Bayerlein: After Action Reports of the Panzer Lehr Division Commander From D-Day to the Ruhr

by P.A. Spayd (Editor), Gary Wilkins

Generalleutnant Fritz Bayerlein, Commander of the Panzer Lehr Division, wrote twenty manuscripts while interred as a U.S. Army prisoner of war from April 1945 until his release from captivity two years later. The entire series of manuscripts, commonly referred to as "Foreign Military Studies", was prepared post-war by hundreds of senior German officers at the direction of the U.S. Army's Historical Division. Bayerlein cooperated whole-heartedly and honestly with the U.S. Army, telling his own version of events as they unfolded, starting with the creation of the famous Panzer Lehr Division. Bayerlein recounts his experiences through the horrors of D-Day, his retreat to the Rhine, the failed Ardennes Offensive, and on to his final days of fighting with his LIII Armeekorps in the Ruhr Pocket. All of General Bayerlein's manuscripts are presented here, compiled into a chronological narrative of his experiences with his Panzer Lehr Division from the Allied Invasion of Normandy to his surrender of the LIII Armeekorps in the Ruhr pocket in the last days of World War II. Bayerlein also wrote several comparisons of his Panzers - Tigers and Panthers - with other armored vehicles, including Russian and American armor. This in-depth analysis, long hidden in boxes in the National Archives and Records Administration, is presented. This is the third book in a series on Bayerlein's life and military career and contains 140 black and white photos, of which thirty are from his family's private collection and have not been previously published, as well as thirty maps hand-drawn by Bayerlein while a prisoner of war.

Hardcover

First published February 3, 2006

About the author

Biographer of the 4 book series of German General Frtiz Bayerlein - Rommel's Chief-of-Staff, and later CO of Panzer Lehr Division, LIII Armee Korps and Korps Gruppe Bayerlein.
I hope you all enjoy and learn from this extensive saga of Bayerlein - I know I had a grand adventure on the research trail - and the highlights were the most incredible people I met along the way. I truly enjoyed their company, thought the world of them and grieved when they passed. Many told me the stories of the war, sad, but it is the story of a time in which we needed to remove evil men from power. Unfortunately, we now are facing the evil.
God Help Us.