This work investigates the systemic and individual motivations behind desertion within the German Wehrmacht during the Second World War. Douglas Carl Peifer, a scholar of military history, utilizes archival records and judicial documents to analyze the legal, social, and psychological pressures faced by soldiers attempting to abandon their posts. The book argues that desertion was not merely an act of cowardice but a complex response to the deteriorating conditions of the war and the increasingly draconian measures implemented by the Nazi regime to maintain discipline.

Historians recognize this text as a rigorous examination of the internal collapse of German military discipline. Scholars frequently cite Peifer's work for its detailed archival research and its objective approach to a historically sensitive subject.