When Adolf Hitler rose to power in 1933, two very different German forces stood ready to serve him. The Wehrmacht, heir to the old Imperial and Reichswehr officer corps, was a professional military proud of its discipline, hierarchy, and political restraint. The SS, by contrast, had begun in the 1920s as Hitler's small personal bodyguard … Read more
Karl Dönitz was born on September 16, 1891, in Grünau, a quiet district near Berlin. His family belonged to Germany's growing middle class, and like many young men of the era, he chose a military career. In April 1910, he entered the Imperial German Navy, a force still expanding under Kaiser Wilhelm II. After completing … Read more
Die Dämmerung kam schnell über die russischen Felder. Obergefreiter Werner Kloss lag flach hinter einer zerbrochenen Steinmauer, 40 Meter nordwestlich eines ausgebrannten Gehöfts, und spürte die Kälte durch drei Lagen Uniformstoff dringen. Sein Atem bildete kleine Wolken. Die Luft roch nach nassem Stroh und Schießpulver. Links von ihm kauerte Feldwebel Hartmann und fixierte die Baumreihe … Read more
Wilhelm Canaris was born on January 1, 1887, in Aplerbeck, Germany. His naval career began with the Imperial German Navy, where he distinguished himself during World War I. Serving as a naval officer, Canaris took part in several critical operations, including anti-intelligence gathering. His skill in naval operations and espionage during the war laid a … Read more
For years, Rosamund Kwan was one of the most beautiful and famous women in Hong Kong cinema. But behind that glamorous image was a love story so secretive that the public learned about the divorce before they even knew a marriage had existed. Her partner was Pierre Chen, the Taiwanese billionaire, technology tycoon, and prominent … Read more
The letters were never meant to survive. That was the understanding beneath every sentence written. Private correspondence between people who understood discretion was not simply correspondence. It was a parallel world operating alongside the official world, containing the actual things while the official world contained only the presentable things. The civilized world of the 1930s … Read more
On August 9, 1941, two fighter pilots met in the skies over northern France. Only one of them would walk away from the encounter, and neither could have imagined that the meeting would lead to a friendship lasting more than four decades. Wing Commander Douglas Bader, a legendary British pilot, was leading a fighter sweep … Read more
Berlin, April 1945. The city was collapsing under Soviet air raids. Phone lines were down, food was running out, and ground forces were still days from reaching the capital. Somewhere beneath the ruins of the Reich Chancellery, Adolf Hitler was dying in his isolation. Surrounded, wounded, and increasingly paranoid, he had grown convinced that everyone … Read more
On May 23, 1945, a dirt road wound through the Bavarian mountains, two weeks after Germany's surrender. The war in Europe was over on paper. On the ground, chaos still ruled. German soldiers were surrendering by the thousands. Nazi officials were burning papers and scattering into the countryside, hoping to vanish before anyone came looking. … Read more
On May 23, 1945, a dusty jeep rolled to a stop outside a run-down farmhouse near Berchtesgaden, close to the Austrian border. The war in Europe had officially ended two weeks earlier, but southern Germany was still in chaos. German soldiers were surrendering by the thousands, Nazi officials were burning papers and scattering into the … Read more