…Grossjohann .
"This is a remarkable account of service in the German Army in WW2. The author served in action from the invasion of Poland in 1939 to the final defense of Germany in 1945. He advanced from platoon commander to regimental commander and wore quite a variety of medals and wounds by the end.
The title points to the scale of service possible, even probable in the German army. This applied to service in a number of major formations too. For the author, this started with an engineering role with the 21st Infantry in the Polish campaign and then assaulting the Maginot line with the 161st Division in 1940. While these were quite minor in nature, he is then with the 198th Division for the invasion of Russia and sees extensive combat there. This included the severe battle of the Cherkassy pocket. Most of this was with the 2/308th Regiment. In 1944 the division is based in Southern France and Georg sees action there and all the way back to Germany. He is in the Colmar pocket and involved in attacks in support of Nordwind.
The majority of Grossjohann's career was as an infantry leader. He is involved in numerous actions, especially in Russia. Many of these are not described though. Several times he will write a position was held for weeks or months against repeated assaults. Clearly not everything can be remembered or included but I felt the relentless nature of such combat was not strongly conveyed. There are certainly stories of action. Artillery bombardments were frequent and George had several strokes of luck. He was cut off at times and had to lead men back to the German lines. The winter was a challenge too. Several experiences that stood out were a desperate river crossing and being a bridge commander.
In terms of actual combat, Georg is, like many German memorists, fairly reticent when writing of killing. When he does, it is pretty sobering but this is not a ‘blood and guts' account. There is though a lot of other material of great interest. Georg joined the army in 1928! He saw a lot of the training system and encountered some bizarre characters. Elsewhere he gives his views on his enemies and allies but also civilians and partisans. He encountered Ramcke and has some interesting things to say about Rommel. There is also his reflections on the tragic fate of the ethnic Germans, which of course got little publicity or sympathy at the time.
Each chapter begins with very good general context by Keith E. Bonn and Wolf T. Zoepf. There are also good maps and very useful summaries of Grossjohann's career, awards, divisional histories, notes and index. It is all very informative and I wish it had been longer. I enjoyed this book. It is a very extensive account of service in standard line formations of the German army in WW2"
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Amicalement
Armand