German Infantryman (2) Eastern Front 1941-43 (Warrior) [Paperback]

David Westwood (Author), Elizabeth Sharp (Illustrator)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 23, 2003 | Series: Warrior (Book 76)

In this second volume examining the German infantryman before and during World War 2, post-1941 training, weapons, equipment, combat experiences and medical care are examined. The 'faceless' German soldier who struggled through bitter fighting up to and including Stalingrad retains his identity both as a human being and as a vital part of the Wehrmacht's order of battle. Containing a full array of previously unpublished photographs taken by German soldiers during the invasion of Russia this book shows in superb detail daily life and duties, the soldiers themselves, and combat action.

Editorial Reviews

Review

Produced to the very high standard that Osprey books have become known for.

From the Publisher

Insights into the real lives of history's fighting men, packed with full colour illustrations, highly detailed cutaways, exploded artwork of weaponry and armour, and action-packed battle scenes.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 64 pages
• Publisher: Osprey Publishing (July 23, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1841766119
• ISBN-13: 978-1841766119
• Product Dimensions: 7.2 x 0.2 x 9.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,132,031 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Excellent Methodology, Poorly Executed, November 23, 2002

By 

R. A Forczyk (MD, USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: German Infantryman (1) 1933-40 (Warrior) (Paperback)

Osprey's Warrior series claims to provide "insights into the daily lives of history's fighting men and women, past and present, detailing their motivation, training, tactics, weaponry and experiences." David Westwood's volume, German Infantryman, succeeds only in detailing some of aspects of German infantry training, tactics, weaponry and experiences in the period 1933-1940. Westwood, who studied at Sandhurst (like the Great Gatsby "at Oxford"?), is familiar with military terminology but does not write with the insight of a military man. The author chose an excellent methodology to detail the inner workings of a German infantry unit - by focusing on a specific unit - but executes this methodology in a very peculiar and uneven manner. While the photographs and illustrations provide an excellent graphic quality to this volume, the narrative is too generic to be of much historical value.

German Infantryman consists of a short introduction that provides background on the inter-war Reichsheer, followed by a 24-page section on recruiting and training. Initially, the training section starts out well with a brief description of the Wehrkreise system, the training depots, basic training and weapons training. In some cases, the author provides good detail, like the fact that a German soldier fired over 300 rounds during basic training. However, there is surprisingly little depth provided about the 16 weeks of German basic training and much of what is provided could apply to any army's basic training. I recall other German sources mentioning significant differences in their basic training - like hand grenades and anti-tank training - that is barely touched here. There is no mention of motivation, regional differences between units or how men were selected for various operational specialties. Nor does the author even mention specialty training after basic, such as mortar school or pioneers. While the Warrior series is not designed to address organization, the author might also have made some effort to state how many infantrymen were in a platoon, company, battalion, etc (there is one skimpy line diagram, but no personnel strengths are listed). The later half of this section, covering issues such as marching, field craft and map reading, could apply to any army.

In the second section, the author decides to convey the battlefield experiences of a particular unit - the 30th Infantry Regiment in the 18th Division - in the Polish and French campaigns. The author shifts into this focus on the 30th Infantry Regiment with no explanation or introduction to the unit. In this section, the author providers a pastiche of German eyewitness accounts relating to marches, initial combat experiences, a set-piece battle, river crossings, attack on fixed defenses, fighting in urban areas and anti-tank fighting. Some accounts are interesting, some not, but most are too generic to be of much value. There is no real explanation of tactics here, such as how a German infantry platoon employed its machineguns and 50mm mortar in the attack or how a German battalion made a movement to contact, only vague reminiscences. The color plates are quite good, as usual, and these will be of benefit to model builders but the historical value of this volume is quite suspect.

There are a host of issues that the other should have at least mentioned but failed to address, like the "wave" system in which German divisions were raised and the fact that there were different types of infantry units (Jaeger, Landwehr, reserve). The issue of motivation should have been addressed, too. In the early stages of the Polish campaign, some German infantry units were very reticent to enter combat and some even performed poorly. Fear of heavy losses caused by the memory of the First World War and the legacy of defeat was not completely gone until the French victory. The author should also have made some mention of the demographics of German infantrymen, as well as more discussion on the junior leadership. While the author's bibliography seems robust enough, it does not appear that he made a full effort to address this subject in the depth it deserves.

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Embarrassingly weak, March 5, 2007

By 

Michael A Dorosh (Calgary, AB, CANADA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: German Infantryman (3) Eastern Front 1943-45 (Warrior) (Paperback)

The tone for the book is set by the cover, showing artillerymen fuzing shells. Nice picture, but the title of the book is "German Infantryman". What does the cover photo have to do with anything?

The cover is characteristic of the rest of the photographic content of the book. One gets the idea that Westwood found a bunch of photos cheap on ebay, because he demonstrates absolutely no knowledge of who - or in some cases, what - is in them. Many are so blurry, that idiotic captions like "Whether the vehicles are Russian or German is impossible to say" (p.58) pepper the text. Other captions are mere guesswork. Still others are inappropriate to the period; the photo on p.53 shows early war soldiers (in M38 caps and devoid of decorations) instead of troops from the period. Other photos are largely irrelevant, such as the burned out motor of a Russian airplane lying on the ground, which doesn't even have the advantage of at least being interesting.

The text also has little to say about German infantrymen; there are a couple of good descriptions of battalion operations, but there is no real focus to the material. The book reads like reports cobbled together from a couple of case studies. Maps are inadequate to the studies being presented. There are no sidebars or appendices or useful tables as in other Osprey titles.

Colour plates are good; a bit indistinct and lack the sharp definition of Volstad or Chappell, but nonetheless interesting. The subject matter chosen really doesn't do much to cover the subject of the German Infantryman - one plate is of a nebelwerfer crew, another of a mounted cavalryman, still another of a StuG which at least has infantry accompanying it. The captions to the final colour plate produces an inadvertent howler - "The man here was strung up to a lamppost because he had no proof that he was on his way back to his unit. His wife and children, to their total shock, have come upon his body...Such scenes were commonplace in the Third Reich of 1945." If Westwood can name even two instances he is personally aware of in which an executed soldier was encountered by chance by his wife and children, then he might be able to say with a straight face that this was "commonplace"!

The book has obviously been thrown together with no clear focus; the use of "unpublished" photographs is usually something to celebrate; in this case it is clear that the photos were probably one of those many nameless collections purchased on ebay in the vain hope a dollar can be made from them. Another caption reads "Unfortunately nothing is known of the purpose of the bunker but it may well be a headquarters." It may well be a latrine trench too for all the author knows.

The focus stated in the introduction is to "exhibit the various characteristics of the fighting from 1943 to 1945 and the small unit tactics that evolved." But very little is mentioned of units smaller than a battalion. On the face of that alone, this book fails in its aim. Some books can fail at their aim and still be interesting; the photos and captions in this book are so poorly presented that there is nothing to recommend about this book.

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Could have been better, September 1, 2005

By 

Michael Meisel (Encino, California) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: German Infantryman (3) Eastern Front 1943-45 (Warrior) (Paperback)

I have purchased many Osprey books in the past and have been very happy with the quality of writing and illustrations. Having said that i must say this one, and the previous one in this series, Vol.2 somewhat missed the mark. The text spends a great deal of time discussing small actions on the eastern front which in my opinion were hard to follow and gave very little idea of the greater scope of the war.

Also, the illustrations were not the best; the tanks and weapons were fairly well drawn but the figures looked anything but lifelike. The helmets, for instance seemed either too small or too large for the figures as well as an overall lack of detail to the uniforms. These may seem like small problems but as one who is not only a history buff but also a WW II modeler who looks for examples upon which to use in building figures it's more than a little bothersome.

If you're interested in narrations of isolated battles from the latter stages of the war it's worth it, but otherwise you might do better looking elsewhere.