Customer Reviews

Through Hell for Hitler: A Dramatic First-Hand Account of Fighting on the Eastern Front With the Wehrmacht

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(6)

 

 

This book is a strange "war memoir" that anyone familiar with the WWII Eastern Front will find puzzling.

Mr. Metelmann claims to be a veteran of the 22nd Panzer Div. who went to the eastern front in the winter of 41/42. The author's story begins at childhood, then moves to his training and service in the Wehrmacht on the eastern front,fighting and surrendering to the Americans, and finishes in the immediate post-war situation.

This book gives the reader little information about the war on the eastern front except for his contact with soviet soldiers and civilians. Despite the premise of the book (i.e. as a war memoir), the author spends little time on his supposed combat experience. He doesn't talk about his weapons or the vehicles he drove (he claims to have been a panzer driver). He doesn't talk about the types of tanks he drove, their characteristics, or being retrained for new models (tank types were upgraded throughout the war on all sides).

The author, unlike all other war memoirs (axis and allied) that I have read, does not even name his comrades. In fact, he hardly mentions them and then only with first names. This seems strange in light of the strong bonds communicated in books as diverse as "Forgotten Soldier" by Guy Sajer and "With The Old Breed" by American Marine E.B. Sledge.

He seems to spend an inordinate amount of time with soviets. All Soviet soldiers are portrayed as heroic figures who die making political speeches about the glories of marxism. Every soviet civilian he comes upon vows they will defeat the evil facists while also making boring political speeches about Lennin and the communist cause. I find it odd that he never ran into anyone in the Ukraine that welcomed the German invasion since the Soviets had starved millions there. He never runs into a russian civilian who curses the collectivization that destroyed the lives of millions and sent millions to the gulags. He never speaks to a soviet soldier who was forced into suicidal attacks by commissars and NKVD troops. Curious.

His brief overviews of combat actions always extol the wily Soviets who always seem to get the better of the Germans whose officers are usually portrayed as mindless Prussian aristocrats who can think of nothing other than costly frontal assaults. This seems to be exactly the opposite of all other historical analyses of German vs. Soviet performance. Curious.

Strangely enough, he seems to omit all of 1943! He seems to go from the retreat after Stalingrad in the winter of 42/43 directly to the retreat after Bagration in the winter of 44/45! He does not mention participating in Manstein's counterstroke at Kharkov in spring 43 even though he certainly would have taken part, given that he was part of Army Group South. He makes no mention of Citadel except to mention that an officer he served under will finally die in the battle. Curious.

His encounters with soviet soldiers and civilians seem almost scripted, like bad Soviet propaganda. Although he accurately portrays the brutality of the war on the eastern front with regard to the treatment of civilians by the Germans (but, strangely enough, not by the Soviets), there's very little else here to be commended.

In short, this is a book which has very little useful historical information to offer. This book would not be reccommended by anyone who knows anything about the eastern front and I certainly would give it zero stars if I could. Buy "Forgotten Soldier" instead.

This reviewer has read several WWII books from German Soldiers. I've read this book and can't figure out if it's real or not. I'm like some of the other reviewers and think it's sort of real. However, there is quite a bit of mis-information that you can't tell what's real and what is a lie.

Now, you'll see a picture of the author wearing a M36 Heer (Army) uniform. The German Army stopped giving them out after 1939 when they were replaced by the M40 uniform. How did he end up in Russia in 1942 in an M36? By then all the German Army had was the M40 uniform.

The Author says he drives a Panzer III. But we don't see any picures of that nor or much fighting with the tank. Instead he is assigned to a half track and spends his time pulling around a 50 mm anti-tank cannon (PAK).

The Author is abandoned in a Russian village with an Panzer III at about the time of the major fighting of Stalingrad. He ditches his uniform, lives with the Ukranians, and the tank is allowed to rust in a field. It sounds like he was told to drive a tank some place and it "just broke down". When he and the tank is found the authorities must have figured he was not worth it. By that time in the war everybody was need, even a screw off.

By the author's own words he is caught stealing from an army food supply truck. Also, when coupled with several other incidents, it becomes clear the author may have been a "barracks thief", a person of low character in any army.

I do not like this book. The author seems like a petty criminal who just happens to be in events larger than himself. It's kind of like reading the exploits of a pick-pocket on the Titanic who was lucky enough to live.

I speculate this soldier was in jail for some years over some crime. He then is set free and has to be watched closely by his superiors and fellow soldiers. That explains his dislike of officers and inability to remember anybody he served with. You can't cross reference his story with other characters.

If you're going to read any books on the individual soldier then read either "A Forgotten Soldier" by Guy Sajer or "The Good Soldier" by Alfred Novotny. "Forgotten" goes into great detail on everything; "Good" is one of the best because it's a short and an easy-to-read book. This review likes easy.

This book is two stars. And it didn't earn them.

Henry Metelmann was interviewed in the 1970s for the BBC series "The World at War," and I was taken aback by his almost offhand reference in that interview to the Wehrmacht committing atrocities while in retreat on the Russian Front. It was known that atrocities were committed, but Metelmann's matter-of-fact statement was astonishing in that it was made at a time when very little was being said at all by rank-and-file German soldiers. I purchased this book to try to learn and to understand more about this soldier whose attitude is, perhaps, not typical.

It is important to understand that this book was written at the request of Metelmann's children approximately 40 years after the war. What might have been emphasized had Metelmann written this sooner may have been lost with the passage of time and introspection. Thus, the book is more of an internal, psychological monologue (compiled many decades after the event by an anti-militarist) than any sort of "historical" account. It should be read in that light though I agree that for the military historian the lack of detail is sometimes irritating.

Previous reviewers raise a number of valid criticisms about this book. The most glaring deficiency is the lack of any account of the period from the Spring of 1943 until 1945. Many reviewers are also put-off by Metelmann's perceived "coldness" towards dead or wounded fellow soldiers.

But not everyone can be a Eugene Sledge ("With the Old Breed"), a Charles MacDonald ("Company Commander") or a Guy Sager ("Forgotten Soldier"). There is more to military life than being part of a Band of Brothers. Just as there are all sorts of personalities in civilian life, there are all sorts in military life as well. It jars when a "war memoir," doesn't follow the expected "form," but perhaps therein is some value.

I do believe that Metelmann was a member of the 22nd Panzer Division. That he clearly has a selective memory about the war in Russia is undeniable, but perhaps there is much that Metelmann does not care to dwell on beyond giving his children a summary and a moral lesson.

For the limited purpose of seeing the war on the Eastern Front through the eyes of a common, though perhaps not typical, German soldier, this book is worth reading.

As with other reviewers, I will agree that this is certainly not equivalent to the Forgotten Soldier, which is a book heads and shoulders above nearly all other German memoirs of combat on the Russian Front.

But we should take into account that the Forgotten Soldier deals largely with the GrossDeutschland Division, which was possibly the best regular army unit on either front. Henry Mettelmann served in the truly sad sack 22nd Panzer Division, which after its first tentative combat in the Crimea was pulled back by Manstein for more training. Even after its training it performed in a fairly lackluster manner and ultimately suffered casulaties equal to its inept performance. Therefore, the reader should not be too surprised at the author's lack of interest in the vehicles he drove (which I admit is maddening for any history buff). Metelmann's focus is much more on his own personal feelings of the struggle and his own effort to atone for having served the Third Reich.

I found the book very interesting and certainly in every war there are the Metelmanns. These are men who find themselves in a war to which they are pretty much indifferent. I found it shocking that after essentially abandoning a truckload of wounded comrades, he decides to take a break and roll around naked in the warm summer grass. How different from the Forgotten Soldier, where Guy Sager spends a lonely drive as his friend slowly dies from a hideous facial wound.

But hey, this is Metelmann's story and it is a fascinating one. Sure, it's more fun to follow the exploits of someone dedicated to their cause, no matter how right or wrong, but Metelmann is just not that guy. Yeah, he drank the Nazi punch and quickly spit it right back out. Some reviewers felt he was celebrating a sort of Marxist agenda. I think really, he is looking back and feeling huge regret for his part in the invasion of Russia.

In the end, I felt like Metelmann needed a way to sort out his experiences in a way that would help him atone for if nothing else...the admonishment of a Soviet woman cradling her dying 12 year old daughter. I am certain that for any of us that would be a tremendously burdensome memory. Of course they are those readers who might (as his comrades did) admonish him for not returning with the apples.

For those who seek an exaltation of war, this ain't the book. For those of us who share Metelmann's cynical view of nationalism and false patriotism that results in needless human suffering...this is the book for you.

And in the current political climate, it might just be timely.

Dreadful. It is almost a wonder Mittlemann fought for Germany and wound up living in England and not the Soviet Union, for there is no mistaking his sympathies are with Marx and Lenin. Too often the book is punctuated with long speeches given by soulful Soviets on the merits of Bolshevism, all of which seems dated and silly in today's light. It certainly raises the question when this book was written, because few if any today would be caught singing the praises of the corrupt and inept politburo. Curiously as well, there is little fellowship that Mittlemann feels to the men of his unit, which is atypical for those who walked in harm's way. To Mittlemann the Wehrmacht stumbles and bumbles its away to annihilation, and it is only through his cunning and luck that he manages to make it through. Oddly the reader is left with no feelings for him. Like Hans Schmidt's SS Panzergrenadier, this is a frivolous polemic masking as a memoir

I have read two of the reviews for this book with immense disappointment. I was lucky enough to hear Mr. Metelmann talk about his book and his experiences in the war and to suggest that because he does not talk about gun specifications he has fabricated his account and that the book is fiction is a disgrace. He is now a committed pacifist, mainly because of his experiences of war and his upbringing in Hitler's Germany. He wrote his extremely moving account of his experiences as a result of talking to young people in England about his life so that they would have a better understanding as to how a civilised country like Germany could have behaved in the way it did during WW2 in order that it won't happen again. This is an important book, compulsive reading and acts as a great tonic to the blood and guts of many modern histories. It ranks with Guy Sajer's "Forgotten Soldier" as a brutal yet deeply humane description of war.

An interesting perspective of the average soldier on the Eastern Front. Unlike some other books in the genre, the Author acknowledges the attrocities committed against the Russian people and we see him struggle to come to grips with the ideological differences between National Socialism and Communism. In fact, the most interesting aspect of this book is the numerous encounters the Author had with ordinary Russian peasant and soldier. Very well told. This book is the thinking man's "Forgotten Soldier."

The previous reviewer was reminded of "Forgotten Soldier" as was I in reading the book. But, while the "Forgotten Soldier" is most likely fiction, this is a real war story.

The author offers almost no "big picture" of his war, he basically recounts what he would have known as a driver. He mentions in passing that he was in the Anti-tank Unit. I don't know if he ever mentions that he was with the 22nd Panzer Division, an ill-fated division that was formed in late '42. It's early performance was not stellar. The unit was disbanded in early '43 after being decimated in the Russian counter-offensive at Stalingrad.

The author is very unsentimental about his time and experiences in the Wermacht, in great contrast to most German accounts of the war. This is the most interesting aspect of the book. He is quite candid about the German arrogance that characterized the conquering armies of the first half of the war. He talks of what people knew and did not know. His unit was not a paragon of German invincibility, or even a company of brothers. Our soldier participated in battles with senseless casualties and poor leadership. The author had many hair-breadth escapes.

The Herren have written many books with one point of view. This soldat gives a very good insight into how some of the others felt.

an exceptional first person account of warfare on the eastern front in every regard. the author brings the action to the reader in such detail that the reader becomes one with the book in a gripping, powerful way. this book is a must have for readers with an interest in the subjects of warfare, humanity and politics. the book is gripping and moving from the first to the last page and mr.metelman shows himself to be an articulate, intelligent and open minded person in every encounter with russian civilians and soldiers alike. the coming of age that mr.metelman deals with on the front is both charming and honest as he struggles with lifes issues such as relationships, trama , loss of comrades and the realization of his father's advice. do not miss this book...clearly one of the best first person accounts available. this book will also appeal to those not strictly interested in combat/warfare but humanity as a whole. the only negative with the book is that it's not long enough at 203 pages and i went through it in about 6 nights.

It's a ridiculous book, the worst I've read on WWII. Herr Metelmann, according to his own account, spent most of the war patting Russians on the shoulders, making friends, admiring the Soviet Union, and avoiding combat at all cost. The book sounds very false, IMHO.