Customer Reviews

German Commanders of World War 2 (Men-At-Arms Series, No. 124)

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This is a very nice volume and interesting addition to the Osprey line. Very well written in scholarly style, the main subjects are combat leaders (as opposed to staff types like Jodl and Keitel) and those covered in the main text are (with a few surprising choices):

Sepp Dietrich
Karl Dönitz
Heinz Guderian
Albert Kesselring
Günther von Kluge
Bruno Lörzer
Erich von Manstein
Hasso von Manteuffel
Walther Model
Erwin Rommel
Gerd von Rundstedt
Kurt Student
Hermann Balck
Johannes Blaskowitz
Fritz Bayerlein
Fedor von Bock
Ernst Busch
Ewald von Kleist
Wilhelm Ritter von Leeb
Wilhelm List
Ferdinand Schörner
Erwin von Witzleben

All have several paragraphs devoted to their careers. However, several more personalities are covered as captions to the many good photos of other commanders, such as Eduard Dietl, Kramer, Schmidt, Hoth, or Paulus.

Author has a solid grip on the subject material.

Colour plates seem cartoony at first, but vibrant colours are not as jarring as in other books and actually seem to work well. Faces are nicely rendered and do resemble the historical characters to a T. Again, some personalities not covered in the text or photos are shown in the plates, with accompanying text in the captions - notably, for example, Fegelein.

A good mix of supreme commanders, high placed staff officers, and some notable army, corps and even divisional commanders. Good coverage of the air force, little said about the Navy, but perhaps this reflects their roles in the war quite well.

Very nice volume and does a great job of illustrating, in words and pictures, many of the key personalities of the armed forces of the Third Reich.

Just some quick notes. This is vol. #124 in part of Osprey's "Men-At-Arms" Series. Originally published in 1982, reprinted in 1990 (with 2 different cover designs), 94, 95, 96, 97, 98, 2000 and 2002 (cover design having a purple-info header and bottom; and has an index and a different back-cover design). All have the same ISBN. There are 40 pages of text, with an additional 8 pages of colored drawings of these generals wearing different styles of summer and winter uniforms, combat v. dress, and some having their own non-standard, personalized-designed uniforms. Each officer has about a 400-word-long biography, along with at least one black-and-white photograph. Primarily of interest to the uniform-design enthusiast.

The OSPREY MEN-AT-ARMS Series does it again with this incredible volume titled: GERMAN COMMANDERS OF WORLD WAR II.

The material is fresh, and easy to follow, and covers many of Germany's greatest military leaders. The book comes complete with crisp and clear black and white pictures of the officer being covered, and a nice body of text that covers everything from their political, education and even religious backgrounds, to their training, military service and some history as to what may have happened to them during or even after the war.

As usual Angus McBride blows us away with his coloured illustrations, providing 24 officers on 8 pages in a breath taking fashion.

A very nice book for any collector or person with an interest on this topic. Great for beginners and serious die-hards alike.