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Author: Ernst Jünger
Howard Fertig

A memoir of astonishing power, savagery, and ashen lyricism, Storm of Steel illuminates not only the horrors but also the fascination of total war, seen through the eyes of an ordinary German soldier. Young, tough, patriotic, but also disturbingly self-aware, Jünger exulted in the Great War, which he saw not just as a great national conflict but—more importantly—as a unique personal struggle. Leading raiding parties, defending trenches against murderous British incursions, simply enduring as shells tore his comrades apart, Jünger kept testing himself, braced for the death that will mark his failure. Published shortly after the war’s end, Storm of Steel was a worldwide bestseller.

Storm of Steel begins with Jünger as a private entering the line with the 73rd Hanoverian Regiment (7./F.R.73) in Champagne. His first taste of combat came at Les Éparges in April 1915 where he was first wounded.

After recuperating, he took an officer's course and achieved the rank of Ensign. He rejoined his regiment on the Arras sector. In 1916, with the Battle of the Somme underway, Jünger's regiment moved to Combles in August for the defence of the village of Guillemont. Here Jünger was wounded again, and fortunately absent shortly before the final British assault which captured the village—his platoon was annihilated. In 1917 Jünger saw action during the Battle of Arras in April, the Third Battle of Ypres in July and October, and the German counter-attack during the Battle of Cambrai in November. Jünger led a company of assault troops during the final German Spring Offensive, 21 March 1918 when he was wounded again. On 23 August he suffered his most severe wound when he was shot through the chest.

In total, Jünger was wounded 14 times during the war, including five bullet wounds. He was awarded the Iron Cross 1st Class and was the youngest, and last, ever recipient of the Pour le Mérite

Author: Sir Alistair Horne
Penguin Books

The "Price of Glory: Verdun 1916" is the second book of Alistair Horne's trilogy, which includes "The Fall of Paris" and "To Lose a Battle" and tells the story of the great crises of the rivalry between France and Germany. The battle of Verdun lasted ten months. It was a battle in which at least 700,000 men fell, along a front of fifteen miles. Its aim was less to defeat the enemy than bleed him to death and a battleground whose once fertile terrain is even now a haunted wilderness. Alistair Horne's classic work, continuously in print for over fifty years, is a profoundly moving, sympathetic study of the battle and the men who fought there. It shows that Verdun is a key to understanding the First World War to the minds of those who waged it, the traditions that bound them and the world that gave them the opportunity. "Verdun was the bloodiest battle in history..."The Price of Glory" is the essential book on the subject". ("Sunday Times"). "It has almost every merit...Horne sorts out complicating issues with the greatest clarity. He has a splendid gift for depicting individuals". (A.J.P. Taylor, "Observer"). "A masterpiece". ("The New York Times"). "Compellingly told...Alastair Horne uses contemporary accounts from both sides to build up a picture of heroism, mistakes, even farce". ("Sunday Telegraph"). "Brilliantly written ...very readable; almost like a historical novel - except that it is true". (Field Marshal Viscount Montgomery). One of Britain's greatest historians, Sir Alistair Horne, CBE, is the author of a trilogy on the rivalry between France and Germany, "The Price of Glory", "The Fall of Paris" and "To Lose a Battle", as well as a two-volume life of Harold Macmillan.

Author: Barbara W. Tuchman
Presidio Press

In this Pulitzer Prize-winning history, Tuchman writes about the turning point of the year 1914—the month leading up to the war and the first month of the war. This was the last gasp of the Gilded Age, of Kings and Kaisers and Czars, of pointed or plumed hats, colored uniforms, and all the pomp and romance that went along with war. How quickly it all changed, and how horrible it became. Tuchman is masterful at portraying this abrupt change from 19th to 20th Century. And how she manages to make the story utterly suspenseful, when we already know the outcome, is the mark of a great writer, and a classic volume of history.

 

Praise for The Guns of August

 “A brilliant piece of military history which proves up to the hilt the force of Winston Churchill’s statement that the first month of World War I was ‘a drama never surpassed.’”Newsweek
 
“More dramatic than fiction . . . a magnificent narrative—beautifully organized, elegantly phrased, skillfully paced and sustained.”Chicago Tribune
 
“A fine demonstration that with sufficient art rather specialized history can be raised to the level of literature.”The New York Times
 
“[The Guns of August] has a vitality that transcends its narrative virtues, which are considerable, and its feel for characterizations, which is excellent.”The Wall Street Journal

 

Author: Ian Sumner
Illustrator: Giuseppe Rava
Osprey (Warrior)

'Why,' the Kaiser enquired of Czar Nicholas in 1913, did he wish to ally himself with France when 'the Frenchman is no longer capable of being a soldier?' Indeed, during World War I (1914-1918) the French Army was in a state of disarray, plagued by indiscipline, mutinies and desertion. The ordinary French citizens that were called upon to defend their motherland, the Poilu, were disrespected and demoralized, and the infamous mutinies of 1917 by the Poilu were not protests against the war itself, but against how the war was conducted. The rebellions sent a stark warning, forcing a reform in the management of the war. Consequently, the performance of many French regiments improved and the Poilu went on to become the only European troops to fight the entire war within their own borders. Ian Sumner expertly charts the history of the Poilu, from the conscription of hundreds of thousands of men, through their training, to the horrors of the trenches and the fear of no-man's land, providing a fascinating insight into the events that led to the 1917 revolts. New artwork and diagrams illustrate the experiences of the soldiers as the comforts of civilian life were stripped away from them and the trenches became their homes.

Author: Colonel Rod Paschall
Da Capo Press

This book goes a long way towards showing how many of the conventional beliefs concerning WW1 are totally innaccurate. He dosen't diminish the loss of life but he does show that the generals in charge were no less capable than their WW2 counterparts. Much of what was practiced in WW2 started in WW1. Pascall builds a compelling case that the generals on both sides invented ingenious new strategies that simply failed in the context of a war of attrition. An outstanding contribution to the body of knowledge of World War One.

January 1917. On the Western Front the armies of Imperial Germany, Great Britain, and France were locked in grim stalemate. Repeated attempts by both sides to achieve breakthrough in the face of machine-gun fire, barbed wire, long-range artillery, and poison gas had brought only enormous casualties.The Defeat of Imperial Germany focuses on the innovative plans created by generals on both sides in their struggles to dislodge the entrenched enemy and to restore maneuver and victory on the Western Front. In a series of vivid analyses of successive offensives, Paschall examines the problems of command and what happened when the massed soldiery sought to carry out their orders. These strategies and tactics developed by the military leadership in 1917–1918, though largely failing to shatter the deadlock, would prove successful when implemented twenty years later in World War II.The first volume in the Major Battles and Campaigns series published under the general editorship of John S.D. Eisenhower, The Defeat of Imperial Germany has been designed for the "armchair strategist." Dozens of photographs, many never before published, as well as clearly drawn theater and battlefield maps help to make this book an outstanding, challenging, and original contribution to the history of the Great War.

Author: Wolfgang Fleischer
Schiffer Publishing, Ltd.

Shown are the various caliber mortars used by the German infantry during World Wars I & II., over 70 b/w photographs, 8 1/2" x 11"

Author: Ian Drury
Illustrator: Gerry Embleton
Osprey (Warrior)

Okay, I bought this book (used) a few years back. It's okay, but has some inaccuracies. If you need a basic primer on the Sturmtruppen, then buy it... it's not that bad.

The first official German stormtroop unit was authorized on 2 March 1915 when the Supreme Command of the field army ordered the VIII Corps to form a detachment for the testing of experimental weapons and the development of approximate tactics that could break the deadlock on the Western Front. By the summer of 1915, stormtroop units were springing up throughout the German armies in the west, and by the end of 1916 official stormtroop battalions were established throughout the western armies, providing a deadly new threat for the Allies. This book examines the uniform, equipment and tactics of Germany's feared elites of World War I (1914-1918).

Author: Wolfgang Fleischer
Schiffer Publishing, Ltd.

Reviewer: Mal Wright from Adelaide, South Australia.

This booklet, by Wolfgang Fleischer, is a bit misleading as the title leads one to expect more coverage of WW1. Instead it skips over the 1914-18 period and seems to use it more as an introduction to WW2. That is a shame as even though it does not mention many WW1 guns, those it does skip across are interesting weapons. After a couple of pages of fairly vague text on WW1 it goes into WW2 infantry guns in considerably more detail. Once again it is often tempting, but not very fulfilling. However the photographic coverage of WW2 Infantry guns is quite extensive. It should prove helpful to those wanting to model some of the weapons in detail and at the price is therefore a bargain. As a serious work on the subject, it is however lacking in technical data and comparisons. I give this booklet 3 stars for WW2 and would give it half a star for WW1. It is worth adding to your collection and won't break your budget.


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