TIGERS IN THE MUD - MEMOIRS OF OTTO CARIUS THE ACE WITH 150 VICTORIES

It took 60 years for Tigers in the Mud, the war memoirs of Panzer ace Otto Carius (150 victories), to finally be translated into French, despite the existence — beyond the original German edition published in 1960 — of versions in English, Russian, Greek, Estonian, Spanish, Italian, Swedish, as well as Chinese and Japanese!

Devoured by tens of thousands of readers worldwide, reprinted seven times in German and English, this account — which inspired many artists, including director and illustrator Hayao Miyazaki, who adapted it into a manga in 1998 — is at last available in French!

Tigers in the Mud is an essential work that every military history enthusiast or specialist in mechanised warfare must have read. It is a raw first-hand account, written less than ten years after the end of the war, by a soldier who lived through the events.

Carius is an antihero, a sickly and frail patriot, who finds himself thrust to the command of a Tiger company in the most epic of military campaigns: the war in the East, the Ostfront. Nothing predisposed him to this, and he recounts with honesty his strengths and weaknesses, his doubts and his certainties. Anecdotes abound and one learns a great deal about the Tiger, tank combat, living conditions on board and at the front, and the mindset of the Landser from 1941 to 1945. Carius spares us nothing, he does not glorify himself and avoids melodramatic narration. Nor does he conceal a certain admiration for the tenacity of his Soviet enemy.

Tigers in the Mud creates a fascinating atmosphere and a particular bond with the reader; one is placed in the turret, as a privileged witness, and comes to understand that it is not so much the tank that wins the battle, but the man at the controls. The success rests on the shoulders of the crew.

Tigers in the Mud is a gripping and precious book, a classic that one cannot put down once started.

- Softcover
- 230 pages (approx.)
- Format 23 x 15 cm
- Photo section including photographs
from the Carius private collection,
and sketches by the author