Neither Fear Nor Hope: The Wartime Memoirs of the German Defender of Cassino

by Frido von Senger und Etterlin, George Malcolm (Translator)

General von Senger sheds new light on the history of World War II. Here is an authoritative analysis of the campaigns in the European and Mediterranean theaters where the General fought, as well as a poignant expression of the antithesis between his duty as a professional soldier and his personal aversion to Hitler.

Genres: World War II, War

368 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1960

Reviews

[Bill Harper · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very good book from the prospective of a German General that never believed in Hitler. Even though he knew of the July 20th assassination attempt, he was not a part of it. General Etterlin fought in France, Russia, Sicily and Italy. He was never accused of war crimes. He was a Catholic, who kept relations between the church and his troop cordial. His strategy and tactics surrounding the Cassino battles is awesome. He is very honest in his assessment of the political situation in Germany and the war as the whole. It is dry reading at times but still very interesting and I recommend it as source for the Italian Campaign from the German prospective.

[Ian Willey · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very interesting read though not the detail I had hoped for. However spent far too much time stating how much he was against Hitler and knew little of the atrocities.

[Mike Rozental · Rating 3 out of 5]

A bit tedious, but also quite interesting for hardcore WW 2 enthusiasts, but a bit heavy for "lighter" history fans like me.

[David Hill · Rating 4 out of 5]

I generally find the stories of enlisted men and non-coms more interesting and compelling - better stories than those of the senior officers. They are, of course, different kinds of books. The man at the tip of the spear has his attention focused sharply on what is happening in front of him and usually doesn't know or care about the strategic situation. He is concentrating on saving his ass.

This book is not really about the struggle to survive the war. Senger gives us only only a few short sentences about being under fire. In fact, he spends more time describing his living conditions - generally an Italian villa, sometimes featuring art he borrowed from local museums. Even as a POW he didn't face any real depredations.

Sometimes I found his descriptions of battle to be overlong or confusing. He provides maps, but as they are simple line drawings they only aid the descriptions in the most basic sense. When possible, I referred to various WWII atlases, but as mine are US-centric they weren't much help. Senger's vocabulary is different - he refers to different place names (e.g. Nettuno instead of Anzio) and uses the old Roman road names instead of the modern route numbers. And, of course, he's using the German order of battle instead of the Allied one.

The best parts of the book are the sections where analyzes the action in a sort of after-action report. These range from the divisional level when he was a divisional commander in the attempted relief of Stalingrad to corp level in Italy and even up to the analysis of the combined command structure of the US and Britain.

I've read a number of accounts of German men and officers. I can't help but notice that, if they don't deny knowledge of Nazi atrocities they deny participation. "Our unit was not involved, we never saw any of that." I always want to put a little asterisk of doubt next to that. While certainly not everybody was involved, these activities were too widespread to be invisible or unknown. For Senger, I do not attach an asterisk. He was certainly no fan of the Nazis. He seems to have done what he could to avoid implementing Hitler's illegal orders and several of his staff were associated in some way to Stauffenberg and the July 20 plot.