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The Sergeant in the Snow

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In a world where the term "masterpiece" is much abused, here's a little book that - I hope - will be read even 100 years from now. "The Sergeant In The Snow" is, quite simply, the best "soldier view" of the whole Eastern Front history (at least on the Axis side), focusing on the autobiographical experiences of sergeant Rigoni Stern, then a country boy from the Dolomites area drafted into the Italian Alpines Troops and sent to fight in Albania, Greece, Yugoslavia and Russia. Here we've only the Russian bit (the rest of the war is covered in his others volumes), but this is Rigoni Stern's magnum opus. It manages to bring poetry, humanity and soul into a potentially devastating experience - the long months on the Don section of the frontline in 1942, the winter, the Russian offensive, the disastrous retreat (where Rigoni Stern's unit took 75% losses, most from exhaustion and cold), and the breakout battles to escape encirclement. It could have all the potential for the usual self defensive lies, complaints and half baked jingoism, but what we've is a magnificent (AND readable AND well written) potrait of the human experience in war. Most of Rigoni's comrades are vividly portaited (alas - few got the chance to see home again), and the furious breakout battles (expecially the now legendary confrontation at Nikolaievska) are given a dry, perceptive tone often lacking from more ponderous books (this includes Guy Sayer's "Forgotten Soldier"). Also, Rigoni Stern (as many of his comrades) is well aware of the stupidity of the Italian involvement in the Russian campaign, and doesn't hide its simpathy for the ordeals of the local population, and the valour of the "enemy". In one memorable accident, during the Nikolaievksa battle Rigoni stumble into a Russian squad hiding (and eating!) inside an "isba". He's scared, but he's hungry too, so he asks for something to eat, thanks everyone and get out unharmed. It's a small episode, but the author manages to put into it all the significance of what can people do when they don't hate each other. Also, there's definitely no much love lost for the German allied, althrough you'll not find inside Rigoni's book the monumental scorn against the Germans of, let's say, Nuto Revelli "Poor Men's War". But Rigoni (who spent one year in a German concentration camp and after the war became one of Primo Levi's best friends) shows no illusions on the true nature of the predictment they're in - an annihilation war against an entire country. "The Sergeant In The Snow" is an incredible book, a work of poetry by a great writer unfortunately not well known outside Italy. If you're into the topic, you must absolutely buy it!

The words in the title are those of one of the author's close comrades-in-arms in the Tridentina Division, which had been attached to the Italian 8th Army on the western bank of the Don in 1942. In December of that year, the Romanians on the left flank of the Tridentines buckled under a strong Soviet offensive, and the Italians found themselves suddenly enveloped. Ordered to withdraw on 19 December, the Italians, along with Romanian and Hungarian remnants and remnants of the German 298th Infantry Division, marched west through icy wind, snowstorms and heavy drifts in an attempt to break out of the pocket. Sergeant in the Snow is a vivid first-person account of the story of this macabre odyssey up to the climactic Battle of Nikolajewka on 26 January 1943 and its aftermath.

Rigoni's memoir is at once urgent, tragic, heroic and poetic. He relays the essence of the Italian spirit, so different from that of the stern and disciplined Germans, and recounts in flowing narrative and earthy dialogue exactly what it was like to march, hungry and exhausted, over 300 miles in the Russian winter. Rigoni divides his memoir into two parts: (1) the Strongpoint, wherein he tells the story of his division's struggle to repulse Soviet thrusts on the Don, and (2) the Bag, wherein he tells the story of the breakout from the pocket (the bag). As mentioned above, the climax of the action, and there is plenty of that here, takes place on the memorable 26th of January when the Italians and Germans defeat, at terrible cost, three Soviet divisions at Nikolajewka and finally break out of the encirclement: "My men hesitate, hold back, one or two of them are already wounded, and I shout: 'Come on.' I too hesitate a bit, but we're in it now, whatever happens."

In the midst of battle chaos and the fog of war at Nikolajewka, one of those inexplicable and mysterious episodes occurs when the famished Rigoni enters an isba only to find a group of Russian soldiers there: "They're armed. With the red stars on their caps. My rifle's in my hand. I look at them, turned to stone. They're eating round a table, taking the food with a wooden spoon from a common bowl. And they look at me with their spoons held in mid-air....There are also some women. One takes a plate, fills it with milk and meal and offers it to me with a spoon from the common bowl....No one breathes a word. The only sound is of the spoon in my plate; and of each of my mouthfuls....The Russian soldiers watch me go out, without moving."

Kudos to Northwestern University Press for bringing this remarkable book to light again. Unfortunately, the book is small and the print small, too. The translator's grammar and mechanics are somewhat archaic, and there is the glaring, almost unforgivable, absence of any maps. Dialogue should be rendered in alternating paragraphs as each character speaks, thus reducing the possibility of the reader's being confused. Although there are some footnotes along the way, this excellent memoir would certainly benefit from a thorough re-edit to include many more. In spite of these publishing flaws, The Sergeant in the Snow is a far better memoir than Guy Sajer's The Forgotten Soldier and as good as Bidermann's In Deadly Combat. Highly recommended.

I am shocked to find the great many people who are unaware of Mussollinni's ill-fated pursuit of glory in the east. His broken dreams left many Italian families orphaned and widowed. This well written account of the brutality of combat on the Eastern front is a fine addition to any WW2 eastern front library. It is well written and fascinating.

It is not commonly known that Mussolini sent a large army to support Germany's invasion of the Soviet Union in WWII. By the summer of 1942, about 230,000 Italian troops were in Russia. Most of them were part of the Italian Eighth Army, which advanced to the Don, north of Stalingrad. In December 1942 and January 1943, the Russian counter-offensive overwhelmed and surrounded the poorly equipped Italians. The only way "out of the bag" (to escape the Russian encirclement) was to slog westwards for over 300 miles, by foot and without supplies, through winter conditions with temperatures as low as minus 40 degrees Centigrade, all the while having to engage in periodic attacks on Russian villages, participate in rear guard actions, and endure strafing from Russian planes. About 45,000 Italian soldiers managed to escape.

Mario Rigoni Stern was one of them, and THE SERGEANT IN THE SNOW is his memoir of that harrowing episode. At the time, Rigoni Stern was 21 years old. He was a sergeant, and whenever the lieutenants in command of his platoon were wounded or cracked up, command fell to him. His love of his men and their love of him are palpable. In the first third of this short book (104 pages), Rigoni Stern tells of his company's defense of their stronghold along the Don against the initial phases of the Russian counter-attack. His story is one of bravery, fortitude, and resourcefulness, completely at odds with the myth of the inept Italian soldier (primarily propagated by the British in North Africa).

The last two-thirds of the book is about the march west. "Another day of walking over the snow. My burnt boots are falling to pieces and I've tied them to my feet with bits of wire and rags. The hard leather had broken the skin underneath and formed an open wound. My knees ache; they go crick-crack at every step I take. Dysentery's also coming over me. I walk on for miles and miles without saying a word to anyone." The trek is punctuated with numerous memorable scenes --bizarre, apocalyptic, or surreal in nature. For example, near the end of the retreat, Rigoni Stern keeps overhearing quarrels between Italian artillerymen and German soldiers. What about? Mules - the mules that once hauled the Italian artillery but were now being used to carry their wounded. The Germans would try to commandeer them, inasmuch as they were operational whereas the German vehicles were not, and the Italians would rebuff the attempt.

THE SERGEANT IN THE SNOW belongs in the first rank of WWII memoirs. Like many others, it contains its Dantean portrayals of the hell of war, but it also displays a humanism that is rare for the genre. Plus, it is highly literate.

I consider myself an amateur military historian, and World War II is my favorite period. I have over 400 books on World War II alone, and have read most of the standard works on the confict and many of the autobiographies, biographies, and memoirs published over the past 20-30 years. Recently I started searching out books on the lesser known battles/campaigns, and lesser known memoirs. One of the memoirs I discovered was "The Sergeant in the Snow", by Mario Rigoni Stern. Rigoni, who only passed away in 2008, was a Sergeant Major in the Tridentina Division, which was an elite Italian Alpine (mountain) division. The book, a very short 114 pages, details Rigoni's experiences in Russia as part of Mussolini's Eigth Army in the Soviet Union during the the retreat from the River Don as a result of the Russian counteroffensive during the winter of 1942-43.

The first part of his memoirs describes daily life in their fortified positions along the river Don. The second part describes how he succeeded in leading the ever diminishing number of suvivors in his platoon in retreat in a desperate attempt to escape encirclement by the Russians and to avoid suffering a fate similar to the Germans and Rumanians surrounded in Stalingrad. Rigoni gives a very good feel for what it was like to be an Italian fighting in Russia, far from home, and of the suffering they endured. This work, first published in 1953, won him the Italian Viareggio prize for best debut by a writer, and has sold more than a million copies world-wide.

While an amazing story and a good read, there are no maps or any other aids that might help the reader discover what is happening and where the action is taking place. Except for the climatic battle at the book's end, a reader not familiar with the Italian 8th Army during the times described in the book (and most readers aren't) would be hard pressed to follow the course of events depicted here. However, since this book primarily speaks to what it was like to serve in an Italian unit and the struggles and suffering they endured, this is not a fatal flaw. Still, I would have liked to have seen some maps, pictures, and/or other helpful information.

As an aside, if you're interested in this book, and I heartily recommend it, you should check its price and then check the price for a book called "The Lost Legions: Three Italian War Novels". This latter book includes "The Sergeant in the Snow" as well as two other works on the Italians in World War II - "The Army of Love" and "The Deserts of Libya". While "The Sergeant in the Snow" is not fiction, I can't say about the other two, as I can't find any reviews on them and they don't appear to been published elsewhere in English. But I was able to buy "The Lost Legions" (used) for less than what "The Sergeant in the Snow" alone would have cost me.

A slightly different perspective makes this novella unique. The thread of a soldier on the eastern front in the cold Russian winter is a common one but this time it is based on the memoirs of an Italian. A good and quick read.

Mario Rigoni Stern's slim memoir of his World War Two experiences sheds light on the effective destruction of the Corpo di Spedizione Italiano (CSIR) in Russia, which is perhaps one of the lesser-known events of the Eastern Front and of the entire war itself. As a personal narrative, Stern's view is from the ground and he offers little or no strategic view of how these events came to pass. This however, adds to the book because as a grunt--even in a position roughly equivalent to an American platoon sergeant of today--he wouldn't have had much access to or inclination to see the war in such a manner.

Plenty of combat abounds through the short tale. Particularly once Stern and his fellows realize the entire front is collapsing and that they're caught in a "bag," slang for encirclement by the Soviets, the fighting becomes fierce. It is interesting to read the accounts of Italians, Germans, Hungarians and other taking part together in desperate attacks to break out of the Axis Powers' first epic disaster on the Eastern Front.

Throughout the book courses one vein of thought that is ever-present in Stern and his soldiers: survival. "Shall we ever get home?" one soldier asks of Stern every time he sees him. "Which direction is Italy in?" others asks from the middle of the frozen steppes. And as the situation deteriorates during the long retreat westwards, Stern constantly commands and reminds the men to "always stick together." Alas, as these memoirs always illustrate, many do not make it home.

A short but good work covering the Italian experience in World War Two, Stern tells his tale of the Italian Army's fortunes as seen and lived through by one of its peasant and elite Alpini soldiers.

very spontaneous and genuine story, of young people catapulted across Europe for no reason, and still performing their duties and trying to be human. you can rely feel the soldiers pain and the bitter russian winter with the words used by the author.