Cross of Iron The Rise and Fall of the German War Machine, 1918-1945

World War I has inspired a vast mythology of bravery and carnage that has fascinated readers for decades. Now acclaimed military historian John Mosier demystifies the strategic and tactical aspects to explain that, contrary to the standard military history accounts, Germanys military culture provided them with the advantage. Their war machine succeeded against more powerful Allied armies until, in both wars, it was crushed by U.S. intervention. Through simliarly stunning revelations, Mosier forces a reevaluation of the reasons behind the French withdrawal, the Russian contribution, and Hitler as a military thinker. The result of thirty years of research, Cross of Iron is a powerful, riveting, and authoritative recasting of the legends of modern European warfare.

A former film critic and member of the Camera d’Or jury at the Cannes Film
Festival, John Mosier is currently a professor of English at Loyola University, New Orleans. His background as a military historian dates from his role in developing an interdisciplinary curriculum for the study of the two world wars, a program funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities. He lives in Jefferson, Louisiana.

“Cross of Iron is an important, superbly researched reappraisal of the fabled Wehrmacht in both world wars. From the battlefields of France during World War I, through history's most devastating war, John Mosier shatters a long-held mythology about the German Army, and reveals how its officers permitted one of the world's greatest armies to lose its honor and become the willing tool of Adolf Hitler. Those who believe that we have learned everything there is to know about World War II will view the legendary German war machine and its history in an entirely new light after reading this provocative book.�— Carlo D'Este, author of Eisenhower: A Soldier's Life and Patton: A Genius For War

“This is a book that will confound almost everyone's assumptions about both world wars. The squawks will be loudest in London, Paris and Moscow. It also explains how and why the German army consistently outfought its enemies—and ultimately lost.�—Thomas Fleming, author of The Illusion of Victory: America in World War I