"Book Review: Tiger Tracks and The Last Panther" Topic

by Wolfgang Faust.

"A very common phenomenon in the vague, sweeping genre of "war memoirs" is the false memoir, especially the false World War Two memoir, purported to be written by (most often, I've found) German soldiers and either lost or "published now for the first time" decades after the war. WW2 fiction and/or greatly embellished memoirs of wartime sold rather well among certain demographics, and even today – as I myself can attest – new WW2 fiction is popular among readers. So it is natural that, even now, false or at least dubious memoirs of the war are being "re-published" as ebooks. The "StuG Command" book I reviewed about a year ago was a perfect example of this, a story I am entirely certain is a complete fabrication (and not really that great a book, either).

I found TIGER TRACKS and THE LAST PANTHER a couple of months ago, and bought both for my Kindle. I recently read the two of them back to back – they're both fairly short reads, probably around 25-30,000 words apiece – and I have to say, they were pretty enjoyable. I don't believe for a second that Wolfgang Faust is a real person, or that the name is even a pseudonym of a real person, but I have to admit that the story reads well, albeit rather over-the-top in terms of the lurid violence and misery. The two stories cover different periods of time during Faust's career; TIGER TRACKS takes place in 1943, while THE LAST PANTHER takes place in April of 1945, right at the very end of the war.

Of the two, TIGER TRACKS (available here on Amazon) is probably the weaker story. Faust's unit of twenty Tiger heavy tanks is assigned to take some hill from the Soviets. The fight is bloody and several Tigers are immediately taken out of the fight, but in the end, the Germans defeat the Soviets and take the enemy position. However, the reinforcements that were originally promised never arrive, and they are forced to retreat, after capturing a Soviet female radio operator. The Tiger force is constantly harassed by Soviet attacks, encountering enemy armor, infantry, air attack, artillery, and even a particularly terrifying ambush by a flamethrower team. Whoever Wolfgang Faust really is, the writer is quite good at depicting the absolute horror of mechanized warfare. In particular, Faust is good at showing how the Tiger might be a very tough tank, but it is far from indestructible. Tigers are destroyed by hits from enemy anti-tank guns and other tanks, cracked open by air attacks, set ablaze by flamethrowers or Molotov cocktails – the list goes on and on. He also points out that a tank is not designed to drive everywhere under its own power – it requires tank carriers or rail transports, and must receive constant maintenance. Faust, as the Tiger's driver, is in charge of the mechanical care of the tank, and he is constantly worrying about the bogie wheels, the track links, the transmission and all other aspects of the fighting vehicle, because he knows that no matter how strong their armor, or powerful their gun, all it takes is one broken track link pin to immobilize the panzer and doom them…"
Full review here
link

Amicalement
Armand

I recently re-read most of Guy Sajer's "The Forgotten Soldier" and have serious doubts about its veracity. I know I am not alone in this but this book, many years after it was first published, is still sold as "history". I realize it is all about making money, and this sort of nihilistic unrelenting misery and pain has an audience, but there is something positively indecent about labelling it as "history". If it is truly "His-Story" I would welcome evidence backing it up.

Humm…

Another Sven Hassel?

Amicalement
Armand

whats the problem with forgotten soldier?
you attacked a book with zero reasons why its non historical. and last i heard, the people over on the axis armies site have declared it pretty close to legit…
in fact, they have i.d.ed the man that wrote it.

There are many millions of stories of warfare and combat that sometimes sounds so ridiculous or over gruesome that they sound made up.

Even details in Bravo Two Zero have been contended by people that were there. There are three differing stories of five survivors of the patrol.

but yes if it is fiction it should be classed as fiction. If it is a differing viewpoint that is fine.

Your description of the Tiger battalion taking a soviet position and not being reinforced reminds me of a section in Otto Curis' memoirs "Tigers in the Mud" makes you wonder …