Panzer Aces I: German Tank Commanders of WWII (Stackpole Military History Series) [Paperback]

Franz Kurowski (Author), David Johnston (Translator)

Book Description

Series: Stackpole Military History Series | Publication Date: August 20, 2004

Six riveting, gritty accounts of some of the greatest German tank commanders, including Michael Wittmann, Hans Bolter, Hermann Bix, and others

Timelines mark the milestones of each officer's career

With speed, violence, and deadly power, heavily armored tanks spearheaded the German blitzkrieg that stormed across Europe in 1939. Tracks rattling and engines roaring, these lethal machines engaged in some of the fiercest fighting of World War II, from the beaches of Normandy and the Ardennes forest to the snow-encrusted eastern front. In this reprint of the hugely popular book, prolific author Franz Kurowski tells the action-packed stories of six of the most daring and successful officers ever to command Panzers.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Franz Kurowski served as a reporter in the German Army during World War II and has since written over one hundred books. He lives in Germany.

Product Details

• Paperback: 448 pages
• Publisher: Stackpole Books (August 20, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0811731731
• ISBN-13: 978-0811731737
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6.3 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (17 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #259,340 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

22 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Very good, August 25, 2005

By 

Thomas Reiter (Washington DC, DC United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Panzer Aces I: German Tank Commanders of WWII (Stackpole Military History Series) (Paperback)

I enjoyed this book quite a bit--it has loads of heavy tank fighting, mainly on the Eastern front. The book is full of accounts of chatter in the turret and between tank commanders and actually reads more like a novel than a traditional military history or even a personal memoir. Lots of suspenseful tank-on-tank actions.

Which leads to a few things I didn't like about the book: at least in the version of the book that I read, the author does not explain anything about the sources of his dialogs and personal accounts. Given the very detailed conversations and other personal actions described in the book, presumably the author would have had to interview the participants soon after the actual events to get an accurate recollection of such things. Or maybe the conversations and recollections are "reconstructed" (ie, made-up). Ultimately, I guess it doesn't matter that much if you read the book purely for its entertainment value.

Another thing I didn't like--the panzer battles start sounding very similar after a while: if I had a nickle for every time the author described one of the panzer aces hitting a T-34 "between the hull and the turret, causing the turret to be blown from the tank" I would be a rich man. Maybe that is where the panzer aces hit all of their targets, but it definitely gave me a sense of deja vu. Also, the focus of the book is more on describing what the crew is saying and doing rather than what the platoon and company are doing, so there is not much to pick up on small unit tactics from this book.

Overall a fun and interesting read but if you want to read something that would teach you more about tank combat, I recommend reading "Tigers in the Mud" instead.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Good summary book about 6 tank commanders, December 28, 2006

By 

robbieandrose (New England) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Panzer Aces I: German Tank Commanders of WWII (Stackpole Military History Series) (Paperback)

While some reviewers have gripped that this book doesn't cite sources and doesn't have alot of maps and lacks strategic prospective I think they are missing the point. This book pulls together good stories about men who, with the exception of Michael Wittmann whose own book is very hard to find, are unknown in the West. The author has done a good job of showing readers what the experiences of these men were like. The book is interesting for the section on the greatest tank commander of all time Wittmann alone as most authors only see fit to include a few pages about him here and there. Also two of the sections deal with Kursk which was the largest tank battle in history and has been ignored by many so-called historians who prefer to disect the battles in France.

10 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Panzer Aces ultimately trumped, January 26, 2005

By 

Noah Vaile "Noah Vaile" (Chapel Hill, NC USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Panzer Aces I: German Tank Commanders of WWII (Stackpole Military History Series) (Paperback)

This is an exciting and well written book that I have read twice. It chronicles the rise and fall of the German Panzertruppe through the personal experiences of six of its finest leaders. Beginning early in the war, using largely inferior equipment but having great esprit de corps (the French would hate that) and brilliant tactics and initiative, with the great victories in Poland, France and the first two years in Russia and then through the last two years of the war- using the best equipment but hamstrung by inadequate numbers and inane strategies resulting in a series of continued localized tactical victories and theatre wide strategic defeats, this book presents an on the field view we rarely have gotten from other writers.
Using actual diaries and first hand journals Kurowski recreates the actual battlefield experiences of these men as they progressed through the war. This is first-hand tactical experience made real on the written page! Really well done. I found this book riveting.
Paul Carrel, in two books, "Hitler Moves East" & "Scorched Earth" captures much of the same on an operational level, and I recommend these books highly as well.