An international bestseller, this is a German soldier's first-hand account of life on the Russian Front during the second half of the Second World War.'Fascinating . . . a painful personal history' New York Times'To his reader . . . Sajer, doomed to survival, may be as moving as an argument against war as all the corpses he unflinchingly bears witness to' Time MagazineWhen Guy Sajer joins the infantry full of idea...

This book recounts the horror of World War II on the eastern front, as seen through the eyes of a teenaged German soldier. At first an exciting adventure, young Guy SajerÆs war becomes, as the German invasion falters in the icy vastness of the Ukraine, a simple, desperate struggle for survival against cold, hunger, and above all the terrifying Soviet artillery. As a member of the elite Gross Deutschland Division, he fought in all the great battles from Kursk to Kharkov.His German footsoldie...

Once I Had a Comrade is the story of the author's German father-in-law, Karl Roth, who grew up during the tumultuous 1930s in the Franconian town of Schweinfurt, located in northern Bavaria, and of his regiment, 36th Panzer Regiment. When the Second World War began, he found himself conscripted into the army and assigned as maintenance private to the headquarters company of Schweinfurt's new branch of service, the 36th Panzer Regiment, assigned to 4th Panzer Division until November 1940, 1...

"This unique memoir tells the story of one of the field-grade officers whose martial skills sustained the Third Reich against a world in arms."— Library JournalPanzer Commander is one of the classic memoirs of the Second World War. A professional soldier, Hans von Luck joined the Panzerwaffe in its earliest days, where he served under Erwin Rommel, and went on to fight in the Blitzkrieg in Poland, France and the Soviet Union. He then served with t...

The memoir of a reluctant soldier coerced into military service by the Nazis and driven from his homeland by the Russians.Following the conquest of his native Latvia by the Nazis, Mintauts Blosfelds was given the stark choice: service in the SS or forced labor in a slave camp. So he "volunteered" to fight for the Nazis.In this memoir he describes his training and how he became an instructor before being sent into Russia. He nearly perished during the terrib...

One German soldier's experience in the deadly crucible of World War II combat.Like many Germans, Berlin schoolboy Erwin Bartmann fell under the spell of the Zeitgeist cultivated by the Nazis. Convinced he was growing up in the best country in the world, he dreamt of joining the Leibstandarte, Hitler's elite Waffen SS unit. Erwin fulfilled his dream on May Day 1941, when he walked into the Lichterfelde barracks in Berlin as a raw recruit. On arrival at the Eastern F...

Dutch SS accounts are very rare, particularly ones such as this, covering recruitment, training, and front-line service first with 5th SS Panzer Division 'Wiking', then later with SS Regiment Besslein. He not only informs and illustrates the general politics of the time, but also explains how Dutch views of the Third Reich changed so radically, discusses the founding of the Waffen-SS, the recruitment of Dutch volunteers into it and why so many non-German Europeans volunteered to fight and ...

"Drawn from letters, diaries and memoirs, this impressive study presents a rounded, detailed picture of the daily life" for frontline Nazi soldiers (Publishers Weekly).Stephen G. Fritz explores the day-to-day reality of the average German infantryman—or Landser—during World War II. Through letters, diaries, memoirs, and oral histories, most of which describe life on the Russian front, Fritz presents a richly textured portrait of the Landser that illustrate...

A gripping memoir of a Soviet sniper who fought against the Nazis during the siege of Leningrad and throughout World War II.Joseph Pilyushin, a top Red Army sniper in the ruthless fight against the Germans on the Eastern Front, was an exceptional soldier. His first-hand account of his wartime service gives a graphic insight into his lethal skill with a rifle and into the desperate fight put up by Soviet forces to defend Leningrad.Pilyushin, who lived in Lenin...

The 5th SS Division Wiking was the first 'international' – i.e. largely non-German – Waffen-SS division and the only German panzer division comprised largely of foreign troops. Approximately 75 per cent of the division's strength were non-German nationals, all volunteers, and the majority from occupied countries like Belgium, Holland, France, Denmark, and Norway.The Wiking division operated exclusively on the Eastern Front during World War II, where the division quickly earned itsel...

A biography of the second most successful sniper of the German Wehrmacht and one of the few private soldiers to be honored with the Knights Cross award.An Austrian conscript who qualified as a Wehrmacht machine gunner, Josef "Sepp" Allerberger was drafted to the southern sector of the Russian Front in July 1942. Wounded at Voroshilovsk, he experimented with a Russian sniper-rifle while convalescing and so impressed his superiors with his proficiency that he was retu...

Throughout World War II, German snipers were obliged to carry a 'Scharfshützen Buch' which recorded every kill. Each success noted had to be verified by a witness and signed by a superior officer.The journal of Sutkus is one of only a few such books to have survived the war. It records more than 200 kills, placing him as one of the war's most successful snipers. A large part of his journal is reproduced for the first time here.As a Hitler Youth member his skill as a marksman was quickly no...