Book: SOLDAT, By: Siegfried Knappe.

This book is By a German Officer, and as seen through his eyes.

This Officer served in, Paris, The Somme, The Italian Campaign, The Russian Front and inside Hitlers bunker during the Battle of Berlin.

This man fought in, was woulded, and survived battles in nearly every major Wehrmacht Campaign.

Will give a review later. Just bought it today...

 

I stumbled upon an interview with Knappe as I was looking through articles of past issues of the WWII magazine.

Thought you might be interested as its a very informative interview.

 

Read this myself last year.
Good stuff is all I'll say, lest I spoil any of it for you.
One comment, though...
I found the cover "blurb"
"A shocking glimpse of the nazi war machine - From the inside"
a bit puzzling...
This would have appeared more appropriate on a tome concerning the Waffen-SS or some such thing laden with atrocity tales...

 

Thanks for the great link Gibson, I checked it out and is very nice

Killjoy, thank you for the comments, I have one book im almost finished reading, and then my Battle of the Bulge one-then I get to read Soldat. I can hardy wait..

 

I will be starting on this book tonight--can hardly wait

 

So far the book is very well done, but I already spotted a mistake that I will let slip by, and will not ruin the book by any means.

Knappe said that General Hellmuth Wiedling gave the order for the German forces to pull back from the Seelowe Heights just before the Russians proceeded to bomb and shell the heck out of it, but in reality, it was Generaloberst Gotthard Heinrici, that gave that order.

This HAD to be said so the record is kept clear--just in case there are those of you visiting here who are as picky with correct details as I try to be

 

I just got the book tonight and I can't wait to read it after what I heard about it on this forum.

 

I have a different opinion of the book. Having finished it about three months ago, I saw it as not worth the read. I felt that it was the story of "The Forgotten Soldier" told in a more-narrative form. My main problem was that it contained way to many quotations from The Forgotten Soldier - at least one per page! However, the quotations retrieved from actual letters from the field were quite interesting.

Steve

 

Glad to have you back!! its been too long a time since you last posted. Its been quite a long time since I read Forgotten Soldier, but I havent recognized anything being quoted from that book? Can you plese elaborate?

I find it a very well written book based upon a German Officers wartime and POW experiances. I have as yet seen anything it says that would sway me to think differently about Knapps writings.

This book, is a very valuable book as that you actually get the feel of how these men thought and reacted about situations.

Its also very valuable because you "experiance" how they were trained and is nice knowing where they were stationed.

Knappe gives us his story from when he first was serving in the Reichs Arbeits Deinst (RAD) to when he entered the peacetime army, and when he was sent to Officer Candidate School.

He also elaborates a bit on places and names of his commanders and he shows a much better picture of more that the immediate area that is centered aroung just one man--unlike in Forgotten Soldier.

The book starts off when he is in Berlin just mere days or weeks before the surrender. You get a bit of that and capture experiances. This book switches to and fro, to slowly build you up to see things as Knappe did, and elaborates on how he felt in certain situations and why. Also, you get that and as he builds up his story, you learn how he came to be in certain important positions and why.

As of now, im about 90% done with the book, and he is describing life in a Russian POW camp. I think that since Knappe adds so much more detail on many things than did "Forgotten Soldier" did, that this makes for a much better bit of reading; on how things were.

What has to be remembered to be fair, is that Knappe, as an Officer, had more access to what was happening than Sajer did, but also that Knappe certainly went through many tough times and was on every major front in ww2. Sajor was only or mostly in Russia.

I did like Sajers description of being drafted and training life, and he did a fair job of describing his combat experiances. His problem was, that he wasnt as clear on many things as he could have been.

I cant recall all that I found wrong with his book, as its been quite awhile since reading it, and I have read probably 50 other books in the meantime. I will have to reread it sometime soon, so I will not be sadly wrong in my replies.

 

Hello All,

My apologies for my last posting. The book I was thinking of is "Soldaten." I will have to go look up the author later but the other of Soldat sounds like the author of Soldaten. Now with so many good reviews from this other book, I will have to go read this new one. Sorry once again!

Steve

 

Soldat, Knappe
Forgotten Soldier, Sajer
Panzer Leader, Guderian
Panzer Commander ,Von Luck
The Long Walk, Rawicz
The Service, Gehlen

 

Hey Steve, no apologies necessary, I make mistakes all the tmie--see?

Good choices Tallyrand, I havent heard of the lasttwo titles? Can you explain somewhhat of what they are about?

 

The Long Walk is an amazing story of 6 POW's who escape from a Siberian gulag and walk all the way to India from 41-43.
The Service is the autobiography of Reinhardt Gehlen, a top Abwehr(German intelligence) officer during WWII, then recruited by the CIA.

 

Tallyrand, thanks, I will check into getting those titles, they do sound interesting.

 

Hi all!

The book that I was thinking of (finally got the chance to go look at it) is called Frontsoldaten and is basically a composer of quotations from the field as well as a lot of stuff from the Forgotten Soldier. The book is by Stephen Fritz.

Steve

 

Steve, thanks. I had heard that book wasnt one worth spending any money on. I had not bothered to look for it either.

 

it took me awhile but I finally finished reading soldat and I have to say that was one good book. Can anyone recommend anymore books like that.

 

I highly recommend "Shooting the War" by: Otto Giese. This is a book about a German who shows you what training was like and many personal experiances on masted ships then his training for the Kriegsmarine and life on board a u-boat. When he goes home for leave, the "experiance" what he did during air raids etc. Plus you get a "feel" of what it was like for a German to be a POW of the British.

I simply could not put this book down. Its not all war and fighting, as it is meant for you to "see" what these men had to go through.

Another good book is: "Stalingrad" by: Anthony Beevor.

 

I forgot to mention that Hans von Lucks book is also excellent and is very similar to Knappes book.

Forget the Forgotten Soldier, it is a good book to read but is not historically accurate. None the less, it is as good as any good FICTION out there.

 

Hi all, this is my first post on this FORUM, which i only came across today. I do like the look of it. As for the books, i read shooting the war a couple of years ago, and i agree, it is an excellent book. A couple i would recommend is Stalingrad by Anthony Beevor, and one i recently finished, Images of Barbarossa by Christopher Ailsbury.