The seriousness of the position was clear from Hitler’s appearance; shocked visitors to the Wolfschanze or the Berghof saw ‘an old, stooping man with an unhealthy, puffy face’,[63] whose left leg, arm and hand shook uncontrollably. Yet, sustained by will – or amphetamines – and his most loyal inner circle, Bormann, Himmler, Goebbels, Dönitz and Speer, he saw the turning point in his fortunes within grasp: a rush programme of new jet fighters, the ‘Vergeltung’ rockets, new U-boats with unprecedented underwater speed would prevent or defeat the allied invasion and allow him to transfer his
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