Hitler's Commander: Field Marshal Walther Model, Hitler's Favorite General

The first book to tell the extraordinary story of one of Hitler's most loyal henchmen Field Marshal Walther Model was an extremely capable and aggressive German army commander who became known as 'Fuhrer's Fireman' for his success in rebuilding broken fronts. Despite Model's blunt style, Hitler often relied on the rapidly promoted general to save his army in crisis. His greatest achievement was the restoration of stability in the Belorussian/Polish sector after the battle descriptively known as the Destruction of Army Group Centre in June 1944, and later he was second-in-command at the Battle of the Bulge. Model was leading the German Army when it collapsed in April 1945. Encircled in the Ruhr Pocket following the Allied crossing of the Rhine, he shot himself, stating that 'a Field Marshal does not become a prisoner'. Although Model destroyed most of his personal papers just before he died, Stephen H. Newton draws on a wide variety of original German sources, including extensive Wehrmacht archival material, to tell the first and only authoritative story of the commander who was Hitler's favorite.

Steven H. Newton
Hardcover 432 pages 2006