Hitler and His Generals: Military Conferences 1942-1945

by David M. Glantz (editor), Helmut Heiber (Editor), Gerhard L. Weinberg (introduction)

The military conferences that Hitler had twice daily with his staff, where he directed the war, were transcribed by stenographers from 1942 to 1945 in the bunker. These authentic documents are the only record kept by the Germans of their highest military decisions at the critical moment when the war turned against them.

Genres: World War II, History, Germany, Nonfiction, Military Fiction, Military History, War

1211 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2002

About the author

David M. Glantz is an American military historian and the editor of The Journal of Slavic Military Studies.

Glantz received degrees in history from the Virginia Military Institute and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and is a graduate of the U.S. Army Command and General Staff College, Defense Language Institute, Institute for Russian and Eastern European Studies, and U.S. Army War College. He entered active service with the United States Army in 1963.

He began his military career in 1963 as a field artillery officer from 1965 to 1969, and served in various assignments in the United States, and in Vietnam during the Vietnam War with the II Field Force Fire Support Coordination Element (FSCE) at the Plantation in Long Binh.

After teaching history at the United States Military Academy from 1969 through 1973, he completed the army’s Soviet foreign area specialist program and became chief of Estimates in US Army Europe’s Office of the Deputy Chief of Staff for Intelligence (USAREUR ODCSI) from 1977 to 1979. Upon his return to the United States in 1979, he became chief of research at the Army’s newly-formed Combat Studies Institute (CSI) at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, from 1979 to 1983 and then Director of Soviet Army Operations at the Center for Land Warfare, U.S. Army War College in Carlisle, Pennsylvania, from 1983 to 1986. While at the College, Col. Glantz was instrumental in conducting the annual "Art of War" symposia which produced the best analysis of the conduct of operations on the Eastern Front during the Second World War in English to date. The symposia included attendance of a number of former German participants in the operations, and resulted in publication of the seminal transcripts of proceedings. Returning to Fort Leavenworth in 1986, he helped found and later directed the U.S. Army’s Soviet (later Foreign) Military Studies Office (FMSO), where he remained until his retirement in 1993 with the rank of Colonel.

In 1993, while at FMSO, he established The Journal of Slavic Military Studies, a scholarly journal for which he still serves as chief editor, that covers military affairs in the states of Central and Eastern Europe as well as the former Soviet Union.

A member of the Russian Federation’s Academy of Natural Sciences, he has written or co-authored more than twenty commercially published books, over sixty self-published studies and atlases, and over one hundred articles dealing with the history of the Red (Soviet) Army, Soviet military strategy, operational art, and tactics, Soviet airborne operations, intelligence, and deception, and other topics related to World War II. In recognition of his work, he has received several awards, including the Society of Military History’s prestigious Samuel Eliot Morrison Prize for his contributions to the study of military history.

Glantz is regarded by many as one of the best western military historians of the Soviet role in World War II.[1] He is perhaps most associated with the thesis that World War II Soviet military history has been prejudiced in the West by its over-reliance on German oral and printed sources, without being balanced by a similar examination of Soviet source material. A more complete version of this thesis can be found in his paper “The Failures of Historiography: Forgotten Battles of the German-Soviet War (1941-1945).” Despite his acknowledged expertise, Glantz has occasionally been criticized for his stylistic choices, such as inventing specific thoughts and feelings of historical figures without reference to documented sources.

Glantz is also known as an opponent of Viktor Suvorov's thesis, which he endeavored to rebut with the book Stumbling Colossus.

He lives with his wife Mary Ann Glantz in Carlisle, Pennsylvania. The Glantzes' daughter Mary E. Glantz, also a historian, has written FDR And The Soviet Union: The President's Battles Over Forei

Reviews

[David A · Rating 5 out of 5]

The book is not quite the kind of book one would read from start to finish. Its more useful as a work of reference and I like to use it in that manner as Im reading about various aspects of WWII to do with Hitler and his decisions at crucial junctures in the war. Depending on what battle or incident or aspect of the war I am reading about, I like to take out this book and read the conference record of it (if it featured, and all the main events do feature). It's almost as if you are there listening to Hitler and his generals planning their next moves.

The history of how the book actually came about is in itself a fascinating story. In 1942, Hitler was growing increasingly frustrated and angry with his Generals with what he deemed to be a lack of adherence to his military decisions and orders. So from September 1942 he directed that a transcript be made of the twice daily military conferences so as to put an end to the apparent confusion as to what he had directed and ordered at the conferences. Two stenographers thereafter worked in shifts at each conference and their verbatim transcripts of each conference were typed up thereafter and stored in the Reich Chancellery in Berlin.

Toward the end of April 1945, Hitler’s military historian, Major General Walter Scherff went to Berchtesgaden, (to where the transcripts had been removed from the Reich Chancellery) to see to their destruction due to the impending defeat of Germany.

The destruction was carried out by SS troops in early May 1945 near the village of Hintersee, about seven miles from Berchtesgaden. The transcripts and stenographic notes were placed in a large hole in the ground and set on fire. There endeth the story, or so thought Scherff.

However, on May 7 two of the original stenographers reported to local American military government administration offices, who had occupied Berchtesgaden and identified themselves and offered to assist in any way they could. They were sent to see George Allen who was working with the counterintelligence corps of the 101st Airborne Division. Allen listened to them recounting their tale of being Hitler's stenographers at his various headquarters and that they had sat in on every conference Hitler had held from September 1942 to April 22, 1945.

Allen also learned that one set of the transcripts and shorthand notes had been brought from Berlin to Berchtesgaden in April and that they had only recently been burnt near the village of Hintersee. Allen went out with the stenographers to visit the place where the transcripts were burned and to see if he could determine more fully what had happened.

Despite the attempted destruction of the transcripts some had survived, and from these and with the help of the stenographers, the conference transcripts were able to be re-written, assisted by the apparent excellent memory and recall of the stenographers. They knew their subject well and could also fill in the missing pieces from having so forensically observed Hitler at such close quarters for so long.

This book contains that material and is the first translation into English of the surviving transcripts. I have checked quite a few entries I have come across in various books quoting Hitler at various conferences, and the quotes match up pretty well. I find that it makes for fascinating reading to be following a particular topic on German strategy or tactics in a WWII book and to be able to take down Hitler and his Generals and to read the pretty much accurate conversation during the particular military conference as it was possibly spoken. It really helps put the particular topic in context. The notes accompanying the book are also a fantastic resource for further study if you are so inclined. Helmut Heiber and David M. Glantz have done a fantastic job of editing this work and the introduction by Gerhard L. Weinberg sets the context perfectly.

[Mark Merritt · Rating 3 out of 5]

This isn’t a read from cover to cover book, but just the transcripts of various conferences that survived. Fairly random, and not a story to get into. Good history, more of a source book by far than a fun read.

[Michael Ross · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very detailed book with over 400 pages of end notes about the surviving military conferences of Hitler and his high command. Interesting insight into what the German military were attempting to accomplish. Sadly most of the records were destroyed. Very dense subject matter so the casual reader might have a difficult time reading this 1200 page book.

[Dan · Rating 3 out of 5]

If you want an insight into Hitler's personality, these conference notes will give you an interesting, if far from complete, glimpse. Some of the comments he makes in response to the briefings are almost comical. However, you can also see that Hitler was not the clueless boob that he's often portrayed as, and he does have some knowlege about the topics he's discussing. This book isn't for a casual reader by any means, but it is a key piece of primary source material for World War 2 enthusiast.

[Geeke · Rating 4 out of 5]

I liked it. This book was better than the movie.