Lost Victories: The War Memoirs of Hitlers Most Brilliant General by Martin Blumenson - Memoirs of what could have been.

Originally published in Germany in 1955, and in England and the United States in 1958, this classic memoir of WWII by a man who was an acknowledged military genius and probably Germanys top WWII general, is now made available again. Field Marshal Erich von Manstein described his book as a personal narrative of a soldier, discussing only those matters that had direct bearing on events in the military field. The essential thing, as he wrote, is to know how the main personalities thought and reacted to events. This is what he tells us in this book.

Memoirs of what could have been.
I have just completed this book - I found it an exhausting struggle to read. It showed me the value of setting clear goals and placing all your energies into achieving them. Hitler wanted to keep his cake and eat it as well. Hitler loved holding territory as opposed to crushing the enemy armies that would eventually regain their momentum and overrun Berlin.

I enjoyed reading Manstein's view of the 1939 Polish campaign and how he might have fought it if he were a Polish General - he appears a leader without malice.

This is not a book about specific battles from inside the tank or behind the MG42 - this book is from the map table, the teleprinter, the conference room at Berchtesgaden. Whilst I got weary of the words "heavy losses" and what these words actually meant in human suffering - it was obvious that Manstein did lament the loss and waste of his charges.

Lastly, I read recently a proclamation that "D-Day in Normandy was the turning of the tide in WWII" - this phrase is the biggest overstatement I have ever read (said with due respect to the enduring sacrifices made there by many). After reading Lost Victories and experiencing a small portion of what the Russian and German armies went through - with the book finishing in early April 1944 - I came to the conclusion that the German army was "an old man" by the time the western allies landed France in June 1944. The war in western Europe was lost in the skies during the Battle of Britain and the war in Russia was lost at the gates of Moscow!

This book put my understanding of the Continental War in Europe into perspective. Recommended.

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