Sniper on the Eastern Front: The Memoirs of Sepp Allerberger, Knight's Cross (Hardcover)

by Albrecht Wacker (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description
Josef "Sepp" Allerberger was the second most successful sniper of the German Wehrmacht and one of the few private soldiers to be honoured with the award of the Knight's Cross.

An Austrian conscript, after qualifying as a machine gunner he was drafted to the southern sector of the Russian Front in July 1942. Wounded at Voroshilovsk, he experimented with a Russian sniper-rifle while convalescing and so impressed his superiors with his proficiency that he was returned to the front on his regiment's only sniper specialist.

In this sometimes harrowing memoir, Allerberger provides an excellent introduction to the commitment in fieldcraft, discipline and routine required of the sniper, a man apart. There was no place for chivalry on the Russian Front. Away from the film cameras, no prisoner survived long after surrendering. Russian snipers had used the illegal explosive bullet since 1941, and Hitler eventually authorised its issue in 1944. The result was a battlefield of horror.

Allerberger was a cold-blooded killer, but few will find a place in their hearts for the soldiers of the Red Army against whom he fought.

REVIEWS

"...a very unique story and experience worth telling of an Eastern Front Sniper."Sniper Central 06-07

Product Details

• Hardcover: 196 pages
• Publisher: Pen and Sword (June 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1844153177
• ISBN-13: 978-1844153176
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars See all reviews (77 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #23,261 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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  #1 in	Books > History > Military > World War II > Eastern Front
  #28 in	Books > History > Military > World War II > Personal Narratives
  #34 in	Books > History > Russia

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

134 of 145 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Fascinating book on modern sniping!, January 31, 2006

By	Jack Stone - See all my reviews

This book is fantastic. I started reading it one morning and devoured it by the time I went to bed - I could not put it down. I found the book to be well written, eminently readable, and fascinating. The author uses an easy writing style that draws you into Sepp's (the German sniper the book is about) horrible world of high intensity warfare on the brutal Eastern front.

I enjoyed reading about Sepp's snipercraft and techniques that allowed him to survive in the Russian whirlwind and that are applicable even today. Sepp was officially recognized for 250 and some odd kills, but due to the Germans' strict accountability system he probably killed over 400. Readers will especially appreciate the gory details of his many shooting accounts...specifically the night he won the Knights Cross for gunning down an entire Russian infantry company single handedly.

I recommend this book to ANYONE who is interested about the Eastern front in WW II or for learning superior snipercraft in a high intensity warfare environment. Some of his accounts simply made me cringe (like graphic accounts of Russian soldiers torturing and mutilating captured German snipers). This book will definitely remain in my collection. You will not regret it.

44 of 47 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Brutal and necessary reading, February 25, 2007

By	Konrad Baumeister - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Americans in general know shockingly little about the kind of fighting that took place on fronts other than their own in World War II (or other wars for that matter). It is therefore extremely important to have the opportunity to read first person accounts of the experiences of soldiers on those other fronts, especially when as in this case it is the Russian front where Germany was essentially defeated, and the memoir is written by a soldier who fought with the competition as it were. This book, essentially a series of interviews of an aging veteran of the 3rd Mountain (Gebirgsjager) Division, woven together to give us a more or less continuous narrative of two years experience on the Russian front, is outstanding in every important way.

The author gives one a view of life in the trenches not often discussed in books on a 'higher' level, i.e. the experience of combat, fear, panic, rage, comfidence, loyalty, cynicism and resignation. The discomfort of waiting immobile under a tank for hours; the horror of having to watch comrades in arms be tortured mercilessly by the enemy; the helplessness of witnessing rapes and civilian murders; and the foreboding of disaster. It is utterly human, and utterly inhuman at the same time.

Besides the front-line duty which takes up much of the book, there is some good material on the technical aspects of marksmanship, of the Russian and German equipment utilized, and of the training a sniper would go through. It is also quite a valuable record, if an anecdotal one, of the kind of men the Soviet enemy fielded. Germans and Nazis committed plenty of crimes in the east against civilians and soldiers alike, but they were by no means the only perpetrators, and held no monopoly on evil. It is useful to be reminded, and reminded forcefully, of this fact by eyewitnesses.

War was fought at its most vicious on the eastern front, in a way present day soldiers, especially those of western armies, cannot easily conceive. This book has it all. This is no glamorization of war or combat; very far from it. It is shocking and brutal and not fit for TV. One comes away from the experience moved, educated, saddened by the complete futility and destruction and pointlessness of this most grotesque of wars. There isn't very much uplifting in the book.

It is an excellent first hand account of war at its worst.

44 of 48 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars "Sepp Allerberger was really the top sniper", April 9, 2006

By	Henry Sakaida (Los Angeles, CA USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

SNIPER ON THE EASTERN FRONT - THE MEMOIRS OF SEPP ALLEREBERG was written by Albrecht Wacker, who had interviewed the sniper and translated the original story into English. When I began reading the book, I was apprehensive that the story was all made up because the sniper wrote his story using the psuedonym Josef Sepp Allerberger.
The story is shocking, sad, brutal, and historically accurate. The young sniper lived a charm life and lived to tell of his experiences on the Eastern Front.
I believe that Sepp Allerberg was actually the top German sniper Obergefreiter MATHIAS HETZENAUER. Is it a coincidence that both Hetzenauer were born in 1924 (Hetzenauer in December, "Allerberger" in September)? Both were Austrian and both served in the same unit, 3.G.D./Gebirgsjager-Regiment 144.
"Allerberger" writes that he received his Knights Cross on 20 April 1945, but according to DIE RITTERKREUZTRAGER 1939-1945 by Gerhard von Seemen, which lists ALL Knights Cross recipients, no one from the unit received a Knights Cross on this date. However, there was a SEPP DRAXENBERBER who received it on 17 April 1945, the same day as Hetzenauer. Draxenberger was SS - Hptscharfhr. zugf im SS Pz. Rgt. 5 "Wiking." Just substitute "Aller" for "Draxen." Interesting, isn't it?
And there is more. Hetzenauer was wounded in the head by an artillery blast on 6 November 1944; "Allerberger" in late September or early October.
Towards the end of the story, "Allerberger" makes it back to his hometown. Hetzenauer is captured by the Soviets and spent 5 years in a POW camp.
It is rather unfortunate that this book was written under a pseudonym, but I can understand why. Since Hetzenauer died a few years ago, I hope that writer Albrecht Wacker follows up with more photos, and a revised title: SNIPER ON THE EASTERN FRONT - THE MEMOIRS OF MATHIAS HETZENAUER.