I am a Canadian with bachelor's degrees in history and communications and over thirty-five years of experience in the Canadian Army reserves. My interest in the German Army of the Third Reich period has led to interviews with surviving veterans, visits to various battlefields, a successful YouTube channel, and involvement in military-themed hobbies such as war re-enactment and wargaming which in turn has led to the publication of many related books and magazine articles. Like all of us writing on the subject of Germans in the Second World War, I find it often poorly understood yet hugely compelling for its complex legal, historical, and moral aspects.
I wrote...
Indescribable Ordeal: The History of the German 65th Infantry Division 1942-1945
The 65th Division was an undistinguished formation in a forgotten theatre. Overviews of the Italian Campaign either ignore it or note how often it was wiped out. I was drawn to the 65th, thinking its story would paint a truly representative picture of the average German soldier of the period. My research did not disappoint.
Amid tedious quiet periods were hair-raising tales of heroism mixed with heart-breaking stories of sacrifice, always tinged by the knowledge it was in service of a criminal regime. Authors still struggle to understand and explain why good men fought so hard to defend such a terrible cause. Since no single book can cover it, here are five books that, when read together, will inform and provide food for thought.
With compelling characters and true insights into the historical period it is set in, I consider this the best novel of all time. The movie it inspired is a classic, but the novel delivers much more.
The characters are brought to life with realistic motivations, dialogue, and inner monologues. Heinrich's masterful changes of point of view and suspenseful chapter breaks still maintain my interest every time.
I can't praise the book enough for its pure literary quality, and even though it is a work of fiction, it has a ring of authenticity about it. The author served in the same regiment his fictional Steiner character belongs to and based him on a soldier who lived through the real-world events Heinrich set his novel in.
I find this very old title is still one of the best deconstructions of the German Army as an institution and continues to inform my understanding of many baffling questions around Hitler's relationship with the Army he needed for his plans of conquest and ethnic cleansing.
In particular, I find Cooper's destruction of the Blitzkrieg myth eminently satisfying and consider this one of the seminal works with which one must be familiar in order to understand the German Army and its importance as a tool of government policy as well as part of the social fabric of the nation.
Mathew Cooper's superb analysis of the association between Hitler, the German General Staff and with his generals sheds much new light on the reform of the Garman Army following WWI, Hitler's rapid increase of its power and strength on assuming leadership and on his conviction of brilliance on military matters, based on his early military successes in WWII. While the study covers the years from 1933 to Germany's surrender in 1945, most of the focus is on the situation during WWII, when Hitler's increasing interference with operational decisions and his growing distrust of his generals, particularly those from the traditional…
It isn't often I've read the unvarnished words of German soldiers who fought in the Second World War straight from their mouths, recorded during the war. Living in a police state with a propagandized, controlled press ensured that, which is why I found it refreshing to read in this book the transcripts of secret wartime recordings of German POWs.
Additionally, I found the insightful analysis by the two authors painted a much more vivid and compelling picture of the experiences of regular, front-line German soldiers than even a novel could. That was also what I found so chilling about many of the passages the authors chose to share, which include frank admissions about such ugly things as war crimes, murderous envy, and race hatred.
In November 2001, as the world still reeled from the attack on the Twin Towers, German historian Sonke Neitzel discovered an extraordinary cache of documents from the Second World War. The documents were the transcripts of German prisoners of war talking among themselves in prisoner of war camps, and secretly recorded by the allies. In these apparently private conversations the soldiers talked freely and openly about their hopes and fears, their concerns and their day-to-day lives. With a banality and ease which to the modern reader can appear shocking, they also talked about the horrors of war -- about rape,…
I can't think of a better guide to organization than this one, penned by a surviving officer. It lays out in a straightforward manner how the units of the standard infantry division were organized, including both the combat and supporting arms, from squad up to regimental size.
In addition to this basic lesson in structure, which I found easy to read in an almost conversational style, I was drawn into the many anecdotes collected at the back of the book, usefully divided up by unit type, as well as dozens of photos I have not seen shared in other books.
I think it is only natural to include an autobiography in a list like this, and Bruno Friesen's book is compelling to me for several reasons, mainly because he was a Canadian who ended up in the German Army.
Friesen talks about these curious circumstances honestly and with good humour, and the book transitions quickly from light-hearted reminiscences to a really very good technical study of what it was like to fight in tanks on the Eastern Front.
I thought the book illustrated well how an individual could fight against the multiple dehumanizing forces of modern war and come out the other end with spirit intact. The book juxtaposes well the helplessness of men fighting in machines with their human survival instincts.
There are few memoirs available of German Panzer crews that focus on the climactic last 12 months of the war on the Eastern Front, 1944-45. What makes Bruno Friesen's account virtually unique is his family background: his parents came from a German-speaking Mennonite community in Ukraine, and were to all intents and purposes culturally German. To make matters even more complex, in 1924 his parents left Ukraine for Canada, where Bruno was born.
In March 1939 he and his brother Oscar found themselves on a ship bound for Bremerhaven in Germany. He barely spoke German, and had never been to…
As a young doctor, Carl Holman has experienced the horrors of World War I and the death of his lover, a fellow officer. Back home after the War, he befriends a young jazz musician who he hopes will become a companion he can share his life with. But this is Oregon: the Ku Klux Klan is gaining influence, homosexual acts are illegal, and such a relationship will jeopardize Carl’s promising medical career.
Musician Jimmy Harper has his own dreams for the future and his own obstacles to overcome before he will allow himself to accept Carl’s love. More than a gay love story, Acquaintance is a deep dive into gay and lesbian history based on extensive period research of the 1920s.
As a young surgeon, Carl Holman has experienced the horrors of World War I and the loss of his lover, a fellow officer. Back home after the war, he befriends a young jazz musician who he hopes will become a companion he can share his life with. But this is Oregon: the Ku Klux Klan is gaining influence, homosexual acts are illegal, and such a relationship will jeopardize Carl’s promising medical career. Musician Jimmy Harper has his own dreams for the future and his own obstacles to overcome before he will allow himself to accept Carl’s love. Acquaintance is a…
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