In his memoirs he describes the stiffening Soviet resistance and problems the German forces faced relating to weather and road conditions. If you want to know all about tank warfare and what is was like to drive Panzers, Luck talks surprisingly little about the machines and the maneuvers themselves. The flip side of this memoir, has been argued why this soldier didn't quit if he knew what Hitler and the Nazi's were doing.

Hans–Ulrich Freiherr von Luck und Witten (15 July 1911 – 1 August 1997), usually shortened to Hans von Luck, was a German officer in the Wehrmacht of Nazi Germany during World War II. In his memoir Luck describes the division's crossing of the Meuse and Rommel's active role in gaining the crossing. The British launched a counterattack ( Battle of Arras) with Matilda tanks, and the Germans found their 3. The transfer was approved in late January once the crisis of the Soviet winter offensive had passed. Apart from a failed German attack on 15 June, the sector was relatively quiet for the next two weeks.

After North Africa and leave in Berlin Luck was assigned in August 1943 as instructor at a panzer reconnaissance school in Paris.

The division participated in creating the large pocket around Smolensk, cutting the Smolensk–Moscow road. After Vitebsk, Luck was again assigned as commander of the Armoured Reconnaissance Battalion, after the previous commander was killed in action. In the afternoon the first elements of the 1st SS Division Leibstandarte SS Adolf Hitler had moved up in support and the situation was somewhat stabilized.Sajer wanted to shine light on the appalling suffering of the ordinary German soldier in the East, whereas von Luck's (worthy) agenda is to bring together former enemies in an embrace of mutual respect, forgiveness, tolerance and understanding, unity to make sure the conflict that engulfed the world 1939-45 is never allowed to happen again.

It comes down to this: no one wants to look the coward before friends, or to let them down at critical moments. m. Luck attempted to break through to the Orne river bridges at Bénouville with his armoured personnel carriers, but heavy fire from the warships supporting the British paratroopers, under Major John Howard, holding the bridges drove his forces back. On 4 November the XX Italian Corps had been surrounded, and a 20 km gap had appeared in the German lines. I wondered if he was avoiding the label of Nazi but considering how people went out their way to help him while at the Gulags and after the war. Over the next six years he was constantly in action in every major theatre of the war, and got to know almost every German commander of note.Tales of human determination, ingenuity, the stoic mindset are a characteristic of the book and you will definitely be left wanting more. German Colonel Hans von Luck claims that he and his men had no idea of what went on "behind the barbed wire" of the concentration camps, which then raises another question - is it possible for a German who served in such a high position in the military during that time to have remained ignorant of Nazi atrocities in the camps? The British paratroopers had been reinforced by the British 51st (Highland) Division on the evening of 8 June. It makes you wonder what might have happened to the Para units if they were hit before they could organize their defenses. During 19 July Luck's Kampfgruppe, still supported by the SS armour, held the British at bay, counterattacking on the flanks and causing them heavy losses.

Starting one hour before dawn to avoid the worst of the British naval and aerial support, the Kampfgruppe advanced on the village of Ranville, dislodging the enemy there, but it could not penetrate the British lines to reach the bridges. Luck, now a major, assumed command over the 3rd Panzer Reconnaissance Battalion of the 21st Panzer Division.This is a book that could be read quickly like a novel, but in doing so one will miss the opportunity to ponder on things that are said by a very human individual that has experienced war at its worst! Unable to check the advancing American armour, all the German divisions in Normandy were in danger of being encircled.