Listen free for 30 days

Listen with offer

Preview

£0.00 for first 30 days

Thousands of incredible audiobooks and podcasts to take wherever you go.
Immerse yourself in a world of storytelling with the Plus Catalogue - unlimited listening to thousands of select audiobooks, podcasts and Audible Originals.
£7.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.

Panzer Ace

By: Richard Freiherr von Rosen, Robert Forczyk
Narrated by: Nigel Patterson
Try for £0.00

£7.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically.

Buy Now for £18.99

Buy Now for £18.99

Pay using card ending in
By completing your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use and authorise Audible to charge your designated card or any other card on file. Please see our Privacy Notice, Cookies Notice and Interest-based Ads Notice.

Summary

Richard Freiherr von Rosen was a highly decorated Wehrmacht soldier and outstanding panzer commander. After serving as a gunlayer on a Pz.Mk.III during Barbarossa, he led a company of Tigers at Kursk. Later he led a company of King Tiger panzers at Normandy and in late 1944 commanded a battle group (12 King Tigers and a flak company) against the Russians in Hungary in the rank of junior, later senior lieutenant (from November 1944, his final rank). Only 489 of these King Tiger tanks were ever built. They were the most powerful heavy tanks to see service, and only one kind of shell could penetrate their armor at a reasonable distance. Every effort had to be made to retrieve any of them bogged down or otherwise immobilized, which led to many towing adventures.

The author has a fine memory and eye for detail. His account is easy to listen to and not technical, and adds substantially to the knowledge of how the German Panzer Arm operated in the Second World War.

©2017 Verlagshaus Würzburg GmbH & Co. KG; English language translation copyright 2018 by Greenhill Books; Robert Forczyk foreword copyright 2018 by Greenhill Books (P)2018 Tantor
activate_Holiday_promo_in_buybox_DT_T2

Listeners also enjoyed...

Tank Action cover art
Blood Red Snow cover art
Panzer Commander cover art
Fur Volk and Fuhrer cover art
Tiger Battalion 507 cover art
Blood, Dust and Snow cover art
Adventures in My Youth cover art
D DAY Through German Eyes cover art
In Deadly Combat cover art
Twilight of the Gods cover art
The Recollections of Rifleman Bowlby cover art
Soldat cover art
The Liri Valley cover art
On to Victory cover art
Panzers on the Eastern Front cover art
Victory Fever on Guadalcanal cover art

What listeners say about Panzer Ace

Average customer ratings
Overall
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    332
  • 4 Stars
    96
  • 3 Stars
    17
  • 2 Stars
    4
  • 1 Stars
    1
Performance
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    307
  • 4 Stars
    67
  • 3 Stars
    21
  • 2 Stars
    1
  • 1 Stars
    2
Story
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    296
  • 4 Stars
    71
  • 3 Stars
    22
  • 2 Stars
    2
  • 1 Stars
    2

Reviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.

Sort by:
Filter by:
  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Superb

So rare that the narration adds to the content but this is a marvellous account of a very brave and good man.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

4 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

enjoyable

Really enjoyed listening to this its amazing how he and his friends around him survived the war. I enjoyed the narration he sounded youthful like the author worked have been at the time.

I've also got the physical book which as lots of photos showing the author and his Tiger, maps etc.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Insightful

Not only exciting, with a great deal of action, but also gives an insight into the daily life of a Panzer crew and the overall feel of the month by month and year by year career of a tank commander. Brilliant.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

Interesting and worth a listen.

My last two audio books were this one and ‘Panzer Gunner’ by Bruno Friesen. This one (Panzer Ace) is far better.
Amongst other things it discusses the hardships of the ‘job’ and the breakdowns, not to mention the battles in the Eastern Front.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Superb insight to an open and honest Soldier.

This book was very informative and concise. Richard Freiherr Von Rosen writes in very specific details without any over glorification of combat. It’s a very honest account of events both about the state of war and the people that put them there.
The final chapters were an eye opener to me as I’ve not really heard much of what happened to German soldiers after the war from a German point of view.
I highly recommend this book (both audio and paper, for the pictures) if you are interested in historic tank tactics and also insight to the German psyche.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

Not bad

It’s very interesting hearing war from the German side, with all the chaos in the last months of the war, overall it’s a good book, but for me it wasn’t as gripping as I was hoping

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Incomplete

Much left unsaid. Much edited. BUT..... yet it retains a sense of honesty of its depiction of a tank man's war and its daily pressures.
I enjoyed this book and would recommend it if it is to be read as just that. The author is what he is and to his credit doesn't try to hide his background, prejudices and his arrogance borne of a privileged family.
A remarkable man who lived through remarkable times.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

Panzer Ace written by the Ace himself.

A personal account from a veteran who served on the front line, wounded, decorated and survived the war to be able to tell his story.

God bless a brave man who did his duty.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Truly rivetting

A very interesting read from the point of view of a German soldier. Interesting to hear an equal dislike for the SS however I simply do not beleive, in the slightest, that the majority of Germans "were not aware" and find it a convenient avenue of excuse from culpability. Regardless, fantastic narration and story.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Story of someone we once called the enemy

My Grandad served in WW2 in British Intelligence so i have always been rather keen on the subject, I'd also definitely call myself a keen reader of WW2 stories and memoirs, but as would be expected these stories have all been from a British or American perspective. I found it quite interesting reading about a persons experiences of the war from the German side of things. For the most part i found myself sympathising with his struggles and had to keep reminding myself that he would have been the enemy from my point of view. However, at the end of the day he was just a small cog in the massive machine that was WW2 and like many others he was just doing his part and fighting for his country, he deserves to be able to tell his story and I'm glad that he did.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!