I just finished reading Colonial Hans Von Luck's book for the 4th time, and Guderians for the 3rd.

Fantastic books, the best first hand accounts of the German Wehrmacht, and Panzer divisions that I have read. I would have given anything to be able to have lunch with either, Von Luck was a fantastic story teller. Luck was also a Mercedes enthusiast. He enjoyed the finner things in life and was pretty angry when the French "liberated" his liquor stock...that he purchased.



All I can say is its a shame that such a fantastic army had such a piss poor leader, Hitler ruined that army in Russia. Guderian's insight on the man after having worked with him for awhile was very interesting, though not surprising.

Anyway...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wY_5c0mBXok
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gPXOka9BXnY&feature=related

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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DaUHerqe5XM

Guderian was a good man, he worked very hard to ensure his country would win. Very respectable, even though he served a crap leader.

He is the grandfather of modern armoured warefare. He was the first to really put the combined arms, fast, maneuver warefare we see today into practice.

Whats a good book on Rommel?

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Guderian put into practice the best theories of Rommel, including those that Rommel had not completely nthought out, and got an assist from, by Guderian.

If you like Rommel, read the book he wqrote: The Tank in battle." It's pretty short, about 120 pages and is a real how-to manual.

So is Clausewitz's original book "On War."

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Rommel did some fantastic work his his 7th Panzer division in France.

So it looks like: The tank battle, and On War are the next. Guderian played down Rommels role in his book, he was just a talented commander. I'd love to hear others view on the subject.

In Luck's book they were fairly friendly.

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Somehow "piss poor" falls short when describing Hitler. He was slightly worse than "piss poor", don't you think?

I also think you are giving that "fantastic army" a huge benefit of the doubt. Are you saying that the German army was virtuous and that they would have done good things if they had a better leader?

You might want to try reading "Infanterie Angriff" by Rommel himself, if you can get a hold of it.

Also while it's not about Rommel himself von Mellenthin's "Panzer Battles" is an interesting read. He was Rommel's ADC in North Africa.

An uncle of mine met the von Mellenthin's in Johannesburg, South Africa where they were living after the war. Very charming couple he recalled.

- Peter.

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I bought the Von Luck book on the basis of Hattie's recommendation, and it's a fascinating read.


Luck was an extradordinary individual, a true Prussian military aristocrat, and his story is really fascinating.

East Prussia and its military culture is gone forever, swept away in the Russian tide of blood that engulfed it in 1945.

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I'll recommend Knight's Cross.

Thanks for the links folks, I'll look into Von Luck and Guderian.

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