The last days of World War Two in Europe is on one level the story of great statesmen and supreme commanders vying for power and fighting for what each felt was the correct resolution. Whiting sets the final stage of the war against the background of the struggle between Churchill and Truman, and between Marshall and Eisenhower. But while statesmen exchanged telegrams, others kept up the exchange of fire. Mr Whiting vividly portrays the final collapse of the German army, which had fallen into the hands of the aged and the very young, their manic dread of the Russians, and the dissolution of the German High Command. 'Hitler's Defeat' is high drama, but also gives the reader an understanding of the Grand Strategy which led to the reshaping of Europe in 1945. CHARLES WHITING, the author, is Britain's most prolific military writer with over 250 books to his credit. He saw active service in the Second World War, serving in an armoured reconnaissance regiment attached to both the US and British Armies. He is therefore able to write with the insight and authority of someone who, as a combat soldier, actually experienced the horrors of World War II.