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Friedrich von Boetticher was Germany’s only military attaché
accredited to the United States between the world wars. As such, he
was Germany’s official military observer in the capital of the
nation whose potential as an ally of those powers arrayed against
Adolf Hitler in the 1930s might have given the dictator pause in
any predatory plans he harbored against his neighbors. Though von
Boetticher produced a rich and detailed commentary on military and
political affairs in Washington in the eight years prior to the
outbreak of war between Germany and the United States in 1941, he
was nonetheless accused after the war of misjudging America’s
productive potential and misleading Hitler with overly optimistic
reports. As Alfred M. Beck points out, what he actually told German
authorities in Berlin is strikingly different from what his
detractors later claimed. Von Boetticher “permits a glimpse into
the sociology of a conservative officer caste at once assailed by
the politics of a regime and the impossibilities imposed on it, its
weaknesses in resisting its evils, and its eventual failure to
present an alternative to National Socialism’s illusory
attractions.” A loyal German, von Boetticher had strong ties to
America. His mother was American-born, he spoke English fluently,
and he was enamored of American military history. He was also
anti-Semitic and believed that “Jewish wire-pullers” had undue
influence over the U.S. government and its policies. His
professional ties to U.S. Army officers in the War Department were
so strong—supplying them, for example, with details on German air
strength and operations during the Battle of Britain in 1940—that
they survived until August 1941 and long after the German
ambassador himself had been recalled. Torn between his duty to
Germany (though the Nazi regime had attempted to harm his son) and
his deep affection for America, von Boetticher stood among the
broad middle range of German officials who were neither perpetrator
nor victim.
In this book the Army Corps of Engineers' support of the war in the
European and North African theaters is recounted in detail. This
narrative makes clear the indispensable role of the military
engineer at the fighting front and his part in maintaining Allied
armies in the field against European Axis powers. American
engineers carried the fight to enemy shores by their mastery of
amphibious warfare. In building and repairing road and rail nets
for the fighting forces, they wrote their own record of
achievement. In supporting combat and logistical forces in distant
lands, these technicians of war transferred to active theaters many
of the construction and administrative functions of the peacetime
Corps, so heavily committed to public works at home. The authors of
this volume have reduced a highly complex story to a comprehensive
yet concise account of American military engineers in the two
theaters of operations where the declared main enemy of war was
brought to unconditional surrender.
Friedrich von Boetticher was Germany’s only military attaché
accredited to the United States between the world wars. As such, he
was Germany’s official military observer in the capital of the
nation whose potential as an ally of those powers arrayed against
Adolf Hitler in the 1930s might have given the dictator pause in
any predatory plans he harbored against his neighbors. Though von
Boetticher produced a rich and detailed commentary on military and
political affairs in Washington in the eight years prior to the
outbreak of war between Germany and the United States in 1941, he
was nonetheless accused after the war of misjudging America’s
productive potential and misleading Hitler with overly optimistic
reports. As Alfred M. Beck points out, what he actually told German
authorities in Berlin is strikingly different from what his
detractors later claimed. Von Boetticher “permits a glimpse into
the sociology of a conservative officer caste at once assailed by
the politics of a regime and the impossibilities imposed on it, its
weaknesses in resisting its evils, and its eventual failure to
present an alternative to National Socialism’s illusory
attractions.” A loyal German, von Boetticher had strong ties to
America. His mother was American-born, he spoke English fluently,
and he was enamored of American military history. He was also
anti-Semitic and believed that“Jewish wire-pullers” had undue
influence over the U.S. government and its policies. His
professional ties to U.S. Army officers in the War Department were
so strong—supplying them, for example, with details on German air
strength and operations during the Battle of Britain in 1940—that
they survived until August 1941 and long after the German
ambassador himself had been recalled. Torn between his duty to
Germany (though the Nazi regime had attempted to harm his son) and
his deep affection for America, von Boetticher stood among the
broad middle range of German officials who were neither perpetrator
nor victim.
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