Hitler Adolf - Hitlers last days : the death of the Nazi regime and the worlds most notorious dictator

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I do not see why man should not be just as cruel as nature.

ADOLF HITLER

I THINK IT FAIR TO SAY that people who make history are some of the boldest people to have ever walked the earth. Researching and writing about them can be sobering, time consuming, and full of discovery.

Working on this book was a journey. It began in the German town of Heidelberg, with a visit to the hospital room at Nachrichten Kaserne where General George S. Patton died. It also included many conversations with the personal staff and others close to Adolf Hitler. Some of this was a straightforward dig into various archives, museums, and official U.S. Army battlefield histories. But it didnt just involve reading published works. It involved speaking and corresponding with descendants of those who were actually there like Hitlers secretary. Hitlers former clerks verified his last days with vivid portrayals in German. I talked with the grandchildren and learned about his crazy hour-by-hour situation and the extreme measures he took to stay alert, like cocaine eyedrops. The search for information led to local historians, to Luxembourg, and to Germanynothing was left unexplored.

Adolf Hitler is modern historys best-known evil ruler and murderer, so to step inside his world is frightening, to say the least. From his early days as chancellor of Germany to his last days as Fhrer before his suicide, Hitlers lifeand deathwere filled with senseless violence. But this is not just a story about the worlds most notorious dictator. Its a story about the last six months of World War II, and the chaos and brutality that characterized this period of history. It is a story about the people who foughtthe flesh-and-blood men and women who laid down their lives in this great tragedy. And its about the military leaders who strategized and maneuvered to bring the war to a close. In this book, they arent just famous people to study; they are human beings.

Hitlers Last Days is ultimately a story about a struggle for power. And with that, I put you right in the bunker.

Bill OReilly

New York

UNITED STATES

Creighton Abrams: Lieutenant colonel, commander of U.S. Thirty-Seventh Tank Battalion, Fourth Armored Division

Charles Boggess: First lieutenant, U.S. Thirty-Seventh Tank Battalion

Omar Bradley: Lieutenant general, commander of U.S. Twelfth Army Group, which includes Third Army

Charles Codman: Colonel, General Pattons aide-de-camp

Jacob Devers: Lieutenant general, commander of the U.S. Sixth Army Group

Benjamin Dickson: Colonel, U.S. First Army intelligence chief (G-2)

Dwight D. Eisenhower: General, supreme commander of the Allied Expeditionary Force in Europe

Hugh Gaffey: Major general, commander of U.S. Fourth Armored Division, Third Army

Paul Harkins: Colonel, General Pattons deputy chief of staff

Joseph Harper: Colonel, commander of U.S. 327th Glider Infantry Regiment

Courtney Hodges: Lieutenant general, commander of U.S. First Army

Harry Kinnard: Lieutenant colonel, U.S. 101st Airborne Division operations officer

Oscar Koch: Colonel, U.S. Third Army intelligence chief (G-2)

George Marshall: General, chief of staff of the U.S. Army

Anthony McAuliffe: Brigadier general, acting commander of U.S. 101st Airborne Division

Troy Middleton: Lieutenant general, commander of U.S. Eighth Corps, Third Army

John Mims: Sergeant, General Pattons driver

Ned Moore: Lieutenant colonel, General McAuliffes chief of staff

Beatrice Patton: George Pattons wife

George S. Patton: General, commander of U.S. Third Army

Franklin Delano Roosevelt: President of the United States of America

BRITAIN

Winston Churchill: Prime minister of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland

Bernard Montgomery: British field marshal, commander of Twenty-First Army Group, which included British and Canadian forces

Kenneth Strong: British major general, General Eisenhowers intelligence chief (G-2)

RUSSIA

Joseph Stalin: Premier of the Soviet Union

GERMANY

Martin Bormann: Head of Nazi Party Chancellery

Eva Braun: Hitlers mistress, then wife

Joseph Goebbels: Reich minister of propaganda

Heinrich Himmler: Reichsfhrer of the SS

Adolf Hitler: Fhrer of Germany and leader of the Nazi Party

Traudl Junge: one of Hitlers secretaries