Bevin Alexander - How Hitler Could Have Won World War II

p. 275: “the end of August.” Bradley wrote that the Americans began running out of gasoline on or about September 1. See Bradley and Blair, 321.

p. 276: “‘the objective Antwerp.’” Cole, The Ardennes, 2; MacDonald, 11. Another source for the battle is John S. D. Eisenhower, The Bitter Woods: The Battle of the Bulge (New York: Putnam, 1969; reprint New York: Da Capo, 1995).

p. 277: “‘the German officers corps.’” MacDonald, 21.

p. 278: “‘worth his while.’” Bradley, 454.

p. 280: “‘passed me on.’” Ibid., 467–69.

p. 280: “‘was really practicable.’” Liddell Hart, Other Side of the Hill, 447.

p. 281: “mount an offensive.” MacDonald, 79.

p. 281: “‘sonuvabitch gotten all his strength?’” Bradley, 466.

p. 281: “he held in reserve.” Eisenhower, 342.

p. 285: “massacring eighty-six American prisoners.” On July 11, 1946, an American war crimes court convicted Peiper, Sepp Dietrich, and seventy-one other defendants, all former SS officers or soldiers. Peiper and forty-two others were sentenced to death. In time, attitudes changed due to a political climate more favorable to the Germans and the admission by the American prosecution that it had gained confessions by using hoods (as if the questioner was to be executed), false witnesses, and mock trials. None of the guilty were executed. All were ultimately paroled: Sepp Dietrich in 1955 and Peiper just before Christmas 1956. Peiper found Germany hostile to him, however, and moved to a village in Alsace. In the summer of 1976, two weeks after a sensational article about him appeared in the French newspaper L’Humanité, firebombs destroyed Peiper’s house and killed the sixty-year-old former SS commander. See MacDonald, 216–23, 620–23.

p. 285: “help of ‘artificial moonlight.’” Liddell Hart, Other Side of the Hill, 459.

p. 287: “‘Christ come to cleanse the temple.’” Bradley and Blair, 365.

p. 287: “‘drive like hell.’” Bradley and Blair, 365–67; MacDonald, 514–21; Liddell Hart, Second World War, 656–57; Montgomery, 275–82.

p. 288: “‘Go to hell!’” MacDonald, 511–13.

p. 288: “‘when they were needed.’” Liddell Hart, Other Side of the Hill, 463.

p. 289: “lost a thousand aircraft.” MacDonald, 618.

p. 290: “‘all this rubbish?’” Guderian, 382–83.

p. 291: “‘with what it’s got.’” Ibid., 387–88.

p. 293: “change Hitler’s mind.” Ibid., 393.

p. 293: “‘views on their superiors.’” Ibid., 397.

p. 294: “accused Guderian of treason.” Ibid., 401–2, 404–5.

p. 294: “all the more difficult.” On February 4–11, 1945, Roosevelt, Churchill, and Stalin met at Yalta, a resort on the Crimean peninsula. With victory only months away, the sole topic was the postwar world, especially eastern Europe. Stalin insisted on an eastern frontier of Poland approximating the line dividing German and Soviet occupation zones after the defeat of Poland in 1939. To compensate, the three Allied leaders agreed to extend Poland’s boundaries westward at the expense of Germany. The result established Germany’s eastern frontier along the Oder and Neisse rivers, giving Poland Silesia, Pomerania, and southern East Prussia (Russia took over northern East Prussia, including Königsberg). Stalin also backed a Polish government set up by himself (the Lublin government). The western Allies supported the Polish government in exile in London, but, since Russia occupied Poland, could do little to advance its cause. See Zabecki, vol. 1, 50–51 (Philip Green); Kimball, 308–18.

p. 294: “‘I can’t bear that.’” Guderian, 407; Shirer, 1097.

p. 296: “‘doesn’t fit the plan.’” Bradley and Blair, 405–7.

p. 297: “did not take place.” Shirer, 1103–5; Guderian, 422–24.

p. 298: “Eisenhower wrote.” Eisenhower, 396–97.

p. 299: “defense of the city.” Shirer, 1113.

p. 301: “‘be burned immediately.’” Ibid., 1123–27.

p. 302: “shot himself in the mouth.” There is some evidence that Hitler bit down on a cyanide capsule and almost simultaneously fired a bullet through his head. See Rosenbaum, 79–80.

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