Customer Reviews

Memoirs of Sergeant Bourgogne

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I have always been fascinated with military history and most of the books I have read concern the German Wehrmacht in World War 2. I make it a point of collecting personal diaries of ordinary soldiers experiences. Burgogne's book is one of the best war diaries I have ever read. He recounts his experiences during the capture of, and more importantly, the retreat from Moscow in vivid detail. This is an important work because he is able to articulate these experiences in his book so the reader feels as if he were there. The similarities of this work and Guy Sajer's Forgotten Soldier (World War 2)are amazing and well worth the purchase for any military enthusiast. Other good accounts of the Russina campaign are by Philippe-Paul De Segur and Armand De Caulaincourt.

This books is unforgettable. Sergeant Bourgogne was one of the very few French soldiers to survive the retreat from Moscow. The gruesome hardships he and his fellow soldiers endure is rendered even more horrible by the matter-of-fact style in which he relates them--as for instance when he describes in detail how they are forced to burn a bridge as their retreating comrades are still marching across it. Bourgogne's perspective is ground level: no tactics, no strategy, no grand designs. All you feel is the stripped-down horror of war. And although Bourgogne remains altogether stoic and patriotic throughout his ordeal, as an urgent cry for peace, his diary ranks right up there with "The Red Badge of Courage", "All Quiet on the Western Front", and "Johnny Got His Gun". But Bourgogne's account is not fiction, and considering how few men were left to tell the tale, it is a miracle we have it at all. It should be read and remembered.