Exposing the Third Reich

Colonel Truman Smith in Hitler's Germany

Henry G. Gole

• Publisher: The University Press of Kentucky
• Year: 2020
• Print ISBN: 9780813141763
• eBook ISBN: 9780813141770
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: Military Biographies
• Index: History

"A fascinating book about a virtually unknown officer who played a major role in the development of US military planning before and during World War II" ( Bowling Green Daily News).
 
A vital source of American intelligence on Hitler's rise to power and military ambitions, Colonel Truman Smith was one of the most compelling and controversial figures of the Second World War. In Exposing the Third Reich, Henry G. Gole tells this soldier's story for the first time.
 
An American aristocrat from a prominent New England family, Smith became an expert on Germany when he was first assigned there during the Allied occupation of 1919. As a military attaché in 1935, he arranged for his good friend Charles Lindbergh to inspect the Luftwaffe. The Germans were starstruck by the famous aviator, enabling Smith to gather key intelligence about their air capability. His deep access and knowledge made him invaluable to General George C. Marshall; however, the colonel's friendliness with Germany also aroused suspicion that he was a Nazi sympathizer.
 
Gole demonstrates that, far from condoning Hitler, Smith was among the first to raise the alarm: he predicted many of the Nazis' moves years in advance and feared that the international community would not act quickly enough. Featuring many firsthand observations of the critical changes in Germany between the world wars, this biography presents an indispensable look both at a fascinating figure and at the nuances of the interwar years.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title
• Copyright
• Contents
• Foreword by Edward M. Coffman
• Preface and Acknowledgments
• 1. Patrician Heritage
• 2. Over There
• 3. Deutschland and Yearning
• 4. Civil Affairs and Romance on the Rhine
• 5. Berlin, Munich, and Hitler in Weimar Germany
• 6. Years of Preparation
• 7. Marshall’s Men
• 8. Army War College and Command
• 9. Hitler Takes Power
• 10. Hitler’s Germany
• 11. Kay, Germany, and Ambassador Dodd
• 12. Hitler Arms, Smith Reports
• 13. Smith’s Trojan Horse
• 14. The Lindbergh-Smith Friendship
• 15. Hitler Is Ready
• 16. Welcome Home
• 17. Smith as Strategicus
• 18. Wartime Washington
• 19. The Road to German Rearmament
• 20. Politics, Travel, and Writing
• 21. Retrospective and a Graceful Exit
• Appendix A. Losses in Smith’s 4th Infantry, October 1918
• Appendix B. Smith to His Sister on the Death of His Daughter, 1923
• Appendix C. Marshall on Smith’s Berlin Reporting and Dignity
• Appendix D. The German-British Bombing Pause, Christmas 1940
• Appendix E. Marshall on Smith’s Assessment of the Balkans, 1943
• Appendix F. Smith on the Situation in Europe, May 1944
• Appendix G. Marshall Saves a German General
• Appendix H. Smith on the German Army, 1963
• Appendix I. Smith’s Letter to Brigitta von Schell, 1967
• Appendix J. Smith to Marshall on Smith’s Retirement
• Appendix K. Obituary, Katharine Alling Hollister Smith
• A Note on Sources
• Notes
• Selected Bibliography
• Index