Why am I passionate about this?

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

By Michael Dorosh,

Book cover of Indescribable Ordeal: The History of the German 65th Infantry Division 1942-1945

What is my book about?

The 65th Division was an undistinguished formation in a forgotten theatre. Overviews of the Italian Campaign either ignore it or…

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The books I picked & why

Book cover of The Cross of Iron

Michael Dorosh Why did I love this book?

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.

By Willi Heinrich,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked The Cross of Iron as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.


Book cover of The German Army, 1933-1945: Its Political and Military Failure

Michael Dorosh Why did I love this book?

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.

By Matthew Cooper,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked The German Army, 1933-1945 as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

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…


Book cover of Soldaten: On Fighting, Killing and Dying: The Secret Second World War Tapes of German POWs

Michael Dorosh Why did I love this book?

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.

By Sonke Neitzel, Harald Welzer,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Soldaten as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

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,…


Book cover of The German Infantry Handbook 1939-1945

Michael Dorosh Why did I love this book?

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.

By Alex Buchner,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked The German Infantry Handbook 1939-1945 as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Covers formations, strength, armament, equipment, rank insignia, rifle groups, rifle columns, the company, light infantry weapons, recon, panzerjager units, pioneer, veterinary units, support services and operational histories of the German infantry.


Book cover of Panzer Gunner: From My Native Canada to the German Ostfront and Back. in Action with 25th Panzer Regiment, 7th Panzer Division 1944-45

Michael Dorosh Why did I love this book?

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.

By Bruno Friesen,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Panzer Gunner as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

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…


Explore my book 😀

Indescribable Ordeal: The History of the German 65th Infantry Division 1942-1945

By Michael Dorosh,

Book cover of Indescribable Ordeal: The History of the German 65th Infantry Division 1942-1945

What is my book about?

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.

Book cover of The Cross of Iron
Book cover of The German Army, 1933-1945: Its Political and Military Failure
Book cover of Soldaten: On Fighting, Killing and Dying: The Secret Second World War Tapes of German POWs

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The Atrahasis Epic

By Ken Goudsward,

Book cover of The Atrahasis Epic

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Ken Goudsward Author Of Fermi's Paradox Is Bullshit: the Evidence for Extraterrestrial Life

New book alert!

Why am I passionate about this?

As a child, I was fascinated with astronomy but discouraged from investigating the UFO phenomenon due to religious reasons. Not until I was in my forties, did I begin to see the strange Biblical hints of what ended up in my writing my book UFOs In The Bible. Along the way, my research led me to diverse related topics including Sumerian mythology and astrobiology which have resulted in a few more books (and more to come). I see logic as a fundamental tool for this line of investigation, and so, I embrace books that engage with the evidence logically. I firmly believe we must all make room for experiencers to tell their stories without recrimination.

Ken's book list on rational UFO stories

What is my book about?

Contrary to popular belief, the Atrahasis Epic is not merely a flood myth. In some ways it can be called a creation myth. However, it does not concern itself with the creation of the universe or even of the earth. Rather, the created work in question is one of culture and civilization. The work ostensibly includes, but may not be limited to, modern humans.

The goals of this new paraphrase are to examine the ancient story in a new light free of religious and gender biases and to integrate geological and archaeological evidence that ties the story to a specific…

The Atrahasis Epic

By Ken Goudsward,

What is this book about?

Contrary to popular belief, the Atrahasis Epic is not merely a flood myth. In some ways it can be called a creation myth. However, it does not concern itself with the creation of the universe or even of the earth. Rather, the created work in question is one of culture and civilization. The work ostensibly includes, but may not be limited to, modern humans.

The goals of this new paraphrase are to examine the ancient story in a new light free of religious and gender biases and to integrate geological and archaeological evidence that ties the story to a specific…


5 book lists we think you will like!

Interested in Canadians, Germany, and infantry?

Canadians 44 books
Germany 492 books
Infantry 21 books