Panzer Commander: The Memoirs of Colonel Hans von Luck
This unique memoir tells the story of one of the field-grade officers whose martial skills sustained the Third Reich against a world in arms. Von Luck fought in the Wehrmacht's armored forces for six years in Europe, Russia, and North Africa; then spent five years in a Russian labor camp. His narrative is as free from cant as it is from braggadocio and false modesty. It presents a soldier, a warrior, and a leader who never failed his men, and whose courage never faltered. It also portrays someone whose comprehensive lack of insight into the nature of the regime he served will be difficult for many readers to credit. Yet von Luck's sincerity is apparent; and his was a mind-set too widespread in Germany to be dismissed as mere self-exculpation. Failure to understand it leaves the Nazi years a mystery. Recommended for collections in this area, especially as a counterpoint to Sieg Heil!: War Letters of Tank Gunner Karl Fuchs, 1937-1941 ( LJ 9/1/87), whose narrator served in the same division as von Luck on the Russian front.- Dennis Showalter, Colorado Coll., Colorado SpringsCopyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc.