Description
"This book is a must-read for all those who wish to understand Germany’s greatest World War II commander, for both his strategic brilliance and moral ambiguity" – History Book Club
“Lemay, a civilian scholar and one of the best of the rising generation of military historians, synergizes Manstein’s campaigns and his role in the Final Solution.” – World War II magazine
“…an objective analysis not only of Von Manstein's campaigns but also of his participation in the criminal aspects of Nazi Germany's war effort. Much to the author's credit, he does not flinch when he exposes Von Manstein's participation in the “Final Solution” and an intense examination of the Field Marshal's politics, attitudes and behavior towards his enemies. An excellent biography of a flawed yet brilliant soldier.” – The Past in Review
“…well researched, convincingly reasoned analysis of a general widely considered one of World War II’s great commanders...” – Publisher’s Weekly
To many students of World War II, von Manstein is already considered to be the greatest commander of the conflict, if not the entire 20th century. He devised the plan that conquered France in 1940, thence led an infantry corps in that campaign; at the head of a panzer corps he reached the gates of Leningrad in 1941, then took command of 11th Army and conquered Sevastopol and the Crimea. After destroying another Soviet army in the north, he was given command of the ad hoc Army Group Don to retrieve the German calamity at Stalingrad, whereupon he launched a counteroffensive that, against all odds, restored the German front.
Though an undoubtedly brilliant military leader –whose achievements, considering the forces at his disposal, cast those of Patton, Rommel, MacArthur, and Montgomery in the pale – surprisingly little is known about Manstein himself, save for his own memoir and the accolades of his contemporaries. In this book we finally have a full portrait of the man, including his campaigns, and an analysis of what precisely kept a genius such as Manstein harnessed to such a dark cause.
