Description
For most of our readers, the name of the author will suffice to encourage them to purchase this book. Wilhelm Tieke has consistently produced some of our best unit histories-Tragedy of the Faithful and In the Firestorm of the Last Years of the War among them-and his writing style is a flavorful mixture of first-hand combat accounts and narrative overviews of senior-level operations that indicate a depth of knowledge and insight that few authors possess.
This title tells the interesting story of this little known and short-lived formation, which was constituted in late March 1945 from training elements and schools in the Paderborn area of Germany. As such, it was composed of a mixture of very young and inexperienced soldiers, some convalescents and experienced frontline combatants, Wilhelm Tieke being one of the latter. It fought in the defense of Paderborn, conducted a fighting withdrawal towards the Weser River and then established defensive positions in the Harz Mountains.
The brigade was a Panzer-Brigade in name only. Although its soldiers were primarily tankers and armored reconnaissance personnel, there was little in the way of armored vehicles available to it and the tank company it fielded was a colorful mixture of obsolescent vehicles pressed into last-ditch frontline service. Schwere Panzer-Abteilung 507 of the Army was attached to it for some time, however, and the author covers its operations in some detail, especially its highly successful ambush of task-force elements of the US 3rd Armored Division pressing towards Paderborn.
As would be expected, Tieke covers the human aspects of this desperate fighting as well. His account is full of first-hand accounts of the participants from almost all of the formations and units that made up the brigade. We highly recommend the book and are sure that you will not be disappointed.
Electronic format, 90 pages, 7 maps and one illustration. Previously only available from the author this is our first foray into the world of electronic publishing.
ISBN 0921991 79-7
