Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #388312 in Books
• Published on: 2002-10-15
• Original language: German
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 288 pages

Synopsis
Gunther Koschorrek wrote his illicit diary on any scraps of paper he could lay his hands on. As keeping a diary was strictly forbidden, he sewed the pages into the lining of his thick winter coat and deposited them with his mother on infrequent trips home on leave. The diary went missing and it was when he was reunited with his daughter in America some forty years later that it came to light and became Blood Red Snow. The author was a keen recruit at initial training and his excitement at the first encounter with the enemy in the Russian Steppe is obvious. The horror and confusion of fighting in the streets of Stalingrad are brought to life by his descriptions of the others in his unit; their differing manners and techniques for dealing with the squalor and death. He is also posted to Romania and Italy, assignments he remembers fondly compared to his time on the Eastern Front. This harrowing book takes the reader to the front line and paints a very human picture of what life was like under relentless Russian attacks in freezing conditions.

As Koschorrek says in his introduction, the book stands as a memorial to the huge numbers on both sides who did not survive and is, over five decades later, the fulfillment of a responsibility he feels to honour the memory of those who perished.

Customer Reviews

An extraordinary book
This is truly a remarkable first hand account of the fighting on the eastern front during WWII. There are many other books which have all dealt with the same topic, but I have never read a book which simply describes what happened with honesty and simple clarity. We follow machine gunner Koschorrek between the years 42-44 in different parts of Russia, Italy and Romania. The book actually starts with his lucky escape from the Stalingrad pocket in Dec -42, from there on it just gets worse. He describes the incredible bravery performed by the average soldier, the friends and comrades who were not so lucky and last but not least, the inhuman conditions of war as they were experienced on the eastern front. I read this book in two days - it was impossible to put it down.......

A story from the general ranks rather than the generals
There is a mass of German autobiographies hitting the market place at the moment which is certainly a good thing if we are to understand all sides of the Second World War. Some books are obviously better than others and I have to say that this book is very good. Well-written, well-organised and telling things from the general ranks (a rare thing), this is a powerful book, not least because it brings to life the characters mentioned in the text, and thereby makes the story more accessible and less academic. I would heartily recommend this book to anyone with an interest in the Eastern Front as well as the Second World War.

Great book
I recently bought this book from Amazon.co.uk and I can say that it is well worth a read. I know that there are loads of memoirs out there from soliders fighting in the various allied armies, but I jumped at a chance to read a book from the frequently under-represented German persepctive.

The author writes very well and I felt that he was able to portray the sheer terror of fighting on the Eastern front very well. One engagement in the early part of the book really had me on the edge of my seat as I wondered how they would repel an attack frmo Soviet armour without any ATG's etc.

Great book, great author, great read.