I have just published my review of Special Forces Berlin by James Stejskal. After reading this book anyone would be hard-pressed to argue that "Detachment A" wasn't the best-of-the-best in the US military throughout much of the Cold War era. One could even argue that it's skillset as practiced in the late 1970's up to the mid-1980's equally stood up as best in its class in comparison to even its newest and more widely acclaimed US special forces peers in Delta Force or SEAL TEAM 6.
Though the Third Reich started it, the Allies ended it in spectacular fashion: with that "it" being WWII. As part of the comprehensive crushing of Germany required to defeat Hitler's regime the Allies dropped roughly 1.9 million tons of bombs on Germany during the war, with the vast majority of this destruction coming in the war's final year. During the entirety of the Allied Combined Bomber Offensive (a round the clock offensive led by the British Royal Air Force at night and United States Army Air Force during the day) approximately 500,000 Germans were killed.
