"The war has been portrayed as one that had lost its direction.

"It has been called 'the blind war.' It has been seen as the war in which means were no longer in any proportion to the ends to be achieved, a war that was grinding on and on like a machine that had got out of control. And Ludendorff, as far as I can see, is indeed the representative of this image of the war – the war that had gotten out of control, had developed its own momentum.

"Ludendorff contributed to this momentum continuously with no sense as to where to go and when to stop. But in the end the war did stop. It did not stop because some sensible people said: 'This is the end. We have slaughtered almost ten million soldiers. We must come to an end.'

"Ludendorff never ever came to terms with this senselessness of the slaughter.

"The war ended only after Ludendorff had once again, in the spring offensive, tried to achieve the mythical breakthrough to put an end to the war by killing yet another large number of soldiers. He continued until there was no steam, there was no energy left in the machine."