A Flawed Genius: Field Marshal Walter Model, a Critical Biography (Hardback)

Walter Model ranks among the foremost commanders of the German Wehrmacht. This is recognised by both German and foreign military historians. But Model was also one of the most brutal German Generals. Whenever he assumed a new command, he showered his staff officers with insults which hurt their dignity and led many of them to request their transfer. The higher Model rose in rank, the more offensive his behaviour became. This book tells the story of Walter Model's career, beginning with his youth and ending with his suicide on April 21, 1945, when he finally woke up to his errors, dissolved his Army Group in the Ruhr Pocket and told his soldiers that they were free to go home. Model rose to the highest ranks. He served with distinction during WW1 and had reached General's rank by 1938. His first troop command was a Panzer division during the initial phase of the war against Russia. In the winter of 1941 he became Commander-in-Chief of the 9th Army. As of 1944 he was effectively Supreme Commander East. Later he was named Supreme Commander West and commanded Army Group B until the end,. The latter part of the book gives an account of Model's involvement in war crimes and deals with his increasingly absurd orders of the day, some of which cast doubt on his sanity. It also shows how he was part of the increasing perversion of military justice. Researched from a huge array of primary and secondary sources, A Flawed Genius is destined to become the primary biography about Model, a most controversial and complex German military figure.