Hello, I am pretty excited. I ordered two books last week and they came in today. I am Russian so most of the literature that I've read about WWII was written by Russians. I've also read several books by Glantz and Beevor. So, these are my first two books that were written by the "enemy". Should be interesting! I've read several fiction books about WWI and WWII by German writers. I have say that in my opinion Erich Maria Remarque is far the best writer. We'll see if these two are any good. If any of you read these books, please tell me what you think about them and what should I expect. Thanks,
Panzer Leader & Lost Victories are the most famous first-hand accounts of WWII by German generals, but the two are certainly one of the two most biased and myth-creating books, exculpatory of both Manstein and Guderian's great crimes and blaming every single failure on Hitler. Guderian's book is useful to see the development of the Panzer arm and Panzer operations during the Blitzkrieg period. However, this book talks about the false Polish cavalry charge, of the 'wonderful' German war machine (that still marched on foot and horses dragged its supplies), of Hitler's blame on Dunkirk and of Hitler's southern turn on 41, etcetera. Of course, general Guderian does not mention his apathy and lack of guts to stand before Hitler, the personal devotion to him, the fact that he did pass the Comissar Order or the heavy ideological indoctrinations and massive court martials he order whilst he was Chief of Staff of the OKH… etctera, etcetera. Now, Von Manstein's book is a flat text, chauvinist, full with what-ifs, blaming Hitler on everything, omitting important things on purpose, changing facts… And does it mention that Von Manstein insisted on he mistreatment of Soviet POWs and other Untermenschen, specially partisans and civilians who supported them? Of course not! It also does not give any account on the memorandums that encouraged anti-semitism and the brutal fight against Asian hordes and communism, signed by him and passed to his sub-ordinates and men. I'd say you better stick with Glantz and Beevor. P. S. This might be said too about the memoirs of marshal Zhúkov or Vasilievski…
I am well aware of German general's obsession with blaming all of their failures on Hitler. I am about 50 pages into Manstein's book and I can already sense the direction it is going. However, I did not decide to read these books for historical knowledge. I am mostly interested in their personalities. Manstein and Guderian were important figuers in WWII and knowing what they thought and how they felt is almost as important as knowing historical facts. I have not read memoirs of Zhukov or Vasilievski. I did order a book by Zhukov and since it been shipped from Russia I am sure it is going to take about a month for it to come in. I've read memoirs by Kuznetsov, head of the Soviet Navy in WWII. I was quite impressed with that book. Unfortunalty I don't think it's been published in English. Anyway, thank you for the reply. I am sure I am going to make a few posts as I read on.
