Excellent book,I would recommend it to anyone who likes world war 2 history, I liked the attention to detail of the wars engaged in by the German tank,panzer division,They were a formidable force to be reckoned with during world war 2.

Lawrence Paterson http://lawrencepaterson.com is the author of more than 20 WWII history books. The book Fallschirm-Panzer-Division 'Hermann Göring’: A History of the Luftwaffe’s Only Armoured Division, 1933–1945 was published in February o this year.

I categorize this book as ‘G’. The Fallschirm unit dates from 1933. Göring created it for his personal protection. He wanted a force under his control that would rival the SS units controlled by Himmler. It was, in effect, a militarized police unit within the Luftwaffe. Over time it grew in size to a Brigade and finally into a Division.

As the war progressed, the Fallschirm Division was deployed alongside the Wehrmacht. The unit saw action in Poland, the Low Countries, and France during 1939 and 1940. It later saw action on the Eastern Front, then in North Africa. They later confronted the Allies in both Sicily and Italy. As the war wound down to a close, it was pulled back to defend the homeland.

The author details the leaders of the Division as well as the various deployments. It was often broken up, with smaller subunits serving in different areas.

I enjoyed the 11 hours I spent reading this 348-page WWII history. Until I read this book, I did not realize that it was a Luftwaffe Infantry/Panzer unit. I found it particularly interesting that they encountered the US 36th Infantry Division in Italy. The 36th was formed around the Texas National Guard in 1940. I have been a docent the last three years at the Texas Military Forces Museum on Camp Mabry in Austin, Texas. That is the headquarters of the Texas National Guard, and we are the museum for the 36th. I like the chosen cover art. I give this book a rating of 3.6 (rounded up to a 4)out of 5.

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Lawrence Paterson sheds light on the fractured nature of the Third Reich. Only in dictatorships could the idea of a trophy division of the Luftwaffe named after Herman Goering seem like a good idea and actually get implemented. That is the main lesson taken from this book. Worth the time as a teaching tool concerning stupid ideas put forth by higher leadership.

This is a fascinating and detailed account of a special fighting unit created originally as a special police force by Goering In the early 30’s. This along with the Gestapo, also under Goerings control, became political “enforcers” of the Nazi party loyal to Hitler with both playing a significant role in the “night of the long knives” when Hitler redressed the balance of power in his party. Subsequently the Gestapo went under Himmlers control and Goering enlarged and militarized this group bringing it into the Luftwaffe of which he was now Commander in Chief. The book chronicles its growth and development as a fighting force during the blitzkrieg engagements in Poland, Denmark, Norway, Belgium and the Netherlands. Parts of the unit were involved in Operation Barbarossa, the invasion of the Soviet Union. Later on they moved into North Africa, Sicily, Italy and finally back to the Eastern Front fighting the advancing Soviet troops.
The author has obviously extensively researched this book and while there is a lot of detail on the changing make up of the unit and its leadership there are many first hand accounts of the soldiers in battle providing a great insight into the minds of the soldiers and the general morale of the brigade as well as some of the minutia of daily life. There is also extensive coverage of the more shameful side of the units history, that of war crimes committed in Italy, Warsaw and other places. These include large scale reprisal executions of civilian population, raping of women and burning of houses.
I would like to thank Netgalley and Pen and Sword Publishing for allowing me to review this book.

A great look at one of the German panzer groups in WW2. The author does an outstanding job of covering the unit from its creation to the end of the war. The story is well told and full of first hand accounts to keep you in the story. A great read for the war history fans.

Thank you to #NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for my honest review.