The Last Panther
Slaughter of the Reich - The Halbe Kessel 1945
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Narrated by:
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George Backman
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By:
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Wolfgang Faust
About this listen
While the Battle of Berlin in 1945 is widely known, the horrific story of the Halbe Kessel remains largely untold. In April 1945, victorious Soviet forces encircled 80,000 men of the German 9th Army in the Halbe area, South of Berlin, together with many thousands of German women and children. The German troops, desperate to avoid Soviet capture, battled furiously to break out toward the West, where they could surrender to the comparative safety of the Americans. For the German civilians trapped in the Kessel, the quest to escape took on frantic dimensions, as the terror of Red Army brutality spread.
The small town of Halbe became the eye of the hurricane for the breakout, as King Tigers of the SS Panzer Corps led the spearhead to the West, supported by Panthers of the battle-hardened 21st Panzer Division. Panzer by panzer, unit by unit, the breakout forces were cut down - until only a handful of Panthers, other armour, battered infantry units and columns of shattered refugees made a final escape through the rings of fire to the American lines. This first-hand account by the commander of one of those Panther tanks relates with devastating clarity the conditions inside the Kessel, the ferocity of the breakout attempt through Halbe, and the subsequent running battles between overwhelming Soviet forces and the exhausted Reich troops, who were using their last reserves of fuel, ammunition, strength and hope.
Eloquent German-perspective accounts of World War 2 are surprisingly rare, and the recent reissue of Wolfgang Faust's 1948 memoir Tiger Tracks has fascinated readers around the world with its insight into the Eastern Front. In The Last Panther, Faust used his unique knowledge of tank warfare to describe the final collapse of the Third Reich and the murderous combat between the German and Russian armies. He gives us a shocking testament to the cataclysmic final hours of the Reich, and the horrors of this last eruption of violence among the idyllic forests and meadows of Germany.
©2015 The Estate of Wolfgang Faust; Bayern Classic Publications (P)2016 Audible, Inc.Listeners also enjoyed...
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Seventy-five years have passed since D-Day, the greatest seaborne invasion in history. The outcome of the Second World War hung in the balance on that chill June morning. Giles Milton’s bold new history narrates the day’s events through the tales of survivors from all sides: the teenage Allied conscript, the crack German defender, the French resistance fighter. Soldier, Sailor, Frogman, Spy, Airman, Gangster, Kill or Die lays bare the absolute terror of those trapped in the front line of Operation Overlord.
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Needs a map
- By James Lucas on 03-24-19
By: Giles Milton
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Blood Red Snow
- The Memoirs of a German Soldier on the Eastern Front
- By: Günter K. Koschorrek
- Narrated by: Nigel Patterson
- Length: 9 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
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Gunter K. Koschorrek was a machine-gunner on the Russian front in WWII. He wrote his illicit diary on any scraps of paper he could lay his hands on. As keeping a diary was strictly forbidden, he sewed the pages into the lining of his thick winter coat and deposited them with his mother on infrequent trips home on leave. The diary went missing, and it was when he was reunited with his daughter in America some 40 years later that it came to light and became Blood Red Snow.
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One of the best personal accounts coming out of WW2
- By Sonia Lopez on 12-09-19
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Alamo in the Ardennes
- The Untold Story of the American Soldiers Who Made the Defense of Bastogne Possible
- By: John C. McManus
- Narrated by: John Glouchevitch
- Length: 12 hrs and 19 mins
- Unabridged
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At last, here is a book that tells the full story of the turning point in World War II's Battle of the Bulge - the story of five crucial days in which small groups of American soldiers, some outnumbered 10 to 1, slowed the German advance and allowed the Belgian town of Bastogne to be reinforced. Alamo in the Ardennes provides a compelling, day-by-day account of this pivotal moment in America's greatest war.
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hard to listen to this great story
- By Justine Reis on 07-20-18
By: John C. McManus
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Thunder Run
- The Armored Strike to Capture Baghdad
- By: David Zucchino
- Narrated by: Richard M. Davidson
- Length: 15 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
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Called “the best account of combat since Black Hawk Down” by Men’s Journal, Thunder Run is a no-holds-barred look at the sweep of Baghdad, Iraq in 2003 by U.S. armed forces. One of the boldest gambles in modern military history, the surprise attack on Baghdad by three battalions of tanks and APCs and less than 1,000 men total was the single stroke that is credited for ending the Iraqi war.
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Good reporting, but not a great book
- By Dr. Jonathan Newman on 04-01-12
By: David Zucchino
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September Hope
- The American Side of a Bridge Too Far
- By: John C. McManus
- Narrated by: Walter Dixon
- Length: 14 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
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In September Hope, acclaimed historian John C. McManus explores World War II’s most ambitious invasion, an immense, daring offensive to defeat Nazi Germany before the end of 1944. Operation Market-Garden is one of the war’s most famous, but least understood, battles, and McManus tells the story of the American contribution to this crucial phase of the war in Europe.
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Go yanks go !
- By Alan on 03-06-13
By: John C. McManus
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Fur Volk and Fuhrer
- The Memoir of a Veteran of the 1st SS Panzer Division Leibstandarte SS Adolf Hitler
- By: Erwin Bartmann, Derik Hammond
- Narrated by: James Foster
- Length: 8 hrs and 49 mins
- Unabridged
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Like many Germans, Berlin schoolboy Erwin Bartmann fell under the spell of the Zeitgeist cultivated by the Nazis. Convinced he was growing up in the best country in the world, he dreamt of joining the Leibstandarte, Hitler's elite Waffen SS unit. Tall, blond, blue-eyed, and just 17-years-old, Erwin fulfilled his dream on Mayday 1941, when he gave up his apprenticeship at the Glaser bakery in Memeler Strasse and walked into the Lichterfelde barracks in Berlin as a raw, volunteer recruit.
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High rating with a major proviso
- By marykk on 05-22-17
By: Erwin Bartmann, and others
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Red Star Against the Swastika
- The Story of a Soviet Pilot over the Eastern Front
- By: Vasily B. Emelianenko
- Narrated by: John Pruden
- Length: 7 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
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This is the extraordinary story of Vasily B. Emelianenko, the veteran pilot of one of the Soviet Union's most contradictory planes of the Second World War - the I1-2. Having flown 80 combat sorties against the Germans, Emelianenko was awarded the highest decoration - the Hero of the Soviet Union. He went on to complete a total of 92 sorties; his plane was shot down three times; and on each occasion, he managed to pilot the damaged aircraft home. Emelianenko's vivid memoirs provide a rare insight into the reality of fighting over the Eastern Front and the tactics of the Red Army Air Force.
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Solid Soviet WW2 bio
- By Alek on 12-19-18
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Generation Kill
- By: Evan Wright
- Narrated by: Patrick Lawlor
- Length: 13 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
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They were called a generation without heroes. Then they were called upon to be heroes. Within hours of 9/11, America's war on terrorism fell to those like the 23 Marines of the First Recon Battalion, the first generation dispatched into open-ended combat since Vietnam.
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Politically Neutral??.....Not.
- By Brett on 11-26-12
By: Evan Wright
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The Greatest U.S. Marine Corps Stories Ever Told
- Unforgettable Stories of Courage, Honor, and Sacrifice
- By: Iain Martin, Colonel Joseph H. Alexander - introduction
- Narrated by: Pete Simonelli
- Length: 12 hrs and 47 mins
- Unabridged
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On Friday, November 10, 1775, the Continental Congress approved a resolution for the organization of the Corps, creating what would become the hallowed few, the proud - the Marines. Since then, the men and women of the United States Marine Corps have created the finest traditions of service and honor, and supplied a pantheon of heroes who have upheld them.
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Marines Will Hate This Narrator.
- By Blaine E. Moyer on 04-18-17
By: Iain Martin, and others
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Parachute Infantry
- An American Paratrooper's Memoir of D-Day and the Fall of the Third Reich
- By: David Kenyon Webster
- Narrated by: Alan Sklar
- Length: 17 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
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David Kenyon Webster's memoir is a clear-eyed, emotionally charged chronicle of youth, camaraderie, and the chaos of war. Relying on his own letters home and recollections he penned just after his discharge, Webster gives a firsthand account of life in E Company, 101st Airborne Division, crafting a memoir that resonates with the immediacy of a gripping novel.
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The Finest Infantry Memoir of WWII
- By Michael Richards on 11-21-16
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Landing on the Edge of Eternity
- Twenty-Four Hours at Omaha Beach
- By: Robert Kershaw
- Narrated by: Roger Clark
- Length: 14 hrs and 21 mins
- Unabridged
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When Company A of the US 116th Regiment landed on Omaha Beach in D-Day's first wave on June 6, 1944, it lost 96 percent of its effective strength. Sixteen teams of US engineers arriving in the second wave were unable to blow the beach obstacles, as first wave survivors were still sheltering behind them. This was the beginning of the historic day that Landing on the Edge of Eternity narrates hour by hour.
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Good introduction to first hours of D-Day.
- By Barry Davis on 10-19-24
By: Robert Kershaw
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Those Who Hold Bastogne
- The True Story of the Soldiers and Civilians Who Fought in the Biggest Battle of the Bulge
- By: Peter Schrijvers
- Narrated by: John Lee
- Length: 11 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
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In this dramatic account of the 1944-45 winter of war in Bastogne, historian Peter Schrijvers offers the first full story of the German assault on the strategically located town. From the December stampede of American and Panzer divisions racing to reach Bastogne first, through the bloody eight-day siege from land and air, and through three more weeks of unrelenting fighting even after the siege was broken, events at Bastogne hastened the long-awaited end of WWII.
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How Did Anyone Survive?
- By Sher from Provo on 09-26-15
By: Peter Schrijvers
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Level Zero Heroes
- The Story of U.S. Marine Special Operations in Bala Murghab, Afghanistan
- By: Michael Golembesky, John R. Bruning
- Narrated by: Peter Berkrot
- Length: 10 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
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In Level Zero Heroes, Michael Golembesky follows the members of U.S. Marine Special Operations Team 8222 on their assignment to the remote and isolated Taliban stronghold known as Bala Murghab as they conduct special operations in an effort to break the Taliban's grip on the Valley. What started out as a routine mission changed when two 82nd Airborne Paratroopers tragically drowned in the Bala Murghab River while trying to retrieve vital supplies from an air drop that had gone terribly wrong.
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Worst narrator ever
- By Bob M on 07-03-15
By: Michael Golembesky, and others
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Reads like Forrest Gump ( a fiction )
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Another Great German Soldier's Memoir
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World War II began with a metallic roar as the German Blitzkrieg raced across Europe, spearheaded by the most dreaded weapon of the 20th century: the Panzer. No German tank better represents that thundering power than the infamous Tiger, and Otto Carius was one of the most successful commanders to ever take a Tiger into battle, destroying well over 150 enemy tanks during his incredible career.
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A troubled, yet worthwhile read...
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The fighting between the German and Russian armies in the Rzhev Salient during World War II was so grisly, so murderous, and saw such vast losses that the troops called the campaign 'The Meat Grinder'. Though millions of men would fight and die there, the Rzhev Salient does not have the name recognition of Leningrad or Moscow. It has been largely ignored by Western historians – until now.
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A totally absurd effort in racist German Bashing with some grudging respect for the German soldier and German Army.
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Adventures in My Youth
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The author could be described as a veteran in every sense of the word, even though he was only age 21 when the war ended. Armin Scheiderbauer served as an infantry officer with the 252nd Infantry Division, German army, and saw four years of bitter combat on the Eastern Front, being wounded six times. This is an outstanding personal memoir, written with great thoughtfulness and honesty.
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Heartfelt, vivid and sober story
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Panzer Ace
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Richard Freiherr von Rosen was a highly decorated Wehrmacht soldier and outstanding panzer commander. After serving as a gunlayer on a Pz.Mk.III during Barbarossa, he led a company of Tigers at Kursk. Later he led a company of King Tiger panzers at Normandy and in late 1944 commanded a battle group (12 King Tigers and a flak company) against the Russians in Hungary in the rank of junior, later senior lieutenant (from November 1944, his final rank). Only 489 of these King Tiger tanks were ever built.
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Not what I expected
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D DAY Through German Eyes
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Almost all accounts of D-Day are told from the Allied perspective, with the emphasis on how German resistance was overcome on June 6, 1944. But what was it like to be a German soldier in the bunkers and gun emplacements of the Normandy coast, facing the onslaught of the mightiest seaborne invasion in history? What motivated the German defenders, what were their thought processes - and how did they fight from one strong point to another, among the dunes and fields, on that first cataclysmic day?
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A work of fiction
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The Last Battle
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The Battle for Berlin was the culminating struggle of World War II in the European theater. The last offensive against Hitler’s Third Reich, it devastated one of Europe’s historic capitals and marked the final defeat of Nazi Germany. It was also one of the war’s bloodiest and most pivotal battles, whose outcome would shape international politics for decades to come.
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Thanks to Dan Carlin of Hardcore History podcasts.
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What listeners say about The Last Panther
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- rhuckabee
- 05-15-16
This book is full of interesting tidbits
The narrator is easy to listen, meaning you don't really notice him. That's high praise cause a lot of books are ruined by the reader clashing with the flow of your attention. I did not know about the events in this book which are well told by 1st person perspective..
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- Duane Linstrom
- 08-07-18
Exciting Story
It’s hard to believe this is a true biographical story because of the details. It has the perspective of an all seeing author, not an actual participant. Nevertheless doubtless the details are truly authentic, maybe in the aggregate, taken together.
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- Henry
- 11-11-17
Gripping tale
This was a powerful account that kept me on the edge of my seat. If you are interested in the fight on the Eastern Front, this is for you.
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- Papa Charlie
- 06-29-22
A Breathtaking Story
While the story is absolutely breathtaking, the over expressive reading style of the narrator often detracts from the total impact.
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- Anonymous User
- 05-10-20
Good Story, Regardless of Fact or Fiction
Looking at other reviews of this title before listening, I was skeptical of the accuracy or whether the claims of it being 'Pro-Nazi propaganda' were warranted. I have heard of a lot of 'memoirs' written by German Veterans and Generals being seen as whitewashing of history, or vindication of their own actions, knowing this, I went into this title with a massive grain of salt.
Needless to say -and maybe I am naive, I didn't find a single part of this story -be it a memoir or a work of historical fiction, to be anything resembling 'Pro-Nazi' message or vindication of the Nazi cause. Instead what i found was a heartbreaking;y tragic story of a desperate young man, entering hell and coming out the other side -his hands dirty, his mind warped, body broken.
Whether it is a true memoir or not is inconsequential as far as I am concerned, as to me it is a well paced, nuanced tale of just how horrific war can be. The fact is this: the Battle of Halbe Pocket, the 9th Army did break out to reach a corridor held by the 12th Army, and the crossing of the Elbe to surrender to the Americans were all true events. I don't know whether 'Wolfgang Faust existed or not, and I don't really care. To me he represents everyone of those poor souls trapped, desperate for something resembling hope.
In the story there are heroes (the Soldiers fighting to protect civilians), villains (smug Waffen SS men only looking out for themselves), traitors (the German Seydlitz Men helping the Soviets), cowards (German Soldiers refusing to fight and hiding among the Civilians), and innocents (the women and children caught in the crossfire). And no side of the conflict or political perspective is spared or given vindication...In fact -for all those accusing this boo of being 'pro-Nazi' I would say there is surprisingly little political references. The few references to the Nazis do not paint them in a flattering light,portraying the SS as smug, arrogant,self serving -and willing to murder anyone who gets in the way of their escape westward. Several times the narrator 'Faust' makes references to the Nazi atrocities on the Eastern Front, and even empathizes with the vengeful Soviets.
To me it seems that the reason why so many accuse this book of being 'Pro-Nazi' is because of the simple fact that it portrays a German Soldier as the protagonist, despite the fact that he does not openly admonish Hitler or the Nazis. It seems today that in order for us to have a 'good German' they must first disavow Nazism and actively oppose the regime in order to be seen as somewhat redeemable. But this character 'Faust' doesn't really bother with that -as he is too busy trying to survive the brutal, savage melee to worry about whether he's fighting for the goodies or the baddies. And that's probably what was going through most German's heads at the time.
Some people take issue with the fact that 'Faust' doesn't name any of his Panzer crewmen or the fact that his Platoon Leader's 'Iron Cross' is inaccurate. While the latter part is true -as only a Knights Cross of the Iron Cross was worn around the neck, it is never explicitly stated that 'the Iron Cross around his neck isn't a Knights Cross. Thus, how sure are you that Faust wasn't referring to the Knights Cross of the Iron Cross in an abbreviated way, simply for brevity. The same thing with his crewmen -its easier for a reader or listener to understand, "I told my gunner to..." or "my driver looked at me with horror" as opposed to "I told Schmidt to..." or "Fredrik looked at me with horror..."
All in all I found the story sobering, especially in the end...Not going to spoil it.
I've always wanted to read about the Battle of Halbe, and whether this is fact or fiction, this book gave me the picture I had long sought out, and I feel as if I am a better, more informed person for reading it.
If you are looking for Pro-Nazi war porn, look somewhere else, and perhaps read something like 'The Devil's Guard' an actual Pro-Nazi work of fiction about Waffen SS men who fight in Vietnam for the French Foreign Legion. Upon reading the first few pages of that book, I had to put it down -as it portrayed the SS as super-soldiers, who the French stand in awe of. Soviets and Vietminh guerrillas are shown as bloodthirsty savages -with about as much subtly as neon light saying 'bad guy'. The book even advocates taking enemy civilians hostage.
This book, I repeat, this book -despite claims of the contrary, is not that.
And if you doubt me, read it (or listen) for yourself.
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- Jesse W.A.
- 01-04-19
Nothing held back
This is another great book about germans being trapped inside a “pocket” within german borders, but this one spares not one bloody detail. If you like books with in-depth battle details, this one’s for you.
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- Jane
- 11-21-22
amazing
it was so good I loved it so much if you get the chance you should get this book it is so good I recommend it so much
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- Andy R.
- 08-01-16
Great book, terrible reader.
I cannot imagine a worse reader for this story. Good content though... Only thing that kept me going.
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- Kindle Customer
- 11-24-19
Real Fighting
It is very hard for Americans to imagine fighting without limits by either side. Very violent with no quarter given by either side,
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- Planetary Defense Commander
- 07-02-18
True or not, this is an exciting read
I'm writing a combined review of Tiger Tracks and The Last Panther.
Many reviewers think these are fictional stories, not memoirs. My gut tells me they read more like Hollywood than history, but I didn't fight on the Eastern Front, so what do I know? Maybe the insanely violent battles, the desperate attempts to escape from the Red Army hordes, the drug use, the murders, and the rapes are all true.
Some say this book is false because the author never gives the name of his unit. If you were a former German WWII soldier writing under a pseudonym, maybe you wouldn't want a written account traced back to you. Some people have pointed out phrases that didn't sound like they'd be used by a German WWII soldier, but this obviously went through a translator, possibly many years after the war, and the publisher may have told said translator to jazz things up a little. Some say iron crosses were never worn on neck ribbons, but I've read about them on ribbons in The Last Battle by Cornelius Ryan, which is a well-known history book. Maybe near the end of the war, the Nazis were passing out iron crosses as a last-ditch morale booster.
So, I don't know what % of these books are truth vs. fiction, but they are incredibly tense and action-packed reading material. If they are fictional, the real tragedy is that I don't know who the author is, because I want to read everything else he's every written.
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