Product Description

There are few memoirs available of German Panzer crews that focus on the climactic last 12 months of the war on the Eastern Front, 1944-45. What makes Bruno Friesen's account virtually unique is his family background: his parents came from a German-speaking Mennonite community in Ukraine, and were to all intents and purposes culturally German. To make matters even more complex, in 1924 his parents left the Ukraine for Canada, where Bruno was born. In March 1939 he and his brother Oscar found themselves on a ship bound for Bremerhaven in Germany. He barely spoke German, and had never been to Germany, nevertheless his father envisaged that a better life awaited them in the Third Reich. Needless to say, Bruno became caught up in the Second World War, and in 1942 was drafted into the Wehrmacht. The author provides a full account of his family background, and how, through these unusual circumstances, he found himself a Canadian-born German soldier. The bulk of the book is a detailed account of the author's training, and his subsequent service with 25th Panzer Regiment, part of 7th Panzer Division. As the title suggests, Bruno Friesen served as a gunner aboard, initially, Panzer IVs, before crewing the lesser-known Jagdpanzer IV tank hunter. The author provides a fantastic amount of information about these two vehicles, and how the crews actually fought in battle with them. This kind of 'hands-on' detail has almost never been available before, particularly such extensive information concerning the characteristics and combat performance of the Jagdpanzer IV. Apart from providing a large fund of information about specific German tanks and their combat performance, the author writes in great detail about the combat the experienced on the Eastern Front, including tank battles in Rumania, spring 1944, Lithuania in the summer of 1944, and West Prussia during early 1945. If one wants to know how German tank crews fought the Soviets in the last year of the war, then this book provides an outstanding account, containing material simply not found elsewhere. The author closes his account by reflecting on his post-war efforts to return to Canada, which eventually succeeded in 1950, and his subsequent life there. This book is not just a critique of armoured fighting vehicles and tank warfare, it is above all a very human story, told in a lively, conversational and fluid manner, and is a remarkable contribution to the literature of the Second World War.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #282421 in Books
• Published on: 2008-02-15
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 264 pages

Review
A fascinating and bizarre biography of a young Canadian born to parents from a German-speaking Mennonite community in Ukraine. The book contains a few familiar images of the vehicle types along with pictures from the authors own collection but the real interest is in his first hand accounts of what it was like to crew these vehicles which is bound to be of interest to many modellers. --AVF Modeller, 05/2008

The author goes into a considerable amount of technical and historical detail, but it is his first hand accounts of tank versus tank encounters that I found fascinating --Classic Military Vehicle, 05/2008

The book goes into very detailed explanations of what it s like to serve as a crew in these vehicles... but as well as a technical side, also has a very human element... --Model Military International. 08/2008

Customer Reviews

At last, a view of war from the turret of a tank!
For those of you who are keen to read about the fighting on the Eastern Front 1944/45, from the point of view of a German tank crew member, then look no further than this book!

The author was born to ethnic German parents in Canada, and was promptly shipped back to Nazi Germany in early 1939 with his brothers, to help the Third Reich! He ended up learning German, joining the Army, and serving with a Panzer Division fighting the Russians.

This account is humourous, and also detailed, with plenty of technical information about the two vehicles in which the author served, the Panzer IV and Jagdpanzer IV tank hunter. I'm afraid to say that the gentleman who has also placed a review of this book on Amazon must be reading a different book to me! His bizarre and completely inaccurate comment that the Tiger primer is included in this book is wrong. The author uses short extracts from Panzer gunnery manuals to illustrate how he worked his gun in combat.

There are plenty gems of information, and superb accounts of tank combat against the Russians at the end of the war, about which very little has been published in German or English. Highly recommended.

A Ducks Tale
Blimey! Where do we start with this one? Bit of a curate's egg to be sure. Truth is the really interesting bit's would just be a couple of chapters but, in fairness they are worth the price of the book He is clearly a bright chap and was more importantly lucky when it mattered both in and out of the war however, author he is not, at times the writing is laboured and it's often haphazard with time lines, some of the repetition is difficult to understand too. I haven't read much about panzer crews - Tigers in the Mud and a few others but I would like to read more about the average crews not just the aces - and I guess this is it albeit a little brief with the action and little detail to speak of re the rest of the crew. They often seem like total strangers - perhaps they were. I get the feeling the Jadgpanzer IV was not to his liking outside of the gun maybe he would of preferred the Panther , who wouldn't ! However it does seem to backup the term Guderian's Ente.

Why?
There seem to be many of the 'My friend's have seen my diary and think I should publish it' books on the military market at the moment. If there is an intresting story and a proffesional advice is sought , it may work. In this case neither seems to have happned and it dosent. Included in the text is a translation of the Tiger Primer, a humouous traing manual of the time on tank gunnery. Translation of any technical manual is difficult, military manuals also rely on practical training and in jokes, in this case, while I do not doubt the language is corect, it doesen't work, and the poem that is included in the text just makes no sense. The book is described by the publisher's as 'Conversational' I'd use the word 'Rambaling' . The text makes no sense with bits apparently chucked in at random. The overall impression I got was of the rambalings of an old man trying to justify his existence, and a nasty feeling that he was gloating on the killing and mayhem he was partly responsible for.