The quality of writing is excellent. It is vivid and engaging. It paints the finest of verbal pictures and it does so without demonstration of ego. Only pride in service, according to the rites of a military cast that has existed in Central Europe for a thousand years, guarding the East Gate to the benefit of Western Europe.
This is one of few the books that MUST be part of any library that covers any of the aspects covered by the author. It is a book that must be read by Germans and by Europeans because it is one of the building blocks of knowledge that creates the palace of history. That the strong motivation was to honour a young wife’s wish that their children should understand their father and his part in an epic conflict between nations, and to understand their heritage, is, in itself, commendable. That the completed work is shared with any who have the wit to pick up the book and read it is an inestimable bonus.
