Defeat in the West

by Milton Shulman, Maj.-Gen. Sir Ian Jacob (Introduction)

Overview

THE STORY OF THE COLLAPSE OF THE GERMAN ARMIES IN THE WEST AND A STUDY OF THE HISTORY OF WORLD WAR II, AS TOLD FROM THE GERMAN POINT OF VIEW

In 1945, the once mighty Wehrmacht was reduced to a pathetic shadow of its former self as the thousand-year Reich lay in ruins. The war in the West had been lost and its protagonists scattered in prisoner of war camps across Europe.

Author Milton Shulman joined the Canadian Army HQ three months before D-Day as a major and was promoted to intelligence officer by war's end. As part of his duties, he made close personal contact with the German Army throughout intelligence operations in France, Belgium, Holland and Germany. While still in uniform, he also interviewed many of the captured German generals in the following months and years, including Gerd von Rundstedt, ‘Sepp’ Dietrich and Kurt Meyer—26 in all. From them, Major Shulman learnt why it was that such a superbly armed body of fighting men suffered such a calamitous defeat.

This absorbing book is the result of those interviews. First published in 1947, it was the first account to reveal the truth of what happened in the war: how Hitler and his General Staff planned their campaigns, how the discipline and ignorance of the German military machine served Hitler well and Germany badly—and why victory finally slipped from their hands.

“The best and most vivid account of the German collapse”—Hugh Trevor Roper, The Sunday Times

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781789121766
Publisher:	Arcole Publishing
Publication date:	04/03/2018
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	366
File size:	4 MB

About the Author

MILTON SHULMAN (1913-2004) was a Canadian author, film and theatre critic.

Born in Toronto, Ontario, the son of a successful shopkeeper, Shulman’s parents were born in the Ukraine, driven out of the Russian Empire by poverty and the pogroms against the Jews. He was educated at Harbord Collegiate, the University of Toronto and Osgoode Hall Law School. He was called to the Ontario bar shortly before WWII in 1939.

He then signed up for the Canadian army, was commissioned as a second lieutenant in the Canadian Armoured Corps and posted to England in June 1943; stationed in London as a captain he was assigned to the secret operational intelligence unit MI 14b, dealing with the order of battle of the Wehrmacht's formations. He joined the Canadian Army HQ three months before D-Day as a major and promoted to intelligence officer by war's end.

Shulman joined the staff of the London Evening Standard in 1948 and, for over 40 years, wrote about theatre, film, television and politics with sharp humour and irreverence. He was a theatre critic for the Standard from 1953-1991 and remained a weekly columnist until 1996. He was also a film critic for Vogue, and a regular participant in BBC Radio 4's witty talk show Stop The Week for 18 years.

He was the author of two novels, The Victors (Dell 1963) and Kill Three (1967), which was adapted into a 90-minute BB2 play of the same title for BBC 2; the Preep series of children’s books; and two books on the impact of television, The Ravenous Eye (1973) and The Least Worst Television in the World (1973).

Shulman received the IPA Award as Critic of the Year 1966.

He died in London in 2004, aged 90.

LT.-GEN. SIR EDWARD IAN CLAUD JACOB GBE, CB (1899-1993) was a British Army officer who served as the Military Assistant Secretary to Winston Churchill's war cabinet and was later a distinguished broadcasting executive, serving as the Director-General of the BBC from 1952-1959.