Tigers in the Mud is the combat narrative of Otto Carius, one of the most successful Panzer Commanders of the Eastern Front, who destroyed hundreds of tanks and won the Knights Cross with Oak Leaves. After being long out of print, Stackpole Books has reprint this fantastic account of Panzer warfare on the Eastern Front in an affordable paper back.

Otto Carrius comes across not only as an effective leader and smart tactician, but a proud soldier. He frequently blends into the narrative his own sentiments about “the defamation of the German soldier”; believing that he and his fellow soldiers did the right thing, their duty. This doesn’t make Otto a Nazi, or the book a glorification of Germany’s aggression, but rather infuses the book with an honesty and openness that is so often suppressed in combat narratives of German soldiers.

The book focuses on several key battles during Otto’s career Commanding Tiger tanks in the 502nd Heavy Tank Battalion. During these accounts the reader is shown some of the glaring weaknesses of the Tiger and Jagdtiger tanks in addition to their strengths under the direction of a competent commander. And like evey commander in battle, Otto faces the frustrations of chain of command, friendly fire, green leaders and the absolute chaos of the battlefield. Although Otto’s Panzers personally take a huge toll on the Russian tanks, his respect for them is clear.

In the closing days of the war Otto is assigned to the 512th Jagdtiger Battalion on the Western Front where he is eventually encircled in the Ruhr pocket. It was interesting to learn Otto’s total dissatisfaction with the Jagdtiger. From a gaming perspective this tank is often very powerful, as it was on paper in 1945. However in the field it suffered from fundamental design flaws that any competent Panzer leader would have identified on the drawing board.

Tigers in the Mud is an excellent read for anyone interested in a detailed, first hand account of Panzer warfare.