Hitler's Soldiers: The German Army in the Third Reich

by Ben H. Shepherd

Overview

A penetrating study of the German army’s military campaigns, relations with the Nazi regime, and complicity in Nazi crimes across occupied Europe

For decades after 1945, it was generally believed that the German army, professional and morally decent, had largely stood apart from the SS, Gestapo, and other corps of the Nazi machine. Ben Shepherd draws on a wealth of primary sources and recent scholarship to convey a much darker, more complex picture. For the first time, the German army is examined throughout the Second World War, across all combat theaters and occupied regions, and from multiple perspectives: its battle performance, social composition, relationship with the Nazi state, and involvement in war crimes and military occupation.
 
This was a true people’s army, drawn from across German society and reflecting that society as it existed under the Nazis. Without the army and its conquests abroad, Shepherd explains, the Nazi regime could not have perpetrated its crimes against Jews, prisoners of war, and civilians in occupied countries. The author examines how the army was complicit in these crimes and why some soldiers, units, and higher commands were more complicit than others. Shepherd also reveals the reasons for the army’s early battlefield successes and its mounting defeats up to 1945, the latter due not only to Allied superiority and Hitler’s mismanagement as commander-in-chief, but also to the failings—moral, political, economic, strategic, and operational—of the army’s own leadership.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780300228809
Publisher:	Yale University Press
Publication date:	09/26/2017
Edition description:	Reprint
Pages:	664
Sales rank:	502,889
Product dimensions:	5.40(w) x 8.50(h) x 1.50(d)

About the Author

Ben H. Shepherd is reader in history, Glasgow Caledonian University. He lives in Glasgow, UK.

Table of Contents

Preface vii

Introduction ix

Part I Military Ascent, Moral Decline

1 The Army in the New Reich, 1933-36 3

2 The Road to War, 1936-39 22

Part II Triumph and Hubris

3 Poland, 1939-40 45

4 'Sitzkrieg', 1939-40 61

5 The Greatest Victory, 1940 72

6 Occupying the West, 1940-41 89

7 Planning Operation Barbarossa, 1940-41 110

8 Barbarossa Unleashed, 1941 134

Part III Losing the Initiative

9 Barbarossa Undone, 1941 161

10 Resistance and Reaction, 1941: Western Europe and Southeast Europe 190

11 Winter Crisis, 1941-42 203

12 The Desert War, 1941-42 219

13 Southern Russia and Stalingrad, 1942-43 242

14 Faces of Occupation, 1942-43: The Soviet Union 274

15 Faces of Occupation, 1942-43: Western Europe and Southeast Europe 297

16 The Initiative Lost, 1943 317

Part IV Beleaguered

17 Takeover in Southern Europe, 1943-44 341

18 The Eastern Front, 1943-44: The Ostheer Retreats 356

19 The Eastern Front, 1943-44: The Frontsoldat Endures 376

20 Italy, 1943-44 397

21 Fortress Europe Breached, 1943-44 418

Part V Defeat, Destruction and Self-Destruction

22 The Greatest Defeat, 1944 435

23 The Army 'Recovers', 1944-45 468

24 The Army Self-Destructs, 1945 497

Conclusion 521

Acknowledgements 537

Appendices 539

Appendix I Table of Acronyms 541

Appendix II Glossary of German Phrases 543

Appendix III Table of Equivalent Ranks 548

Appendix IV Figures 550

Appendix V Maps 554

Notes 555

Bibliography 604

Index 616

Notes on Illustrations 636

Editorial Reviews

"Excellent . . . An admirable study."—Nicholas Stargardt, Wall Street Journal

"An engaging investigation of the German army’s complex relationship with the Third Reich. The author, the Glasgow academic Ben Shepherd, does a sterling job of boiling down the 12 years of Nazi Germany to produce an accessible account of the Faustian pact entered into by German generals . . ."—Roger Moorhouse, Times

From the Publisher

“Highly readable and with great narrative scope, this is an excellent starting-point for anyone who wishes to have a broad overview of WWII from the German military point of view."—Robert Carver, Military History Monthly 

Military History Month - Robert Carver

“An engaging investigation of the German army’s complex relationship with the Third Reich. The author, the Glasgow academic Ben Shepherd, does a sterling job of boiling down the 12 years of Nazi Germany to produce an accessible account of the Faustian pact entered into by German generals…”—Roger Moorhouse, Times (London)

Times (London) - Roger Moorhouse

“Shepherd has written a comprehensive history of the 20th century’s most formidable fighting machine. It is also an unanswerable indictment of the moral cowardice and arrogance of an officer corps who sold their souls to Hitler and allowed him to lead them and their beloved country into the abyss.”—Nigel Jones, BBC History

BBC History Magazine - Nigel Jones

“Excellent. . . . An admirable study.”—Nicholas Stargardt, Wall Street Journal

Wall Street Journal - Nicholas Stargardt