Book Review – Tiger Tracks

Tony F dives into an explosive WW2 memoir – or does he? Tiger Tracks by Wolfgang Faust Written in the late 1940s by a former Tiger tank driver, this book supposedly shocked the post-war German public in its depiction of the savagery of the fighting on the Eastern front. It tells the story of a Tiger company during a 3-day battle to defend a river crossing point and allow as much of the retreating German army to escape as possible. The first thing to point out is that the book is remarkably vague about where and when all of this took place. There are no town or village names, we don’t know the name of the river and can only assume that the action takes place in Russia. But there are also hints that we are close to the border with Germany as Faust worries about the Red Army reaching the territory of the Reich. Hardly anyone is named apart from the crew of the Tiger tank that is the centre of the action. We follow Faust’s tank and its crew through a series of delaying actions as they…