The Devil's Virtuosos: German Generals at War, 1940-5

by David Downing

Book Overview

No Synopsis Available.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0312198620
• ISBN13: 9780312198626
• Release Date: January 1977
• Publisher: St. Martin's Press
• Length: 256 Pages
• Weight: 1.16 lbs.

Customer Reviews

Good battle descriptions, good insights into Nazism's failures

I'm no expert on military affairs, but I've read a few books on the two world wars, and this is excellent. It does an unusually good job of describing things from the military point of view. (And also from the German point of view, which is an interesting change for English-speaking readers). But it is especially useful for its attempt to explain why for all the excellence of their military, Germany lost. Above all, the author looks to the inherent defects of the insane Nazi world-view as fatally undermining their project for world domination. Hitler was a genius in many ways, but he was also insane and the insanity undermined the genius, providing a rotten foundation for the great military machine. At the national level, slavery and mindless inhumanity and cruelty did not provide a good productive and social basis for a modern fighting machine. The writing rises to poetry in places. The maps are excellent, supporting the clear military descriptions, but some are indecipherable in some paperback editions

Good Read

The book is a good read, it gives the reader insight on the war from the German perspective. The book is well written and easy to read.

Very Successful

This books provides a concise and very readable overview of the Second World War from the Wehrmatch's points of view. In particular, it focuses on the military career of the most important German generals (i.e., Guderian, Rommel and Manstein). The book describes their involvement in the main battles of the war (with the help of a few excellent maps). The author is extremely successful at illustrating the great exploits of these brilliant men, and the tremendous difficulties in which they operated, especially as the situation degraded and Hitler interfered more and more with the conduct of the war. I would have enjoyed a bit deeper insights about their psychology, but overall the book is very good. Unlike the other reviewer, I do not think the book is dry.

Great Accounts of World War II Battles From the German Side.

I read this book over twenty years ago while serving in the Peace Crop in West Africa. Ever since I have searched for a copy but to no avail. The book was a very well written account of battle campaigns of the German Army during the Second World War. The accounts are fun to read and have maps that help you follow the writing. The book covers many but not all campaigns and a large amount of the eastern campaigns that are often overlooked by popular accounts of the war. I found these to be the most interesting since the strategies employed were often text book procedures and the opposing Generals were rarely competent to match them. The writer comes with the attitude that the German Army was the best trained and disciplined in the world at the time. However he clearly indicates that his admiration is for the German Military establishment and not the Nazi Government that gave them their orders. In this respect it was very interesting because it gave a human face to a group of individuals who in general have been portrayed as demons. I would strongly recommend this book to any one interested in this period and enjoys history books in general, but who like myself cannot get through the ponderous reference tomes (i.e.: the Oxford History of Anything.). The story moves well and the characters really come to life. I recall the book being rather short maybe 200 pages.