Generalfeldmarschall Fedor von Bock: The War Diary 1939-1945 (Schiffer Military History)

Men like Bock would be very valuable today. Sad what has happened to western civilization since ww2

The book showed up as represented. Its contents give a different perspective of the war than the general historical consensus. I would recommend this book to any serious student of World War II.

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ended when he was mortally wounded by Allied bombs just days before the end of the war, is a fascinating and crucial historical document.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 healthy respect for Hitler's operational talents and very seldom questioned his decisions - he was one of the few who actively supported Hitler's "hold or die" order in the winter of '41 - '42, and his justifications for this make for interesting reading. Rather, he seems to have been exasperated by the muddled, cumbersome and ridiculously inefficient command system which not only vacillated at crucial moments and made piecemeal decisions, but had failed utterly to make adequate preparation for total war. Hitler's insistence on organizing the German economy "in breadth" for lightning-fast campaigns rather than "in depth" for all-out conflict carried with it a hefty price tag that was paid in full in the snows of Russia - something Bock seems to have been aware of without necessarily drawing any conclusions from it. And this is an interesting characteristic of the man and his Prussian naïvete, which stressed an absolute commitment to the soldierly art at the expense of political sensitivity and sometimes, even common sense. Every time he runs into stupidity, blindness or short-sightedness in Russia his reaction boils down to, "Wann dem Führer wuste!" - If the Führer only knew!All war diaries have aesthetic problems for the reader, and Bock's is no exception. He has an annoying tendency to leave out details of his meetings with certain high-ups, possibly for security reasons, and like Halder, he often bogs down in extraneous tactical details that are boring and even stupefying to wade through. Every other sentence ends with an exclamation point, which waters down their overall dramatic effect, and there is a terseness to a lot of the entries which reminds me of reading a message sent by telegraph. Some diarists - Goebbels comes to mind - have a gift for analysis that goes beyond the mere recounting of facts, but Bock only occasionally shows this ability, which would have made the book an easier read. A soldier to the core, perhaps he was simply incapable of doing so.Bock's diary is obviously not light reading. Even with the occasional notes by the Editor, it presupposes a fairly advanced knowledge of the personalities in the German Army as well as military affairs generally, and thanks to its telegraphic style is probably of interest only to historians and hard-core fans of military history. But if you're reading this, you are probably one or both, and I would recommend it to anyone who wants a more complete picture of what it was like to command armies in battle under "the greatest war lord of all times", Adolf Hitler.

You often read about von Bock with the invasion of the Soviet Union in 1941. However, try to find books written on Bock? Well, this is the book to get and it was an easy read. It wasn't choppy like a lot of diaries but easy read. I read all the books coming out on the East and found this one to be something I will read again.

This is a revealing diary by the general who commanded the central front in the early years of Hitler's invasion of Russia . It was priced reasonably and arrived in good condition and in a timely manner. I couldn't be more pleased with the seller. Earlier I accidentally gave him one star instead of five. Obviously I am getting to old to do reviews.

I thought this was a very good account on the experiences of Gen. Von Bock during the invasion of soviet Russia in 1941. One fact that is ignored by historians is the massive amount of Russian military hardware - tanks, artillery , planes, supply dumps and manpower that was sitting on the western border of Russia poised for an attack against Germany and Europe in June of 41 . As the Germans moved further east and Stalin lost control of Russian population in those area's the churches closed down and used as warehouses under the communists were opened up by the Russian people as the victorious Germans moved on. Well worth reading this account by a general who was there and key in the early victories of the Russian campaign !

The book is a "must" in case you are interested in a more detailed approach to german operations on the eastern front during the first two years. Since it is a diary, it is a very personal opinion which has been rewritten after events took place in order to avoid too emotional statements concerning subordinate officers and confrontations. But even when this weakness is tKen into consideration, it offers a fine view of a general who was responsible for the largest german army group ever fielded!

This volume is completely unreadable. The majority of the text is written in the form of quick diary notes commenting on some particular topic of the day. Next day's notes might concern a completely unrelated issue. Then there could be an inexplicable gap of a few days with no entries in the diary at all. There is no sense of continuity of events. The book does not present even one map - how one can discuss military operations without maps is a mystery to me. On top of all that, the editor has done a terrible job too. The introductory essay as well as the subsequent chapters is riddled with grammatical mistakes, making the book even more unbearable.Unfortunately, none of the above becomes immediately apparent upon quick look at the book, which is beautifully bound, has great paper and exquisite selection of fonts.Mind you, I am not suggesting that Fedor von Bock himself is not a fascinating commander - he may very well be, but there is no way of telling from this book.

no maps!!!

Juste un journal sur le vif. Pas de recul historique, mais c'est bien le but du journal de bord non?

Product as advertised. Packaging for shipment excellant.