Jackboot a History of the German Soldier

Jackboot is a great perspective on the German soldier, from the time of Frederick the First until the end of World War Two and afterwards. It’s a candid, unbiased view but is not apologetic. A very interesting read.

Jackboot John Laffin has over a hundred books to his credit. “Jackboot” tells the story of the German soldier over a period of more than two centuries, from 1713 to 1945. The heavy hand of Fredrick the Great continued to influence German military affairs and the minds of the Prussian officer class long after his death. He did have the virtue of success, something that his would be imitator, Adolf Hitler, cannot claim. Author Laffin brushes over the campaigns and battles, the tactics and weapons to focus on the mind of the German soldier and of his leaders. I found the sections on modern day psychological evaluation to be fascinating. The Germans did not evaluate future combat leaders in the same way that other nations do, not by a long shot. If you are looking for a different sort of a look at the German Army, a long hard look that goes a long way to explain how it was able to withstand the whole of Europe and America in World War II, take a gander at “Jackboot”. You will not be disappointed.

A brilliant story of a German Infantryman.

When I saw this book I knew I had to read it because it was going to be about the true history of the German Army and not full of anti German propaganda. After the intro there are quotes from some famous germans, mostly from the military, who glorify war. Then the book starts with the Prussian king Frederick William's lust for building up his army in the early 18th century and from there it talks about Pruissa's army conquests and losses all the way up until the 1950's. The book is full of little interesting tidbits about the German military like how they came to look at war and how they trained which is what helped them become the world's best military time and time again through it's history. The book is very easy to read through and you'll be done in no time. I did have some problems with the book like how they only talked about the Prussian army and not the other german armies out there like Austria's. Another thing that really bothered me is that the author wants you not to think about the Germans as Jew hating Nazis but as a war loving people. The author goes on about how all the Germans love war and that's all they want in life, including todays Germans. It is true that the Germans loved war but that was a long time ago and I think that things have changed after all a lot of Germanic cultures also loved war a long time ago but you don't hear anything about the Scandinavians still wanting to go on Viking raids or about the English trying to takeover the seas again. This book might turn people off to the Germans if they think that they all love and want war until each and every one of them is dead, but if you can ignore the author's personal beliefs about Germans loving war then I'm sure that you'll enjoy this informative book.

Laffin has a great idea. He wants to examine the characteristics of German soldiers and German militantcy since Prussian times. He tells us early on that he wants to overcome steretypes and "tell it like it is." What the reader gets is a history light version of the German military over the course of two hundred years, full of generalizations, and stereotypes. Unfortunately, some of Laffin's favorite rhetorical crutches are comments like "in typical German fashion", "...having the typical methodical Prussian mind...", and "They set about planning it at once, in typical Germanic style..." The French army is in one case defeated because of "effeminacy." Some of the ideas presented seem to be more opinion than carefully researched analysis. Finally, Laffin's conclusion (writing in 1965) is that German officers are intentionally making the Bundeswehr look bad in NATO exercises as part of a conspiracy which will see German soldiers on the march again to dominate Europe. Well, even in 1965 that was laughable. Anyone familiar with Germans today is well aware that it would take decades of militant socialization for Germans to ever again march on a neighboring capital... unless it was a protest march on Brussels. The best parts of this book, and those worth reading, were written by someone else. The chapters on WWI and WWII are full of excerpts from soldier diaries and letters and are absolutely fascinating. So, if you read this book, realize you will have to wade through a lot of opinionated garbledy-gook on your way to the good stuff. And, in Laffin's favor, he does make some effort to portray the German soldier as a patriot, instead of simply a Nazi stooge as too many historians are likely to do. On the other hand, he does at times lapse into all kinds of steretypes about Germany and Germans.

I thought the book offers a combination of a good general military history of Prussia and Germany over the last 250 years plus some very interesting insights into German military theory and training. Chapters XVII and XVIII were the most interesting. Chapter XVII argues that the Allies erred in 1918 in not demanding that the German army leadership formally surrender. Instead, the Allies negotiated with Mathias Erzberger and other political leaders of the new Weimar Republic government. This supposedly allowed the Army leaders to formulate the myth that they had not been defeated on the battlefield but had been "stabbed in the back" by a weak civilian government and socialist-dominated populace. It's an interesting argument but I doubt that it would have made much difference. Defeated generals have found ways for centuries, if not millennia, to blame others for their failures. Chapters XVIII and XIX describe the German Army approaches to psychology in the 1920s and 1930s to indoctrinate soldiers for war and select officers for command positions. I don't know if Laffin is correct in his assessment or if he merely got carried away with the subject. He offers a more comprehensive review of the subject than I have found in any other book.

Finaly! An author who has the courage to give the lorals (and expose the pitfalls) of German soldiers from the 18th century, through WWII. I was aghast to find that in my college senior level WWII history class, our sole text on the Whermacht was written by a former Israeli solidier! As a grand-child of soldiers of Germany, I applaud this book and would recommend it to anyone interested in a realistic, soldiers view, of the German Armies.

The sub-title is "The story of the German Soldier." The sub-title really should have been "The story of the history of the German Army, lite." There are plenty of titles about that already. I had hoped for the perspective and role of the alleged sub-title: the individual private or sergeant in the barracks or on the parade-ground within the context of a large organization. The book instead focuses on the generals, princes, and Kaisers -- which more than enough has been written.