General Erich Hoepner
A Military Biography
by
W. Chales de Beaulieu
Translated by Linden Lyons
This book is part of the 'Die Wehrmacht Im Kampf' series. These were written after World War II by German Officers about the Second World War II. These were used by the Allied armies to study the war through the eyes of the German command.
As this is strictly a military biography, Hoepner's life is not really touched upon in the book. The author does devote a few pages at the end and the short Introduction touches upon it. Hoepner was involved in the June 20th, 1944, plot against Hitler. For his part in it, which is still debated, he was tortured and sentenced to death. However, we must not fall into the trap that many people do of assuming that the German generals were altruistic in their thinking. Some, if not most, had no problem with Germany attacking other countries. They just felt that Hitler was making a mess of it and wanted to fight the war their way. As long as Hitler was winning, they looked the other way to many other things. Hoepner himself had no problem with Germany attacking the Soviet Union etc.
The book is separated into five chapters. These are:
The Campaign in Poland 1939
The Campaign in France 1940
The Advance to Leningrad 1941
The Assault on Moscow 1941
General Hoepner was the commander of XVI Panzer Corps in the Polish Campaign. he also commanded it during the French Campaign. He was commander of Panzer Group 4 during Operation Barbarossa.
The book was written by Hoepner's First General Staff Officer during the Polish Campaign, who then became his Chief of Staff during the French and Russian Campaigns. So, he had complete knowledge of General Hoepner's actions and thoughts during his service in World War II.
This book is unique in that you will usually find only a few lines written about the Polish Campaign. Those will invariably mention that the campaign went off like clockwork. This book shows how the vaunted German Heer was still very much learning from its mistakes in 1939.
When writing about the Japanese Military in World War II it is often stated that they suffered from 'victory disease', meaning that everything was going their way far too easily. I think we can see that the German High Command also suffered from this by the time of the invasion of Russia. The author shows how fearful at times the High Command was in 1939 and 1940 about the slightest hitch in any plan. Then he goes on to show us how they completely disregarded the facts and opinions of the German generals and the easily seen reality of the situation in 1941. The starts and stops that the German High Command forced the different commanders to deal with are revealed in the book. It also goes into what actually should have been done in each situation.
This is an excellent military biography of one of the chief Panzer commanders of the early part of World War II. The author shows us the thoughts and writings of Hoepner during these campaigns. It is a window into the inner workings of the Panzer forces early in the war.
Robert
Book: General Erich Hoepner: A Military Biography
Auther: W. Chales de Beaulieu
Publisher: Casemate Publishers
0 comments :