Customer Reviews

BUT NOT FOR THE FUEHRER

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

"But not for the Fuehrer." is a vivid and revealing book by a German veteran called Helmut Jung. I couldnt put this book down at all. He was just 16 when he was drafted in 1943 and fought excluisively against Ivan on the Eastern front. He was a Pioneer trooper in the 3rd Regiment of 7th Panzer Division and fought around Kharkov against, Mongols, Russians etc. He also got trained as a sharpshooter and was employed as a sniper for a short while. Why did he volunteer for this dangerous job? Because he wanted to get out of the frontline for the duration of sniper training.This chapter about being a sniper was very much like "Enemy at the gates." It also gives a good account of how the German sniper was trained. I have read most German memoirs out there, as that is a big part of my interest and this is on par with "The forgotten Soldier" and "To Hell for Hitler."
He was also involved in the destruction of Peenemuende. when he was sent out there on a mission along with a company to destroy it before it fell into enemy hands.
I was really blown away by the vivid descriptions of action which the book is full of. But, it was also a very eye opening revealing book about so many other things that other memoirs never talk about. The little things like, how long the average German soldiers uniform and socks lasted for, what sort of cigarettes the Enlisted man smoked as opposed to what the officers smoked (Overstoltz), why the Sturmgewehr assault rifle was so **** and the troubles they experienced while using sabotaged weapons and munitions that were made by slave labour.
He talks about using teller mines against tanks, about fighting fanatical Russian women soldiers, what they did to them and to the Mongols who had tortured and mutilated their fellow German comrades.
The book is a long read and packed with a lot of vivid hand to hand combat, as well as all the small little details that we never really hear about. These make this tale valid and believable. At first I didn't know how the book would be because the cover of the book was not pretty. Which just shows how we can miss out on a book because we judge it by its cover.
I really recommend it because of the detailed personal account as well as for the story of comradeship and soldier humour it details about his fellow comrades with whom he suffered and died. It is full of humour, sorrow, tragedy as well as vivid combat. I have the deepest respect for this soldier and for his fellow comrades because of what they went through and how he managed to survive!

Its published by 1st books, Ohio. And comes in softcover ($21.95), Hardcover ($32.95 or you can download it off the computer for $5.95 at Ingrams books)
ISBN 1-4140-3445-8 (Paperback)
ISBN 1-4140-3446-6 (Dust jacket)
ISBN 1-4140-3447-4 (e-book)

I have read dozens of memoirs about the Eastern Front and aside from "Through Hell for Hitler" this is probably one of THE best out there. The author is straight to the point and the activities he went through from the Hitler Youth to his time as a sniper, recon man, etc are all very interesting. Some mistakes are made in the book though, like having Paulus in Stalingrad be the commander of the 10th army, when in fact it was the 6th. Also his descriptions of Soviet Commissars are incorrect, but he writes from the German point of view so it can be overlooked. A horrible job was done by the editors, there are so many grammar mistakes and misplaced words that it's absurd. Overall this book is definitely worth the read, if you can overlook the minor errors.

I am unsure about this book as far as it's authenticity is concerned. The combat descriptions ring true, but much else has the 'wiff' of exageration and self serving recollection. There are too many extraordinary events and coincidences to swallow.
Perhaps memory distorts events too much, or the American ghost writter has mangled the translation - but I found the book to lack credibility.
For a better read - I'd recommend 'Forgotten Soldier' by Guy Sager.

I agree with some of the other reviewers that this is most likely a work of fiction. There is no real information given about the supposed author, Helmut Jung, other than his "incredible" wartime exploits. There are too many mistakes in the book about Jung's training and service to believe this is anything more than a piece of fiction put together by the American writer...it doesn't read or feel right. Save your money and buy "Black Edelweiss" for a real biography of a German soldier.

This story was probably constructed from a number of real memoirs, other sources like films, and Jung's and the author's imagination. Helmut Jung may have been a soldier on the Eastern Front but what he claims to have seen there owes more to imagination - perhaps the author's - than reality. Units composed of seven foot Mongols? (p. 297). Really. In the fifty or so books I have read about the German-Russian war nobody else noticed such units. In the same chapter, a description of the capture of a group of female Russian soldiers appears to have been lifted from the film version of 'Cross of Iron'. There are numerous other elements traceable to other sources throughout ths ridiculous book. Avoid wasting money on this 'memoir'. You will learn nothing about the real experience of combatants on the Eastern Front that you haven't already read elsewhere.

It's definitely an unusual book. With some severe editing it could be given a 3 or 4-star rating for fiction. But non-fiction it isn't. Even allowing for memory lapses that might have caused factual errors, no infantry soldier in the German army could possibly have had all the experiences, all the luck, and all the fortuitous circumstances that Jung claims. It would be interesting to know what Jung and Nesbitt were thinking when they collaborated to write this book, but not so interesting that one would take any time to find out.

I am somewhat of a skeptic after having read many of the past and current "memoirs" of German veterans, but, then, who is to know whether it is real or concocted by someone familiar with the memoirs of others and other books on the Ost Front?

Having interviewed veterans, it reads like a series of interviews transcribed with editing by someone who was not all that familiar with what the veteran was communicating to him. Or is that it was meant to read like to give it plausibility?

Flip a coin?

Excruciating book to plow through - but, then, the subject is attritional as was the war - particularly on the Eastern Front.

Then again, the average German was not that well educated and neither is/was the average American. Then, this might tend to make it more authentic.

It is difficult to determine whether it is a memoir or not. I would go with the electronic book as opposed to the hard copy when normally I would go for the hardbound (had I to do it all over again).

This book is a very easy and fast read. There are no complicated military jargon, so anyone (not just military veterans) can read this. Mr. Jung's story is absolutely amazing and I am surprised at how much he endured and then lived to tell about it. I would recommend this book to anyone who likes reading autobiographies and/or military stories.

This was an intense and enjoyable read from start to finish. It made me wonder what I would have done in the same circumstances, and it made me (as always) feel very lucky to have been born in the U.S. While it must always be difficult to know how much of any personal memoir is totally factual, I find the previous reviewers who claim it is a fake simply because "it seemed to be right out of Cross of Iron" or "I don't recall any other books mentioning this" or "I can't believe all of that could have happened to one man", to be wholly unpersuasive. I can even forgive mistaking the 6th and 10th armies at Stalingrad since the author never said he was at Stalingrad, and I can't say I can remember what other units were where, except for the one I was in, and I am not trying to remember nearly that far back.

That being said, I AM a bit troubled by the idea of building a huge fire so near the front, even if you are freezing to death. The Marine Corps refers to this as an "admin bivouac", as opposed to a "tactical bivouac" when nothing that might give away your position is allowed...especially fires. But then again, if it was so cold that you were in danger of freezing to death within minutes, I have to allow for the possibility that I might have been willing to risk it.

All told, it is an incredibly good book and I found it easy reading. The frequent typos and grammar errors did not remotely make it difficult to follow. I simply caution the reader to use his/her own judgement concerning whether or not to believe every detail of this account. I think the reader would be best served by reading several of these personal accounts and assuming that the truth will come to light in terms of the commonalities found in all of them, regardless of how "believable" they might appear to be.

Crudely edited but a compelling and riveting chronicle of a German soldier. It looks and feels like a self-published work and there is little to no background on the author nor the narrator... but even with those shortcomings, I couldn't put it down and passed it on to friends.