I enjoyed reading Raymond Bagdonas’ book “The Devil's
General: The Life of Hyazinth Strachwitz -The Panzer Graf”.
If you are looking for a scholarly tome on the life of Hyazinth Strachwitz you
will be disappointed. Against the backdrop of events in Germany and Europe from
the early days of his education through the thirty-year period World War One,
the interwar years, World War Two, and ending with his life after the war the author tells
the story of Hyazinth Strachwitz and the units he served in and lead. I really
liked the description of the post-First World War life of the aristocracy and
their adaptability to the interwar and changes under Hitler.
While the conclusions drawn in some areas, like why he
joined the SS, were general and without scholarly documentation, the author
used sound logic based on available information in making these assumptions.
The author takes the reader from Hyazinth Strachwitz’s early family history,
education World War I, the interwar years to the invasion of Poland, to France
and then Romania and Yugoslavia are just prelude to World War II on the Eastern
Front.
Beginning with Operation Babarossa and continuing through
the battles of Dubno, Uman, Nikolayev, Kiev, Kalach we see the leadership of Hyazinth
Strachwitz in action with the Panzers. The journey continues down the road to
Stalingrad, his promotion to Colonel and regimental commander in the
Grossdeutschland Division. Battles at Kharkov, the plot to kill Adolph Hitler,
Operations Citadel and Strachwitz and the battles of Kursk, Tukum and Germany.
He surrendered to the US forces in May 1945.
We learned that Hyazinth Strachwitz was held as a prisoner
June 1947. We learn his wife was run over and killed by an American truck. We see
him move to Syria to work with the Syrian military, then go to Italy, and
finally return to Germany in 1951 where he lived until dying of lung cancer in
1968.
While the book isn’t a scholarly treatment of Hyazinth
Strachwitz, it is an important work that documents his actions and gives great
insights into the use of the panzers on the eastern front.
“The Devil's General: The Life of Hyazinth Strachwitz -The
Panzer Graf” by Raymond Bagdonas. The publisher is Casemate Publishing.
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