Found two great books, both are first person accounts from German WWII infantry veterans. Their experiences in their own words. "Infantry Aces" by Franz Kurowski (Ballantine Books) and "Soldat" by Seigfried Knappe (Bantamdell Books). Some good reading, for anyone interested...
Books
- Thread starter jwatch
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Thank you for including this one! It appears to be mainly biographical and covers a number of infantrymen on various fronts. There is also a more general section on infantry tactics.
A "limited preview" of it on google books:
http://books.google.com/books?id=kFHesac13twC
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Siegfired Knappe fought in nearly every major Wehrmacht campaign, defended Berlin in the bunker with Hitler and spent 5 years as a pow in Russia. "Panzer Battles" by Maj. Gen. F.W. Mellenthin and "Steel Inferno" by Michael Reynolds are two books that cover the war from a tanker's point of view. (I read a lot!)
This is funny right now I am in the middle of Infantry Aces and it's very good. They show plenty of different soldiers, units, and backgrounds in it. I finished another one a few weeks back "In Deadly Combat" and that was good as well. My favorite is still "The Forgotten Soldier" though by Guy Sajer even if there is some speculation with that one.
Found this 2 volume set in my local library..."The History of the Panzerkorps Grossdeutschland" by Helmuth Spaeter, Fedorowicz Publishing Co. Translated from German it has loads of first person accounts, eyewitness reports, maps and details of the PG from its conception to its end in 1946.
"Fighting in Hell" edited by Peter Tsouras is pretty good, it's specifically about the Germans on the East Front, with each excerpt written by German veteran officers
"Frontsoldaten" edited by Stephen Fritz is also very good, its main source are many letters written home by German soldiers
"Frontsoldaten" edited by Stephen Fritz is also very good, its main source are many letters written home by German soldiers
Has anyone read "Blood Red Snow" before? I am thinking about getting the hardcover version sometime soon. The copy is kind of pricey though.
I am going to check out "Frontsoldaten"Manstein thanks for suggesting that sounds like it is good.
I am going to check out "Frontsoldaten"Manstein thanks for suggesting that sounds like it is good.
It is good, just know it's not a narrative but a treatise on the conditions the German soldiers faced during the war.
Next time I am in the book store I will skim through a few pages before picking it up to make sure it interests me some.
This one is a selection of a few of the "German Report Series" pamphlets produced by captured officers for the U.S. Army Historical Division. Tsouras focuses on contributions by Raus.
Some interesting facts about this project: while it was initially tasked to provide the U.S. Army with a history of the war from the German side, its purpose soon changed with the start of the Cold War. Many of the pamphlets now became manuals on "How to stop the Red tide": what the U.S. Army could learn from the German experience. The titles of many chapters in "Fighting in Hell" already reflect this shift.
Gen. Franz Halder was in charge of the project, and himself wrote many articles. In fact, he was asked to provide an analysis of a U.S. Army Field Manual (US Field Manual 100-5). This led to a greater emphasis of concepts such as mobile defense by armor into subsequent editions (nuclear weapons later made these tactics less relevant).
In 1961, Halder was awarded the U.S. Meritorious Civilian Service Medal by JFK.
Another pamphlet in the German Report Series which is available online, but which has not often been referred to:
The German Defense of Berlin - by Wilhelm Willemar, Oberst a.D.