German General Staff
David Stone's ninth book was Twilight of the Gods: The Decline and Fall of the German General Staff in World War II, published in 2011. The US co-edition of this work was titled Shattered Genius: The Decline and Fall of the German General Staff in World War II. In an endorsement of "Twilight of the Gods" Richard Dannatt (General the Lord Dannatt GCB CBE MC DL), Chief of the General Staff of the British army 2006–2009, stated, 'How the mighty are fallen! This brilliant study of the demise of the once great German General Staff is a captivating read. It is a must for professional and casual readers alike.' A review of the book in May 2012 stated, 'This is a masterly account of the turbulent relationship between, on the one hand, a superbly trained [German] General Staff imbued with Prussian tenets of effectiveness and honour, and, on the other, a cold-blooded entirely pragmatic regime led by Hitler and Himmler, careless of honour and fatally ambitious.' In a comprehensive review of the book for the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI) Journal in August 2012, Mungo Melvin, concluded that "'Twilight of the Gods" represents an important contribution to the study of the Second World War. Stone provides the best overall account of the German General Staff since Walter Görlitz's classic study of the early 1950s.'