The First Soldier

Hitler as Military Leader

By: Stephen G. Fritz

Narrated by: P.J. Ochlan

Length: 21 hrs and 59 mins

Publisher's summary

A leading expert reexamines history to offer a stunningly original portrait of Hitler as a competent military commander and strategist.

After Germany's humiliating World War II defeat, numerous German generals published memoirs claiming that their country's brilliant military leadership had been undermined by the Führer's erratic decision making. The author of three highly acclaimed books on the era, Stephen Fritz upends this characterization of Hitler as an ill-informed fantasist and demonstrates the ways in which his strategy was coherent and even competent.

That Hitler saw World War II as the only way to retrieve Germany's fortunes and build an expansionist Thousand-Year Reich is uncontroversial. But while his generals did sometimes object to Hitler's tactics and operational direction, they often made the same errors in judgment and were in agreement regarding larger strategic and political goals. A necessary volume for understanding the influence of World War I on Hitler's thinking, this work is also an eye-opening reappraisal of major events like the invasion of Russia and the battle for Normandy.

©2018 Stephen G. Fritz (P)2018 Tantor

Critic reviews

"Perhaps the best account we have to date of Hitler's military leadership. It shows a scrupulous and imaginative historian at work and will cement Fritz's reputation as one of the leading historians of the military conflicts generated by Hitler's Germany." (Richard Overy, author of The Bombing War)

A Rational View of a Mythologized War

In every war story, the storyteller invariably blames everything on his commander. This transcends nations, ranks, and centuries. The First Soldier turns a critical eye to the testimony of German generals who served under Adolf Hitler, understanding that their testimony would be motivated by self preservation, a desire to save face, and simple ego, and that their fabrications would be accepted at face value because they were useful to the new order they found themselves in. A great deal is revealed about Adolf Hitler's psychology, ideology, and motivations, and the reasons he clashed with his military's high command. As always, the truth is far more complex than the simple fictions that make up pop history.

PJ Ochlan is a wonderful narrator who pronounced German words and names perfectly. I highly recommend this book, perhaps to be read alongside Deathride, which similarly cross examines the postwar myth-making of Russia.