Customer Reviews

Five Years, Four Fronts: The War Years of Georg Grossjohann

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"Five Years, Four Fronts" by Georg Grossjohann is a fabulous look into the life of a young Wehrmacht officer from his time before the outbreak of WWII to its end. Unlike many books that are similarly dedicated to the views from a single soldier, those of Grossjohann are steeped in broad vision. For example, while individual battles are discussed Grossjohann places them squarely within the context of the overall theatre of operations, making them more than personal snippets of information. Amazingly, despite this broad perspective, Grossjohann does not get trapped into the position of defending or apologizing for actions of the whole German war machine. This is a refreshing change from the plethora of recent Axis biographies that have emerged in recent years. A reader can enjoy Grossjohann's journey in proper context without feeling disgust, anger or pity. Rather one can walk away feeling one has gotten a rare glimpse into the life of a truly honest and fair soldier who fought bravely for his country - in this case a German rather than Allied soldier. Quite an amazing experience actually!

While "Five Years, Four Fronts" does in fact cover (at least) five years and four fronts (as Grossjohann traverses back and forth across Euro-Asia moving from command to command and up through the lower ranks of the Wehrmacht) readers will not get an in-depth look at a large number of battles spanning the entire war. Rather the reader sees how a good lower-level officer can be move from one situation to the next as needed and how that officer (Grossjohann) perceived his place in this opera. The combat discussions are in fact quite good but not numerous, so if this is what you are looking for this may not be your cup of tea. However, if you want more in your personal historical accounts (as I did) "Five Years, Four Fronts" soundly delivers.

As is typical of so many other Aberjona Press books, it is the extra detail that pushes the book into a "must have/must read" category. The Preface provided by T.C. Mataxis, Brigadier General, US Army (retired), sets the stage for a book that is MORE than just another German soldier's story, but rather the story of a warrior demanding respect from peers of all nationalities. The Historical Commentaries at the beginning of each chapter further set Grossjohann's text within the larger context of the war (spatially and temporally). These facts together with Grossjohann's style and Aberjona editing make "Five Years, Four Fronts" a solid 4.5 star book - easy to pick up and read but hard to put down!!

Five Years, Four Fronts, The War Years of Georg Grossjohann, Major, German Army (Retired), Aegis, 1999. Forward by Theodore C. Mataxis, BG, USA (Ret).

It has long interested me to hear veterans speak, especially to and about former enemies. Ted Mataxis was with Task Force Herren, a scratch force comprised primarily of the first arrivals in France of our 70th ID. General Mataxis was asked by Keith Bonn, editor of Aberjona Press (Aegis) to write the intro to Five Years... Both men (and Bonn for that matter) had been career army. But unlike Seven Days in January, with the 6th SS-Mountain Division in Operation NORDWIND, for which Ted M. also wrote the intro, he had not fought against Grossjohann's outfits. But still, these men had a lot in common, e.g., having to suddenly cobble together bunches of untrained men and try to teach them how to survive the battlefield. Our 70th was filled with former army air corps crew members, anti-aircraft gunners, and former students from the Army Specialized Training Program. What was needed by the fall of 1944 was more infantrymen. Everyone knew the war would soon be over so there would be no point in having all these highly educated technicians just sitting around, now was there?? (To read about the Battle of Wingen sur Moder and other, later 70 ID garden spots such as Forbach, go to the Trailbazers website, and click on the 276th Regiment).

Major Grossjohann's story is very interesting and importantly, he's not apologizing for anything. He's particularly irked at the rash of books decrying poor officer leadership, noting for example, in WWII, 287 German generals were killed in the front lines. "Between 22 June and 31 October 1941, my division (the 198th ID) lost about fifty-one percent of its officers versus thirty-eight of its NCOs and troops. It is obvious that relatively few of our combat officers indulged in fanatical self-preservation. Incidentally, in the German Army, the vast majority of officers had once served as soldiers..." Grossjohann joined the army in 1928 as a Zwolfender, "so called after a twelve-point buck, because under the provisions of Versailles, the minimum enlistment in the Reichswehr was twelve years." When the war began he was w/in five months of discharge. He was picked up as an Officer Aspirant after the invasion of France.

When in France awaiting SEALION (the invasion of England), "the regimental staff was quartered in the chateau of the manufacturer of fine liqueurs whose products are world-famous. The relationship between the owner of the chateau and his family and our soldiers was friendly and congenial, and I mean that for both sides. This was the case almost all over France, but was especially evident in Normandy, for historical reasons, the people there were not very fond of the English, so we had a common antagonist." (Editor's note, I had the same experience when I lived in Normandy in the 1950s. The people I knew were fonder of the Germans than les anglais..).

When G. then went to the Soviet Union to participate in BARBAROSSA, interestingly he had a similar experience. Now a company commander and therefore with "quarters in a cottage, situated directly next to the company orderly room.... My Russian, or more precisely Ukrainian hosts, were as nice and friendly as the French had been during my time in Normandy. I was always given a sofa covered with a black wax-coated sheet cloth to sleep on, while the whole family retired to sleep on the giant stove. Unfortunately, my sofa was so full of bugs that in the morning I always looked as if I had the measles. My hosts, who seemed to be completely immune to bedbugs, were always greatly amused when I got up in the morning swollen from stings and bites. But their harmless glee in my misfortune was certainly not intended." Despite Himmler and Hitler, apparently not all Germans considered Slavs untermenchen...

Five Years... is a well balanced work. In addition the editor's historical commentary which is solid enough to serve as a text as World War II history courses, the author discusses tactics, leadership and military/political as well as cultural realities. There's an excellent description of his regiment's egress from the Cherkassy Pocket and nearly being again cut off by the Soviets at Uman. Grossjohann early on notes that he had no particular problem fighting for Adolph Hitler since as a soldier he was initially not permitted to get into politics. After the war began, he was too busy to care about politics. However, "it was unimaginable and simply irreplaceable considering the men and material we lost by stubbornly sustaining positions and so-called 'strongholds' since Stalingrad." Hitler had abandoned the very able German 'mobile defense' and thus subjected his troops to envelopments which had been the Wehrmacht's speciality early on.

After Operation Bagration, his regiment, now a shadow of the original, was assigned to southwestern France for refitting. After 15 August 1944 and the American invasion of southern France, they became part of the German 19th Army's withdrawal up the Rhone Valley. conducting rear guard activity in hot spots such as Montelimar. While fighting in the High Vosges, initially against U.S. and then against French colonial troops, Grossjohann was assigned as provisional regimental commander of another outfit. Regardless that everyone knew the war was all but over, but not surprising due to German administrative/bureaucratic thoroughness, when his war ended the author had just reported to the course for new regimental commanders... And most Soldaten just fought on...

He entered U.S. Army captivity in May, 1945.

Awards: Iron Cross 2nd Class, June 1940; Iron Cross 1st Class, July 1942; Wound Badge in Black, August 1942; German Cross in Gold, October, 1944; Wounds Badge in Silver, December, 1944; Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross, December, 1944.

Georg Grossjohann fits an image that historically curious readers today might have of a "typical Wehrmacht officer" -- Prussian background, long pre-1939 service, and campaign experiences on both the Eastern and Western Fronts during the war. Where his book "Five Years, Four Fronts" excels, is in presenting a ground-level view of the World War II German Army through the eyes of such an officer, who commanded troops close enough to the front to convey the day-to-day details of battle and the lives of officers and men, but at the same time far enough away that his perceptions of what took place were not limited by the horizon of an individual fighting position or armored vehicle.

Some of the most interesting material in this book involves the attitudes of Wehrmacht officers and men toward their chain of command, which, Grossjohann relates, were not always as rigid and "Prussian" as persisting stereotypes still suggest. There are revealing descriptions of the foibles of leadership figures ranging from a master sergeant at Grossjohann's old prewar regiment, to Reichsfuehrer-SS Heinrich Himmler as he took amateurish charge of German forces on the Upper Rhine late in the war. Also, Grossjohann details such dynamics of front-line action as the agreement between his regiment and the mayor of a French town to let civilians evacuate during a pause in combat.

Overall, "Five Years, Four Fronts" gives insight into the daily culture of the Wehrmacht service as well as laying out full-fleshed and detailed accounts of events in lesser-known war theaters such as the Rhone Valley and the Vosges Mountains of France. It is substantial historical work which also reads engagingly enough to keep the reader interested throughout.

In Five Years, Four Fronts, Georg Grossjohann provides an account of his wartime military career. What the thoughtful reader will learn is that this man was an exceptional professional soldier and a humble human being.
This book is based on Grossjohann's highly personal and private papers, which were not written with intent to publish and which were printed posthumously. To make up the gaps the editor offers the historical context which Grossjohann could no longer provide.
We read of Grossjohann's participation in many actions, from the fruitless and costly assault on Fortress Fermont in the Maginot Line, to numerous vicious battles in the Soviet Union such as those at the Mius River, Cherkassy, and Uman, and eventually to the withdrawal from the beaches of southern France to the ideal defensive terrain of the Vosges Mountains. If the narrative is not lurid it is because Grossjohann was not the type of man to self-aggrandize or belittle the sacrifices made by the soldiers of either side. We see him constantly doing his duty and always thinking of his men and-because of his basic humanity-the circumstances of the enemy as well. One example of this is his attempts at Hohneck in the Vosges to convince the surrounded French to pull out rather than experience their own destruction. Typically, Grossjohann ends this account by correcting the existing historical record. A booklet on the combat in the Vosges Mountains mistakenly credits him with commanding the difficult final assault on Hohneck.
His accounts of dealing with pencil-pushers, puffed-up superiors, and incompetents remind the reader that armies are bureaucracies and regardless of the situation or crisis at hand continue to operate as such. How else could one explain why in March 1945, Grossjohann, who by then had commanded three different regiments in combat, was transferred from the front to attend a course for regimental commanders?
The foreword by General Ted Mataxis is a valuable introduction to anyone interested in understanding military history. It demonstrates, through the school of his hard experience in combat in three wars, that soldiers of belligerent armies have much in common. He suggests that, at its core, combat has immutable elements which bridge time and space. Lastly, this is a handsome and well-made book.

Thrilling, breathtaking, and inspiring to say the least. Georg Grossjohann draws from his five years of bitter fighting during the Second World War to give the readers a real taste of what it was like to experience fighting from 1939-1945. The book covers some of his training right before the war and then begins the story of Major Grossjohann's ordeal covering five years of combat and four fronts(Poland 1939, France 1940, Russia 1941-1944, France 1944-1945, with little stints of leave throughout the German territories during WWII). The book is so real, colorful, and descriptive one can picture themselves actually on the front with Major Grossjohann. The stories of battle are very vivid and real, leaving a very detailed image/picture in the head of the reader.
This book is not like many other books that are written by generals and seem to go on forever without saying anything....this book teaches the reader so much from start to finish. Instead, the book is written by a field grade officer who was in the thick of the fighting and has lead more counterattacks, attacks, and defenses than any of us can imagine. He teaches the reader more about human bravery, kindness, honor, professonalism, death, and personal loss than many books out there.
I suggest this (and any other book from the same company) for any person wishing to learn about World War II or how to be a leader (for those who aspire to be officers in the military) or for to anyone who just wishes to know what it was like to be an officer on four fronts during a conflict. It would behoove readers to pay close attention to what Major Grossjohan says as the book has so many invaluable lessons to convey to its readers.

Five Years, Four Fronts is a classic, not only of WWII history, but of military literature. Major Grossjohann's recollections are the carefully selected reminiscences of a professional soldier, not the lurid "war [...]" that some other authors have opportunistically used to titillate a certain type of reader. Grossjohann's candor about his superiors and his peers-with anecdotes that run the range from searing criticism to amusing storytelling to profound praise-is unusual and refreshing, especially coming from a field grade officer...of any army. His unstinting praise and respect for his subordinates not only mark the author as a first class leader of men, but as a paragon of what every officer should be.

Five Years, Four Fronts is packed with unusual and fascinating details. Many of them are unique to this book, in fact. The process by which enlisted men from the interwar Reichswehr became the commissioned backbone of the wartime Wehrmacht, for example, are enlightening and thought-provoking. Grossjohann's use of detailed flashbacks to his earlier years as a junior enlisted man are a fascinating and sometimes humorous device that lends special life and allows great insights into this process in particular. The heavy demands that a lengthy war against a combination of enemies exerted on an officer are also abundantly illustrated in this book. The book abounds with accounts of not only commanding platoons, companies, battalions, and regiments in fierce combat, but of the unusual assignments officers often draw. These include (and this is only a partial list) service as the commandant for a key river crossing site; negotiating a surrender of an enemy garrison; training recruits and garrison duty while recovering from wounds; or commanding a unit of soldiers who did not speak the same language as the chain of command.

This book also avoids the pitfalls of so many WWII memoirs. There is very little sentimentality; absolutely no attempt to apologize or rationalize political events beyond the author's control or understanding; no quotation of mundane letters from home; no whining about Allied or Soviet numerical superiority. It does not even seem to have occurred to Grossjohann to brag about his numerous important decorations for valor, up to and including the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross! Indeed, the only thing about which the author does seem to express more than understated professional pride in is his intimate familiarity with the nature of the ladies of the regions in which he fought. This is not done as braggadocio or boorishness, however, but rather, as a matter of being something of a connoisseur, with a light-hearted and funny tone.

The professionally crafted maps are also noteworthy. Readers can follow the action with ease, and understand how the course of combat in every significant battle in which the author participated. Few military memoirs have anything like enough maps, but this one is strongly supported by over two dozen of them.

Five Years, Four Fronts compares favorably with any other German officer's memoir I have ever read; I honestly believe it is the best memoir ever written by a German infantry officer. Strongly recommended for anyone who wants to understand the German Army during World War II or military leadership in general.

This is a book about everyday life and combat in the backbone of the Wehrmacht-the common infantry division. At a time when there is a growing stack of memoirs, monographs and photo books about parachute, panzer, and both famous and obscure Waffen-SS units, Georg Grossjohann's Five Years, Four Fronts is a refreshing and important look at the wartime experiences of that vast majority of combat soldiers and tactical commanders who served in the hundreds of infantry divisions that bore the overwhelming brunt of the fighting for the Germans in World War II. Beginning with his service in the invasion of Poland and ending with his release from rather brief American captivity, this is a book by a professional soldier that is especially long on military reminiscences and mercifully brief on personal details about pre- or post-war life.

Although there is a great deal about combat in this book, there is not a lot of "blood and guts." With most of his combat experience as a commander at the company, battalion, and regimental levels, such was not the author's focus. However, readers should be aware that the author was rather highly decorated, earning the Iron Crosses, 2nd and 1st Classes, the German Cross in Gold, and the prestigious Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross (there are even photos of the certificates for the latter two included in the book-a nice touch in an era when there are so many phonies, from all armies, publishing their "memoirs."). Major Grossjohann was also wounded in combat twice, and a photo of the certificate for his Wounds Badge in Silver is also included in the book.

The engrossing narrative is written in a straightforward and sometimes wry fashion, and includes numerous flashbacks to the author's earlier service as a enlisted man before the war and even before the Nazi era. These help build a 3-dimensional protagonist, and also provide rare insights into the little-understood processes by which so many non-commissioned members of the pre-war German Army were developed into the officers who led German soldiers into combat from 1939 on.

This book features introductions to each chapter written by an American professional historian with the assistance of another WWII German officer to doubly ensure objectivity. These introductions provide historical overviews of the fighting at the strategic and operational levels, and really help make the author's micro-historical, personal views much more meaningful for most readers.

Supported by a couple of dozen photos from the author's private collection and an unusually large number of tactical maps to allow the reader to follow the action, this is a superb book that is indispensable for understanding the German Army in World War II.

To me this book is above all a fine collection of portraits of different characters within the German army, and especially within the German NCO and officer corps. I also learnt more about the regional identities in the German armed forces. "Germans" were actually East Prussians, Rhinelanders, Swabians, Austrians etc and Georg Grossjohann shows how this mattered. This lesson can by the way easily be applied in today's conflicts were all too often regional differences are ignored.

If you are interested in one of the many less-known battlefields on which Knight's Cross recipient Grossjohann fought, e.g. in Southern France and the High Vosges you will be richly rewarded by this book as the text and clear maps will give you a good understanding of both larger (divisional) and some smaller actions, but personally I was more fascinated by his time in the Ukraine and especially the amiable relationship between the Ukranians and the Germans and why it ended. Grossjohann seems to fully understand why his hosts eventuallly turned against him.

It is amusing, and probably useful too, not only to read about good leaders but also about how NOT to lead. Indeed, this book is one of the more charming but still believable German memoirs that I have read. Grossjohann's analysis of why the excellent German armed forces were defeated is also well worth reading.

Its interesting to see his army documents, photos and even his military CV.

Here is a soldier who saw it all. From private to major on four fronts is quite a journey and the author makes it an interesting one. There is no 'puffing' here, just the facts. I was intrigued with his depiction of other officers, those who could 'cut it' and those who talked a good game.
The class distinctions, regional differences and the varied reactions to the stress of combat were revealing. Grossjohann is a fine example of leadership.

This book clearly conveyed what it was like for a front line infantry officer serving on the German side of WWII. I find it thoroughly refreshing that the author kept to his main premise of the novel: that most of the German fighting men were tough adversaries that were often not fighting for a form of government they preferred, or for a dream of conquest, but rather for the man next to them in the foxhole.

Another point that distinguishes this work over many others is the fact that Mr. Grossjohann served in the German Army for nearly 12 years before the war began in 1939, and was a professional soldier, not a conscripted draftee as many surviving German authors were. This provides the insight of someone who knew the 'bigger picture' above and beyond most of the conscript soldiers that comprised the bulk of the German Wehrmacht, but was not above their common shared misery, as was the case with many generals who wrote their memoirs after the war

Highly recommended for those looking for another point of view to WWII history.