Customer Reviews

Blood Red Snow: The Memoirs of a German Soldier on the Eastern Front

5 star:		(25)
4 star:		(18)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Blood Red Snow is yet another personal account of life for a common landser on the Ost Front from 1942-45.From the forword where the author describes his unlikely retrieval of manuscripts, I was gripped by this narrative. The author was able to convey the chaos of the retreat from Stalingrad, from which he narrowly escaped, in a very personal manner. Intimate details of his life with comrades at the front are interesting and add validity to this piece. I would rate this book as highly as Gottlob Bidermann's recent biography, In Deadly Combat. Both are hard hitting,touching, and, I believe, factual. Students of the Ost Front should not miss this excellent read.

I really enjoyed the book. There were a few areas that a good editor could have polished, but overall an enjoyable book. The combat was brutal, but you felt at the end of the book that you were there too. It wasn't written by a war college, or compiled from after action reports. If you want orders of battle or such you will be disappointed, however, if you want to read about the eastern front and what it was like for the regular Wermacht grunts, you will love it. I have had it for over a year, and even now when I am between books, I find myself reading it again.....it never gets old.

Koschorrek's work serves as an interesting memoir of an aspect of World War II not often discussed in the West. Yes, we often hear tales of the horrors of a winter invasion in Russia, and of Hitler's faults in directing the campaign, but we seldom hear a first person account of the conflict on the Russian steppes. I knew the battle for Stalingrad was full of blood and violence, but Koschorrek's work brought the actual sights of frontline combat to the fore. His descriptions of waves of Russian soldiers assaulting his machine gun position, and the incessant barrage of artillery shells draws a chilling reminder of the utter horror and destruction faced on all sides during WW II.

I also found the records of Koschorrek's growing disillusionment with Hitler and his Nazi party very enlightening. As a frontline soldier, Koschorrek doesn't claim to have been an expert on the political situation in Germany. Many times he announces that he was fighting for the German people, rather than the Third Reich. And towards the end of his extremely long time on the Eastern Front, Koschorrek claims only to be fighting for his fellow soldiers. It must have been a terrible struggle to continue on in a failing attempt to capture Stalingrad, and then endure a savage retreat all the way to the gates of Berlin. To see one's homeland utterly destroyed would be terrible in itself, but then to realize this destruction was caused by the ideas of a madman would almost be too terrible to bear. Koschorrek's book serves as yet another good reminder of the lunacy and horror that is war.

The one disappointment I found in Koschorrek's book was the writing. Although I understand that he was probably attempting to vanquish some long standing demons, the use of a co-author would have made the book more readable. His complete use of first person narration, at times, becomes trying. I see that he was attempting to retain the vision of frontline life as it happened, but this reader would have rather seen him use some other literary methods in order to bring more cohesion to the story. Still, Blood Red Snow is a good book.

After reading this book I really was able to see WWII through the eyes of a German soldier who was like a Russian, British, or American soldier just trying to survive. Their's was not for a higher cause, theirs was just trying to stay alive with out being blown to bits, freeze to death, or be taken prisoner and endure some sort of death or execution. This is a very good book and I strongly recommend anyone who has an interest in WWII read this book.

If you're in to reading memoirs from true soldiers than I definitely would recommend this book.

When I set out to get an unbiased view of the German soldier during WWII (because not all German soldiers were jew killing murderers), a friend reccomended this book to me. I also bought "Forgotten Soldier" by Guy Sajer.

In my opinion it's written very well, and you really end up feeling for their plight. You get a feeling for the utter disarray and unorganization of the German army past the Stalingrad time frame.

If your leaning one way or the other to buy this book, I feel you'll enjoy reading it!

Other than some translation/punctuation issues, a very good memoir. The author provides some fascinating insights into life on the Eastern Front. I found the commentary on German officers quite interesting as many other works often overlook this detail. This work does not focus on the point by point details of specific battles (ala "The Bitter Woods"), but rather highlights events in the author's personal notes which he often passed to his mother while on leave. A much easier and more concise read than "Frontsoldaten." Highly recommended.

I really enjoyed this book; if you have an interest in WW2 on the Eastern Front this book describes it from a machine-gunner's perspective on the ground, down and dirty. To me the best part of the book was the description of the approaches to Stalingrad- I think what can only be imagined in history books is captured on paper well. You get the feeling of "...Stalingrad's hot breath..." and how eagerness for battle becomes a numbing fight for survival very quickly. The stolidity of the German soldier and his pride in the craftmanship of war come across clearly. You really get a sense of how it must have felt to win constantly at a tactical level but still be retreating constantly- scenes where Russian tanks roll past retreating columns of Germans to reach a battle ahead permeate the middle part of the book. There are many beautifully depicted battle scenes throughout and it goes on right to the end- truth really can be as amazing as fiction. The only thing which made me a bit skeptical was the author's firm belief (denial?) that it was the Russians who massacred all those people in villages they passed through on their retreat. I think after a couple of years on the Russian Front he must have had a pretty good idea of the nature of German occupation but I think this is a common theme in many war autobiographies from all sides- civilians seemed to have just up and died on their own! Lastly, throughout the book Russian soldiers use Kalashnikovs- I think PPSh-41's are what he means.

Günter Koschorrek's story is an amazing one because he was thrown into combat for the first time at perhaps the worst possible time and place for a German soldier. The he survived intact through the remainder of the war through some of the worst conditions imaginable borders on miraculous, and that his written story survived all these years after being first recorded against regulations on various scraps of paper is truly amazing. And what a story it is. Koschorrek endured some of the most gut-wrenching parts of Germany's war on the eastern front and does a very good job in this book of describing what that experience was like. My only complaint is that the writing left something to be desired, as others here have also noted. Koschorrek can hardly be blamed for that though, since he is obviously not an English speaker by birth. In that case the publisher really should have used the services of a good editor to spruce up the writing and make it more vivid and emotional. For that reason only, I give this book four stars instead of five.

I thought the book was a reasonably well done account of a machine gunner's view of the Russian front. Yes, there are better books, but this one is certainly worth the price, and each one of the veterans' perspectives is different - that's what makes these first-hand accounts so interesting to me. I recommend this one.

I couldnt put this book down...while "The Forgotten Soldier" remains the most moving ostfront memoir i have read, Blood Red Snow ranks a very close second, without any of the controversy about it's authenticity (i personally believe TFS to be completely factual as well)...sad that american children are led to believe that germans were evil or 'fanatical'...they should all read a book like this to learn that they were people just like us. I count America fortunate our boys never had to fight against the Red Army 'meat grinder' in WWII or any time during the cold war.