Grey Wolf: The Escape of Adolf Hitler [Hardcover]

A quick google search will turn up megabytes of forum space assiduously filled up by the authors in their valiant if rather vain attempts to dress this up as a serious work. Not to mention pre-empt critical reviews. Starting from the premise that there is no 'proof' that AH died in the bunker in Berlin in April 1945, the authors' 'research' indicates that AH escaped to South America after being spirited away from Berlin in a Ju 52 during the night of the 27-28th April. Escaping the bunker via a 'secret' tunnel Hitler and Eva Braun were flown to the Baltic coast in a Luftwaffe Junkers Ju 52 before boarding a U-boot heading for South America. Meanwhile back in the bunker their places were taken by body doubles who presumably managed to fool Möhnke, Misch, Junge and all the other fawning acolytes and henchmen. Decent enough premise for a fanciful and far-fetched thriller, but as a serious explanation of what happened in the Bunker? Give me a break please..
Amidst a whirl of rumour, conjecture and half-truths -opinion masquerading as 'facts'- the authors `argue' that there was a concerted effort made to fly high-ranking personalities out of Berlin - among them AH. Of course we know that AH may have been urged by his acolytes to flee to some Alpine 'fortress' or other in southern Germany, but everything else that is known about Hitler points to the final gesture in the bunker. The idea that he would even entertain such `modern' notions as running away to share the rest of his life with Eva Braun and spawn offspring is simply absurd. Dunstan and Williams conveniently overlook the mass of real detail accumulated over the decades as to Hitler's fate and go much further. Not so much `Boys from Brazil' as `Boys Own'.
There are so many holes in this story that it is difficult to know where to start. Perhaps with the transport arrangements, in particular the flights. With the Russians virtually at the gates of a Reichskanzlei swept by heavy fire and Lufthansa out of action, we are being asked to believe that AH was flown out of the city in a lumbering old Ju 52 piloted - in what must have been an epic feat of airmanship - by one "Captain Peter Baumgart", a 128-victory ace and Ritterkreuz winner (sic!). Previously unknown to the entire fraternity of WWII airwar historians 'Baumgart' had been seconded to the "secretive" KG 200 during 1943. So secretive that his name fails to appear in any of the documentation reproduced by Günther Gellerman in his German-language history of KG 200 " Moskau ruft Heeresgruppe Mitte.." Perhaps this 'character' was a pseudonym? No, apparently not - author Williams contacted me after the first draft of this review to (i) take me to task over 'factual' errors and (ii) to confirm that 'Baumgart' was indeed a real person. Factual errors indeed. According to the authors "Baumgart" was put on trial and sentenced to a term in prison in Poland postwar - the authors reproduce facsimiles of period newspaper reports. Various German specialists writing on the subject of final flights into and out of Berlin during late April 1945 have yet to come up with anything so far-fetched as a multi-engine flight into Berlin after 26 April when Berlin-Gatow fell to the Russians. Any sortie over Berlin by this stage was a nightmare of concentrated Soviet flak, huge fires and palls of smoke. German researcher Georg Schlaug writing on April 1945 Berlin sorties in a well known German magazine described how following urgent radio messages from the bunker transmitted during the afternoon of 27 April 1945 - " Luftlandemöglichkeit auf der Ost-West Achse muss mit allen Mitteln versucht werden " - a landing attempt with all available means must be attempted on the East-West Axis. The gliders met such heavy fire that every one of them was shot down. Schlaug records that a Feldwebel Heinz Schäfer witnessed two DFS 230 gliders departing Tarnewitz for Berlin on the afternoon of 29 April 1945. He was shown the glider pilots' Einsatzbefehl (mission orders) ; "Gruppe bereithalten, Führer aus Berlin befreien " -stand ready to fly Hitler out. Interesting - but only because Hitler had already left Berlin by this date according to Dunstan and Williams. Which begs one question of course; what was the point of these last desperate attempts to reach central Berlin, if not to prolong for a short while longer the lives of those in the bunker including that of Hitler. Of course the authors do not address these sorts of questions since they are everywhere conveniently over-looked. There is a mass of loose ends in almost every aspect of the supposed escape. Naval specialists have likewise picked terrible holes in the maritime section of this story. I haven't even bothered reading the supposed arrival in South America.
At a recent book festival I asked noted British WWII historian and author Sir Max Hastings what he thought of books like Dunstan & Williams' `Grey Wolf'. His reply was short and sweet ; "..absolute drivel " ...adding " imagining new and stunning revelations from WWII is a disease of reporters and newsmen everywhere. There simply haven't been any since the mid-1970s and the 'Ultra' secret.. "

This is an entertaining read, but having watched the vehemence of Gerrard Williams' defence of his theory that Hitler escaped to Argentina on Sky News I did expect the book to be rather stronger in terms of historical rigour.

A couple of salient points (although there are many problems with the thesis.. alas I do not have the time to list):

- Martin Bormann not dying in May 1945 is central to Grey Wolf. Gerrard Williams has claimed elsewhere that the DNA testing on his body in 1998 is not accepted by his family and they do not know the identity of the supposed 83 year old relative who gave the sample. I really do think the authors should have picked up (after 5 years of research after all) that Martin Bormann Jr, his eldest son, gave the sample. And was satisfied with the results:

[....]

- The escape flight to Denmark. The pilot (on whom this part of the thesis hangs) claimed that he landed briefly in Magdeburg on the way to Denmark. That is extremely odd. Did the US Army provide toilet facilities and refreshment to the Fuhrer? The 9th US Army took Magdeburg on 19 April. If that part of his account is a bit suspect, well...

When you look through the (very poorly endnoted) documentary evidence behind the prose there really is not much there at all.

Enjoyed reading it and it does contribute some interesting angles (hence the two stars) but given that the "case is presented" with such force, it has to be judged on the merits of its historical argument. On that it fails. Badly.

I fully expected just to give this a cursory listening before dumping it with maybe a scathing review. In fact I found it fascinating and absorbing. The book is read by American narrator Don Hagen with just a few proununciations that are grating the the British ear but with a dry, clear and firm delivery that does not try to over sell the text.

It has masses of padding with long tangents about many related and entirely unrelated topics, a literary tactic that usually annoys me greatly and is a reason in itself for walking away from a tedious read. Yet not here for the long asides are in fact so well written and interesting that they did not bother me at all.

So am I now convinced that Adolf, Eva and Blondi escaped the bunker in 1945? Well, no, the wealth of detail the book goes into is just too much and too easily debunked by hiatory and plain common sense. I remember once listening to a radio host who challenged callers to his show to prove to him that the world was round and not flat. By his gift of the gab, quick wit and erudition he was able to refute all their arguments but at the end of the day the world was still round. This book is very well written, has the gloss veneer that comes with detailed research but ultimately it just cannot convince me that everything I have read elsewhere and the work of every academic and historian is wrong.

That said, I really did enjoy this book and would be happy to urge others to read it. There is masses of obscure history to be found within. Read it, enjoy it, be better informed than you were before but just don't expect to be convinced.