This book presents the final phase of the war as seen daily by a young officer of the German general staff. The reader is a witness to the dramatic events in headquarters and in Berlin. Until the bitter end, the command staff remained the German command authority and was employed by the Allies even after capitulation. The way in which the records were made with their dramatic sequence of possibilities, hopes, limitations and illusions, is scientifically explained in the introduction by historian Walther Hubatsch.