The Leader and the Damned

Book excerpt: 'THE TIME BOMB WHICH WAS TO KILL ADOLF HITLER, FUEHRER AND COMMANDER-IN-CHIEF OF THE GERMAN ARMED FORCES, WAS ASSEMBLED AT SMOLENSK WITH GREAT CARE . . .' In 1943 Hitler was at the height of his powers. At his side constantly was Martin Bormann. On his mind constantly was the war against the beleaguered might of Stalin's Russia.After 13 March 1943, records show a drastic change in the Fuehrer's behaviour and personality. And 13 March 1943 was the date of a bomb attack on the Fuehrer's private aircraft.If Hitler was destroyed on that fateful date, who was the man in the Berlin bunker two years later? How did Martin Bormann succeed in keeping the anit-Nazi generals from seizing the Reich? And who was Woodpecker - the Soviet spy at the pinnacle of the Nazi war machine?