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Five Years, Four Fronts: The War Years of Georg Grossjohann Paperback – October 1, 1999

by Georg Grossjohann (Author)

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Wartime memoir of a professional German soldier who rose from sergeant to major during WWII, commanding infantry units from platoon to regiment. Includes unusually candid recollections of not only combat, but of professional and personal relations with superiors, peers, and subordinates alike during combat duty on four fronts across Europe. 26 original photos, 27 original maps, appendices, notes, index.

Print length

204 pages
Language

English
Publisher

The Aberjona Press
Publication date

October 1, 1999
Dimensions

5.8 x 0.55 x 8.85 inches
ISBN-10

096663893X
ISBN-13

978-0966638936
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Editorial Reviews

Review

"Best German Military Memoir of 2000." -- Military Heritage magazine, February 2001

"Grossjohann "Undeniably tells it like it was." -- Military Heritage magazine, June 2000

"Not...All Quiet on the Western Front or another The Forgotten Soldier. In my opinion, it is a better book." -- The Journal of Military History, June 2000

About the Author

The son of East Prussian farmers, Georg Grossjohann enlisted in the Reichswehr, the Army of the pre-Nazi Weimar Republic in 1928, at age 17. A senior sergeant in the invasion of Poland in 1939, he was commissioned in 1940 and served in an escalating variety of combat infantry leadership positions during the invasion of France in 1940, the campaigns in the USSR in 1941 - 44, and the Rhône Valley and Vosges Mountains in 1944-45. Awarded the Knight's Cross for valor, he was captured by the US Army when the war ended. Unable to return to his Soviet-occupied home, he built a privately-owned tailoring and fashion business in the German Federal Republic, and declined a commission in the Bundeswehr in the 1950s.

Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ The Aberjona Press; 1st edition (October 1, 1999)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 204 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 096663893X
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0966638936
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 12 ounces
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.8 x 0.55 x 8.85 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #3,771,691 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #34,238 in World War II History (Books)

Customer Reviews:
25 ratings

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4 star		25%
3 star		16%
2 star 0% (0%)		0%
1 star		7%

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Top reviews from the United States

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F. Carol Sabin

A good book about the war experience of a German officer

Reviewed in the United States on March 15, 2012

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This is a very good and serious book because of its uniqueness. Also, it is well written and blends history with an interesting personal account.
This engaging, introspective memoir offers insight into the thinking and attitudes of a Wehrmacht officer and also gives real insight into the way the German Army operated on different fronts under (quite) different conditions (Poland, France 1940, Russia and Western Front 1944). Five years of frontline life out of 17 years of military career.
As is the case with many German authors, the main part of the book deals with the campaign and fierce battles on the Eastern Front ("the Real War", to quote Grossjohann) where the flower of the Wehrmacht perished.
In some cases (Chapter 11) the author wrote some accounts about Germany's Allies and the situation in Romania 1944 (page 88-93).
The final chapter deals with Grossjohann's sad "Discharge from the Army" while the Epilogue described the bitter conditions in the postwar Germany.
There are 6 pages of B&W photos and 28 simple maps, together with two comprehensive appendices and an index.
Overall, this book, aside from being a fascinating look into pre and wartime Germany, it is very well written and very readable.
I'd recommend this book for anyone who's fascinated by what really happened in World War II from a German point of view.

2 people found this helpful

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Dan Cragg

Big John's Memoir

Reviewed in the United States on February 15, 2004

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Of the many excellent memoirs by German veterans of WWII now available in English, this one is unique. The problem I find with so many of the other books in this venue, granted, classics in their own way, is the numbing recitation of desperate battles, especially if the author served on the Eastern Front. You can only absorb so many attacks and retreats before those events begin to blend together. Georg Grossjohann's is really a very personal account of his wartime service during which he saw some very close combat, but the Historical Commentary by Keith Bonn and Wolf Zoepf and the excellent maps supplied by the publisher suffice for the background and do not get in the way of Grossjohann's lively reminiscences of the men he served with in peace and war. Grossjohann was in the Reichswehr before Hitler came to power and the stories he tells about his garrison service are worthy of a book by themselves (which I understand Aegis is planning on publishing). Erwin the Only is but one, if perhaps the most memorable of the colorful, finely drawn characters Grossjohann remembers with a wry sense of humor throughout this book. Highly recommended to the serious student and the casual reader alike.

7 people found this helpful

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Charles Mccain

A Solid Memoir of an Officer who rose from the ranks but Lacking Introspection

Reviewed in the United States on December 29, 2015

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Despite the lack of introspection in this memoir such as "what am I fighting for," it is a very solid three star memoir by a German soldier. Of particular note, this is the only memoir I have read in which the author had been an enlisted man in the Reichswehr, the 100,000 man army allowed to Germany by the Treaty of Versailles. With the economic uncertainty present in Germany in the 1920s, the army had far more applicants than vacancies and recruiting officers could take their pick of the best men. These men had to sign on for a twelve year hitch. They were intensively trained and highly experienced. Unfortunately, it was these very men who formed the backbone of the Wehrmacht during World War Two. While almost all officers in the German Army began their careers as non-officers, that was just temporary since they were officer-cadets. Few came from the ranks and rose to Major.

Georg Grossjohann didn't particularly like being a soldier. He didn't particularly even want to be a soldier. But he was from Prussia, times were hard, and the natural place for a strong and intelligent lad was the army and so he went. Just before his twelve year hitch was up, and he was itching to get away from the military, Hitler came along and no one could leave the army so he got stuck.

Experienced NCOs like Grossjohann are worth their weight in gold in any army and because of both his natural intelligence and rational bravery under fire, Grossjohann rose to the rank of Major during the war, winning the Knights Cross. This is very unusual. He didn't even want to be an officer. Even though he kept his head down and never tooted his own horn, his abilities were clearly recognized and up he went. This is the equivalent of starting in the mail room and becoming a senior vice president of a major corporation.

The memoir has a disarming honesty in many places since the author sees the absurdity of so many things in military life.
Most of the German officers' memoirs have, in my experience, one thing in common: I rarely discover admission of errors. In a frank admission about himself he says:
...I do not possess the necessary flexibility of character or intellect to imagine that I saw things in, say, 1940, with the knowledge that I have today. I also cannot bring myself to say that I opposed the Hitler regime, or that I knew it was doomed all along. I was amazed how the number of persons counting themselves as part of the German resistance reached astronomical heights after 1945.
Yet every time one sort of likes the guy, one comes across a passage such as this which is his response to witnessing tens of thousands of Russian POWs standing up to their knees in mud in one of the outdoor enclosures into which they had been herded like cattle to die. They had no shelter from rain or snow or cold. No sanitation. No potable water. No food.
He says that although these soldiers were enemies he felt their situation was shocking and unspeakably depressing. Here's the kicker:

Most certainly Army Group (South) headquarters could not be blamed for their misery. We simply lacked the capabilities of sheltering them, and especially lacked the equipment necessary to transport the POWs quickly to better facilities. But I don't want to conceal that in some places, the treatment of Russian POWs proceeded incompetently!

Well, Major Grossjohann, since almost 3 and 1/2 million Russian POWs died in German captivity, I think we can agree that "the treatment of Russian POWs proceeded incompetently!" Actually, they were intentionally starved to death. The German Army knew all about it since they were the ones who had custody of the POWs before they were shipped off to slave labor camps to die - that is if they lived long enough to be sent to a slave labor camp to die.

And if Army Group South can't be blamed for their murder by neglect, who can? If there had been the will, Army Group South and the two other Army Groups (Center and North) which controlled German Army formations in the Soviet Union, could have done something. This is why there were honorable German soldiers but there was no such thing as an honorable German Army.

2 people found this helpful

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Matt Miller

Excellent!

Reviewed in the United States on July 25, 2014

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Very interesting easy to read book with several clear pictures and easy to read maps. I liked the way he told what happened to the soldier or civilian he was speaking about after the war. He always praised his men. A nice write up by his son at the end of the book tells certain things about his dad and about his death. Highly recommended book!

Reviewed in the United States on March 16, 2004

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Here is a soldier who saw it all. From private to major on four fronts is quite a journey and the author makes it an interesting one. There is no 'puffing' here, just the facts. I was intrigued with his depiction of other officers, those who could 'cut it' and those who talked a good game.
The class distinctions, regional differences and the varied reactions to the stress of combat were revealing. Grossjohann is a fine example of leadership.

9 people found this helpful

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Five Years, Four Fronts: The War Years of Georg Grossjohann Paperback – October 1, 1999

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