Dr.Poffenberger has answered all the questions about my father's ancestors that I never would have been able to discover myself. I recommend that anyone who has read this exceptional book goes to Mistelgau,Germany which is in a beautiful rural part of Bavaria.In this little village is the 14th century church preserved with it's original carvings and painted icons where the Poffenberger family worshipped.It just gave me goosebumps to think that my ancestors stood where I was standing.

I enjoyed this book very much. Mr. Poffenberger did alot of reseach and I really enjoyed learning about where they came from in Germany. There was even some pictures! We had been searching,hoping to find a clue linking our family to the Pennsylvannia group and with his help we have done that. The book also gives you history in Germany and in Pennsylvannia. The Poffenbergers were certainly in the middle of all the early wars and managed to survive.

Thanks to Thomas Poffenberger's book, From Germany to Antietam, I can now confirm where my mother's gggrandfather Daniel Poffenberger was born. After 20 some years of researching, I now know Daniel was born in Berks County, Pennsylvania, who his parents were and when and where he was baptized.

The history all through the book is an asset to any reader with an interest in the history of Berks county as well as Germany. I am indebted to Thomas Poffenberger for the book and the hours of research he and his wife did.

This is the Best Book on German Artillery of World War II that I have read so far. It covers all artillery from small guns to the biggest Railway and coastal Guns. The technical Data is great and the pictures are very good. It also covers those that were designed but never used in World War II. This is the book for the person that wants to know all about German Artillery in World War II.

I'm an italian student and I find this book the best one under the tecnical aspect. There are a lot of details, photoes and dates. This is certanly the best catologue of the german artillery of WWII that an amatour can read. N.B.: for the non-english people. Language is quite difficult in this book, it isn't very simple to read.

This book gives historical as well as technical knowledges about German artillery pieces of WWII. And there are lots of photos of them to help reader's understandings. The only regret is there is no chapters for German mortors and rockets of contemparary era. This book, however, should be the best reference to understand German artillery of WWII beyond amature levels.

After owning this book for some time and only glancing through it, I took it upon myself to go through it in detail. Like all of the other books by Mr. Senich, the attention to detail and focus on the technical side of the German weapon systems (and supporting equipment) is second to none. The photography is splendid, the focus on equipment (including serial numbers) is accurate and sharp, and the archival work that must have gone into putting this together (both text and photos) is truly fantastic.

My only critique would be that in a book of this magnitude, a more precise listing of all references and sources be provided so that future historians can use it as a reference or "jump-off" point in their study of german snipers.

That being said, I have looked and found no better book on German sniping. One can only hope that Mr. Senich keeps on publishing.

If anyone in this world knows about Sniping, whether it be a US or german sniper, this writer does. He is highly intelligent and uses the best terminology of any one in his field. I highly recommend this book as well as his others to anyone who is interested in it!!

Senich's book has become the Bible for advanced collectors around the world. When corresponding with other collectors about any detail relating to German sniper rifles, one need only mention a page number from this book to reach a complete understanding.

This book was required reading for my university geography module "Geographies of the European City". I thought it would be long, dull and confusing. I was very wrong! It is one of the first academic books that i just couldn't put down!

Intresing, mind opening and detailed, yet written in a simple and accessible manner. I learnt not only a lot about the history of Germany and Europe and the Second World War but also about how we view cities, how they are formed and their role in the world today.

This book was on the short list of texts my German language/culture study abroad course required. As far as the architectural culture went, this book was all you needed to taste the essence of the capital. It was better than any guide book out there, especially relating the tulmultuous past with what you were seeing with your own eyes as an urban landscape.

Berlin is complex, historically and culturally - from its imperialist days to Hitler's capital to the scarred divided city just now seaming together. Germany is the embodiment of ambiguity - which is made abundantly evident by its very structures throughout the wide city. Brian Ladd's photography is unobtrusive and tasteful, illustrating his thoroughly researched work. He compares an old photograph to one taken recently by him to study, at one point, how unchanged some parts of the city have been in the midst of constant upheaval in the last century.

It is remarkable how entertaining the book is, as well as its vitality in its examination of Berlin. It was, quite simply, such a pleasure to read. The Ghosts of Berlin takes in the large picture, of a country uniting, political ideologies - past and present, and the significance of massive structures - standing and ruined. It also encompasses details in exquisite ordinariness, like street corners, department stores, and public transportation. All this is told in an appealing style that is accessible (so you don't need any background in Germany or Berlin), but not overly casual (Ladd is informed and comprehensive).

This is a brilliant book that looks at a remarkable city after the fall of the Berlin Wall and asks the question: How to come to terms with the monuments of the past? The Brandenburg Gate? Hitler's Bunker, etc. Should they be torn down, the stories they embody erased? Or should they stand as a legacy of German culture, however tainted it may be. A remarkable book about a remarkable city. Do read it.

"The Good Soldier" is the memoirs of Austrian WWII soldier Fred Novotny. The book's introduction starts off with the proverbial Chinese curse "May you live in interesting times!" Novotny certainly had his share of "interesting times" and it is a tribute to his resilience and fundamental goodness of character that he manages to come out all right in the end with his dignity, humanity and sense of humor intact. This is a story of overcoming great adversary with a happy ending.

Unlike most WWII memoirs, which begin suddenly in 1939 and end abruptly in 1945, "The Good Soldier" spans practically Novotny's entire lifetime. It begins with his childhood in Socialist Vienna, and continues without respite through the Anschluss, his service in the German Labor Service (RAD) and as a machine gunner with the elite
"GrossDeutschland" armored infantry division, his postwar years in a Soviet prison camp, his return to freedom and eventual emigration to the USA, where he ultimately finds peace and personal success.

The book isn't full of "combat erotica" but there are enough anecdotes to get a good sense of what life in the Third Reich was like and how terrible war and the postwar peace could be. The RAD experiences in particular are very interesting, since there is little information published in English about this German paramilitary organization.
Novotny's descriptions of life as a "GrossDeutschland" soldier and the Soviet penal system are fascinating as well. The reader will doubtless be amazed at Novotny's good fortune through some pretty grim situations - as he was himself!

Although only 150-odd pages, "The Good Soldier" is packed with photos, drawings and editor's notes that help the reader get a real sense of Novotny's experiences in the context of the general sweep of WWII history.

It's a fast but satisfying read. I quite enjoyed "The Good Soldier" and would recommend it to anyone interested in personal accounts of the Second World War.

There are probably few books in English that take the reader from everyday life in pre-WW II Austria, through the marching columns of the Third Reich's assault on Europe, the cruelty and deprivation of captivity in Stalin's Gulag, and finally to immigration and successful settlement in the United States. Alfred Novotny's readable and engaging biography takes the reader on a journey with an ordinary man who, like tens of millions of others, had their lives changed beyond recognition and endured profound traumas from 1939 to 1945.

Novotny's detailed description of his training with the Grossdeutschland Division and his stark, intense picture of battle on the Eastern Front make "The Good Soldier" a useful reference from a military-scholarship viewpoint. However, as a personal narrative, the book will also be a fascinating read for the general reader, because Novotny successfully blends into his narrative the story of his life from his working-class childhood home in politically unstable 1930s Vienna, and his early and hopeful employment in a famous Vienna hotel -- all of which was interrupted by the call to arms. ("The Good Soldier" will appeal to readers interested in English-language material about Austrians' experiences in the Wehrmacht.)

Millions of defeated German and German-allied soldiers were marched to Soviet prison camps in 1945; many never returned. Novotny's description of how they interacted with their captors and fellow prisoners from day to day -- in cruelty and, sometimes, with friendship -- illustrates this chapter of history without undue political polemic or judgement.

This book is as much about the love of friends and family as the calamities of nations at war. I would recommend it for the general reader of history; it would also fit well into a high-school honors or college course on twentieth-century history.

Besides upgrading my knowledge of the WWII German "Landser" (the German equiv. of a GI) "The Good Soldier" gave me a better grasp of the pre-war life of Austrians and how simple it was for the Nazi regime to manipulate minds in the primitive media situation of the 1930's.

Alfred Novotny ably describes his, and presumably many German soldiers' relationship to the enemy, to leadership and courage.

There are some fantastic scenes like the one where the author enters a Ukranian hut with mud floor to find a gramophone with one of his favorite records: "Stormy Weather"! The details on equipment should be of particular interest to anyone into militaria and reenacting.

Like the author I am amazed by his incredibly good fortune. One must be deeply affected when a bullet penetrates one's steel helmet, tearing off the helmet's rim but doesn't cause even a scratch on your scalp and later brand-new replacements are literally blown apart in front of you, again leaving you completely unscathed...at least physically...

Although this book is basically on the platoon-level the author makes it clear in which ways his division, "Grossdeutschland", differed from others.

I found Novotny's recollections of the effect of Soviet front-line propagaganda units particularly valuable.

Novotny is equally convincing when he recounts his years as a slave-miner in Soviet Georgia. What does surprise me is that he is not turned into a hateful person by this experience.

It is nice to find not only photographs of the author and mentioned equipment but also well-reproduced documents like the author's badge certificates.

This was a fascinating read that gives a perspective on WWII that you seldom, if ever, hear. I highly recommend this book to anyone interested in WWII history. I have come away from reading it with a broader understanding of topics that tend to be taught from only one point of view. This is a valuable asset, and I'm glad I had the oppotunity to read it.

Mr. Knapp has presented a unique look into the mind of a dictator and how such a person was able to affect an entire population. Mr. Knapp is able to convey that not all citizens were negativly influenced by the Nazi propagnada machine. The reader is struck by the fact that the young Mr. Knapp is able to maintain both his humanity and dignity throughout a most difficult period in his life. This book is quite relavant in that similar regimes exist today, often without national boundries. A factinating read.

The book gives a new insight into every day life under Hitler through the eyes of child. It is truely absorbing and I could not put it down until I completed reading. I thank the author for this excellent book.

The ultimate compliment you can pay a travel guide? "Works as advertised". I'd argue the same goes for this survival guide of Germany and to a less extent, Austria.

I acquired a handful, really just a small amount of German as a result of this book, but I used it all for twelve days, and it made a world of difference. The cultural notes, however, were of even greater value: *when* to use phrases is integral to knowing *how*.

My only two concerns, a half-star I withhold for each: the two-cassette method of delivery and a too-small glossary/ vocabulary/ dictionary. Pack a CD with the book and it's a five-star value; pack another forty pages of German-English word translations and it's official.

However, if you're serious about German, get the FSI course; if you need a German-English dictionary, pick up a Collins Pocket Gem. Tschüs!

Mrs. Bingham's German Survival Guide is definitely not just another guide listing numerous tourist attractions, because it deals with an essential part of travelling abroad - language - and how to use it in order to make your trip enjoyable. Your memories of travelling abroad should not be limited to the number of sights you have seen, but should include memories of different cultures and ways of life, people or food. The basic knowledge of a foreign language certainly helps! This Survival Guide offers everything you need to travel to Austria or Germany, all situations you are likely to come across are covered, like greetings, introductions, transportation, food, shopping, lodging, emergencies and sightseeing. Basic German grammar is explained well, all the necessary vocabulary is provided, there are useful exercises to test yourself, and at the end of the book you will find a very useful dictionary and a survival summary. The book is well-researched and shows the author's profound knowledge of the German language and Austrian and German culture. This aspect is very important, because one can't stress the importance of knowing a few basic things about a foreign culture enough. I am convinced that this Survival Guide is a useful companion on your trip abroad, so take it along!

Elizabeth Binham's book German Survival Guide has finally made learning a foreign language easy enough that anyone can travel. She freely admits that this book is made to teach you enough to get by in Germany and Austria with a comfort level. She doesn't clutter her book with why this word should be used on the week day rather than the weekend. There is no doubt that a person can learn from this book about the language,the customs, and the country. German Survival Guide will let you enjoy the learning experience, and the vacation without over burdening the reader. Personally I'm looking forward to further publications of hers. There's a lot to see out there.

"GIs and Frauleins" presents a comprehensive review of the cultural and economic impact the massive American military machine imposed on a small, agrarian, and relatively poor German state at the peak of the Cold War. This book presents a seminal work for the comprehension of later cultural clashes that dominated both the United States and Germany and continue to the present.

I recommend it for both the serious scholar as well as the casual reader of social and demographic history.

Unlike the previous reviewer, who took issue with the allegedly "academic" style of the book, I found it was very readable, avoiding a lot of the "constructing the other" and "conflicting gender identities" type of language one might expect to find in an academic book of this sort. This does not mean, however, that the book does not address the kind of conceptual, academic issues that are frequently raised in such stilted terms. In no sense is the book merely an antiquarian show-and-tell kind of catalog; it quite thoroughly discusses the "holy Trinity" of race, class, and gender issues. I found the discussion of German and American forms of racism to be especially interesting.

The content of the book has, for the most part, been adequately addressed in the "official" Amazon review as well as in the previous customer review. There is one aspect, however, that deserves further mention, and which I found particularly insightful: Höhn's discussion of whether the changes that came to the rural areas she discusses would be best described as modernization or as Americanization. This sort of issue is something which would interest anyone who is concerned with the cultural issues of globalization and the dominance of American cultural products in today's markets. Because she focuses on an area in which there was a very strong American presence in the immediate post-war years, it is not surprising that her evidence shows a significant American component to the modernization process. It would be interesting to compare her conclusions in this regard to those of someone studying an area where American influence was less direct and personal. This comparison would better demonstrate whether the American influence was a necessary, or merely a contemporary, component of German societal modernization. Such a comparison, however, would not fit very well into a book titled "GIs and Fräuleins." Höhn is to be commended for putting the abundant evidence which she presents into such a larger context of modernization debates, and not faulted for not being more encyclopedic.

This book is a truely fascinating study of German-American encounters after World War II. It is full of interesting details and also extremely well written. A MUST for anyone interested in German history!

I read this book many, many years ago. It was actually the first Irving Stone book I ever read. I still remember how much I enjoyed reading it, and I can still remember the story. Brilliantly written. You seem to be living among the characters. Irving Stone has the gift to write, all based in real-life facts. Again, a must read for any history-novel lover.

Approximately 15 years ago I bought this book aout Heinrich Schlieman, and his discovery of the ancient lost city of Troy. He studied Homer, and believed the city did exist. In his late 40's he met a very young Greek girl in Athens. He asked her father for her hand in marriage, and her father agreed.The museum in Athens holds not only the treasures he unearthed at Troy, but he found the mask of Agamemnon, and other treasures (the Lion's Gate) showering Sophia with these treasures. I loaned this book, and never received it back. I have looked for it for years. I cannot believe this wonderful book has not been reprinted and available. It is Irving Stone at his best.

Stone was able to put into this book the unusal and unconventional story of Schliemann and his young Greek bride in a way that you cheer them on and you feel their disappointments. It is entertaining as well as inspiring. It also brings up that age old question, "Was there a Troy?" and convinces you there was.

The Guns of Victory is a fascinating account of what it was like to be an artillery officer for the Canadian army during some of the heaviest fighting of the second World War.

Blackburn is not a full "grunt", he is an officer. But he is on the front lines, and by war's end, he has become the longest-serving artillery officer on the front lines. That is a rather dubious honor as Blackburn learns that an informal betting pool has been established on when he would be either wounded or killed.

This is the third book in Blackburn's trilogy, Where The Hell Are The Guns and The Guns of Normandy being the first two. As in the others, you get a wonderful picture of the emotions of serving in the war, the fears, joys and hardships. There are some things that happen in a war that are simply weird and Blackburn reports them as well.

This would be a 5-star review, but the book fails in providing enough pictures. The two or three maps included are woefully inadequate. Plus the book does a poor job of explaining the various companies, troops etc. Perhaps they were explained in other parts of the trilogy, but a glossary is badly needed.

A companion CD-ROM would have helped greatly in showing more of the faces, sites and campaigns of the war.

The third of Blackburns' stunning wartime trilogy sees out the end of the war in Europe. He continues to refer to himself as 'you' throughout the book, which at first is a little strange, but quickly becomes transparent.

Taking the three books together, the reader is left with a very good comprehension of the techniques of battle of the artillery, and to a lesser degree the infantry they supported, during the campaign in NWE in '44 and '45.

In addition to the technical detail, the human side that Blackburn injects into his books left me grief striken on more than one occasion. The sense of relentless, dogged courage in the face of seeming futility shown by the infantry he was supporting, and the feeling of dread as one by one his friends were killed an wounded, makes for powerful reading.

I can't speak highly enough of this trilogy - if you have an interest in the Canadian or the Commonwealth forces in WWII, or in very candid personal wartime stories I would commend this book to you.

The Canadians have driven the opposing German forces into the Falaise Pocket, where they were destroyed, and they have secured their sector of France. This we read about in "The Guns of Normandy" by Blackburn (which I reviewed).

Even though in this book we move to new battlefields, I wondered what more George Blackburn could have to say about his war. Plenty, I discovered. He was a young newspaper reporter when he enlisted in the Canadian Army in 1939. He never stopped thinking like a reporter, always somehow managed to take notes, and preserve them. We are fortunate he lived through his battlefield experiences, are more fortunate still that he wrote of them with such brilliant detail. He reveals over and over a truly human mixture of compassion - Gunner Hardtack was a hen that miraculously survived the destruction of a farm to be adopted by B Troop as a mascot -- and detachment - what can you do for the thousands of dead all around you, all the time?

Captain Blackburn, commander of Able Troop, 2nd Battery, 4th Field Battalion, spends much of his combat time as a Forward Observation Officer, or FOO. So they can to accurately call down fire from a 4-gun troop, a 24-gun regiment, the 72 guns of the division, or even the 216 guns of 2nd Canadian Corps, FOOs lived at the front. When the action is the hottest, FOOs must be at the front of the front to order artillery fire precisely where it is needed. A FOO is often observing from a place where he can be spotted, or deduced to be there through common sense by those being shelled. The Canadians lost a lot of FOOs.

An incident in the book: Blackburn is FOOing from a towering windmill in Groesbeek, The Netherlands. It is a commodious structure, high and offering a broad view of the front from the fan window. Footsteps on the stairs, and a Canadian general appears. Blackburn diplomatically keeps shooing him back from the fan window to keep him from being visible to some German peering through binocs. Another general joins them. The two comment on such a fine observation post, an OP without peer in Groesbeek, and wonder why Fritz has left it alone. Blackburn offers the opinion that the Germans must believe that no one in his right mind would dare occupy such an obvious OP. Ahem, yes, and the generals depart.

"The Guns of Victory" takes up where "The Guns of Normandy" left off, and we're in furious combat most of the time. That courageous and enterprising Commander of D-Company, Major Bob Suckling, repeatedly earns our admiration: In one of many of his hair-raising escapades his infantry company is under a furious counter attack, and via field phone he's calling down fire dangerously close to his own position. "Can you bring your shells a bit closer?" he asks the battery commander. Another heavy barrage of 120 rounds of 25-pounders and Suckling reports, "You're right on." Then there is silence from his end, a long and ominous silence. Did we shell Suckling? the fire controller wonders. Further calls fail to draw any response until Suckling's drawl comes over the line to report, "The Heinies seem to have pulled back." The Gunners would learn later that a German had poked his head in the door of Suckling's OP house. After taking time out to pistol the enemy soldier Suckling came back on the air. So many of the soldiers and officers I had come to like got killed along the way. I worried that every next page might report that Suckling "got it" until the end of the book. Thank goodness there was no such report.

This is a splendid narrative, one that would make a fine novelist proud.

The book has some good photos, a fine index. Footnotes appear on the relevant pages, not as endnotes that require endless flipping back and forth.