Rating: 
Summary: Infantry Battles in Crimea and Army Group A Sectors
Review: The war on the eastern front was brutal and in many ways was the most savage of experiences. Lt Bidermann gives an account of his part on the eastern front. Bidermann is a common grunt who begins his service as a private eventually earning a commission from a Junkers school. He leads his men in an unwinable stuggle where the goal is survival. Bidermann's tale is so well written that I must rate it as the best account of combat on the eastern front that I have ever read. If you want to know what it was like to battle it out to the death with the Red Army this is the book for you.
Rating:
Summary: An excellent read
Review: This book will be well appreciated by any student of the Eastern Front. Bidermann started the war as a gefreiter with the 437th infantry regiment (part of the 132nd infantry division) and finished the war as a leutnant with the same unit. The book presents an interesting contrast between Bidermann's initial experiences as a Pak gunner in the Crimea and his actions as a junior infantry leader on the northern front toward the end of the war. While I never felt quite as "close" to the author as I did with Sajer's "The Forgotten Solder" and Knappe's "Soldat," the book was nevertheless excellent, and better than both in many respects (in particular, this book is much more detailed than Sajer's work). One of my favorite aspects of the book is its treatment of the Crimean and Leningrad campaigns, two sectors that, in my opinion, have been neglected in favor of more well-known battles such as Stalingrad and Kursk. In summary, I would highly recommend the book to any Eastern Front fanatic.
Rating:
Summary: Monumental piece of literature!
Review: This is a fabulous piece of work! The narrative virtually placed me in the front! This book is read like a novel, yet what it recounts are true facts. The reader actually gets involved and perhaps believes he is living those horrific events!
Rating:
Summary: "The " best account of the ordeals of the Eastern Front
Review: This is a great book. Of the many I've read on this subject I've yet to find one that's so easy to read, it flows much like a novel, alowing you to get totaly lost in the book. The more you know about the Eastern front the more you'll enjoy this vivid account.
Rating: 
Summary: An Engrossing And Valuable Study Of Men In War
Review: This is a very interesting and quite different approach to experiencing the events of the second world war. It is interesting in the fact that it tells the story of a German Division from the perspective of the members of the Division, and does so primarily for the benefit of those members rather than for the public at large. So, this then is a fascinating if somewhat oddly focused study of the war along the eastern front from the viewpoint of the German foot soldier. It is often frightening and revealing, especially when one considers the fact that the author actually survived over five years of combat. So, although the writing style is a bit stiff and belabored, it is well worth the effort. This is the story of an "average" foot soldier involved up to his muddy ankles in the most outrageous and provocative battles in modern history. This is truly a story for the record books, one told with honesty (at least from the author's perspective), and one deserving of your time and study. Imagine slogging through the heat and rain and mud and snow and ice of the campaign into and then through Poland and Russia, and retracing mile by mile, yard by yard, foot by foot as the Russians relentlessly push the 200 divisions of the German Army slowly and painfully back from all of the gains, inflicting murderous tolls along the way. The portrait given is one revealing the levels of hardship, depravations, depravities, and extreme experiences of a common soldier involved in the most terrible and hard-fought campaign of World War Two, Operation Barbarossa. This man was really there and on the ground throughout it all; the battle experiences, decorations and wounds suffered rolling through the Crimea, the taking of Sebastopol, the long and savagely fought campaign in Leningrad, and then later the long, slow and very costly retreat while trapped in the "Courland Pocket". The author obviously matures and changes in the process of these experiences, although one sometimes wonders how much of this change is the result of faithful recollection as opposed to selective memory after the fact. But this is a minor quibble, for it is a story quite well told. One sees the changes such experiences must make on any ordinary human being; the slow but inexorable metamorphosis from a sensitive and caring young man to a battle -hardened survivor who does what he needs to do to protect himself and his comrades with trained indifference. This is indeed a worthwhile and well-described (which is not to say easily read) story of the view from the ground level by someone who was there, and who, while writing ostensibly for the attention and approval of his comrades, must have been (at least minimally) accurate in describing the conditions, experiences, and lessons of war. Of course, for anyone who has lived through the crucible of war, whether in WWII or Korea or Vietnam, finally it comes down to living in the small community of buddies and surviving in that context that becomes paramount in the day-to-day experiences. This is, in that sense at least, a very moving and graphic document in describing such experiences, and should be read and understood by any serious student of WWII.
Rating:
Summary: Buy it....NOW!
Review: This is the first book ive read in this genre and i must say its incredible. Gottlob Herbert Bidermann's expieriences while manning his AT gun on the Eastern Front are heart-pounding, and in most cases, amazing. As I said I have nothing to compare it too, but this book definetly gives a face to the German soldier. All too often Hollywood depicts them as cowards, ruthless murderers, and clumsy fools, and Im glad to have finally read a book that truely puts things into prespective. I could not put this book down from the moment it arrived at my house. Lets just say my social took a leave of absence in the weeks after getting this book. If your even remotely interested in the German side of WWII, then get this book. A little knowledge of basic German may help too, otherwise you may be flipping to the glossary everytime you catch a word thats foreign to you. Again, I cant recommend this book enough, buy it, and once it gets delivered you'll be in for a real treat!
Rating:
Summary: Insiders view of the Eastern Front...
Review: This is the story of the 132nd Infantry Division and its trek across the vast expanses of Russia, from the crossing of the Dnieper, to the prolonged and grim battle for Sevastopol, a once beautiful town on the edge of the Black Sea, to their eventual retreat and ultimate surrender in the Courland Pocket (Which at the time was a term strictly 'verboten' to use, as this was officially designated the 'Courland Front') There is a dearth of first hand reports from the Eastern Front, a testament which only lends credibility to the extreme brutality of "Barbarossa". This is an excellent personal narrative on this Front, and while the writing style is a bit stiff at times, there are personal revelations that can only be told by one who was there. The author often found himself in continual fighting, with little or no sleep. Indeed, the Soviets favored night fighting, as much for the effect of sleep deprivation as anything else, and usually at a horrible cost to themselves. This book is well detailed when describing unit designations and where and how they fought together. While this book can not match the visceral brilliance of "The Forgotten Soldier", which is unique in its description of battelfield hell, it is at times a powerful read, and as the last of the aging JU-52's leaves the Pocket with the last evacuees, and the soldiers later learn that 32 of the 35 slow and ungainly transport planes are shot down in flames with no survivors, one can almost feel the desperation these men most have felt. Highly recommended.
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