Part 4, Chapters 1-7 Summary and Analysis

Chapter one, "False Heroic: Hitler as Supreme Commander", begins with Hitler's own thoughts on his part in World War II and as Commander of the Third Reich. The author says, "Few today think of Hitler as a soldier. But it was as a soldier, quite as much as a politician or an artist - the strangest of his delusions - that he thought of himself" (p. 235).

Hitler's final words echoed the same things he had said at the onset of WWII in 1939, that he would ask no more of the German man than he would give of himself. According to the text, Hitler finished his statement, put on his military coat, put his service revolver in his mouth and pulled the trigger.

Although Hitler would serve five and a half years as high commander, it was not...