Over the winter I have read three books on the war that I have really enjoyed. One was on Stalingrad, one on the Falise pocket and one on the Market-Garden Allied operation. In all of these books the German high command and Hitler are charecterized by delusional thinking and dicision making. The staff officers and aides sent to gather information are ignored on their return. Bad news is charecterized as coming from a defeatest traitor or from Allied spies that have infiltrated the communication network. The general feeling I got was not quite that they shot the messengers that brought bad news but they would certainly use selective hearing. Put on top of this Hitler's dogged insistance that he would rather throw away entire armies rather than retreat and you have a perfect recipe for an allied victory.

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PEOPLE SLEEP PEACEABLY IN THEIR BEDS AT NIGHT ONLY BECAUSE ROUGH MEN STAND READY TO DO VIOLENCE ON THEIR BEHALF. GEORGE ORWELL