Tiger Tracks - The Classic Panzer Memoir

by Wolfgang Faust, Sprech Media (Translator)

Wolfgang Faust was the driver of a Tiger I tank with the Wehrmacht Heavy Panzer Battalions, seeing extensive combat on the Eastern Front in 1943-45. This memoir was his brutal and deeply personal account of the Russian Front's appalling carnage.Telling the story of a vicious three-day tank battle, Faust describes how his Tiger unit fought on the steppes of Russia against the full might of the Red the T34 tanks, the Sturmovik bombers, suicidal Russian infantry and the feared Katyusha rocket brigades. He reveals the merciless decisions that panzer crews made in action, the devastating power of their weaponry, and the many ways that men met their deaths in the snow and ice of the Ostfront.Originally published as ‘Panzerdammerung’ (‘Panzer Twilight’) in the late 1940s, this memoir's savage realism shocked the post-war German public. Some readers were outraged at the book's final scenes, while others wrote that, ‘Now, at last, I know what our men did in the East.’ Today, 'Tiger Tracks' stands as one of the great semi-autobiographical accounts of World War a crescendo of horror, grim survival and a fatalistic acceptance of the panzer man’s destiny.The only other surviving memoir by this author is 'The Last Panther' - an astonishing account of panzer warfare in the final hours of the Third Reich - also available on Kindle and in paperback.

Genres: History, Military Fiction, World War II, Nonfiction, War, Biography, Military History

139 pages, Kindle Edition

First published March 4, 2015

Reviews

[Themistocles · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book, like the rest by Sprech Media (SS Panzer - SS Voices, The Last Panther, Tiger Tracks, Hitler's Children) is a piece of fiction.

There's just too many details that point to that - from the utter and complete lack of sources or identifiable unit numbers (or ANYthing that could have led to verifications of facts) to technical and historical mistakes (for instance, the IS-3 tank appearing in a 1943 story) it's quite evident that this is not a collection of "eyewitness accounts" but merely a work of a very excitable imagination.

Other, often repeated details give that away - the fact that from what's written 9/10 soldiers killed in WWII were decapitated (really, everything, from a single bullet to a naval shell to a 60-ton tank falling on you scenes are filled with severed heads; heads on the snow, heads on tanks, heads on tree branches, you name it), experiences that the narrator absolutely could not have seen (from a complete overview of a battle through the driver's slit to a -obviously weapon systems expert- civilian at the cellar of her home), sub-stories that read like out of a bad Hollywood script (the beautiful Russian prisoner who travels chained in the tank -like there's room for it there- or nurses exchanging sexual favors for cigarettes) - EVERYTHING about these books point to someone contemporary who has read up quite a bit and then fabricated some rather sick fantasy.

Stay away!

[Guy · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book totally lacks authenticity. What the author describes seeing from the viewing slit of a Tiger I tank is simply unbelievable. Descriptions of tanks being destroyed and the author seeing the crews inside tanks whose ammunition has exploded are just unreal. For some one who claims to have "been there", there is little unit detail or geographic detail. The discovery of a mobile SS brothel in full retreat complete with girls and velvet drapes.... The whole thing reaks of fantasy.

I have read a number of Eastern Front memoirs and this is not one.

[Phil Geusz · Rating 2 out of 5]

Every tank explodes when it's killed (most flip upside down), every escaping crewman is machine-gunned (except those individuals important to the highly-contrived "plot" centered around an attractive female Russian POW), every engagement is fought at an apocalyptic fever pitch that involves ramming. I don't doubt that an Eastern Front veteran might have seen most of what's in this book, but they didn't see it all at once in such a concentrated dose based on the dozens of other memoirs I've read. Others have noted the lack of identifying unit numbers and such; I believe this is a work about a series of battles that never happened. If you're a gore-junkie, read it. Otherwise don't bother. I give it two stars instead of one becasue at least the grammar and spelling are acceptable, something increasingly unusual today.

[Martin Koenigsberg · Rating 2 out of 5]

If Quentin Tarantino went through five or six German WWII Memoirs and boiled down all their action into a three day orgy of road movie/action flick, he might come close to the insanity of this book. Its billed as memoir, the writing of "Wolfgang Faust", who claims to have been a drive on the Easter Front- driving a Massive Tiger I, during the retreat of 1944-45. We start with a massive Tiger I versus Russian Stalin I battle- with lots of exploding tanks and burning buildings/bunkers. then the survivors team up with some Hanomag Half-tracks full of Panzer Grenadiers and try to outrun a Soviet encirclement. There is a river to be reached and a bridge to be defended. Along the way there's a strange mystery female prisoner- and a crazy rescued Luftwaffe pilot turned gun-loader. It's an amazing read- but it rings amazingly false as memoir.

There is not a single formal unit mentioned, not even the name of the "Kampfgruppe"(BattleGroup)Commander- and real German vets ALWAYS are proud of their exact unit- and the names of all the Battle Commanders they fought under. "Wolfgang Faust" is a tanker driver- down in the hull watching through a tiny protective armoured vision block- and yet he describes AERIAL WARFARE - Multiple competing Sturmovik and Stuka attacks- and DOGFIGHTS with Yak fighters- NO WAY he could see any of that. Two German Nurses suddenly appear- and then sexually service a dozen Panzer Grenadiers in return for their rations? The amount of utterly crazy stuff happening in the slim 130 page volume is just laughable as "History"- but might make a weak WWII graphic novel.

With a lot of adult themes, a graphic injury every couple of pages, and zero grip on reality- this is a book for Junior reader over 13 who can tell fact from fiction. On the other hand- a Gamer/Modeller/Military Enthusiast will find a mixed bag. Nothing for the Enthusiast- as this is so crazy and fictional- but the Gamer and Modeller can find material for a possible series of Bolt Action/Flames of War/Battlegroup skirmishes, and/or a bunch of interesting Dioramas. The loose connection to reality is an impediment to enjoying this book- but not a total barrier. Read at your choice.

[Cody Moser · Rating 1 out of 5]

Read this on the plane and got about three or four chapters in to realize I'd been had. The book is very clearly not a memoir and is instead a complete fan fiction. This is a shame considering the book is *strictly advertised* as a memoir, even with an "introduction" by the author at the beginning. The plot becomes unbelievable very quickly.

I got off the plane and immediately checked to see if anyone had reviewed the authenticity of this thing, and found this comprehensive reddit post:
https://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorian...

[Stephen Simpson · Rating 3 out of 5]

Entertaining, in a pulpy, sordid sort of way ...
But a memoir?
This is as much a memoir of the Eastern Front as 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea was a memoir of undersea exploration and Starship Troopers was a memoir of U.S. space exploration. Don't get me wrong, fiction has its place in war stories and fictional "found memoirs" are a valid genre, but this one blurs the line too much between real memoir and "real memoir".

[Richard Cahn · Rating 1 out of 5]

I have no doubt that the author was in a tank on the Eastern Front.

I also have no doubt he sensationalized his experiences. I'm therefore left wondering what exactly I should take away from the book. As history or biography this book is fatally flawed.

[Shaleen · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was a delightful read, do not get me wrong. But, it goes great lengths to make it more dramatic than any reality should. I for one feel that the Russian female prisoner and all that weird drama around her looks too fictional to be true, and there are some inherent technical inconsistencies plaguing the book throughout. I reiterate, it is definitely an engrossing, disturbing, and a gory read, but take the promised reality with a grain of salt. Rest assured, this is interspersed with the graphic blood loops in the air, the heads being blown off their stumps, blood splashing into the tank's vizor, head of your comrade rolling over by your side as if it were a golfball, and what bloodcurdling not. Go for it, if you do not mind the vividness of the somewhat sensationalized description.

[Raven · Rating 4 out of 5]

War is hell. Chilling account and a great afternoon read.

[Scot McCollum · Rating 5 out of 5]

Graphic As All Get Out...German escaping from the Russian Army

I thought this book was a great read, graphic as all get out I believe that the stories presented realistically, what really happened to the Germans running from the Russian Army to try & surrender to the more hospitable Americans...

[Bon Tom · Rating 5 out of 5]

I just love it how some people can't accept the horror of the war. Actually, I adore it. The fact that there's so many total pussies in this world is good news for us ordinary cowards.

This book doesn't give you a break from start to finish. The second of distraction and there's another body dismembered, decapitated, burnt, or tank blown to pieces.

I'm also laughing at those "traveling brothels", one more thing some readers can't accept as real. How good idea it actually was. I mean, if the women were consensual and adequately compensated for their trouble.

It's war and people are dying all around (if they're lucky, in some cases). You as a soldier with uncertain odds to see the next sunrise, could profit generously from two things.

Broth. And Brothels. One to soothe the soul, the other too warm the body. Or it's the other way round?

Good title for the book anyway. Broth and Brothels.

[Laurence · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fast paced, well written, bloody and manic.

[Iván Mejía · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book written by the driver of a German Tiger Tank, who at that time was 20 years old, narrates his experience in the Russian Front, about which the author by means of a Russian woman he had prisoner says: “ ‘And all this was for no purpose,’ she said, in a whisper. ‘All of this was for nothing. Everything you have done, and everything I have done, it is all for nothing.’ ”
The book is kind of tiring because the Author, Mr. Faust Wolfgang, dedicates too much time to expose in detail his vivid experience while fighting in the Russian Front during the winter time.
After this narration, it is clear that the Tiger Tanks, introduced in August 1942, at that time the most powerful tank in the world and the most famous of World War 2, although too heavy -60 tons- and powerful -88 mm cannon- were flimsy machines. As Mr. Wolfgang points out: “Our Tigers were never designed to drive sustained journeys, not even on smooth city roads. The stress and wear to the running gear was too great, and the entire engine and transmission itself only lasted for 1,000 kilometers before being completely replaced.”

[john · Rating 5 out of 5]

Graphic descriptions of the horror of war

I have found that most books written by the victorious side of wars are a sanitized and heroic version of any advent that took place.
This is certainly not the case with this well written and descriptive book.
The one overriding conclusion I reached after Reading this book. Is that you needed luck to survive fighting in Russia.

[Andrew · Rating 5 out of 5]

Good Lord, what a hellish and phenomenal read this was.

I've little knowledge of the war on the Eastern front save for the broad brush strokes, so I'v no idea if this hellish account was embellished in any way, but it read true to me. The horror of the war to the German soldier, unaware that it was his actions that caused it, astonish me.

[Rob Neyer · Rating 3 out of 5]

Technically on the nose, this 1948 "book" is obviously a fabrication, with wildly lurid details that would have been right at home as a serialization in one of those 1950s "men's adventure" magazines with the colorful covers.

[Andrew Taylor · Rating 2 out of 5]

Gory, gory, gory

Disappointing book. Reads like a graphic novel. Little historical content. Little technical detail...just blowing up tanks, burning people and implausible coincedences.

[Ryan · Rating 2 out of 5]

Essentially a fictional account, told from the perspective of a Tiger tank driver on the eastern front, of a few minor battles (company/regiment level actions) and a retreat. Fast paced, but not particularly well written.

[Joan Peterson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Power and protection

The punishment absorbed by the tiger is amazing. The experience of the crews of these remarkable vehicles is mind blowing. I am glad it wasn't, my war.

[harold e johnson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great book

As a former tank commander the battles in the book describe tank warfare in its true form bloody, terrible and final

[P Squires · Rating 1 out of 5]

I don't believe a word of it!

This book is marketed as the genuine memoirs of a tank crewman. It's more like a better Sven Hassel novel.

Don't bother with it..

[The Bauchler · Rating 2 out of 5]

Clearly a made up real war diary.

Sven did it far, far better.

[Paul · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book gets 2.5 stars for it's entertainment value alone. Else, the book is terrible in it's purpose. The books though billed as a memoire, is certainly not one. The author gives no verifiable information that would indicate actual war experience in the position they claim. The books has several factors that for casual reader seem plausible, but for the armchair historian do not survive further scrutiny.

Firstly, as much as the author gets right technically in the book, there is plenty of questionable, or down right wrong information included in the book as well. The most pointed out of which is the tank’s commander constantly kicking the protagonist in the back to get his attention. If you would take the moment and Google a diagram of the Tiger I E you will quickly realize that it is extremely difficult for the person occupying the commander’s seat to reach his driver who is seated down in the hull. Additionally there are other moments in the book that have questionable veracity from a technical standpoint.

Another issue is the author also likes to describe the results of combat in detail. While many of the descriptions are correct from a plausibility standpoint, as to where a shell hits a tank what resulting damage would have most likely occurred, it would have been near impossible to verify that damage until after the battle was over. Given the narrative is a story of constant desperation and retreat the author would not have had the time to inspect the damage to the destroyed tanks. Obvious descriptions of ammo explosions or fires could be observed but, what shots killed the crew or damaged internal parts could only be made in speculation with out inspection post combat. It must also be noted that much of the tank combat that the Tiger would have been involved in in WW2 was at long range, the high caliber, high velocity gun was one of the tank’s major advantages. It would have been very hard for the driver to know exactly what happened to another tank 1000m away with the naked eye, through a vision port in the hull.

Lastly, while I could drone on about inaccuracies, the book generally boils down to the lack verifiable facts. For a memoire Faust doesn’t recount almost anything about his life. How old he was, when he enlisted, his training, his prior experience on the front. He doesn’t even name his unit. His geography is uncertain and questionable. All of this chips away at the credibility of his work.

This book is a novel, not a memoire. An action adventure set on the Eastern Front of WW2. Most things in the book should be taken with a grain of salt. The books is a few hour entertaining read, but lacks the accuracy needed to really be proper historical fiction, and it certainly should not be in the realm of “memoire”.

[Mackiemesser · Rating 2 out of 5]

I think this book is a (probably fraudulent) cartoon, but it is also absolutely fascinating. Who wrote it? Were they German, American or something else? Why market this as a memoir when it obviously is not?

First off, why do I call it probably fraudulent? Well, the author offers *zero* proof that he is what he claims to be. No unit numbers or order of battle, no military portraiture, no documentary photographs, no geographic indicators aside from a Russian sounding reference to an airfield.

There is an author's statement at the beginning of the book saying that this story first appeared in serialized form in the Federal Republic of Germany in 1948 as "Panzerdammerung" (for the German speakers out there, note the missing umlaut). Well, as someone who knows a bit about post-war German history, I can tell you that the last thing the German public wanted to read about in 1948 was a violent WWII tank battle on the Russian steppe. It's a laughable claim. German magazines that valorized German war deeds did exist and were popular, but they didn't start appearing until the late-50s (e.g. "Der Landser").

I cannot find a single external German language reference to "Panzerdämmerung" or "Wolfgang Faust" anywhere on the internet (I'd love to see one if someone could point it out to me). No stories in the German press about a rediscovered manuscript from a veteran named Faust (as did for example happen with a fictionalized account of Stalingrad called "Durchbruch bei Stalingrad" by a veteran named Heinrich Gerlach). Nothing.

Speaking of "Wolfgang Faust", I'm sure German people named "Wolfgang Faust" exist, but the name just smells a bit too on the nose, like someone who isn't familiar with German culture picked the most teutonic sounding name they could think of.

There are *tons* of other errors, but they have been discussed and dissected in this forum very well already by other reviewers.

Now that I've ripped the authenticity of the book, let me give it some praise. Read as fiction, it isn't all that bad! It's no masterpiece, but it held my attention. There are some details that sound accurate (e.g. the reference to Pervatin, the inside of the Tiger, etc) and even if the gore and descriptions of destruction are so over the top that they made me chuckle, it is never boring. It's a "Boy's Own Adventure" with a tiny bit of moral instruction ("isn't war a waste, all this death was meaningless because the Russians crossed the river anyway").

[Ashlyn · Rating 3 out of 5]

Wow! This book was a lot, it was all very real and all there, nothing was held back in this book and none of the details were softened. These specific descriptive details could not have been made up. These came from a real person, who really felt all of this. This book was harsh and parts of it were sad to hear but it was a good book. If someone wants to read it all, I would most definitely recommend this book to them. I felt inside the book while reading. It was sad but I felt as though I could see what was going on and what was happening around me. Who I was interacting with, what I was doing. It was terrifyingly real.
I give this book a 3 out of five stars. The writing of the book was fantastic and it was a very good read. But the actual content just wasn't for me, it was too real and parts of the book were scary and too sad to hear. I would skip a couple pages and the same scene would still be going on. Parts of this book were too brutal and very deeply personal. Which is great for someone expecting that but I didn't expect such a heart dropping read.
I would recommend this book to a friend. It's a war story and it is very real and personal. He talks about the combat that he went through and he talks about driving the tank and what he drove through and what he did. Wolfgang Faust was the driver of the truck and he tells the true story of what he went through. Faust explains how his tiger tank went through Russia. Faust talks about the devastating ways he witnessed other men meet there deaths.
My all time favorite quote from this book is “The one certainty in tiger tracks is: follow them long enough and you will eventually arrive at a tiger, unless the tiger arrives at you first.'' This quote shows hope Faust felt that he had to stay ahead of the other men that weren't on his side, this gives an inside look on how he had the constant fear inside of him, and the need he had to constantly be one step ahead of the other side, otherwise he would fall behind. From the surface this is just another quote but if you look further into it you can see what he meant, and how real this really was. How he had to live in fear and how he always had to watch his back, knowing what they were gonna do before they knew it. Overall well constructed book i would recommend it , you just have to know what you're getting into before you read it.

[M K]

Gore to the floor super exciting, horrible account of winning and losing in one of the best Nazi weapon platforms. Several odd inaccuracies mixed with the experienced eye of a front line veteran ; e.g. lots of accurate detail about the peculiarities of tank warfare, including armour arrangements on different faces of the vehicles (and stressing the high vulnerability of tanks to air attack), and the various uses and effects of a variety of weapons. Yet the famously long barreled Panther is given a 75mm kannon instead of its well known 76mm spec. Aircraft shot down twice manage to land on enemy tanks they were attacking (a sturmovik on a Tiger zipping along at 40kp/h, and a stuka on an IS), which might have happened twice in the whole war, probably not within the couple of days covered by this memoir and witnessed by the same German tanker.
Some slapstick like the SS officer running some sort of black market trucking convoy FROM the front lines rearwards, loaded down with cigarettes and booze and even a truck full of whores. This sounds like US deserters in the Paris area circa late 1944. You really cant help chuckling when the hero accidentally reverses his heavy tank over this same SS bady then runs him forward again squished into the Tiger's tracks.
Really there's quite a bit of historical fiction squished into the tracks of brutal truth and horror. The whole is a very gripping tale of survival against the odds in the Ostfront maelstrom from which only two remain standing, which works as a narrative. Its genesis could reasonably be seen through the lens of something the author stresses during the briefly peaceful and even humorous night-time stop over in a secluded little valley ; not just the desire but the burning need of combat veterans to talk over their experiences among themselves, to help them understand and cope. In other words the work feels like a menage of events over the course of many years, from the experiences of many veterans (perhaps including an American or two) compressed into a two-day cluster of extreme adventure.
The theme uppermost in the author's mind seems to be mercy killing in wartime, even as a form of redemption for past sins, which is the story's culmination and conclusion.

[Miikka Lehtonen · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book advertises itself as a memoir. It absolutely, positively is not. Even if you discount the fact that the book omits places, dates, unit identifiers and anything else you'd expect from a memoir or a book retelling historical events, it just doesn't read as anything approaching real life. I won't bother going into too much detail, because ultimately it doesn't matter. Just forget that this book is supposed to be historically accurate, don't even pretend "Wolfgang Faust" is a real person or that the events in the book actually took place. Because as a book, Tiger Tracks is actually fairly entertaining.

The book tells the story of a unit of Tiger tanks, or more accurately the crew of one of them. During a routine assault on the Eastern Front, they capture a seemingly low level female Soviet radio operator and take her as prisoner, figuring she will be able to reveal details about Soviet encryption and so on. The unit is forced to retreat in front of a massive Soviet counter-attack and continue to do so for the duration of the book.

What follows is a bizarre war story of Soviet units tracking down this lone radio operator, brutally gory and action-packed combat scenes and lurid vignettes of frontier bordellos and god knows what else. The book is reasonably well written and quite short, so you'll be able to breeze through it in an evening or two.

Don't bother if you want an actual war time memoir, because you seriously won't find anything approaching actual war experiences here. But if you're into a story of heavy tanks bouncing shells left and right, while firing like machine guns themselves, of turrets flying in the air while charred crew members scatter from it like flakes from a pepper shaker, or of penetrating shots dragging out decapitated tank commanders as they exit the tank's hull, you'll find plenty of that on offer.

[Federico Lucifredi · Rating 4 out of 5]

The memoir of a young Tiger tank driver, serialized on a German newspaper after the war, collected into a volume and translated. The translation falters on occasion, but it is very readable. The story is very violent as war memoirs go, for two reasons. The obvious one is that this is mechanized infantry and tanks, and it is more gruesome and personal than war fought between battleships or from the air — or in a spy story. The second one is that German world war two memoirs tend to eschew dates, names, even geographic locations out of fear of exposing the characters to retribution or prosecution. As a result, the story is entirely about moments and events... and most of the events available to this author were violent ones. Additionally, the serialization format requires that the reader be entertaining, at least in a grim fashion, to hold the readers attention (and the publisher's funding).

Somewhat devoid of historic and military detail, but interesting as we re-live the experiences of a very young tank driver on the Eastern Front. Some reviewers question the authenticity of the memoir, but even if Herr Faust is real, one must observe that there is some dramatization going on, with the author somewhat compelled to describe every engagement, every shot, every death. I can't say the read was enjoyable, but it holds the reader's attention, we just want to know how it all ends for the protagonists. Taking off one star because the violence is a bit too gratuitous for me at times, but the book does deliver what it promises, the memoir of a tank driver, no more and no less.

[Ray Theron · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is not a read for the squeamish. The descriptions of battle are extremely graphic and gory, albeit more realistic than most.

Tiger Tracks is held up to the reader as the memoirs of a tank driver on the Eastern Front, Russia, in October 1943. But is it a memoir? Although the writer clearly knows much about the workings of a Tiger tank, there are aspects of his tale that are so unlike actual memoirs that one is left thinking the work is actually more fiction than fact. For one, nowhere does he mention actual place names, neither do we learn the turret number of his tank, both things actual tank crew usually include in their memoirs usually. One glaring error, too, is their meeting with IS-2 (Iosip Stalin-2) tanks, commonly known as Stalin tanks. This would not have been able to take place in October 1943, as the IS-2 tanks were only taken into use by the Red Army in April 1944. So we are left wondering whether Wolfgang Faust was a real person or the pseudonym of a writer of fiction.

Even so, Tiger Tracks is an exciting read (if one's not squeamish or of tender sensibilities!) and I did enjoy it, even though the writing is not always the most polished (which could be due to the translator).

[Krisley Freitas · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ação e carnificina do início ao fim.

O livro narra os acontecimentos de um período de 72 horas vivenciadas pelo autor, motorista de um Tiger I, em uma companhia de 20 tigers na Rússia ocidental em outubro de 1943.

Tirando os três parágrafos da pequena introdução, onde o autor fala sobre a recepção do livro na ocasião de seu lançamento na década de 40, o texto é uma sequência ininterrupta de tiroteios, explosões, seguidas decapitações, membros arremessados, órgãos internos expostos, homens sendo queimados vivos, execuções e inúmeros tiros de 88 mm dos tigers no confronto contra os T34s, tanques Stalin, bombardeiros Sturmovik e brigadas de Katyusha (inclusive os foguetes incendiários que eram preenchidos com material similar ao dos lança-chamas).

O único ponto negativo do livro é a falta de contextualização dos acontecimentos, com leitor sendo jogado no meio da batalha sem muita informação. Além disso não há análises históricas e nem muitas opiniões do autor sobre os eventos.

Leitura rápida e num estilo de escrita de ficção, recomendo.