Panzer Aces: German Tank Commanders in World War II (Stackpole Military History Series)

Rating:
Summary: Panzer Aces ultimately trumped
Review: This is an exciting and well written book that I have read twice. It chronicles the rise and fall of the German Panzertruppe through the personal experiences of six of its finest leaders. Beginning early in the war, using largely inferior equipment but having great esprit de corps (the French would hate that) and brilliant tactics and initiative, with the great victories in Poland, France and the first two years in Russia and then through the last two years of the war- using the best equipment but hamstrung by inadequate numbers and inane strategies resulting in a series of continued localized tactical victories and theatre wide strategic defeats, this book presents an on the field view we rarely have gotten from other writers.
Using actual diaries and first hand journals Kurowski recreates the actual battlefield experiences of these men as they progressed through the war. This is first-hand tactical experience made real on the written page! Really well done. I found this book riveting.
Paul Carrel, in two books, "Hitler Moves East" & "Scorched Earth" captures much of the same on an operational level, and I recommend these books highly as well.

Rating:
Summary: Good Men, Good Equipment, Wrong Side
Review: This is really the stories of six men. They were soldiers. And they were on the side of the Germans during World War II. They fought on both the Eastern and Western fronts. They appear to have been good men, and for the most part they were incredibly lucky. They began the war at its start. Five of the six survived the war - perhaps you have to survive to get to tell your story to the book writers.

These stories are interesting because they present a side of the war not often seen in the United States. These men were fighting against us, and they were on the losing side. Still they were men, and they tried to do the best they could for their country. I think anyone will agree that these men were provided with just about the best equipment of any army. But during the war the Germans built about 40,000 tanks. The United States alone built some 88,000, the Soviet Union built more than that.