I'll go and read through that section as soon as possible - I'm currently working on an article about the drama that is unfolding around our national soccer team at the moment. A sports blog loved my repetetive comments to such a degree that they invited me to work as an occaisonal commentator for anything concerning the Mannschaft. Now I'm up to my neck in interview dates and research to get the facts and timeline straight. And close to shooting Michael Ballack if I'd chance to meet him


Why not combine both- have you, by chance, heard of Carl Zuckmayers play "Des Teufels General"? Here is a short synopsis:

The play is set in the early winter of 1941, and the last act is intentionally dated 6 December, the day before Pearl Harbor and five days before Germany declared war on the USA. It successfully combines a study of ‘the devil's general’, General Harras, with the theme of resistance and the terrorism which it has to encounter. Harras is modelled on General E. Udet (1896-1941, suicide). In the first act (Höllenmaschine) Harras gives a party in a luxurious restaurant in Berlin which, unknown to host and guests, houses a concealed recording apparatus. A convincing impression of life at the higher levels of Nazi society in Berlin is evoked, including the rigid and the lax, the fanatics, the fellow-travellers, and the deluded honest supporters. Harras, an air ace of the 1914-18 War, now in charge of aircraft production, scathingly mocks the regime. For all his apparent gaiety he is in a critical situation. Crashes of aircraft owing to constructional faults have become frequent, he has been unable to trace the cause, and is under suspicion. His crisis is also moral. He fights for what he does not believe in. Flying has meant so much to him that he re-joined to build up the new German air force, though he knew how unscrupulous the new rulers of Germany were. Thus he has become ‘the devil's general’. In the second act (Galgenfrist oder die Hand) the net closes round Harras, who is given ten days to solve the problem of possible sabotage. Harras, who in his heedless cynicism has set little value on his own life, falls in love with Diddo, a young actress, and recovers his will to live. News now arrives of the death of his closest friend, Colonel Eilers, whose aircraft has crashed through metal fatigue. The third act (Verdammnis) takes place at an airfield. Harras knows that he will be liquidated. A glimpse of organized resistance is given with the appearance of two factory workers under arrest. Eilers's widow denounces Harras for encouraging Eilers in what she now recognizes as an unjust cause. Finally Harras discovers that Oderbruch, the manager he has trusted utterly, is the chief figure in the sabotage of the aircraft. Harras does not betray Oderbruch, but takes up one of the batch of faulty aircraft and crashes to his death. Dr Schmidt-Lausitz informs the Propaganda Ministry by telephone that all has gone well, and a state funeral is ordered. The play is held together by the brave, reckless, outspoken Harras who redeems himself in two actions, his interview with Hartmann which initiates the young man's disillusionment with the Nazi world, and his decision to save Oderbruch by sacrificing his own life.