Panzer Commander

"For all the millions of words that have been written on World War II, the list of truly noteworthy memoirs by ordinary fighting men is surprisingly brief. . . . For sheer breadth of recorded experience, no soldier's memoir can match Hans von Luck's Panzer Commander.... There seems little of the war in Europe and Africa that Luck did not take part in, and few of the German military leaders whom he did not know or meet. A professional soldier who joined the German army in 1929 at eighteen, he was taught battle tactics by Erwin Rommel and later became one of Rommel's favorite line officers." Military History Quarterly "[T]his is one of the more valuable World War II memoirs to appear in some time. It is the story of a German tank officer who saw action from the Polish blitzkrieg to the fall of Belin and then spent five years as a Russian prisoner. His is the portrait of the best sort of soldier in one of the best armies of modern times, and it also provides insights into North African campaign commander Erwin Rommel's leadership, thoughts on why Germans made an idol of Hitler, and much else. An exceptional volume, recommended for most World War II or military collections." Booklist