Hitler's Bodyguard

Hitler's personal protection squad grew from a few fiercely loyal, handpicked ruffians into an army with a complicated structure and intense internal competition.

As Adolf Hitler clawed his way closer to power, his extremist policies brought him a host of enemies, some of whom were only too eager to see him dead.

In January 1933, Hitler achieved his goal of becoming Chancellor of Germany. For his Bodyguard, Hitler's brutal rise to power had already earned him many enemies, and the savage in-fighting between Nazi chieftains for control of Hitler's Bodyguard was as bloodthirsty as the attempts to kill the new Chancellor were thwarted.

As Adolf Hitler brutally consolidated his dictatorship in Germany and wiped out all opposition, the most serious threat to his rule came from an unexpected source - one of his oldest comrades who led the massive paramilitary army, which had played a vital role in bringing him to power.

Prague's Black Front poses a particular threat shortly after Hitler becomes Chancellor as German Jews try to strike back against Nazi officials. But Hitler's security proved equal to the task of keeping him alive.

By 1938, Hitler was on the road to war. His senior generals devise a plan that would have him arrested and likely killed.

During 1938, Hitler annexed Austria and the German speaking areas of Czechoslovakia into the Third Reich. Faced with whole populations of hostile people, the 'Desert Fox' elite army unit was formed.

Adolf Hitler loved cars. But it was travelling by car through crowds, which could easily harbor assassins that he was at his most vulnerable - and his bodyguard at their most alert.

Hitler employed a former World War 1 air ace Hans Baur as his personal pilot, and the Fuehrer was so impressed by his skill that he never allowed anyone else to fly him again. Baur became one of his key bodyguards, and his skill was critical when war came.

As Hitler began the aggression which swiftly engulfed Europe in a devastating war, he realized that he needed a mobile military headquarters from which he could direct his armies and follow their progress. In which his Bodyguard could protect him from his rapidly-growing host of enemies...The result was the Fuehrersonderzug, the Fuehrer's Special Train.

The Wolfschanze - his Wolf's Lair near Rastenburg - was the most famous of Hitler's military headquarters. Deep in the forests of East Prussia, it was from here that the Nazi warlord directed the titanic battles against the Soviet Union which would decide the fate of his Third Reich.

For Hitler, the Berghof, near the town of Berchtesgaden in the Bavarian Alps, was a very special place. What had started as a small Alpine cottage soon became the powerhouse where Hitler developed the plans that would injure and kill millions of people across Europe.

Hitler's last gasp offensive, the Battle of the Bulge, had been defeated and he fled back to Berlin. Now, as the Soviet juggernaut smashed its way into the heart of the Nazi capital, Hitler was left to make the choice - should he kill himself, or should he face the wrath of the world he had devastated?