This WWII memoir by a decorated Nazi officer and war criminal offers a vivid account of German operations across Europe and the Eastern Front.

Known for his bold and aggressive leadership, Kurt “Panzer” Meyer was one of the most highly decorated German soldiers of World War II. He successively commanded a motorcycle company, a reconnaissance battalion, a grenadier regiment, and the Hitler Youth Panzer Division.

Meyer also saw intense combat across Europe: the invasion of Poland, the fall of France, the sweep through the Balkans and Greece, the bitter fighting on the Eastern Front, and the 1944 campaign in Normandy, where he fell into Allied hands and was charged with war crimes. His firsthand account, written with unmatched vividness and immediacy, conveys the grim reality of war.