StuG III Brigade 191, 1940-1945

The Buffalo Brigade in Action in the Balkans, Greece and from Moscow to Kursk and Sevastopol

De: Bruno Bork, Anthony Tucker-Jones - foreword

Narrado por: Bruce Mann

Based on their experiences during the First World War, the Reichswehr decided that the infantry support gun of the future should be an armored, motorized vehicle: the Sturmgeschütz III. The weapon was used in the 'fire brigade role' at hotspots along the Front, where it was much feared by enemy forces.

This volume tells the tale of Brigade 191, aka the 'Buffalo Brigade', who used the Sturmgeschütz III as they took part in Operation Barbarossa in the Ukraine, saw action during the fight for Greece in 1941 and were deployed to the areas of heaviest fighting in the campaign against the Soviet Union. This began with the infantry advance from Ukraine to Moscow: then to Voronezh, Kursk, the Caucasus and Kuban, then the Kertsch Peninsula and the Crimea, before they were evacuated from Sevastopol into Romania. On the Southeast Front, the Brigade fought its way into Austria and was still fighting on the last day of the war to keep a corridor open.

Keen to write an account recording the tactical significance of the Sturmgeschütz III, while surviving members of Brigade 191 also wished for a cohesive documentary record of the war, Bork set about gathering military records and literature, as well as interviewing as many ex-Brigade men as possible, in order to bring this detailed account into being.

©2021 Greenhill Books; Foreword copyright 2021 by Greenhill Books (P)2023 Tantor

Ruined by awful narrator

I am a big fan of the StuG III and really wanted to know more about their exploits. The writing isn't great prose. While I appreciate that translating from the German into English and then getting it to flow well isn't easy, there are enough other books that have achieved this perfectly well. So, ok, the writing doesn't convey the level of excitement that it could, but that's acceptable.

The narration, however, is simply atrocious and Bruce Mann should not be allowed to narrate anything. With the number of talented voice actors, I can't believe that anyone went "Sure, this guy conveys interest and passion about the topic". I mean, he is just *awful*. He is completely monotone and shows no appreciation that he has the slightest empathy for what he is reading. It might as well be cricket scores; it's that dull.

I appreciate that we can't have Sean Pratt narrate every book there is, but really, Bruce Mann has to be one of the very worst out there; almost anyone else would have been better.

Really, if the book was re-done with a different narrator, it could be worthwhile. But as it is, his dullness makes concentrating on it virtually impossible, and then you start realizing how much better it could have been, and you're distracted again.

Please have someone else re-narrate the book -- the soldiers of the Buffalo Bridge deserve a better treatment of their legacy.