On the German Art of War: Truppenführung (Art of War) [Hardcover]

Bruce Condell (Author), David T. Zabecki (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 2001 | ISBN-10: 1555879969 | ISBN-13: 978-1555879969

English translation of the military manual that guided the German Army in World War II

This book was carried into battle by officers and NCOs and had been classified by the U.S. Army until the year 2000

Topics include command, attack, defense, tanks, chemical warfare, logistics, and more

Truppenführung ("unit command") served as the basic manual for the German Army from 1934 until the end of World War II and laid the doctrinal groundwork for blitzkrieg and the early victories of Hitler's armies. Reading it is as close to getting inside the minds behind the Third Reich's war machine as you are likely to get.

--This text refers to the Paperback edition.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Col. David T. Zabecki is the editor of World War II in Europe: An Encyclopedia.

Bruce Condell is a defense contractor. --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 260 pages
• Publisher: Lynne Rienner Pub (August 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1555879969
• ISBN-13: 978-1555879969
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #498,532 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

14 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Pre-WWII German doctrine or XXIth Century U.S. doctrine?, September 20, 2009

By 

E. M. Van Court "Van, emvc (at) lycos.com" (Honolulu, Hawai'i, USA) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: On the German Art of War: Truppenführung: German Army Manual for Unit Command in World War II (Military History) (Paperback)

I thought I was getting a book on staff organization and functions, operational leadership, and tactics from Germany, circa 1933. Aside from the technological limitations (telegraphs and trains, rather than secure email and heavy lift cargo planes for example) imposed by the period, this is very difficult to distinguish from current U.S. Army doctrine for combat operations.

Throughout Truppenfuhrung, the need for solid staff work, good intelligence, initiative, and audacity in all leaders are stressed. A clear conceptual framework for conventional operations is laid down addressing offense, defense, movements, logistics, and the rest of the disciplines that make a modern army successful. Mostly, it is laid out like the current U.S. doctrine, and the operational doctrine that has been in use since the 1950s. This isn't surprising, as most major military innovations of the past 150+ years have either come from the Germans or have been adopted and brought to a much higher degree of sophistication by the Germans. The U.S. turned around and took the German work and incorporated it into U.S. doctrine.

It is interesting to see the roots of U.S. doctrine laid bare. Most Army training is concerned with a standard, and achieving a rote understanding of doctrine, without a historical context. This is the context.

Before a reader starts fulminating that this is the work of the most evil government of the Twentieth Century, consider that the author, the Chief of German General Staff Ludwig Beck resigned because of Hitler, and participated in Operation Valkyrie, the attempt to assassinate Hitler, and was executed for his participation in the conspiracy.

Great informative historical document, though rather specialized.

E.M. Van Court

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Fantastic Overview, September 4, 2007

By 

Edward R. Clark (Baton Rouge, LA United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: On the German Art of War: Truppenführung (Art of War) (Hardcover)

A fantastic overview of German tactics and doctrine, at the philosophic level, on the eve of World War II. I particularly enjoyed the sort of foreshadowing you see in this work of the coming of air and armor tactics that are still experimental at the time of the work's completion.