Customer Reviews

The Last Year of the German Army: May 1944 - May 1945

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If you are looking for 1st hand accounts of the battles fought by the Wehrmacht between May1944-May1945 this is not the best book for that purpose. This book deals mainly with the German efforts to stave off defeat by numericaly superior foes through technology. There are chapters dealing with the East Front, the Western Front, Party Militias (the post war Wehrwolf movement is described here), Opposition to Hitler, Military Organization and most of all Weapons and Devices. I am sure many would argue the point but the fact is almost any weapon in the inventory of today's modern military can be traced to Germany in one way or another...they either invented it or refined it into a lethal weapon of war. In this book you will find alot of information about the German efforts to develop weapons that could change the course of events that the German military found themselves in during the last year of the war, some had been in research and development for a long time, others were products of desperation. For example, an anti-aircraft wind gun designed to flip a bomber over with a plug of compressed air, a sound gun which consisted of two large parabolic projector discs designed to kill through amplified sound, the V-3 cannon/rocket launcher which would hit London with a rain of high explosives (Iraq tried to copy this weapon in the late 80's). These may sound like fantasy but they were real and this book contains the pictures and documentation to prove it! On a more convetional note there are sections and photos which deal with the development of aurguably the worlds 1st assault rifle the Sturmgewehr 44, the gun todays M-60 is based on the MG-34/42, even the curved barrel "shot around the corner" urban sturmgewehr with a mirror on the tip of the barrel that has become some what of an urban legend(it's real)is here. A portable one man 88mm anti tank weapon called the Puppchen is explained and shown in a photo. Several heavy mortar weapons (you have to see the pictures to apppreciate the size) are explained, several of these mortars were used on the Eastern Front in Warsaw and Sevestapol of note. Although the V2 rocket is associated with the Luftwaffe it fell under the command of the Artillery General and those who launched it were Wehrmacht gunners, it is described and photographed here. Armoured vehicles are examined in depth, from light recon, flak/anti-aircraft, assualt guns, anti-tank (Jagdpanther and Tiger), self propelled artillery, rocket launcher(Panzerwerfer), mine clearing (Minenraumpanzer),armoured personel carrier to heavy battle tanks like the King Tiger(Koingtiger) and up to the Super Heavy Battle Tank Maus (more like a land battleship which never saw combat)are on display in this book, the Maus photos are hard to believe when you compare the U.S. soldiers next to it for scale. There are some neat stories about the exploits of Sturmbannfurhers Otto Skorzeny, Jochen Peiper, and especially about the German efforts to battle partisans on all fronts, but the strength of this book is it's illumination of German technologic efforts to tilt the scales, there is no mention of german efforts to build an A-bomb. A great book with alot of great photos. Highly recommended.

This is the second book of James Lucas I have read, and I have no plans to read any more of his books. The other book of his I read was "Das Reich" and it also received low ratings. This book is no improvement.

While the title would have you believe it deals with the last year of WWII, it's really only an excuse to cover a wide range of topics in poor detail. There is some good info in this book but it is buried under lots of fluff. That's why this review gets 2 stars instead of one.

There is another side of Lucas' writing and that deals with his attitude toward the Nazis. He is definitely pro Nazi, and this issue has been raised in other reviews of his books. I would describe him as a Wehrmacht Wannabee, where his main concern is the honor and duty in the German Army. You read how the wonderful German army never collapsed and always maintained high discipline and ahem, its honor. Seriously, by '44 the German army was backed in a corner where it couldn't stop fighting and its honor was long buried on the Russian Steppes during the previous 3 years.

This type of writing and slant might suit you, but for me, I'm sick and tired of this dribble.