Rating: 
Summary: The Best War Book I Ever Read
Review: This is truly the greatest war book I have ever read. It tells the story of WWII from the eyes of the vanquished, not the victors. Guy Sajer, a teenage Frenchman enlisted in the German Army, writes with enlightening style and immense detail. It is an exciting, sad, humorous, and depressing account of how war truly was on the Eastern Front, where the bloodiest fighting of WWII took place. Action-packed, with a great deal of comraderie and friendship involved, this book sets the standard for all WWII novels. It was relieving to read something about the German side of the war and not the American (again!) point of view. If there were more books like this, maybe the full perspective of WWII could be appreciated. Anyone who picks up this book will not be able to put it down again until he is finished reading the story. Guy Sajer really wrote about the side of WWII that still needs telling, and he did an outstanding job of it. If you read this book, you will never forget Sajer, his friends, or the heroic deeds they did.
Rating:
Summary: Coffee shops and the East Front
Review: What makes this book great is the fact that it is a personal account about the hardest fighting in the history of warfare. His accounts on low crawling to the enemy's trench is heart-stopping! I'm not going to write a book report here but I will say that being an avid fan of East Front history, this is definetly the best book I have read.
I can remember sitting in a coffee shop (in Seattle, of course) reading this and actually screaing, "Holy ..." LOL
Rating:
Summary: Excellent
Review: This book is the best I've seen written about the experiences of a soldier in the German army during WWII. Often harrowing and always uncompromising, this book gives a first-hand account of a fighter in the elite Grossdeutchsland army unit on the Eastern front and the trials he went through. Sajer shows that valor can wear many uniforms as he describes his introduction to combat during the early days in the war with Russia to the inevitable retreat back to Germany and final surrender. No book shelf on World War II can be considered complete without this.
Rating:
Summary: One of the most powerful books I have read
Review: This book had a very powerful effect on me and I strongly recommend it. It is one of the most harrowing and traumatic descriptions of warfare that I have read. The author's perspective as a tiny cog in the giant machine of Total War waged on the Eastern Front adds to the sense of shock and sadness that any thinking person must feel after having experienced this book.An account of similar stature about the U-boat war is Iron Coffins by Herbert Werner.
Rating:
Summary: A classic of World War II literature
Review: Hands down the best first hand account of World War II. The Forgotten Soldier describes the often over-looked Eastern Front. The story tells the truth of combat, it is not about glory, god, or country. It is about survival. Do not believe any hype that the book is fiction. The author is French and has lived in France since the war. He would have nothing to gain by writing a book about his time fighting for the Germans in World II. The book dispels the myth about superior German leadership. The Germans were just as willing as any to send thousands of their young men into pointless battles that could not be won. Though I was amazed at the German logistic system, which was able to supply its armies for thousands of miles into Russia. While the logistic system eventually collapsed, it lasted longer than any others would have. You will never forget the later half of the book that describes the German retreat across Russia, Ukraine, and Poland. The book is translated from French so you need to overlook a few details lost in translation. Anybody who considers themselves a World War II buff has to add this to their collection.
Rating: 
Summary: Sort of interesting
Review: The writer of this book was a citizen of Alsace, nominaly a Frenchman with a german mother who ended up in the German Army on the Eastern front in 1942. He initially served driving trucks in a supply unit but volunteered for the Grosse Deutscheland Division and fought with them for the next three years. At the end of the war as his division had name not a number there was some suggestion that it was an SS Division and he enlisted in the French army for a short time as a sort of recompense. The book is both interesting and dissapointing. The dissapointment arises from the fact that the author has a very limited knowledge of what is going on at any time during his service. He has an ants eye view of the events as they sweep him up. The interesting aspect is that it shows clearly the horror that was the eastern front. Most of the book is a story of deprivation in some way. Even in 1942 when the Germans were doing moderately well in Russia Sajer complains about the quality of the food, how difficult it was to find and how it is eiher to hot or cold. The strongest part of the book are occasional images. A train of Russian prisoners who line up the dead bodies of their commrades to make a windbreak as they travel on open flat cars into captivity, the first encounter with partisans as small flea like figures. Reading the book it is clear that by wars end Sajer had been caught up in events. He romantasises the support for the Germans by the Ukrainians. He lists the atrocities of the Russian partisans but is generally silent about what the Germans did. The end is rather poignant. After seeing countless friends killed after suffering hardship after hardship Sajer realises that the three years he spent in the German Army are something that he will have to forget, rather than it being something that he will ever be rewarded for, or something that anyone will ever thank him for or realise the enormity of his sacrafice.
Rating:
Summary: The forgotten Soldier
Review: For what I recall, it's basicly about a Frenchman who joins the German Wehrmacht, the Heer (Army) and ends up in the G.D. the Gross Deutschland, the premier elite army unit who fought on
the Eastern front. There were no rules on the Eastern front,
no Geneva convention so no mercy was shown. This book tells of the personal story of a man suffering, his highs and lows.
It gives a clue to the sufferings of the troops of both sides in this bitter conflict where prisoners were not taken. The D day landings were a side show in comparision. The Wehrmacht lost the war on the eastern front and it was the Red Army that took Berlin and destroyed the Nazi empire.
Rating:
Summary: pure feeling
Review: Guy Sajer puts a little something for everyone in his book. A work of absolute heart and feeling give a realisitic view of what it was like for your average supply troop, and, eventually, your front-line soldier. Sajer tells about a bond only had in war with his friends, and even visits Berlin to fall in love. Filled with heartbreak, suffering, and never stopping the action, I couldn't put this one down. A must read!
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Summary: The Forgotten Soldier
Review: Probably the most powerful book I have ever read. This book deserves to be treated like a classic that transcends the label of a war book. Anyone who finishes this book has been given a lifelong gift of perspective. No personal problem can remain significant for long when I recall Guy Sajer's passages about the frenzy of Belgorod, the terror of Konotop, or the despair of Memel. Misery and suffering are brought to levels that would be unimaginable in this country. It should be required reading in all our schools, but the political correctness of today will never allow that to happen.I picked up the book and read it several years ago, knowing nothing about it, nor remembering when or where I bought it. It took me months to finish it, because as one review suggested, it is a book best read in pieces to allow you to absorb the traumas of the author and reflect upon them. I did not do this by design, but because the emotions evoked by the narrative made it too difficult to internalize all that Guy Sajer was enduring without taking time between chapters. Reading through all of the posted reviews brought back the intense memories evoked by Guy Sajer's account of conditions so horrific that it makes you hurt inside when you realize they were shared by tens of millions of Germans and Russians over a four year span. That there is an absolute dearth of comparable published accounts indicates both the unbelievably high level of casualties and there are, or were, few men like Guy Sajer who were willing or able to relive their experiences in order to commit them to paper. I have read extensively about the Second World War, and I must put this book at the top of all others. You may be frustrated by the lack of maps, or details of the big picture surrounding all of the battles, but this account accurately captures what it must have been like for Guy Sajer too. If this is important to you, then do as I did and keep one or more books like "When Titans Clash" or "Barbarossa" at hand. I had the opportunity to travel to the Ukraine after reading this book, and all during the five hour drive from Kiev to Kharkov I thought about Guy Sajer and his friends fighting to survive in an endless flat terrain that seems to go on forever. The book is written by a French/German, but it stirs equal empathy for the plight of the Russians. Whenever I saw old men or women on the streets of Kharkov, Novorosisk, or St. Petersburg (Leningrad), I could not help but wonder how many other Guy Sajer stories lay behind those eyes. Buy several copies of this book, because you may not get back the ones you lend. I was floored when Morrissey from Dublin said this and "The Long Walk" were the best two books he had ever read, because I agree. Few people I know have read Slavomir Rawicz (sp?) story of his escape from a Siberian gulag and subsequent walk to freedom. I read it 35 years ago and still think about it all the time.Add William Manchester's autobiography "Good-bye Darkness" and you will own the three books that have impacted me the most and would recommend to anyone.
Rating:
Summary: Seeing the Human Side of a German Soldier
Review: I first read this book while in high school. Then I found it both readable and compelling. Years later, and having served in the US Army in Bosnia, I have a deeper appreciation of the story Sager is telling. In the end most soldiers are forgotten souls who want little more than to finish their task and go home.
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