Panzer Commander: The Memoirs of Colonel Hans von Luck (CASSELL MILITARY PAPERBACKS)

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The range was considered too far for engagement, but Luck claims in his memoirs that "Actually, I thought about what Rommel said about Churchill and held my fire. The book also touches upon the charismatic personality of one of the greatest german Field Marshalls 'Erwin Rommel" under whom Col Luck mostly served during the War. Unlike Guy Sajer, whose wartime experience was limited to the Eastern Front, mostly during its retreat phase, von Luck saw action in Poland, France, North Africa, Italy, Normandy, and Russia. Others have critiqued the book at length, so here's just a thumbnail sketch of a couple of its limitations. On 12 June Kampfgruppe von Luck, now further enlarged with an addition of a brigade of Nebelwerfers, successfully reclaimed the village of Sainte-Honorine, lying on an important hill overlooking the invasion beaches.

Christmas celebrations during the Second World War often had to be scaled down or adjusted as restrictions and shortages took their toll. The Luftwaffe 88mm battery Luck commandeered earlier in the day accounted for about 40 British tanks alone. On the morning of 9 June Luck's command was designated Kampfgruppe von Luck, and in addition to the elements of 125th Panzer Grenadier Regiment already under Luck's command it consisted of a battalion, three assault-gun batteries and one antitank company with 88mm guns. An excellent book that follows the wartime career of a German officer from Poland 1939 through to his post war existence in a Russian Gulag.Operation Barbarossa: the complete organisational and statistical analysis, and military simulation. Once when retelling how various Muslims tribes encountered in Africa praised the official German position and then later when reporting how he tried to get his fiancée's Jewish father out of Sachsenhausen, the Nazi prison and concentration camp outside of Berlin. As a professional soldier I cannot escape my share of the collective guilt; but as a human being I feel none. Napier notes "if this company did not move before 0930 hours, it would have been cut off when the leading tanks of the 29th brigade crossed the railway" and reasoned "since the battery "Was able to relocate successfully to just south of Four where it was in action for the rest of the day and so must have moved well before 0930 hours.

Kampfgruppe von Luck was now tasked with holding the Western end of the gap open, which it did until 21 August. After this final attack had been repulsed, Luck determined that the British bridgehead could not be eliminated, but due to the counterattacks launched by Kampfgruppe von Luck, the British/Canadian forces stopped any further advance in the sector, preferring to lay mines and dig themselves in. The British armour advanced without infantry support, and was easily destroyed in the hedgerows of the area. On 12 June Kampfgruppe von Luck engaged in the fighting for the village of Sainte-Honorine, lying on a hill overlooking the invasion beaches. On 26 July Panzer Lehr's lines were broken, and 21st Panzer Division reoriented themselves on this new threat.During November only very few advances were made, although the 7th Panzer Division managed to secure a bridgehead south of Kalinin and not far from the outskirts of Moscow, with a detachment of Luck's command penetrating into the city itself. He argued that despite there being "no doubt that heavy anti-tank gunfire from in and around Cagny began to account for British tanks", no evidence that the Luftwaffe had guns in Cagny at the time given the dispositions of other Luftwaffe batteries. Luck was put in command of the remains of 21st Panzer Division and conducted a rearguard action, only barely able to keep the front intact until the last German forces could be withdrawn over the Seine on 26 August. Through the winter of 1931−1932, Luck attended a nine-month course for officer cadets, led by then Captain Erwin Rommel, at the infantry school in Dresden. He served with the 7th Panzer Division and 21st Panzer Division, seeing action in Poland, France, North Africa, Italy and Russia.

In 1939 Luck was posted to the 2nd Light Division, serving in its armoured reconnaissance battalion. I suspect there's a bit of a gloss going on in von Luck's account, but the fact he appears to have become friends with some old adversaries signifies the respect this German officer had from those in a position to judge fairly. About half of the 100,000 trapped troops managed to escape, though most of the heavy materiel and vehicles were destroyed in the pocket.His draws a positive picture for Rommel (which is contested nowadays) and some of his account of the Goodwood operation is contested; however, it makes sense as you read it, but, as always with memoirs, you have to take it with a grain of salt. I'm not sure what to make of his claim not to have known anything about the camps before learning of the fate of his prospective father-in-law in Sachsenhausen. In the autumn of 1932 Luck was promoted to Lieutenant, and in 1933 his unit were equipped with their first scout cars, marking the first step towards becoming an armoured reconnaissance battalion. I originally bought the book for the war years and found them fascinating; even funny in places with his North African desert stories, but the eye opener of this book was the story of his time in Russia after the war. Nearby was the Heavy Tank Battalion 503 equipped with one company of Tiger II tanks and two companies of Tiger I tanks.