Product Review

Attacks is the most accurate English translation available today of Erwin Rommel's World War I military classic, Infanterie Greift An. Other publishers continue to reprint the 1944 US Army translation that was published under the title, Infantry Attacks, but those abridged editions are missing passages as well as a number of important drawings and sketch maps. The Army translation also suffered from a hurried wartime effort and contains numerous errors. Athena Press's Attacks is the only unabridged English edition that corrects these flaws with a revised translation and an improved collection of battle illustrations that are much easier to understand than the originals.

As the autobiographical record of a Great Captain, Attacks is a book of historical interest and importance. In tracing Rommel's development from a green lieutenant to a confident, seasoned and singularly successful commander, it provides keen insight into his mind and character. It is, as well, an important treatise on combat leadership and psychology, and contains many valuable lessons for those who would raise and train armies. Prime among these lessons is the reminder that men are the key element in combat; that it is the will, spirit and skill of men, led by competent and courageous officers that win battles; that high morale is developed by the accomplishment of difficult tasks.