Introduction:  A German friend once stated, “Der Sieger schriebt die Geschichte.”  (Translation:  The victor writes the history.)  His implication was that, whether intentional or unintentional, most of the post-war battle narratives continue to tell the story of the war from the victor’s standpoint or bias.  In the author’s opinion this appears to be the case.  One can still read of the courageous, but green doughboys taking on the experienced Hun and winning the war (by themselves)—with little consideration of the relative strength of the units involved, the exhaustion of the German army, the offensives undertaken at other points along the front, etc.  This is slowly changing:  There have been an increasing number of books on the German Army published in English in recent years, with many, surprisingly, coming from British authors.  When researching a particular battle or war, there is no real substitute for reading and understanding the literature and source documents of both sides.  However, this bibliography will give readers who do not speak German a basic understanding of the German Army.

 

Strategy, War-Making, Homefront, etc.

Asprey, Robert B.  The German High Command at War:  Hindenburg and Ludendorff Conduct World War 1.  New York:  William Morrow and Company, 1991.

Mosier, John.  The Myth of the Great War:  How the Germans Won the Battles and How the Americans Saved the Allies.  New York:  HarperCollins, 2001.

Mosier, John.  Verdun:  The Lost History of the Most Important Battle of World War 1, 1914-1918.  New York:  Penguin Group (USA), 2013.

Moyer, Laurence.  Victory Must be Ours:  Germany in the Great War, 1914-1918.  New York:  Hippocrene Books, 1995.

Watson, Alexander.  Enduring the Great War:  Combat, Morale and Collapse in the German and British Armies, 1914 – 1918.  London:  Cambridge University Press, 2009.

Wynne, Captain G.C.  Landrecies to Cambrai:  Case Studies of German Offensive and Defensive Operations on the Western Front 1914-17.  Solihull, West Midlands:  Helion & Company Limited, 2011.

Zabecki, David T.  The German 1918 Offensives:  A Case Study in the Operational Level of War. Abingdon, Oxon:  Routledge, 2006.

Zuber, Terence.  The Battle of the Frontiers:  Ardennes 1914.  Gloucestershire:  Tempus Publishing, 2007.

 

Reference Works

British General Staff. German Forces in the Field, 11 November, 1918. London: Imperial War Museum and Nashville: The Battery Press, Inc., 1995.

British General Staff. Vocabulary of German Military Terms and Abbreviations. (Second Edition, July 1918.) London: Imperial War Museum and Nashville: The Battery Press, Inc., 1995.

Cron, Hermann. Imperial German Army: Organization, Structure, Orders of Battle. Solihull, West Midlands: Helion & Company Limited, 2002.

Nash, David. German Army Handbook April 1918. New York: Hippocrene Books, 1977.

Robinson, Janet, Col. (Ret.) and Robinson, Joe, Col. (Ret.)  Handbook of Imperial Germany.  Bloomington, IN:  AuthorHouse, 2009.

U.S. War Department. History of 251 Divisions of the German Army Which Participated in the War (1914 – 1918). First published in 1920 as War Department Document No. 905. Office of the Adjutant General. Reprinted in London: The London Stamp Exchange Limited, 1989.

 

Biographies and Autobiographies

Bloem, Walter, author and Wynne, C.G., translator.  The Advance from Mons 1914:  The Experiences of a German Infantry Officer.  Solihull, West Midlands:  Helion & Company Limited, 2004.

Jünger, Ernst.  The Storm of Steel:  From the Diary of a German Storm-Troop Officer on the Western Front.  New York:  Howard Fertig, 1996.

Nagel, Fritz.  Fritz:  The World War I Memoirs of a German Lieutenant.  Huntington, WV:  Der Angriff Publications, 1981.

Rommel, Erwin, General Field Marshal.  Infantry Attacks.  London:  Greenhill Books, 1990.

Rosenhainer, Ernst, author, and Hance, Ilse R., translator and editor.  Forward March!  Memoirs of a German Officer.  Shippensburg, PA:  White Main Books, 2000.

Sulzbach, Herbert.  With the German Guns:  Four Years on the Western Front.  Barnsley, South Yorkshire:  Pen & Sword Books Limited, 2003.

Witkop, Philipp, ed.  German Students’ War Letters.  Philadelphia:  Pine Street Books, an imprint of the University of Pennsylvania Press, 2002.

 

Novels

Renn, Ludwig.  War.  London:  Martin Secker, 1929.  A Naval & Military Press reprint.