So on Twitter I promised to read one extract but actually I've got permission to read three

and it was a debate over whether to do a chapter called Hitler's gamble. One called Man of

Honor which is about Sicily and Mafiosa types or one about air power called

crescendo in the air and in the end I'm doing all three but I'm going to do what is going to be

chapter three Hitler's gamble first. So here we go don't forget this is unedited this is very

much first draft so it's going to be probably slightly different by the time the book comes out in

September this year. Chapter three Hitler's gamble. German commanders of the war were not widely

known for their eccentricities but the senior army officer on Sicily that May 1943 certainly

stood apart from his peers. Partial to wearing both a tartan kilt and a claymore sword snung by his

side, Oberst Ernst Gunter-Bader have been something of a legendary figure in the Deutsche Afrika Korra

under Rommel known for his fearlessness immense charm wonderful sense of humour and ponchal for

tapping into British telephone conversations and having a chat in his flawless English with whoever

was on the other line. Another favourite trick was to call into misdirect artillery fire. Born to

wealth in Brandenburg in 1897 Bader had grown up an avid horseman roaming wildly on his family

estates clever and intellectually curious he was immensely well read and spoke not only English but

fluent French as well. With a thirst for adventure he enlisted in the cavalry the moment Germany

went to war in 1914 even though he was still just 17. Somehow he survived four years on the

western front until being gassed very near the end in August 1918 albeit not too severely. He had

been making a good recovery by the time the armistice was signed that November. It had been

bad as intention to remain in the army but with as much reduced size there had been no place for him

and so instead and still age only 22 he had settled in another family estate in Holstein in

northern Germany where he became a notable horsebreeder. Bader's ambitions for an army life had not

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