Hitler's Last Days

 

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I do not see why man should not be just as cruel as nature.

—ADOLF HITLER

 

 

A NOTE TO READERS

I
THINK IT FAIR TO SAY
that people who make history are some of the boldest people to have ever walked the earth. Researching and writing about them can be sobering, time consuming, and full of discovery.

Working on this book was a journey. It began in the German town of Heidelberg, with a visit to the hospital room at Nachrichten Kaserne where General George S. Patton died. It also included many conversations with the personal staff and others close to Adolf Hitler. Some of this was a straightforward dig into various archives, museums, and official U.S. Army battlefield histories. But it didn't just involve reading published works. It involved speaking and corresponding with descendants of those who were actually there like Hitler's secretary. Hitler's former clerks verified his last days with vivid portrayals in German. I talked with the grandchildren and learned about his crazy hour-by-hour situation and the extreme measures he took to stay alert, like cocaine eyedrops. The search for information led to local historians, to Luxembourg, and to Germany—nothing was left unexplored.

Adolf Hitler is modern history's best-known evil ruler and murderer, so to step inside his world is frightening, to say the least. From his early days as chancellor of Germany to his last days as F
ü
hrer before his suicide, Hitler's life—and death—were filled with senseless violence. But this is not just a story about the world's most notorious dictator. It's a story about the last six months of World War II, and the chaos and brutality that characterized this period of history. It is a story about the people who fought—the flesh-and-blood men and women who laid down their lives in this great tragedy. And it's about the military leaders who strategized and maneuvered to bring the war to a close. In this book, they aren't just famous people to study; they are human beings.

Hitler's Last Days
is ultimately a story about a struggle for power. And with that, I put you right in the bunker.

 

Bill O'Reilly

New York

KEY PLAYERS

UNITED STATES

Creighton Abrams:
Lieutenant colonel, commander of U.S. Thirty-Seventh Tank Battalion, Fourth Armored Division

Charles Boggess:
First lieutenant, U.S. Thirty-Seventh Tank Battalion

Omar Bradley:
Lieutenant general, commander of U.S. Twelfth Army Group, which includes Third Army

Charles Codman:
Colonel, General Patton's aide-de-camp

Jacob Devers:
Lieutenant general, commander of the U.S. Sixth Army Group

Benjamin Dickson:
Colonel, U.S. First Army intelligence chief (G-2)

Dwight D. Eisenhower:
General, supreme commander of the Allied Expeditionary Force in Europe

Hugh Gaffey:
Major general, commander of U.S. Fourth Armored Division, Third Army

Paul Harkins:
Colonel, General Patton's deputy chief of staff

Joseph Harper:
Colonel, commander of U.S. 327th Glider Infantry Regiment