Grenadiers

Known for his bold and aggressive leadership, Kurt "Panzer" Meyer was one of the most highly decorated German soldiers of World War II. Successively commanding a motorcycle company, a reconnaissance battalion, a grenadier regiment, and the Hitler Youth Panzer Division, Meyer saw intense combat across Europe: the invasion of Poland, the fall of France in 1940, the sweep through the Balkans and Greece, the bitter fighting on the Eastern Front, and the 1944 campaign for 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 as well as the bravery of the young men he commanded.