1942–3) 235
10 No Victory, No Peace (Summer 1943–4) 278
11 Never Again a November 1918 334
12 Hitler as Feldherr: An Assessment 364
Acknowledgments 376
Notes 378
Bibliography 410
Index 437
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Maps
1. Poland 1939 81
2. The Original OKH Plan, 19 October 1939, and Second 90
OKH Plan, 29 October 1939
3. Manstein’s Proposal, 31 October 1939, and Operational Plan, 95
May 1940
4. The Marcks Plan, 5 August 1940, and Lossberg Plan, 135
15 September 1940
5. Hitler’s Final Plan, 5 December 1940, and the OKH 142
Proposal, 5 December 1940
6. Operation Barbarossa Final Directive, 31 January 1941 149
7. Operation Barbarossa 163
8. France, August–September 1944 314
9. The Eastern Front, April 1944–February 1945 319
10. The Ardennes Offensive 339
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Plates
1. Hitler with comrades from the 16th Bavarian Reserve Infantry
Regiment. BArch, Bild 146-1974-082-44/o.Ang.
2. Hitler speaking to an enthusiastic crowd gathered at the Heldenplatz,
Vienna, 15 March 1938. BArch, Bild 183-1987-0922-500/o.Ang.
3. Neville Chamberlain’s return from Munich on 30 September 1938.
BArch, Bild 183-S61353/o.Ang.
4. German troops crossing the Meuse River, France, 14 May 1940. Ullstein
Bild Dt./Contributor/Ullstein Bild/Getty Images.
5. British prisoners at Dunkirk, France, June 1940. NARA 242-EB-7-35.
6. Hitler at the Eiffel Tower with Albert Speer and the sculptor Arno
Breker. NARA 242-HLB-5073-20.
7. Hitler at a situation conference with Keitel, Brauchitsch and Halder,
c. 1940–1. BArch, Bild 146-1971-070-61/o.Ang.
8. German troops from the Infantry Regiment “Großdeutschland” attack
a village in Russia, summer 1941. BArch Bild 146-1974-099-19/Kempe.
9. A German soldier saluting Colonel-General Heinz Guderian, Russia,
c. July–August 1941. BArch Bild 101I-139-1112-17/Ludwig Knobloch.
10. German troops pulling a stuck vehicle out of the mud, November 1941.
BArch Bild 146-1981-149-34A/o.Ang.
11. A German supply column struggles through the cold and snow during
the advance toward Moscow, 21 November 1941. BArch Bild 101I-
140-1226-06/Albert Cusian.
12. Hitler at a situation conference at Army Group South headquarters,
June 1942. BArch Bild 183-B24543/o.Ang.
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