Product Description

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1024801 in Books
• Published on: 2006-04-14
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 230 pages

Customer Reviews

Pretty good for an Autobiography
A decent account of WWII seen through the eyes of the elite Spec Ops German commander. A few bits are lost here and there with the translastion from German to English but overall the feel of the book is kept pretty close to the original. The account begins with the early life of Skorzeny and is pretty light until he begins the accounts of his military career. He is very detailed and his antidotes are fairly amusing. He goes into great detail of the raid to free Mussolini, his challenges to raise a special force inside the German Army, his exploits in dealing with the Hungarian government, his plans during Ardennes offensive, and his captivity after the war. His exploits are very factually presented and although history tells of his gigantic ego he seems to have it in check throughout the book. He does not toot his own horn much but does give the credit where credit deserves: to his men and subcommanders. Those who are interested in the workings of a Spec Ops operational commander should read this book. It is not filled with an inkling of Nazi propaganda or rhetoric. It is an account of what a German Officer did during the war. It appears he did like Hitler but there also seems to be a slight undertone that the German High command messed up the war, although he does not specifically state that. It is interesting to read his accounts of dealing with the German High Command and Hitler himself and it does show a more strategic and tactical side of the war. Sadly the book ends with his escape from prison after the Nuremberg trials,and does not go into any of his underground activities and post war exploits (to include a stint working for Eva Peron in Argentina!) nor does it mention his involvement with "Der Spinne" or ODESSA. I was reluctant to read this book in fear that is might contain pro-nazi viewpoints and/or support for the Holocaust but was pleasently suprised that it was what it was, an autobiography. I would give it 4 stars but parts were difficult to understand (and had to be re-read even for a post-college level reader) and the translations lacking in rhythm in some areas. I recommend this for Spec Ops soldiers, WW II History buffs, and those interested in operational strategy. I do not recommend this for High School Students, casual College History students, or those wishing to read about World War II. This is a very specific account of very small bits of the War told through the skewed eyes of a German Officer who had his microscope solidly fixed on only one operational area: Special Warfare.

excellent
Lucidly written account with more than acceptable level of detail. The feats this man pioneered and performed are fleshed out very well. The book will seem dry to less enthusiastic readers, and certainly less than accessible to those very new to the history of this time period. Otherwise and overall: very interesting memoir by an extraordinary soldier. Reminiscent of "The Eagle has Landed." --the film featuring Michael Caine. Highly reccomended though, it should be availiable for under 30 dollars--do not pay more for a paperback, let alone a used one.

Should be titled: The Biggest Liar in Europe
This book is a repackaging of German SS officer Otto Skorzeny's original post-war memoirs, written in 1957. Up front, this memoir is not only disingenuous, but includes outright fabrications at times and Skorzeny - who was on the lam from Allied post-war courts at the time - omits any misdeeds for which he could have been indicted. In short, this is a white-washed account that puts the spotlight on the author, ignores the contributions of others and seeks to cement an un-deserved reputation in the annals of history. Otto Skorzeny never was a `commando' and actually spent much of the war in the Berlin area, social networking and letting others do the fighting. He was also an inveterate Nazi, which is soft-pedaled in his memoirs.

After a token introduction by Charles Messenger (which makes no effort to qualify any of the author's claims), the book is composed of 21 chapters (which have no headings to indicate their subject). No index is provided, which makes it difficult to track down individuals and events. Nor are there any maps and the faded photos look like they have been Xeroxed about a hundred times. Thus, the book is neither user-friendly or provides any value-added content.

In the opening chapters about his background, Skorzeny skims over a great deal, like his early involvement with the Austrian Nazi Party (which he claims that he quit after a year, but in fact, he used these connections to further his career). His account of his role in the Austrian Anschluss is pure baloney and he claims that he saved the president's life and was giving orders to SS troops (when he was not even in the military). His account of his entry into the Luftwaffe in 1939 fails to mention that he was a junior enlisted man. He then skims over his role in the French, Yugoslav and Russian campaigns, which provides almost no details but he does claim to have captured a bunch of Serb troops. I have Skorzeny's captured SS records from NARA in front of me as I write this review and many of these things he claimed in his memoirs are clearly false or distorted. In fact, it is clear that Skorzeny had very limited combat experience prior to getting detailed to the SS Friedenthal unit.

Perhaps the main value of this memoir is in the account of the formation of the Friedenthal unit - which was intended for the sabotage and assassination roles - not direct action commando missions, but Skorzeny provides remarkably few details. Nor does he mention that his unit was stationed adjacent to the Sachsenhausen concentration camp or that some of his recruits came from Einsatzgruppen involved with the Holocaust.

After muddling through the first few years of the war, Skorzeny moves into high gear when he is tasked by Hitler to look for the kidnapped Mussolini in Italy in 1943. Skorzeny's account belittles the role of the Luftwaffe fallschirmjäger and makes it appear that he planned and led the Gran Sasso Raid that rescued Mussolini, instead of being merely the `passenger' that he was. This section includes numerous lies, such as `my men were all wearing parachute uniforms' (photos clearly show that the SS troops wore different uniforms from the paratroops), that he gave instructions to the glider pilot where to land (refuted by the pilot's after-action report preserved at NARA), that the paratroops suffered fatalities, that an Italian colonel offered him a glass of wine (no such officer at the hotel, that Skorzeny was giving orders to the paratroopers, etc. Indeed, this whole section is complete garbage and much of it has been refuted in other sources. The publisher of this volume should have provided at least some comments on the authors' claims, such as Major Mors' (the paratroop commander) comment that Skorzeny's account was a `fairy tale.'

The rest of the book covers Skorzeny's role in Operation Panzerfaust in Hungary in 1944, which is a bit more balanced than the outrageous Gran Sasso section. Skorzeny's description of his role in the Ardennes Offensive is fairly brief and he gives more mention to the Schwedt Bridgehead in 1945 (but fails to mention that he was relieved of command). He continues to make unsubstantiated claims, such as that his men damaged the Remagen Bridge (they did not). He does fail to mention sordid things, such as his establishment of the Peters Group in Denmark, which murdered over 100 pro-resistance Danes (and got his subordinate Otto Schwerdt a death sentence after the war), or his involvement with Operation Bernhard and SS money-laundering operations. Although the author was clearly aware of Nazi atrocities, spending much of the war within one kilometer of Sachsenhausen concentration camp, there is no mention of the Holocaust but he does take a few swipes at Allied `brutality' in the final pages. Unfortunately, Skorzeny was one of those lying braggarts who grabbed the headlines that belonged to others and history still pays homage to the version of him that was written by Josef Goebbels and his propaganda machine. This is among the worst of German memoirs to come out of the Second World War.