Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #364424 in Books
• Published on: 2006-12-15
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 264 pages

Customer Reviews

A rewarding first hand account of the war and the years after.
I found this book to be a very warm recollection of terrible times. As a reader I felt I had shared in Lubbeck's experience. His story is told at a late age so it is interesting to see what memories stand out, I also followed his post war life with interest, both because Lubbeck comes out as a likeable man and because post war Germany was a troubled land in dark times, the war was over but the hardships were not.

Lubbeck served with the 58th Infantry Division in Army Group North on the Eastern Front. His is the tale of a ambitious infantry soldier that was promoted to an officer in the crucible of war. The story provides a satisfactory explanation as to why German soldiers fought in 1944 and 1945, it also tells less glamorous stories of lice and dirt and how soldiers travelling home changed trains on the border and deloused before going further. This is also a story of an infantry man, who didn't ride a Tiger and walked into Russia while the baggage train and artillery were drawn by horses and R&R was a good bath and latrine.

It is the humanity of the story and the personality of William Lubbeck that stand out in the story. There is also a love story between Lubbeck and his future wife Annelise, their relationship while he was at the front, his worries about her during the allied bombings and her uncertainty of his fate at the front.

All in all a rewarding book.

First-rate memoir from Army Group North
An excellent firsthand account of combat in northern Russia. As a former infantryman, I appreciated his detailed descriptions of life at the front and the remarkable sequence of events that enabled him to survive the last few weeks of the war. The section describing life in East Germany right after the war, including a close encounter with a Soviet patrol, was also interesting. As an aside, I was impressed by the number of personal wartime photographs included with the narrative. Given the campaigns in which Lubbeck participated, it's remarkable that they survived. They're helpful in visualizing the situation within Lubbeck's unit.

Gripping account of WWII Eastern Front
I just finished William Lubbeck's At Leningrad's Gates. It was fantastic. I have read several good memoirs of the Russian Front, but Lubbeck's stands out as truly remarkable. His account of his experiences was refreshingly candid and provided great insight into the horrors suffered on both sides of the line. I highly recommend this book.