Book Review: Panzer Commander

The last in my reviews of real books for the moment, as this is the last one I brought with me.

The book is Panzer Commander by Colonel Hans Von Luck. The memoirs of one of the more famous Panzer Commanders from WW2. He participated in just about every single Campaign the Germans had. From the Invasions of Poland and France, fighting with the Legendary Afrika Corps, to the “Eastern Front” with Russia, the defence of France and Germany and finally trying to battle the Russians in the final days of the War to try and defend Berlin.

This was a very interesting book. The first book I had ever read from the German perspective of the war. This is by no means a story about “Nazis”, but more about the every day german, who went to defend his country and do his duty. They were not all Nazis and this book does show you that side of the conflict. I was genuinely interested in this book, it was recommended to me by my tour guide in Normandy last year when I was touring the battlefields.

This book also follows the life of a German Prisoner of War in Russia. This is definitely something I had never read about before, I didn’t even realize that a lot of the POWs were not returned until the late 40s early 50s. That is astonishing to me and truly brought about a respect for these people who were captured and interned for so long (wether they be on either side).

This is definitely a book that I would recommend to anyone looking for a read about the War from a different perspective. The perspective from the German side shows that they to were just doing their job (for the most part) and not everyone was a crazy Nazi or anything like that. Definitely a book I would recommend!