This is quite simply an amazing book by General Heinz Guderian. If you are a military history buff this will likely be different than anything else you may of read. The book details Guderians interest in mobile armored warfare and how he had to fight the discord in the German military establishment to get his proposals implemented. It was not at all what I had heretofore envisioned.

He writes quite candidly and with some humor. I see rather a different side now of the events that led to the horrific consequences of a top down centralized power structure led by a egotistical meglomaniac mastermind.

His personal interactions with Hitler were quite interesting. No coward he frequently stood toe to toe with the raging Hitler and lived to tell the tale. It is a good thing indeed that Hitler did not entrust the running of his military machine to this man exclusively or we might all be speaking German.

The events during the Russian winter are also brought to the fore with some force as Guderian tries in vain to quell the fantasy of the Reich and to provide clothing, munitions, fuel etc for his beloved panzer divisions whom he leads in the wasteland that is the Russian winter.

An honorable man who fought to restore his country. Unfortunately the Germans held their oath to follow Hitler quite literally and felt compelled to follow him over the cliff ever thinking that after a campaign victory a peace would be accorded, which of course never came due to Hitlers lust for dominance.