In Pursuit of Hitler: A Battlefield Guide to the Seventh (US) Army Drive (Battleground)

This book is a chronology of the Rise and Fall of the Third Reich and the famous victory drive of the Seventh Army.

It starts at the Worms’ Rhine bridgehead and moves quickly onto Aschaffenburg, before describing the Hammelburg Raid to release US POWs. The seizure of Nuremberg was hugely symbolic and this beautiful city was the scene both of the infamous Nazi Rallies and of course the War Crimes Tribunals.

The road to Munich, always worth visiting (bierfest or no bierfest!) is via the Danube crossings and the book takes in the liberation of the appalling Dachau Concentration Camp and the battle at the SS Barracks. Munich was the center of Hitler’s early life and represented his power base. He was imprisoned here and wrote Mein Kampf.

The book climaxes with the approach to the Alps and the superb Eagle’s Nest, so popular with tourists.