A clear account of this general's time on the Eastern front. It is quite technical, and deals with many actions that read well in the context of that phase of the Cold War. It also covers fighting in North Africa. There is very little of the personal in this book, but for military minded people a good investment of time. ( )

From the 'we wuz robbed' school of German military history. The enemy - especially the Russians - are a faceless anonymous horde, while the Germans are all noble, selfless, honourable, brave, and determined. There are some interesting descriptions of battles and incidents, but the whole book needs to be read with a massive grain of salt. ( )

Uncritical and somewhat self-serving early work by a German staff officer. Sections on Eastern front best avoided. Probably best remembered for Norman Schwarzkopf's endorsement.

Reading this book you feel the utter hopelessness in the German war effort grow month after month after the Stalingrad disaster. Von Mellenthin uses many sources both Axis and Allied to tell the story, and his knowledge as a staff officer is helpful to the historian to put context on many of the larger operations of the war.

His time with the 48th Panzer Division in the East is extremely interesting, however, I was most interested in his experiences in Africa with Rommel.

Very little time is spent on the Western theater as his involvement came at the end for Germany, right before the Battle of the Bulge. ( )

Panzer Battles: a Study of the Employment of Armor in the Second World War by F. W. von Mellenthin is part memoir and part tactical treatise on the use of tanks in battle. The book covers the authors experiences in Poland, France, North Africa [on Rommel's staff], in Russia and finally in the West. The book has some problems when discussing the Eastern front. There's a very stereotypical analysis of Soviet tactics. There's no mention of deep operations everything is described as an attacking wave of humanity not thinking or learning.

The book is firmly in the "it was all Hitler's vault" tradition of World War II history. Apparently the German army never did anything wrong. There is also quite a bit of excuse making for example the treatment the Ukrainians received is excused by mentioning Western allies bombing of German cities.

This is interesting more for what it says about the thought processes of a member of the German staff then as a history.