In this study of WWII, the author examines the decisive European campaigns from the point of view of German generals who exercised the greatest influence on their planning, direction & outcome. This portrait of a select group of highly skilled & disciplined officers—from Guderian, Manstein & Rommel to von Kluge, Model, von Rundstedt & von Bock—demonstrates that ultimately the generals' strengths became the very weaknesses that doomed the German effort.