The German Sniper: 1914-1945 Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)Author Peter Senich made his reputation as a sniping authority with this book. From its early beginning in the trenches of WWI, Senich describes the equipment, camouflage, weapons and tactics of the German Army. He makes a detailed examination of the rifles and the multitude of scopes, mounting systems for both wars and to a limited extend, supressor systems and infrared sighting units.
Senich does not neglect to provide the combat experience of snipers who fought the Red Army and their observations are invaluable today. However, no comparable account is given for German soldiers who fought the allies on the Western Front.
In an all too brief chapter, Senich also delves into the Soviet sniping experience and his text includes a translation of the role of the sniper in the infantry platoon/company. Unfortunately, he does not address the effectiveness of the Red Army sniper nor the propaganda so thoroughly dismissed by Shore (See, "With British Snipers to the Reich).
While the author acknowledges individuals who assisted him, a historian may be disappointed since the book lacks meaningful references. For a sniping enthusiast, this book is an invaluable resource. A collector of Mauser rifles will find the information and photos in this book very useful in identifying the many variations of German sniper rifles.

Click Here to see more reviews about: The German Sniper: 1914-1945

The complete story of Germany's sniping arms development through both World Wars. Presents more than 600 photos of Mauser 98s, Selbstladegewehr 41s and 43s, optical sights by Goerz, Zeiss, etc., plus German snipers in action. An exceptional hardcover collector's edition for serious military historians everywhere.

Click here for more information about The German Sniper: 1914-1945

Command Culture: Officer Education in the U.S. Army and the German Armed Forces, 1901-1940, and the Consequences for World War II Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)The title and subtitle of Jörg Muth's Command Culture: Officer Education in the U.S. Army and the German Armed Forces, 1901-1940, and the Consequences for World War II is a mouthful. It is deceptive, for it may give the initial impression that this is a work of narrow specialization and of limited breadth. Yet what readers will find is a book with a most ambitious scope; one that demystifies the burning question any serious student of WWII must wonder: How is it the Wehrmacht could consistently prevail, even against the most staggering odds? A question which becomes even more compelling when contrasted with the too often plodding and pedestrian performance of the Wehrmacht's American adversaries. Until this book, I did not have a ready answer. In his most painstakingly researched and well-annotated book, Mr. Muth provides the central and missing pieces of this puzzle: how, paradoxically, a society which can be accurately characterized by a militarized, evermore (from 1933 onward) authoritarian order, produced a military which can also be accurately characterized by dynamic and creative thinking, a ready grasp of the potential of new technologies, and the importance of individual initiative. And how a liberal, democratic state produced a military characterized by rigidity of thinking; one beholden to obsolescent concepts, and where the initiative of its officers was actively repressed. Read Mr. Muth's book. You will have a far more clear understanding of how and why each army performed the way it did after than before: ...The Consequences for World War II. Indeed!
Highly recommended.

Click Here to see more reviews about: Command Culture: Officer Education in the U.S. Army and the German Armed Forces, 1901-1940, and the Consequences for World War II

In Command Culture, Jörg Muth examines the different paths the United States Army and the German Armed Forces traveled to select, educate, and promote their officers in the crucial time before World War II. Muth demonstrates that the military education system in Germany represented an organized effort where each school and examination provided the stepping stone for the next. But in the United States, there existed no communication about teaching contents or didactical matters among the various schools and academies, and they existed in a self chosen insular environment. American officers who finally made their way through an erratic selection process and past West Point to the important Command and General Staff School at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, found themselves usually deeply disappointed, because they were faced again with a rather below average faculty who forced them after every exercise to accept the approved "school solution."Command Culture explores the paradox that in Germany officers came from a closed authoritarian society but received an extremely open minded military education, whereas their counterparts in the United States came from one of the most democratic societies but received an outdated military education that harnessed their minds and limited their initiative. On the other hand, German officer candidates learned that in war everything is possible and a war of extermination acceptable. For American officers, raised in a democracy, certain boundaries could never be crossed.This work for the first time clearly explains the lack of audacity of many high ranking American officers during World War II, as well as the reason why so many German officers became perpetrators or accomplices of war crimes and atrocities or remained bystanders without speaking up. Those American officers who became outstanding leaders in World War II did so not so much because of their military education, but despite it.

Click here for more information about Command Culture: Officer Education in the U.S. Army and the German Armed Forces, 1901-1940, and the Consequences for World War II