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Title: A brilliant Field Marshall offers his opinions.
Review: One of the best military books I have read. Written by one of the Third Reich's most brilliant military strategists. The book is not an apologia for Nazi Germany but a hard look into reasons why and how Germany lost the war in spite of winning so many early battles. Manstein relates conversations with Hitler who he maintains, he and most of Germany's generals, disagreed with and even, at times, considered replacing. I also liked that it was not laden with minute descriptions of battles and troop movements. There is some of that but only when it is useful in explaining larger tactical and strategic considerations. It also provides insights into mistakes made by Polish and French military planners. Basically, they made military plans based on the assumption that European assurances would be honored. He states Hitler's strength was his conviction that Europe was unwilling to fight another war and would make excuses to not come to the aid of its allies.
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