Panzer Leader: Memoirs of an Armoured Car Commander, 19441945 [Paperback]

The armored reconnaissance units were the spearheads of Hitlers Panzer divisions, moving stealthily ahead of the tanks to locate the enemy. Otto Hennings armored car unit of the elite Panzer-Lehr-Division fought throughout the campaigns in the West in 1944 and 1945, arriving in Normandy a few weeks before D-Day and finally surrendering in the Ruhr pocket in mid-April 1945.Henning describes the difficulties that reconnaissance forces such as his faced in the close terrain of the Normandy bocage and the threat posed by the Allies complete control of the air. He experienced first-hand the devastation wrought by the Panzer Ace Michael Wittmanns lone Tiger tank against the British 7th armored Division at Villers Bocage, as well as ensured the chaos and demoralization of the Germans retreat across France. After the Battle of the Bulge and the final fighting in western Germany, Henning surrendered and endured terrible conditions in a prisoner-of-war camp until he escaped in 1947.This is a fascinating and often harrowing account of the final campaigns in Western Europe.This is a fascinating and often harrowing account of the final campaigns in Western Europe.A rare memoir by a German armored reconnaissance patrol commander in the elite Panzer-Lehr-DivisionIncludes first-hand accounts of the fighting in France and Germany in 1944 and 1945The author fought during the Normandy campaign, the Battle of the Bulge and at the bridge at RemagenFrom March 1942 until April 1943, he served with a motorized reconnaissance unit of Rommels famed Afrika KorpsDescribes the authors experiences in Allied captivity at the end of the warExposes the little-known scandal of the treatment of German prisoners-of-war even after the war had ended ...a seminal and unreservedly recommended addition to the growing library of World War II histories and memoirs... GB