Book review: Propaganda in die eigene Truppe: Die Betreuung in der Wehrmacht 1939-1945

ASPECTS of the Third Reich's Truppenbetreuung during the Second World War—the use of live, broadcast and printed media to boost its troops' morale—have been addressed by numerous works. Until now, however, the topic has been considered only selectively, mainly in studies that dealt with the ideological indoctrination of the Wehrmacht as their overall theme. Vossler, however, focuses on all forms of Truppenbetreuung itself, and on the full range of agencies—military and political—that were responsible for providing it. He thus provides a detailed and wide-ranging examination of how it made a twin contribution both to the ideological indoctrination of the troops specifically, and to the bolstering of their morale more generally.

The topic's importance, as Vossler stresses, is restricted not just to the study of one of the Third Reich's most centrally important groupings. For, as evidenced by the initiatives of Anglo-American forces not only during the Second World War, but also in more recent and indeed current conflicts, the practical importance of Truppenbetreuung is both universally recognised and undiminished. Indeed, one of the book's many strengths is Chapter Eleven's contextualising of Wehrmacht Truppenbetreuung, with its consideration of equivalent Anglo-American efforts from the Second World War up to the conflict in Iraq.