Defeating Hitler

This is a unique document published here for the first time, giving new insights into Hitler's personality and how Nazi Germany's military and intelligence apparatus operated. Published for the very first time, the top secret report "Some Weaknesses in German Strategy and Organisation 1933-1945" was prepared by Whitehall's highest intelligence body, the Joint Intelligence Committee, and presented to Britain's Chiefs of Staff in 1946 to 'set down certain aspects of the War whilst there are still sources available who were closely connected with the events described...when it is finally possible to make a balanced historical survey, some of the acutely critical moments which are vividly remembered now are likely to become confused with the passage of time, and there will be a tendency...to underestimate the great and evident strength of the German war machine'. The report encompasses the peculiar idiosyncrasies of Hitler's personality and the failures of Germany's military organisation, and charts the rise and fall of the Third Reich through 200 pages of intelligence reporting. Paul Winter sets this unique and important document in its historical setting, providing biographies of key figures referenced in the report and a timeline of the crucial events of the Second World War.