German Generals of World War II: As I Saw Them

Rating:
Summary: German Generals I Served With
Review: I wrote to General von Mellenthin back in 1968; he was kind to send to me an autographed photograph of himself. This trait is reflected in the books he has written: kindness; but with perhaps too much kindness in writing about the German generals that he served with. In his dry style, writing a book as he would write a general-staff plan: just the facts, with little emotion. The generals that he served with, and thereby based his biographies on, include: Guderian, Manstein, Manteuffel, Model, Paulus, Rommel, Schoerner and several others. To discuss these general's leadership skills, Mellenthin does recount their battles in France, Russia and Northern Africa. In a chapter titled: "A Future War and Its Generals" he does briefly discuss Keitel and Jodl, noting that some of their leadership and strategy shortcomings stemed from them not having served as formation or battle-field commanders -- they could not really lead well, as "They had no understanding of what the troops wanted." This book is more of a review of his actions while serving with various generals -- a review of battle and command strategies -- than of any deep, scathing (critical) analysis of these inviduals' personalities. Not an exciting read of combat hand-to-hand battles, but a nice lite review as to how the German military-education system influenced the development of these generals. One wishes that Mellenthin would have been much more open in his discussing whatever "flaws" he might have seen in these officers, but, then Mellenthin is a product of being a gentleman officer. It is intersting to see how he compares "dashing" generals such as Guderian or Manstein who favored quick, battle movement and would argue strategy with Hitler, versus the weaker "tepid" staff generals such as Paulus or Jodl. What makes for "fun" (and informative) reading in this book are his personal insights from having served alongside these well-known generals. Unfortunatley, this is a much-over looked book, and due to its brevity, scarcity and lack of serious criticism it is seldom "cited" as a source in other studies of WWII; but it does provide that rare "I was there" combat perspective from a German general staff officer who participated in almost all of the great land battles of WWII. It is one that I re-read from time-to-time just for the interesting, personal insights.

Rating:
Summary: German Generals I Served With
Review: I wrote to General von Mellenthin back in 1968; he was kind to send to me an autographed photograph of himself. This trait is reflected in the books he has written: kindness; but with perhaps too much kindness in writing about the German generals that he served with. In his dry style, writing a book as he would write a general-staff plan: just the facts, with little emotion. The generals that he served with, and thereby based his biographies on, include: Guderian, Manstein, Manteuffel, Model, Paulus, Rommel, Schoerner and several others. To discuss these general's leadership skills, Mellenthin does recount their battles in France, Russia and Northern Africa. In a chapter titled: "A Future War and Its Generals" he does briefly discuss Keitel and Jodl, noting that some of their leadership and strategy shortcomings stemed from them not having served as formation or battle-field commanders -- they could not really lead well, as "They had no understanding of what the troops wanted." This book is more of a review of his actions while serving with various generals -- a review of battle and command strategies -- than of any deep, scathing (critical) analysis of these inviduals' personalities. Not an exciting read of combat hand-to-hand battles, but a nice lite review as to how the German military-education system influenced the development of these generals. One wishes that Mellenthin would have been much more open in his discussing whatever "flaws" he might have seen in these officers, but, then Mellenthin is a product of being a gentleman officer. It is intersting to see how he compares "dashing" generals such as Guderian or Manstein who favored quick, battle movement and would argue strategy with Hitler, versus the weaker "tepid" staff generals such as Paulus or Jodl. What makes for "fun" (and informative) reading in this book are his personal insights from having served alongside these well-known generals. Unfortunatley, this is a much-over looked book, and due to its brevity, scarcity and lack of serious criticism it is seldom "cited" as a source in other studies of WWII; but it does provide that rare "I was there" combat perspective from a German general staff officer who participated in almost all of the great land battles of WWII. It is one that I re-read from time-to-time just for the interesting, personal insights.