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Rating: 
Summary: An excellant read. Unbiased and objective...
Review: An excellant read. Unbiased and objective military analysis...An acurate portrait of Germany's militaristic national character which finds life within its various martial incarnations.
Rating: 
Summary: Non-propagandist history of German fighting men
Review: Finaly! An author who has the courage to give the lorals (and expose the pitfalls) of German soldiers from the 18th century, through WWII. I was aghast to find that in my college senior level WWII history class, our sole text on the Whermacht was written by a former Israeli solidier! As a grand-child of soldiers of Germany, I applaud this book and would recommend it to anyone interested in a realistic, soldiers view, of the German Armies.
Rating: 
Summary: Great idea, but what happened?
Review: Laffin has a great idea. He wants to examine the characteristics of German soldiers and German militantcy since Prussian times. He tells us early on that he wants to overcome steretypes and "tell it like it is." What the reader gets is a history light version of the German military over the course of two hundred years, full of generalizations, and stereotypes. Unfortunately, some of Laffin's favorite rhetorical crutches are comments like "in typical German fashion", "...having the typical methodical Prussian mind...", and "They set about planning it at once, in typical Germanic style..." The French army is in one case defeated because of "effeminacy." Some of the ideas presented seem to be more opinion than carefully researched analysis. Finally, Laffin's conclusion (writing in 1965) is that German officers are intentionally making the Bundeswehr look bad in NATO exercises as part of a conspiracy which will see German soldiers on the march again to dominate Europe. Well, even in 1965 that was laughable. Anyone familiar with Germans today is well aware that it would take decades of militant socialization for Germans to ever again march on a neighboring capital... unless it was a protest march on Brussels. The best parts of this book, and those worth reading, were written by someone else. The chapters on WWI and WWII are full of excerpts from soldier diaries and letters and are absolutely fascinating. So, if you read this book, realize you will have to wade through a lot of opinionated garbledy-gook on your way to the good stuff. And, in Laffin's favor, he does make some effort to portray the German soldier as a patriot, instead of simply a Nazi stooge as too many historians are likely to do. On the other hand, he does at times lapse into all kinds of steretypes about Germany and Germans.
Rating:
Summary: Great idea, but what happened?
Review: Laffin has a great idea. He wants to examine the characteristics of German soldiers and German militantcy since Prussian times. He tells us early on that he wants to overcome steretypes and "tell it like it is." What the reader gets is a history light version of the German military over the course of two hundred years, full of generalizations, and stereotypes. Unfortunately, some of Laffin's favorite rhetorical crutches are comments like "in typical German fashion", "...having the typical methodical Prussian mind...", and "They set about planning it at once, in typical Germanic style..." The French army is in one case defeated because of "effeminacy." Some of the ideas presented seem to be more opinion than carefully researched analysis. Finally, Laffin's conclusion (writing in 1965) is that German officers are intentionally making the Bundeswehr look bad in NATO exercises as part of a conspiracy which will see German soldiers on the march again to dominate Europe. Well, even in 1965 that was laughable. Anyone familiar with Germans today is well aware that it would take decades of militant socialization for Germans to ever again march on a neighboring capital... unless it was a protest march on Brussels. The best parts of this book, and those worth reading, were written by someone else. The chapters on WWI and WWII are full of excerpts from soldier diaries and letters and are absolutely fascinating. So, if you read this book, realize you will have to wade through a lot of opinionated garbledy-gook on your way to the good stuff. And, in Laffin's favor, he does make some effort to portray the German soldier as a patriot, instead of simply a Nazi stooge as too many historians are likely to do. On the other hand, he does at times lapse into all kinds of steretypes about Germany and Germans.
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