Customer Reviews

Wehrmacht: The Illustrated History of the German Army in WW II

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This book is a detailed and enjoyable read. The author does a great job describing the German Army,basic tactics,equipment and a larger strategic picture.The pictures included are of outstanding quality.I highly recommend this book.

I liked this book, the photographs are excellent (and rare) and really give a good idea of what the German army looked like. The reason to buy the book is for the large format photos, not the text. For written descriptions, I recommend "Forgotten Soldier" but Guy Sajer for a gripping account of combat on the Eastern Front.

This is a very fine illustrated history of the German Army in World War II. (Although the book is entitled, Wehrmacht, the book's subtitle indicates more accurately the focus of the book, the German Army.)

All major campaigns on all fronts are discussed and there is a good introductory chapter on the birth and growth of the Wehrmacht in the 1930s.

The photographs are clear and, for the most part, very well reproduced. Although several photos look familiar, many are not. (The publisher claims the book includes over 200 previously unpublished photographs discovered in Wehrmacht press archives in Warsaw, Poland, of all places.) The photos are primarily of German Army soldiers, but there are a few photos of Luftwaffe and Waffen-SS personnel as well. The photos also depict a wide range of subject matter, including a rare picture of the Goliath self-propelled anti-tank machine. Overall, the assortment of pictures in the book is outstanding.

The text is fairly well written but is done in an impersonal format (no personal stories), i.e., it is entirely in the third person. The lack of any personal recollections by Wehrmacht soldiers is the primary reason the book gets a four-star rating and not a five-star rating.

I enjoyed this book for the stunning and rare photos of the average German soldiers fighting for their lives in WWII. While other books will give you a better idea of the overall war, this book outshines all others I have read for the amount of pictures of Germans and their experiences. You'll see close up photos of the faces of men living and dying, laughing and crying, in victory and defeat.