German Infantryman 1933-40 (Warrior, 59)

Rating:
Summary: Excellent Methodology, Poorly Executed
Review: Osprey's Warrior series claims to provide "insights into the daily lives of history's fighting men and women, past and present, detailing their motivation, training, tactics, weaponry and experiences." David Westwood's volume, German Infantryman, succeeds only in detailing some of aspects of German infantry training, tactics, weaponry and experiences in the period 1933-1940. Westwood, who studied at Sandhurst (like the Great Gatsby "at Oxford"?), is familiar with military terminology but does not write with the insight of a military man. The author chose an excellent methodology to detail the inner workings of a German infantry unit - by focusing on a specific unit - but executes this methodology in a very peculiar and uneven manner. While the photographs and illustrations provide an excellent graphic quality to this volume, the narrative is too generic to be of much historical value.

German Infantryman consists of a short introduction that provides background on the inter-war Reichsheer, followed by a 24-page section on recruiting and training. Initially, the training section starts out well with a brief description of the Wehrkreise system, the training depots, basic training and weapons training. In some cases, the author provides good detail, like the fact that a German soldier fired over 300 rounds during basic training. However, there is surprisingly little depth provided about the 16 weeks of German basic training and much of what is provided could apply to any army's basic training. I recall other German sources mentioning significant differences in their basic training - like hand grenades and anti-tank training - that is barely touched here. There is no mention of motivation, regional differences between units or how men were selected for various operational specialties. Nor does the author even mention specialty training after basic, such as mortar school or pioneers. While the Warrior series is not designed to address organization, the author might also have made some effort to state how many infantrymen were in a platoon, company, battalion, etc (there is one skimpy line diagram, but no personnel strengths are listed). The later half of this section, covering issues such as marching, field craft and map reading, could apply to any army.

In the second section, the author decides to convey the battlefield experiences of a particular unit - the 30th Infantry Regiment in the 18th Division - in the Polish and French campaigns. The author shifts into this focus on the 30th Infantry Regiment with no explanation or introduction to the unit. In this section, the author providers a pastiche of German eyewitness accounts relating to marches, initial combat experiences, a set-piece battle, river crossings, attack on fixed defenses, fighting in urban areas and anti-tank fighting. Some accounts are interesting, some not, but most are too generic to be of much value. There is no real explanation of tactics here, such as how a German infantry platoon employed its machineguns and 50mm mortar in the attack or how a German battalion made a movement to contact, only vague reminiscences. The color plates are quite good, as usual, and these will be of benefit to model builders but the historical value of this volume is quite suspect.

There are a host of issues that the other should have at least mentioned but failed to address, like the "wave" system in which German divisions were raised and the fact that there were different types of infantry units (Jaeger, Landwehr, reserve). The issue of motivation should have been addressed, too. In the early stages of the Polish campaign, some German infantry units were very reticent to enter combat and some even performed poorly. Fear of heavy losses caused by the memory of the First World War and the legacy of defeat was not completely gone until the French victory. The author should also have made some mention of the demographics of German infantrymen, as well as more discussion on the junior leadership. While the author's bibliography seems robust enough, it does not appear that he made a full effort to address this subject in the depth it deserves.

Rating:
Summary: Excellent Methodology, Poorly Executed
Review: Osprey's Warrior series claims to provide "insights into the daily lives of history's fighting men and women, past and present, detailing their motivation, training, tactics, weaponry and experiences." David Westwood's volume, German Infantryman, succeeds only in detailing some of aspects of German infantry training, tactics, weaponry and experiences in the period 1933-1940. Westwood, who studied at Sandhurst (like the Great Gatsby "at Oxford"?), is familiar with military terminology but does not write with the insight of a military man. The author chose an excellent methodology to detail the inner workings of a German infantry unit - by focusing on a specific unit - but executes this methodology in a very peculiar and uneven manner. While the photographs and illustrations provide an excellent graphic quality to this volume, the narrative is too generic to be of much historical value.

German Infantryman consists of a short introduction that provides background on the inter-war Reichsheer, followed by a 24-page section on recruiting and training. Initially, the training section starts out well with a brief description of the Wehrkreise system, the training depots, basic training and weapons training. In some cases, the author provides good detail, like the fact that a German soldier fired over 300 rounds during basic training. However, there is surprisingly little depth provided about the 16 weeks of German basic training and much of what is provided could apply to any army's basic training. I recall other German sources mentioning significant differences in their basic training - like hand grenades and anti-tank training - that is barely touched here. There is no mention of motivation, regional differences between units or how men were selected for various operational specialties. Nor does the author even mention specialty training after basic, such as mortar school or pioneers. While the Warrior series is not designed to address organization, the author might also have made some effort to state how many infantrymen were in a platoon, company, battalion, etc (there is one skimpy line diagram, but no personnel strengths are listed). The later half of this section, covering issues such as marching, field craft and map reading, could apply to any army.

In the second section, the author decides to convey the battlefield experiences of a particular unit - the 30th Infantry Regiment in the 18th Division - in the Polish and French campaigns. The author shifts into this focus on the 30th Infantry Regiment with no explanation or introduction to the unit. In this section, the author providers a pastiche of German eyewitness accounts relating to marches, initial combat experiences, a set-piece battle, river crossings, attack on fixed defenses, fighting in urban areas and anti-tank fighting. Some accounts are interesting, some not, but most are too generic to be of much value. There is no real explanation of tactics here, such as how a German infantry platoon employed its machineguns and 50mm mortar in the attack or how a German battalion made a movement to contact, only vague reminiscences. The color plates are quite good, as usual, and these will be of benefit to model builders but the historical value of this volume is quite suspect.

There are a host of issues that the other should have at least mentioned but failed to address, like the "wave" system in which German divisions were raised and the fact that there were different types of infantry units (Jaeger, Landwehr, reserve). The issue of motivation should have been addressed, too. In the early stages of the Polish campaign, some German infantry units were very reticent to enter combat and some even performed poorly. Fear of heavy losses caused by the memory of the First World War and the legacy of defeat was not completely gone until the French victory. The author should also have made some mention of the demographics of German infantrymen, as well as more discussion on the junior leadership. While the author's bibliography seems robust enough, it does not appear that he made a full effort to address this subject in the depth it deserves.