Lost Victories : The War Memoirs of Hitler's Most Brilliant General

Rating:
Summary: Lost Victories
Review: Von Mansteins account of the war is a must for the serious student of the WWII Euro. Theater. His operational analysis of the action on the Eastern Front gives the reader details which are hard to find elsewhere. The battles for the Crimean Peninsula('41-'42), Wintergale, and his counter stroke at Kharkov simply don't have much written about them, so his firsthand accounts are worth their weight in gold. This isn't a "boring" detail fact sheet however. Von Manstein blends the details with his professional opinion on the military operation as well as many other leading military figures. Of particular interest is what he has to say about his dealings with Hitler. Once you start this book it is very difficult to set it down.

Rating:
Summary: Good read, but laced with lies and half truths
Review: While Manstein was undoubtedly one of best operative minds ever produced by the Generalstab, I find his memoirs disturbing in that he tries a tad too hard to blame everything on Hitler, with himself taking all credits.

And most of the time he deferred to Hitler's unwise decisions, certainly a negative reflection on his integrity (Paul Hausser refused to obey patently wrong orders in the Battle of Kharkov.

He may be a very good practioner of the art of war, but he has developed no new strategic insights, or breakthroughs in operative thinking, unlike the likes of Graf Schlieffen or Moltke (Beck, Halder, Guderian, Zeitzler et al who held the post of Chief of Staff of the OKH had all priven to be mediocre thinkers, and in the main, armchair generals).



Rating:
Summary: A Review of Manstein's Work
Review: With an emphasis on analysis seldom presented in a book this accessible, Manstein has presented his readers with a rich history of his activities in the Second World War. The majority of the book is devoted to his greatest operational achievement, the successful withdrawal of several German army groups on the Southern end of the Russian front after the defeat at Stalingrad. There are moments in the recounting of this operation when the reader can fully appreciate the difficulties confronting Manstein and his staff; the tension, always understated by the author, becomes palpable, if only because of what he does not say. Lost Victories is a glimpse into one of the most brilliant military minds of this century and a book not to be missed.