The Last Panther
Slaughter of the Reich - The Halbe Kessel 1945
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The Last Panther
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Narrated by:
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George Backman
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By:
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Wolfgang Faust
About this listen
While the Battle of Berlin in 1945 is widely known, the horrific story of the Halbe Kessel remains largely untold. In April 1945, victorious Soviet forces encircled 80,000 men of the German 9th Army in the Halbe area, South of Berlin, together with many thousands of German women and children. The German troops, desperate to avoid Soviet capture, battled furiously to break out toward the West, where they could surrender to the comparative safety of the Americans. For the German civilians trapped in the Kessel, the quest to escape took on frantic dimensions, as the terror of Red Army brutality spread.
The small town of Halbe became the eye of the hurricane for the breakout, as King Tigers of the SS Panzer Corps led the spearhead to the West, supported by Panthers of the battle-hardened 21st Panzer Division. Panzer by panzer, unit by unit, the breakout forces were cut down - until only a handful of Panthers, other armour, battered infantry units and columns of shattered refugees made a final escape through the rings of fire to the American lines. This first-hand account by the commander of one of those Panther tanks relates with devastating clarity the conditions inside the Kessel, the ferocity of the breakout attempt through Halbe, and the subsequent running battles between overwhelming Soviet forces and the exhausted Reich troops, who were using their last reserves of fuel, ammunition, strength and hope.
Eloquent German-perspective accounts of World War 2 are surprisingly rare, and the recent reissue of Wolfgang Faust's 1948 memoir Tiger Tracks has fascinated readers around the world with its insight into the Eastern Front. In The Last Panther, Faust used his unique knowledge of tank warfare to describe the final collapse of the Third Reich and the murderous combat between the German and Russian armies. He gives us a shocking testament to the cataclysmic final hours of the Reich, and the horrors of this last eruption of violence among the idyllic forests and meadows of Germany.
©2015 The Estate of Wolfgang Faust; Bayern Classic Publications (P)2016 Audible, Inc.Listeners also enjoyed...
What listeners say about The Last Panther
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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- Amazon Customer
- 05-10-19
An excellent book!
An incredible depiction of the final days of the Eastern Front, which was now in the heart of Germany. I do feel that the author wound into the fabric of this depiction, several other persons experiences but this actually adds to weight of this often unspoken perspective of WW2. I highly recommend this audio book.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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- Anonymous User
- 04-12-20
memories with a view
gripping hard memories of a tank commander during a retreat from the Russian hoardes.
Brilliant.
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- Mrs
- 14-09-16
Stunning!
If you know your history from this part of the WW2, then it's a must read.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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- Anonymous User
- 04-06-17
Powerful WW2 Tank Warfare
Factual, horrific portrayal of the last days of Nazi Germany. Gripping storyline and details of tank combat. Violence and mass slaughter are frequently depicted, reflecting the desperate days of civilians, as well as military personnel in Germany in the last days.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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- Russell Tomlinson
- 27-07-17
An excellent account of life on the frontline
A gripping account of one young German tank commander's view of the chaos of the collapse of the Third Reich.It makes for tragic but compulsive listening.Aside from that it gives a great idea of the practicalities of operating a Panther and how deadly Russian armour was at the end of the war.A great listen.
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1 person found this helpful
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- STEPHEN COATES
- 02-10-19
Thin line of hope.
An Excellent book,read by an Excellent narrator, with an Excellent story line. Check it out and see. Just listen and enjoy. " The Last Panther "
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- john lockwood
- 05-08-18
from the German side
Great book and story from a German prospective of the last few weeks of the 2nd world war's forgotten battle.
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- Anonymous User
- 12-03-17
Shocking period history
Fascinating listen and you have to think it's about right. A slaughter from the east
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- Jayceon1888
- 13-06-18
This is the uncensored version of the brutality of war
This book is the second book by the author Wolfgang Faust, this name is a pseudonym so there is parts of the book I find a little hard to believe but when looking up this book I found out the original manuscript was written just after the war 47-48. Even if some parts are dramatised this is a book that tells the true brutality of the fighting on the eastern front, not like other books that describe battles in a sanitised manor. For those who enjoy world war 2 books then this book describes a massive battle mainly forgotten by today’s historians, the battle of the halbe pocket when a mixture of the German 9th army SS battalions and German civilians trying to escape the oncoming Red Army were surrounded in the Forrest’s around a town called halbe. The details are brutal but war is brutal. Great book
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- Matt
- 26-01-20
Insight of the desperate last days of the Nazis
Amazing insight of human interaction when death and uncertainty exist. I like tanks but never realised what it was like to actually live and fight in one
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