WW1 Books.

First World War 1914-1918 from the German perspective.

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sniper1shot
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WW1 Books.

Post by sniper1shot »

All Books that Pertain to WW1 are to be posted here please.
If reviewing a book....Please use the same format that we use in the Books Forum.
Title:
Author:
Publisher:
ISBN:
--Meat of the Reveiw--
Only he is lost who gives himself up as lost.
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Book Review

Post by sniper1shot »

Title: The 50th Battalion in No Man's Land
Authour: Victor W. Wheeler
Publisher: CEF Books
ISBN: 1-896979-15-7
Stars: 4.5
(out of 5)

This book is about a signaler in the 50th Bn (Alberta) in WWI. There are 24 chapters covering the authours indoctrination to battle, leave, and movements throughout the Western Front. There are a couple of maps and few pictures but this does not detract from the book what so ever.
The battle scenes that are described puts you right in the trench with the authour as he is ducking the German Mortars and Heavy bombardments. You also get the feeling of endless marches as the Bn moves from one area to another. He vividly describes the attack on Vimy and the subsequent battles right after. You also feel the loss of his friends when they are either wounded out killed during the battles.
The authour holds no ill feelings towards his enemies and describes them as valiant fighters doing their job for their country.
Only the last couple of chapters describe why he wrote the book, briefly touching on some of his training and upbringing before the war.
Only he is lost who gives himself up as lost.
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Re: WW1 Books.

Post by sniper1shot »

Title: Storm of Steel
Authour: Ernest Junger
Publisher: Penguin Group
ISBN: 0 14 24.3790 5
Stars 4.5
(out of 5)

This book was recommended by another forum member as considered a classic. He was not mistaken. I enjoyed the book a lot. This book is on a German Stormtroop Officer in WWI.
The book covers the authours time in the front lines, in rest, in reserve and on leave after being wounded. He does survive the war with Germany's highest awards.
He writes about stuff that I was not aware of....like the amount of gas the allies use in their artillery bombardments. I was not aware that so much was used. Quite a few of his soldiers were either killed or wounded by artillery shells. You get the feeling that there was never a break to the constant shelling.
There are some very good descriptions of what the German soldier felt while on the attack. Both in a general offensive and also while on a raid. The authour talks about an attack on a French trench system and getting "lost" in the maze of trench works. He makes it out but a few of the raiding party does not. He is wounded numerous times incl at wars end, and avoids capture to make it back to his own lines after an allied offensive takes his sector of trenches.
There are a couple of points that I found confusing as when he is descrbing one of the raids, he was talking about the soldiers. He mentions their names a bit too much so that I had to go back a page or two to find out who he was talking about and how they got to where they were. The Introduction is 15.5 pages long and drags.......I almost put the book down because of it. ONCE past the intro I HIGHLY recommend this book as it is well written and also because there are not a lot of WWI German memoirs from front line fighters out there.
:[] :up:
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Doktor Krollspell
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Re: WW1 Books.

Post by Doktor Krollspell »

Ah yes, Ernst Jünger and his first book "In Stahlgewittern" (1920)... Truly one of the greatest canonical biographical war books of the Twentieth century! For those with an interest in the german radical conservative right between the war years and of it's greatest writer, a good introduction to Ernst Jünger (1895- 1998), his life, books and views is the website http://www.juenger.org/

A good introduction in english to the life and works of Ernst Jünger (which is still available) is Thomas Nevin's "Ernst Jünger and Germany - Into the Abyss, 1914-1945" (1996). A recommended introduction... Ernst Jünger recieved the Pour le Merité on 18.09.1918 as a Leutnant and Kompanieführer in the (Hannoverian) Füsilier-Regiment 71 for continues action and leading Stosstruppen on the Western front in France. Jünger was one of only 13 german junior officers, all Kompanie- or Zugführer who recieved Imperial Germany's highest awards, the coveted Pou le Merité. When Ernst Jünger died on 17.02.1998 at the age of 102, he was the last living recipient of that award.


Ernst Jünger in Paris 1942
Image


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Krollspell
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Re: WW1 Books.

Post by sniper1shot »

Thanks for the post and picture.
Only he is lost who gives himself up as lost.
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Re: WW1 Books.

Post by Schultz »

Title:Forward, March: Memoirs of a German Officer
Author:Lieutenant Ernst Rosenhainer
Publisher:White Mane Books
ISBN: 1-57249-158-2

Good book from the diary/memoirs of a German officer who started out the war in the west, then to the Eastern front, then back again to the west in the Verdun sector. Then finishing the war back to the east again. Great reading with photo's and explanations on trench building and warfare. Also insight to the times, people and conditions. Great explanation on Tannenberg and the battles afterward from a regimental and company level as well as the overall picture. ( How they suckered the Russians in and flanked them). Great read.

I also highly suggest going to google books, type in World War 1 after it goes to page then select full only, i have gotten several great books from there that are in the public domain on WW1, CivilWar, Spanish Civil War and much other informative books and military records/ data.

One of my personal favorites is several volumes called "a photographic history of the civil war" partly written, and donated photo's by surviving war vets, books where published in 1905.

Schultz
"There ain't no sanity clause" The Damned
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Re: WW1 Books.

Post by fridgeman »

Title: Vom Kriege / On war
Author: General Carl von Clausewitz
Current German publisher: Rowohlt
ISBN: 3499451387
English language publisher: Wilder Publications e.g.
ISBN: 1604593563 e.g.
Stars: ***** 5/5, standard reference

Vom Kriege was not written during WW1, but it was one of the most important military works for the prussian kingdom and
later the german army. It has philosophical parts which ask for the nature of war, some strategical parts about military actions,
and a part about the war as an instrument of politics. I have a german Edition of 1914 with an introduction of General von Schlieffen.
The book is particulary hard to understand, but worth every hour reading. As far as i know it is still teaching material in
many military academies, and everyone with a military education have heard or red some lines out of this book.
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Re: WW1 Books.

Post by bil »

If you get the Junger book,get the earliest version you can find.Later editions were adjusted to better suit the times. ---bil
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Re: WW1 Books.

Post by Der Alte Fritz »

Title: If Germany Attacks The Battle in Depth in the West
Author: Captain G.C. Wynne edited by Dr. Robert T. Foley
Publisher: Tom Donovan Editions (do not get the 1940 edition reprinted in the 1970s by Da Capo - half the book is missing)
ISBN: limited editon of 300 copies
stars: 5 stars

Tom Donovan Editions is delighted to announce the First Unexpurgated Edition of If Germany Attacks, including an expert new historical introduction, to include a profile of its interesting but neglected author and his work on, inter alia, the British Official History.

If Germany Attacks is a classic assessment of the German tactical doctrine on the Western Front – particularly during the latter part of the war – and an uncompromising critical assessment of British command performance during the campaign.

To reinforce his argument – the thrust of which is that German tactical success can largely be attributed to “the work of one master-mind,” General Fritz von Lossberg – Wynne surveys all the major operations in France and Flanders from Neuve Chapelle in March 1915 to the end of Passchendaele in 1917. If Germany Attacks was based on articles Wynne contributed to the Army Quarterly in the 1930s, expanded in the light of newly available material including von Lossberg’s own memoirs which were published in Berlin in 1939.

When published in 1940, at a time of fast moving events and a new war, the book quickly disappeared from view. It received favourable reviews but there was only one printing and the original edition is now of great rarity.

The little-known secret history of If Germany Attacks is that a version was actually printed and bound ready for publication, but at the last moment Faber and Faber appear to have got cold feet and “it was decided that it would be inappropriate to issue the volume during hostilities as the text was highly critical of the British Command and would lead to discouragement and lack of confidence in the army authorities.” All but four or five copies of this first version were pulped and the subsequent published edition had major chunks of text altered or removed in entirety.

Having access to Wynne’s original proof copy, marked up with changes to both the unpublished and published versions, Tom Donovan Editions has been enabled to piece together the complete unexpurgated text, which is now published for the first time with all the offending passages reinserted (and clearly identified) in a limited edition of 300 numbered copies.

Dr. Robert T. Foley was until recently a lecturer at the Joint Services Staff College, Camberley and is currently a lecturer in Modern European History at the University of Liverpool. He is a specialist in the German Army and - alongside his other published work - his prize winning German Strategy and the Path to Verdun: Erich von Falkenhayn and the Development of Attrition, 1870-1916 (Cambridge University Press, 2005) has been highly acclaimed.
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Re: WW1 Books.

Post by sniper1shot »

Wow- thanks for the heads up and review.
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Liam
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Re: WW1 Books.

Post by Liam »

Through German Eyes: The British and the Somme 1916 by Christopher Duffy.

I'm not sure of the publisher as my father was lent the book and he then lent it to a third party!

I found this book to be a very interesting read, not just about how the Germans saw this famous battle, but the way they viewed it as a very damaging fight not just to the British and French but also themselves. The Germans did not like the idea of fighting purely attritional battles and this is made very clear.

Also...

The Kaiser's Battle by Martin Middlebrook. Penguin Books.

Arguably the most important battle of the war, this book has numerous first-hand accounts from German soldiers who took part in their last great offensive.

Both highly recommended
Hitler...there was a painter! He could paint an entire apartment in ONE afternoon! TWO coats!! Mel Brooks, The Producers
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Re: WW1 Books.

Post by Der Alte Fritz »

Through German Eyes is an excellent book as it balances the oft repeated "Lions led by Donkeys" theory.
Duffy is an excellent historian and fluent in German, I had the pleasure of traveling around Germany, Poland and Czechoslovakia with him on a tour of the battlefields of the Seven Years War several years in a row.

Paperback: 392 pages
Publisher: Phoenix; New Ed edition (21 Jun 2007)
Language English
ISBN-10: 0753822024
ISBN-13: 978-0753822029
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Through-German- ... 059&sr=8-1
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Re: WW1 Books.

Post by sniper1shot »

Excellant books to know about.
Looks like my Christmas wish list just got a bit longer.
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Re: WW1 Books.

Post by sniper1shot »

Title: The Journal of Private Fraser
Authour: Himself
Publisher: C.E.F. Books
ISBN: 1-896979-28-9
Stars: 5
(out of 5)

This book was purchased at a military show last year, 2012. Norm Christie was selling a bunch of WWI titles published by CEF books and as I love a good memoir I thought why not. I was not disappointed. This book covers this soldier, Donald Fraser, through the entire First World War. He enlisted in the 31 Battalion and transfers later to the 6th Brigade machine gun company. He served from 1914-1917 when he was WIA and evacuated out of theatre, never to return to the fight.
This book is a day by day (or close to it) account of Private Fraser's war. His training and what he did. His eventual trek to the trenches and of all his fights. He talks of the units on either side of his battalion both in the trenches and on the attack. He talks of his friends and their eventual outcome from the war. A lot of the time he was with his buddies when they were either KIA or WIA. He discusses the fatigue duties of getting rations, wire parties, trench clean up etc and holds nothing back when he paints the picture of what the battlefields and trenches looked like after a battle. Both German and Commonwealth.
It was interesting to read on how he collected buttons from the uniforms of dead enemy soldiers and when he found them. Also interesting was later on in the war when he was with the MG company how he found sites for his gun. Some were in abandoned (forgotten?) areas that provided everything that a MG crew would need. The book does end fairly quickly, 1917, as he was WIA and I found myself wanting to hear what happened.
I highly recommend this book if one is interested in journals/memoirs of the fighting man.
Only he is lost who gives himself up as lost.
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Re: WW1 Books.

Post by Waxdog »

Hello. I found these two Kriegsmarine brass buttons
Marked 79 M 38. I tried to attach a photo but
Apparently the file was too large.
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