Hans Hoeller joined the war in 1941 and was trained as a tank hunter. After his first assignment to North Africa he returned to Germany for officer´s training. Once again, he deployed to the desert to take part in the last battles of the Wehrmacht in Tunisia. Badly wounded in close combat, he was lucky enough to be evacuated by plane – right in time to help rebuilding 21st Panzer Division in Northern France.

Hans recounts feverishly waiting for the Allied landing. As it finally came, he saw months of intense fighting, north of Caen, in the Falaise pocket and covering the Wehrmacht`s retreat to the east. Hans` war formally ended in late 1944, when he was taking prisoner and shipped to the USA. However, the war insight him rages on to this very day. He wrote this memoire to come to terms with that time. To give a name to all those soldiers who had died next to him, under his command, or even because of his actions. Hans Hoeller was born in 1921, in Pottschach, Austria. He served as a tank hunter at Tobruk, Halfaya Pass, Tunisia, Normandy, Falaise and in Eastern France. He was awarded the Iron CrossClass I and II for his actions. After the war, Hans Hoeller became an engineer and had a successful business career

This book is an excellent memoir of the author's experiences throughout WW II. As other reviewers have stated, he served in both North Africa and the entire Normandy Campaign. Due to his illness and wounds his service in N. Afrika was short. But he survived the entire Normandy experience, including his narrow escape from the Falaise Pocket. In October he was captured and spent the remainder of the war as a P.O.W. in the U.S.

In Normandy, he served with the 8th Company, II Battalion, 192nd Panzergrenadier Regiment, 21st Panzer Division. In this unit he commanded an anti-tank platoon supplied with old, captured French Somua MCG artillery tractors fitted with German 75mm Pak 40 anti-tank guns (to make them into self-propelled anti-tank guns). The author carried a camera with him and includes several photos of these vehicles that he took while in France. There are numerous other private photos taken by the author throughout the book as well as a few photos from other sources. Most of these were never before published (except in his original German language edition), so they were delightfully new to me. Unfortunately, these photos appear to have just been photocopied out of the German language edition rather than using the original photos again. Consequently, some are poorly rendered: too dark or too light, blurry, etc. I don't fault the author for this as it was most likely a publishing decision (to save on cost). Also, I don't know if this was originally published in hardback (in the German edition), but it deserved a hardbound printing in English as this is a rare look at the German side of the Normandy battles against the British near Caen. It is also one of the very few books written about the German 21st Panzer Division in Normandy. Having this story presented by an eye-witness is a wonderful treat for the history student and makes it exceptionally rare. A hardbound edition would have been much more durable, not to mention a more fitting tribute to this unique veteran's account.

The author has a great eye for details that would interest serious students of this time period. For example, on page 52 there is a photo taken by the author of a destroyed British Matilda tank Mark II behind their positions at Halfaya Pass in N. Africa. On it is clearly painted the number "38" which he explains was painted by the German anti-tank gunners to keep track of their successful score on disabling enemy tanks. And on page 49 is a photo he took of one of their German half-track vehicles towing an anti-tank gun in the desert. On the half-track roof, with his legs hanging in front of the passenger-side windshield, sits an observer to watch for enemy planes, a practice which he says was continued and became even more important in the Normandy battles, where the Allies had complete air superiority. There are other details of interest like these throughout the book, such as how they camouflaged their vehicles in Normandy to avoid detection from the air (as well as an interesting photo of same).

The author also writes candidly about the politics of his time, what he and his fellow soldiers knew about Hitler and the Nazi party, and what they remained naively ignorant of. Also he writes about his personal ethics in wartime, how his prisoners were treated in Africa and France, and, comparatively, how he was treated when captured by the French in 1944. Then he writes about his coming to terms with the realities of the war created by Hitler and his regime, once he learned of the terrible truths. His statements also have the ring of truth. In reading them I had no doubt of his sincerity.

There are the numerous typos and grammatical errors common in publishing today, perhaps made worse due to translation errors from the German edition to this one in English. Again, I don't fault the author here either, as this could have been prevented by good editing; a publisher's task. In spite of this and the poor quality of some photos, this book still gets 5 stars because of its absolute value to students of WW II history. There just aren't that many good memoirs from the German side of the war in NW Europe (translated for English readers).

In addition, the author is a gifted writer. It's very readable and kept my interest throughout. Once he began the chapters on the fighting in Normandy I couldn't put it down (this being my primary area interest).

Along with the memoirs of Colonel Hans von Luck: "Panzer Commander," and the published divisional histories of the 21st Panzer Division, you can now gain a fairly good understanding of this part of the fighting in Normandy.

If you have even a passing interest in WW II, and especially the Normandy Campaign, you won't want to miss this one. According to the jacket, the author is still alive and resides in his hometown of Pottschach, Austria! What a treat to be able to read about his WW II experiences at a time when so many other old veterans are passing on.

I suspect that even this paperback edition will sell-out eventually. So get it while it's still in print! It will add tremendously to your library of WW II memoirs and you'll regret it if you pass it up! These specialty-subject publications become very expensive and hard to find once they go out-of-print. This one I highly recommend!