THE GERMAN ARMY & THE NAZI PARTY 1933-39 by O'Neill, Robert J

New York 1966, Heineman, US First edition, hard bound in dust jacket, Fine / VG condition ( dj is price clipped & very small stain on bottom rear corner of dust jacket ), 6x9, iix, 286 pages, numerous illustrations, notes, appendices, bibliog, index. --------------------------------------------------------------------Recent accounts of the origins of the Second World War have tended to characterize the German Staff as villains and cast the German Army as the all too-willing tool for the Führer. Doctor O'Neill, dissatisfied with mere demonology, has delved deeply into official and unofficial records dealing with the crucial years following Hitler's accession to power. His researches, which include conversations with German generals who served in that fateful epoch, as well as military experts and historians of many nationalities, have produced the first wholly convincing explanation of how a High Command, schooled in the highly professional and non-political old Imperial Army and still retaining much of its conservative, traditionalist and Christian attitudes, could allow itself to be launched into a war which, quite apart from any ethical considerations, was an obvious strategic catastrophe.That the former Bohemian Corporal was able to make a favourable impression on an army crippled by the Versailles Treaty by promising to restore its strength and prestige is known. But how far can the Army be blamed for Hitler's rise? And can it be condemned for complicity in the bloodbath of the `Night of the Long Knives' when Hitler delivered himself from the incubus of Röhm's S.A.? New evidence strongly indicates that the army must be acquitted of harbouring independent aggressive designs before the Führer's personal assumption of the office of War Minister in 1938. And fresh light is cast on the much-maligned personality of General von Fritsch, Commander-in-Chief until Himmler and Göring forced him out on a trumped-up homosexuality charge. Supported by his Chief of Staff, Beck, he courageously resisted both the continuous pressure exerted by the political soldiers, Blomberg and Reichenau, in the Ministry, and the effect of the massive indoctrination programme of the Nazi propaganda machine.This fascinating account analyses the process by which Hitler and his infamous Party Chiefs, untrammelled by any inconvenient code of honour, were able gradually to isolate and neutralize the influence of such men, at the same time exploiting their professionalism and patriotism to build up a mighty war-machine which the soldiers were ultimately powerless to check. Many of the illustrations in the book are previously unpublished and are in themselves of major historical interest.