Just curious. I'd be interested to read about what a German soldier thought during all that time. Kind of like a Stephen Ambrose book about the opposition I guess. Anyone know?

Panzer Leader by Generaloberst Heinz Guderian

Soldat by Siegfried Knappe & Ted Brusaw is an interesting read IMO.

The Forgotten Soldier. I forgot who wrote it, but it gives a great perspective of a grunt fighting in Russia. I highly recommend it.

There are 1000's of books on the war from the German soldier point of view.

Examples of Stalingrad alone:

Death Of a Leaping Horseman
By Jason Mark

The Battle for Stalingrad -
"The Battle for the Factories"
by Lt. Joachim Stempel

The Road to Stalingrad - Nemesis on the Volga.
by Hans J. Wijers (Stempel's dairy)

Island Of Fire
By Jason Mark

An Infantryman in Stalingrad
By Jason Mark

An Artilleryman in Stalingrad
By Jason Mark

there are many others on Stalingrad alone.

All of the Jason Mark books are the best on the fighting you can find on Stalingrad from the German soldiers point of view.

Jason has been a God send on the Stalingrad fight, and I would tell any here just buy any work of his you can get, it will be worth every dollar.



[This message has been edited by tigger1 (edited 8/27/2008 3:12a).]

Peter Neumann's Black March is a great one about an SS soldier who dates a Jewish Girl during the war. Sounds like a novel, reads like one but it is not.

I enjoyed Panzer Leader as well.

Most of what I read are about pilots and submarine commanders. But I read this one and it's pretty good:

http://www.amazon.com/Panzer-Commander-Memoirs-Colonel-Hans/dp/0440208025

You should decide whether you'd like to read the memoir of someone more on the side of command, or an average "Landser".

The Forgotten Soldier by Guy Sajer is my favorite

Soldat by Knappe is also very good.

The memoir of Germany's second leading sniper, Sepp Allerberger, is really interesting, too.

The memoir of tank commander, Franz von Luck is good.


My answer, they're all great in their own way. Have fun.

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The Forgotten Soldier by Guy Sajer

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It is not by a soldier but "German Boy" was a very good read and I highly recommend.

Thanks for the replies! I will check some of these out. I will also check out the Russian soldier books mentioned earlier.

To echo VikingNik, I would recommend Iron Coffins by Herbert A. Werner. While primarily a recounting of his experiences as a U-Boat officer, Herbert also recalls his thoughts on certain home front issues, such as the death of his girlfriend and her family in Allied bombing raids, his father's arrest by the Gestapo on trumped-up charges, and growing doubts about the outcome of the war (particularly following his encounter with an American pilot POW).

I urge you to watch Stalingrad (the same team that produced Das Boot).

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I have seen the enemy, and he is us.

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Losers make excuses while winners go home with the homecoming queen.

The Forgotten Soldier gets another vote from me. Although I have read where some historians dispute the validity of it all. There are chapters in there towards the end where you can almost feel the terror of being overrun by Soviet armor and strafed by IL-2's while trying to retreat across the river.

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The Forgotten Soldier gets another vote from me. Although I have read where some historians dispute the validity of it all. There are chapters in there towards the end where you can almost feel the terror of being overrun by Soviet armor and strafed by IL-2's while trying to retreat across the river.

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When I was at A&M I literally missed a few 8 o'clock classes because I stayed up til midnight reading Forgotten Soldier and was then too troubled and depressed to sleep. My professors never believed that story and assumed I was at the Dry Bean with everyone else, but it's true.

One of the most moving books, fiction or nonfiction, that I've ever read.