Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
5/5
Audiobook8 hours
Panzer Ace: The Memoirs of an Iron Cross Panzer Commander from Barbarossa to Normandy
Written by Richard Freiherr von Rosen and Robert Forczyk
Narrated by Nigel Patterson
Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars
4.5/5
()
About this audiobook
Richard Freiherr von Rosen was a highly decorated Wehrmacht soldier and outstanding panzer commander.
After serving as a gunlayer on a Pz.Mk.III during Barbarossa, he led a Company of Tigers at Kursk. Later he led a company of King Tiger panzers at Normandy and in late 1944 commanded a battle group (12 King Tigers and a flak Company) against the Russians in Hungary in the rank of junior, later senior lieutenant (from November 1944, his final rank).
Only 489 of these King Tiger tanks were ever built. They were the most powerful heavy tanks to see service, and only one kind of shell could penetrate their armor at a reasonable distance.
Every effort had to be made to retrieve any of them bogged down or otherwise immobilized, which led to many towing adventures. The author has a fine memory and eye for detail. His account is easy to listen to and not technical, and adds substantially to the knowledge of how the German Panzer Arm operated in the Second World War.
After serving as a gunlayer on a Pz.Mk.III during Barbarossa, he led a Company of Tigers at Kursk. Later he led a company of King Tiger panzers at Normandy and in late 1944 commanded a battle group (12 King Tigers and a flak Company) against the Russians in Hungary in the rank of junior, later senior lieutenant (from November 1944, his final rank).
Only 489 of these King Tiger tanks were ever built. They were the most powerful heavy tanks to see service, and only one kind of shell could penetrate their armor at a reasonable distance.
Every effort had to be made to retrieve any of them bogged down or otherwise immobilized, which led to many towing adventures. The author has a fine memory and eye for detail. His account is easy to listen to and not technical, and adds substantially to the knowledge of how the German Panzer Arm operated in the Second World War.
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Reviews for Panzer Ace
Rating: 4.643835613698631 out of 5 stars
4.5/5
73 ratings7 reviews
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Very interesting book with an excellent narration. I highly recommend!
1 person found this helpful
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Incredible memoir and an effective narration. The final chapters, which provide an account of the post-war occupation, were especially unique among other memoirs like it.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Very concise, accurate and detailed. You’ll want to finish it
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Fascinating listen. Written with german efficiency, its a factual account written in the first person of a war service where the writers career progressed rapidly. It is interesting to read about the war from a German on the ground, how unaware he is of the atrocities of the Nazis but his doubts as to their leadership as the war progresses, to the point of being quitely hopeful of the attempts to overthrow them, and is sceptical of propaganda. This tanker is simply fighting for the country he was born in and the side of the war he ended up on. I found the chapters approaching the end of the war particularly interesting to hear what I would describe as a calm acceptance, but see how you read/hear it.
Definitely recommended! - Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Certainly does inform as to how a panzer unit was run during WW2
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5An enjoyable story of the life of a German tanker. Looks also at the life outside fighting at the front and also offers an interesting glimpse into life in post-war Germany.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Gotta read this book if you are a world War2 buff. Not a great literary work but more of a journal form. That's OK, it's a great read and gives the German view. Highly recommend.Audiobook note : good narrator