German divisional histories - quality and availability

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Mark V.
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#16

Post by Mark V. » 30 Jul 2005, 13:37

Thanks for your thoughts Marc, it's always interesting reading them.

Just one question - regarding Kindel's 8.Pz. - are you referring to the 1st or 2nd edition?

Hi trollelite!

Re v. Manteuffel 7.Pz.Div.

Very few maps and most of them are unusable. Otherwise a decent book with a lot of pictures for a textband (most of them are also in the bildband), readable and pretty detailed up to summer 1943 (from then onwards poor).

Then there're four relatively new books published by the veteran's association:
Hohensee/Huber: Die 7.Panzer Division im zweiten Weltkrieg. Kleine Divisionsgeschichte.
The title says it all it's a 108-page small format paperback (high quality paper) from 2004. It's more or less a shortened version of v.Manteuffel and has some new maps, pictures and info (especially for the last part of the war, like for example more detail on division's rout in E Prussia). Overall it doesn't go deep into detail but is a very readable and nice addition to v.Manteuffel and Johann Huber's So war es wirklich. The latter is one of three books on Pz.Rgt.25 privately published in the 90ties and is a very interesting diary of a Panzer crew member (Pz.IV/Pz.Jäg.IV) from the last year of the war.

P.S. BTW how do you like Pz.Gren.Rgt.12 history :wink: .

Jan, thanks for your input on Pz.Lehr.

cheers

Jan-Hendrik
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#17

Post by Jan-Hendrik » 30 Jul 2005, 21:57

Well , Mr.Ritgen told me today that he is working on a new book about PanzerLehr :)

What about von Sauckens two Parts of the history about 4.PzDiv. ?

Jan-Hendrik


trollelite
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#18

Post by trollelite » 31 Jul 2005, 17:53

Podzun's books are never good with maps, and photo quality is equally poor. My copy of newly reprinted Geschichte 2 panzerdivision arrived, but not up to my expection.

Marc Rikmenspoel
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#19

Post by Marc Rikmenspoel » 31 Jul 2005, 20:39

Mark, my copy of Kindel's book says "1. Auflage : 1992." I was unaware that he produced a second edition! Are you familiar with it?

Jan-Hendrik, My understanding is that von Saucken never produced two volumes on the 4. PD, he only ever got around to producing the second one about the later war. That is why Neumann (a German Cross in Gold and Knight's Cross holder who commanded an artillery battalion in the division) went back and did the first volume himself, and then went ahead and produced his own version of volume 2. Please correct me if I'm wrong, since I had that information second hand.

Jan-Hendrik
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#20

Post by Jan-Hendrik » 31 Jul 2005, 20:45

My error , dear friends !

An Inernet-Antiquariat wrongly gave v.Saucken as author of Part , so I thought he wrote both ones ...

Jan-Hendrik

Mark V.
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#21

Post by Mark V. » 31 Jul 2005, 20:50

Mark, my copy of Kindel's book says "1. Auflage : 1992." I was unaware that he produced a second edition! Are you familiar with it?


I've the same one. Last year the Veteran's association released the 2nd (improved) edition and it looks very impressive - 2 volumes each with 700+ pages 8O .
http://www.archiv-8panzer-division.de/en_index.html

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#22

Post by Jan-Hendrik » 31 Jul 2005, 21:59

Thank you for this link ! Looks very interesting .

Jan-Hendrik

Marc Rikmenspoel
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#23

Post by Marc Rikmenspoel » 01 Aug 2005, 09:00

Wow, we'll have to see if my budget ever allows me to purchase that 2nd edition, but I certainly hope so! Thanks for the link!

Andreas
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#24

Post by Andreas » 01 Aug 2005, 10:12

Jan-Hendrik wrote:Thank you for this link ! Looks very interesting .

Jan-Hendrik
It better be - at €194 for both volumes.

Ouch.

Andreas

Jan-Hendrik
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#25

Post by Jan-Hendrik » 01 Aug 2005, 11:16

Maybe I find a sponsor :D

Jan-Hendrik

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#26

Post by Jan-Hendrik » 11 Feb 2007, 23:51

still another (2-vol) books about Panzergrenadierregiment 7
According to my infos there are three Volumes on PGR 7 by Erich Seidel ...


It seems I will get all three this month :P

Jan-Hendrik

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Richard Hargreaves
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#27

Post by Richard Hargreaves » 12 Feb 2007, 15:05

Interesting and very useful topic... I have several text divisional histories (no pictoral ones though) and they are a mixed bag.

45 ID is excellent (it's a memoir/divisional history) and has just been re-issued in a revised version.

98 ID and 5 Jäger are both good; 1 Geb Div (Kaltenegger) is hit and miss, 3 Geb Div is excellent as is 4 Geb Div.

1 SS Pz and 12 SS Pz are in a league of their own, but the one I was most disappointed with was 2 SS Pz. I find Weidinger's style particularly dry.

I'd be interested to know if anyone has or has seen this:

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/DER-OSTEN-BLIEB-U ... dZViewItem

Looks highly promising as does Kindel's two volume history. Has anyone bitten the bullet and bought it yet?

Mark V.
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#28

Post by Mark V. » 12 Feb 2007, 15:37

halder wrote:1 Geb Div (Kaltenegger) is hit and miss, 3 Geb Div is excellent as is 4 Geb Div.
Hi halder,

How would you rate the old Podzun-Pallas Geb.Div. histories compared with Stocker (Kaltenegger...)?

Marko

Jan-Hendrik
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#29

Post by Jan-Hendrik » 12 Feb 2007, 15:55

My friend has bought this history of PzJgAbt.31 , you can catch it for 20-30 Euros on German E-Bay . But be aware , there is a seperatly sold addition for the year 1945 .

The two Kindel Kindel Volumes are on my "to do" list for this year , I had once Vol.1 in my hands and my impression was : fantastic !

Too sorry that Nebel/Dörfler/Flechsig are not offering reprints of the real interesting ones ...

Jan-Hendrik

trollelite
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#30

Post by trollelite » 13 Feb 2007, 01:54

As 8 panzerdivision

Well, if you want information of "military history", then try to buy haupt's Podzun edition, cause these 2 vol contain mostly photos of so called Orden, ehrenzeichen, reservistika, Urkunden or such things.

Actually only a few pages with some bit of kriegstagebuch pages or personal memory. They are more like some kind of reservistika themselves than proper unit histories.

It's just a mixed bag, the only thing I can say is it wouldnot devalue too soon, or not at all.



To Herrn Jan-Hendrik:

Now I really admire you....... I never imagine hacke tau has such meanings.... There are a regiment in kaiser's army and a bataillon from bundeswehr with this nickname, just wonder which unit in wehrmacht would have it. 8-)

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