Generalfeldmarschall Fedor Von Bock: The War Diary 1939-1945

by David Johnston and Klaus Gerbet

The Von Bock memoirs, which appear here for the first time, allow the reader to see the entire drama of the Second World War through the eyes of one of Germany's most important military commanders. After the attacks on Poland and Western Europe, campaigns he helped bring to a succesful conclusion, von Bock became Commander-in-Chief of Army Group Center which carried out the main drive on Moscow during Operation Barbarossa and brought the Red Army...

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 076430075X
• ISBN13: 9780764300752
• Release Date: January 1997
• Publisher: Schiffer Publishing
• Length: 640 Pages
• Weight: 2.55 lbs.
• Dimensions: 2.0" x 6.5" x 9.2"

Customer Reviews

Holy Fire (3.5/5)

Bock is not one of the better known of Hitler's generals, but he deserves to be. One of only a tiny handful of men who won both the illustrious Pour le Merite in WW I and the Knight's Cross in WW2, he was also one of only 27 German officers who held the rank of General Field Marshal during Hitler's tenure as Chancellor. He commanded armies in Poland (1939), France (1940) and Russia in both the 1941 and 1942 offensives, and his passionate belief that the greatest ambition of a German youth must be to die in the service of the Fatherland earned him the nickname "the Holy Fire of Küstrin." In this book, the reader gets "Fedi's" view of some of the most titanic events of the Twentieth Century - not merely battles but the bitter interpersonal and political wrangling which characterized Hitler's Reich, and may have cost Germany the war. Bock's war diary, which covers not only his active military service but his years in retirement, which ended when he was mortally wounded by Allied bombs just days before the end of the war, is a fascinating and crucial historical document. Fascinating because it is an eyeview of war from a man who was running a fairly large chunk of it; crucial because it is a diary, written day-by-day as events unfolded, rather than a carefully sanitized and self-justifying memior of the type penned by so many German officers years after the dust settled. That does not mean it is objective - quite the opposite - but it does make for a certain honesty of thought, not to mention a freshness and immediacy which is beyond the power of a memior to produce. "Fedi", as Bock was referred to by his intimates, was in some ways the stereotypical Prussian officer: gaunt in appearance and Spartan in his personal habits, he possessed an able tactical brain, an unbreakable sense of duty, and a hands-on leadership style which made certain of his subordinates - notably Guderian and Kluge - distinctly uncomfortable. Not one to shy away from bluntly stating his opinions, he made a habit of ringing up Hitler directly from the field and telling the man what was what, and he fretted constantly at the tendency of his superiors at Supreme Headquarters to violate the sacred strategic principles he had been brought up with - concentration of force, unification of space in time, subordination of economic and political goals to the destruction of the enemy army. When much of the High Command was starry-eyed with success during the opening months of the Russian campaign, Bock's attitude was grim: he saw all too clearly that his superiors not only lacked a consensus on how to defeat the USSR, they were actually improvising a strategy as they went along, with the result that man golden opportunties to end the war before winter were wantonly thrown away. It would be a mistake, however, not to note that Bock's views on Hitler as a Supreme Commander differ rather sharply from those which he is often alleged to have possessed by historians. Bock seems to have had a

Review from catman

General Fedor von Bock is the German field marshal (from 1940), who participated in the German occupation of Austria and the invasions of Poland, France, and Russia during WWII.He was one of the generals whom Adolf Hitler created field marshals of the Reich in July,1940.F.von Bock became Commander-in-Chief of Army Group Cente then.He was relieved of his command when he complained of the strategic impracticality of operating massive German offensives against Stalingrad.F.von Bock was killed along in an air raid. His life is not smooth although he is capable. This is the F.von Bock memoirs, which appear here for the first time, allow the reader to see the entire drama of the WWII through the eyes of one of Germany's most important military commanders. This book allows us to reassess F. von Bock, whose complex personality is revealed by his diary entries, and by the biographical sketches by editor Klaus Gerbet.If you know nothing about this great general,you will have a clear picture after reading this book.I strongly recommend this book to you if you interests in the history,and especially,German history in the inter-war and WWII period.