Product Description

A stunning look at World War II from the other side...

From the turret of a German tank, Colonel Hans von Luck commanded Rommel's 7th and then 21st Panzer Division. El Alamein, Kasserine Pass, Poland, Belgium, Normandy on D-Day, the disastrous Russian front--von Luck fought there with some of the best soldiers in the world. German soldiers.

Awarded the German Cross in Gold and the Knight's Cross, von Luck writes as an officer and a gentleman. Told with the vivid detail of an impassioned eyewitness, his rare and moving memoir has become a classic in the literature of World War II, a first-person chronicle of the glory--and the inevitable tragedy--of a superb soldier fighting Hitler's war.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #132684 in Books
• Published on: 1991-01-05
• Released on: 1991-01-05
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Mass Market Paperback
• 8 pages

From Library Journal
This unique memoir tells the story of one of the field-grade officers whose martial skills sustained the Third Reich against a world in arms. Von Luck fought in the Wehrmacht's armored forces for six years in Europe, Russia, and North Africa; then spent five years in a Russian labor camp. His narrative is as free from cant as it is from braggadocio and false modesty. It presents a soldier, a warrior, and a leader who never failed his men, and whose courage never faltered. It also portrays someone whose comprehensive lack of insight into the nature of the regime he served will be difficult for many readers to credit. Yet von Luck's sincerity is apparent; and his was a mind-set too widespread in Germany to be dismissed as mere self-exculpation. Failure to understand it leaves the Nazi years a mystery. Recommended for collections in this area, especially as a counterpoint to Sieg Heil!: War Letters of Tank Gunner Karl Fuchs, 1937-1941 ( LJ 9/1/87), whose narrator served in the same division as von Luck on the Russian front.
- Dennis Showalter, Colorado Coll., Colorado Springs
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Review
"For sheer breadth of recorded experience, no soldier's memoir can match it."
--Military History Quarterly

"One of the more valuable World War II memoirs...an exceptional volume."
--Booklist

"A soldier, a warrior, and a leader who never failed his men, and whose courage never faltered."
--LibraryJournal

"The ultimate professional soldier...a personal history that may provide guideposts for the future."
--Topeka Capital-Journal

Review
"For sheer breadth of recorded experience, no soldier's memoir can match it."
--Military History Quarterly

"One of the more valuable World War II memoirs...an exceptional volume."
--Booklist

"A soldier, a warrior, and a leader who never failed his men, and whose courage never faltered."
--LibraryJournal

"The ultimate professional soldier...a personal history that may provide guideposts for the future."
--Topeka Capital-Journal

Customer Reviews

A straight, unbiased view of the war from a German soldier
This book is about the memoirs of Hans von Luck, a Panzer tank commander. This book is a good insight into the battles from a German perspective. We are treated to Luck's command into Poland, France, Russia, Africa, the D-Day invasions, the collapse of Germany, and finally, his 5 year captivity at the hands of Russia.

The book gives good accounts of the fighting from a German perspective. We realize that many German soldiers and commanders were not as barbaric as what some news events show us. He treated his British prisoners with compassion and respect. He was not a politician and hated that Germany was thrown into a World War. And, as a surprise, he says that his Russian captors were not as harsh on him as what many reports would have us believe. Von Luck states that he realizes that his Russian captors were only fighting for their Motherland, as he was.

I think the book is definitely a fair portrait of his, and many other Germans, experiences during the war. I rated the book three stars since it was interesting, but not what I consider a constant page turner...but definitely worth reading.

Infomative, but a little boring
Compared to "Soldat," the autobiography of Major Siegried Knappe that (among other books) was used as source material for the movie "Downfall" (about Hitler's last days), "Panzer Commander" by Colonel Hanz Von Luck comes off as less well-written, and less exciting.

Although he probably didn't mean to, Luck also sounds a bit racist at times (particularly in his description of Mongolians). He often points out the cruelty or nonsensical, barbaric behavior of Soviet soldiers, but doesn't give the reader the sense of balance to remind them that German soldiers were just as cruel and probably crueler all over Europe (even if you don't consider the Holocaust, and most people do), and there would in any case have been no need for him to be in Soviet captivity anyway had Germany decided not to start a war it eventually lost.

There are interesting parts of the book, particularly when the living conditions inside Soviet gulags are described or when the battles in North Africa or Normandy are recounted, however it was far less interesting to read how Luck traveled all over the Reich's conquered territories in 1939-1944 and made friends with a lot of collaborators, who treated him like a hero rather than a servant in one of history's cruelest military regimes. Also, Luck goes into some detail of his courting of a German woman whom he eventually does not marry, and the end-notes of the book describe Luck as being married, with children, but in the body of the book he never describes the other woman. This struck me as odd, and the book seemed a bit incomplete because of it. It would have been nice to read a little more about what Luck did after getting away from Soviet captivity.

Luck seems like a decent person and his book is a memoir rather than objective history, however it's hard to like him and think of him as just some nice fellow who does his duty despite the fact that he hates the regime he serves, when you think about all the horrible things Germany did during the war. Okay, so Colonel Luck hates Hitler, and yet he does everything in his power to win Hitler's war. Arguably, he did his job for Germany and not for Hitler. But what would he have done had Germany emerged from the 1939-1945 war triumphant? Would he have denounced Hitler or taken part of a coup? Or -- much more likely -- would he have just continued to serve in the army and turned a blind eye to his moral disapproval of the government, and carry out reprehensible orders because "his boss made him do it?"

I could say the same thing about Siegfried Knappe, but then again, his was a much better, more insightful book.

Superb and insightful WW2 memoir
I've been reading this book while commuting to work, reflecting on my own wartime experiences in Iraq. As a serious student of WW2 and having read several memoirs, I can honestly say that von Luck's book is first rate, both for its historical value and anecdotal observations about his years of combat. Luck's narrative is a joy to read and one really gets a clear understanding of the German side of the war. I'm happy to put this one on my WW2 bookshelf.