Eastern Front Combat: The German Soldier in Battle from Stalingrad to Berlin (Stackpole Military History Series) Paperback – Illustrated, September 10, 2008

It must have been horrible for the survivors. The story they tell are quite gripping. I’m glad we live in peacetime

I liked this book, alot of first hand interviews really let you the reader know what happened on the Eastern Front. It's hard to believe so many men could be killed on both sides. Dan H

I really enjoy books on World War II's Eastern Front, so I picked this one up with high hopes. While I don't completely regret my decision, I wish I had known more about this book prior to purchasing.The title isn't exactly accurate--some of the chapters have very little combat. In my opinion, the only chapter worth reading was the one by the assault gun commander. The others, while providing a good view of the terrible conditions endured by the German soldiers, lack action and provide only general narratives about combat. One chapter, which takes up a fair amount of the book, is filled mostly with OKW communiques and Wehrmacht battle reports, thus giving the reader very little of the personal recollections this book purports to have. There are virtually no maps as well, so bone up on your Russian, Polish and Eastern German geography!I have high regard for the various books published by Stackpole and have found several of them to be really good. However, this one had quite a few typos and grammatical errors (some probably caused by translational issues, but still...) and this was surprising given my previous experiences with Stackpole books.There are plenty of better books on this subject if you can find them:The Forgotten Soldier by Guy Sajer, War on the Eastern Front by James Lucas and The Black March by Peter Neumann are a small sampling of much better personal accounts of Eastern Front combat.

I found this book to be an interesting account of the final days of the war in the east written by the young combatants who fought it.

If you love WW2 history as much as I do, then this is a great book to buy. I have a collection of many memoirs from the German point of view from all sectors of the Eastern Front, and this book really throws the reader into Stalingrad and many other fronts which I found fascinating and worth reading. The only thing that I found slightly disapointing, is the book is made up of 6 different soldiers recollections and just as you are starting to enjoy and immerse your self in their story it ends far to quickly and a new one begins. Having said this it should not deter anyone from buying this book. If you love this type of history then this book is worthwhile to have in your collection.

This book is a very good book for an avid WW II reader. If you want to know the day by day history on the Eastern Front, then this is the book to read. It was written from a first hand accounts, on what happent to the men when they fought on the Eastern Front.I would recommend this book to anyone who is interested in the war in Europe.

Excellent tales of the fighting on the eastern front. Highly detailed accounts of the desperate battle that was fought at end of war

honestly, the book wasn't very good. I am going to do this review based on chapters.Chapter 1: This chapter is about Ernst Panse, a tanker in the 24th Panzer Division, it is one of only two chapters which are actually worth reading, unfortunately it is very limited in scope, only covering the lead up to and battle of Stalingrad where it ends abruptly with Ernst getting captured and embarking on a forced march. In the last sentence he says he got home after the war, but that is all. No reflection or anything, but it was good nonetheless and if you do pick this one up, read this chapter.Chapter 2: This chapter follows Joachim Stempel. To be honest I never finished this chapter, flipping through it, it seems ok, nothing special, it looks as though this guy could have written a book on his own, given this chapter encompasses at least 70% of the book. It reads more as a history rather than a memoir and felt very out of place.Chapter 3: This chapter is about Albert Liesegang who was in the 329th ID in Berlin. Frankly, this chapter was comical. It is literally two pages and was so short that nothing could even materialize, I have no idea what the author was thinking while trying to get this guy's experience down but the result is that you don't know him, you don't get a feel for anything and not 30 minutes later you barely remember anything from it. Skip this one, it will do nothing for your knowledge.Chapter 4: This is the second chapter I recommend you read. The chapter follows Alfred Regeniter in the 276th assault gun brigade during the end of the war in East/West Prussia. The chapter is actually a shortened version of Regeniter's book "Knight Gunner" (in fact I looked into it and it is an exact replica of the book, which wasn't very long to begin with, about 70 pages, so the author may not have even spoken to Regeniter). Regardless, I found this chapter the most interesting of all.Chapter 5: This chapter supposedly follows Gerd Dohler, but really is a compilation of accounts of a Flak unit fighting on the Oder front in 1945. A very interesting topic not gonna lie, but this chapter suffers from serious disjointedness, far too often the perspective shifts, making it hard to get a feel for the environment and gain a deeper perspective. It really is up to you if you want to try and read this one, but I cannot recommend it.Chapter 6: This chapter follows Gunther Meyer of the 9th Fallschirmjager Division. This chapter suffers from the same issues as chapter 3 (too short), like chapter 5 it is a very good opportunity, an account from a Fallschirmjager during the battle of Berlin is definitely a way to grab someone's attention. However, this account only deals with the Seelow Heights and then ends very abruptly (not even a piece telling you what happened to Gunther) with Gunther just running away with his comrades to the next round of fighting. A real cliffhanger as the city fighting hadn't even begun yet. Another sorely missed opportunity to tell a unique story.On a side note: Gunther seems like a sketchy individual. In the beginning of the chapter he lists out all the combat and bravery awards he had supposedly received up to this point (as if it really mattered, they share no significance to the following pages), in the photo we see him with the decorations, but, they all look totally photoshopped, not to mention they are all jacked up and in the wrong order, and the photo was obviously taken in a formal setting (which means they should have/would have been corrected or put together properly).Conclusion: Don't buy this book if you are looking for a variety of experiences by German troops, sure there are a few good chapters, but they aren't worth it. Better memoirs exist and are worth much more than this book which was obviously sloppily put together and poorly researched.

Very good reading. It' s amazing how anybof these men survived. Would love to read more personal experiences from the " other side"

A Good Booka subject that I have read widely and this is just another book to give me more background to WW2

weak badly written

This book is a Dutch translation of the author's interview notes with various German combat veterans who fought on the Eastern Front. It covers the period from Stalingrad to Berlin and reflects the combatents thoughts at the time. What immediately strikes one as strange, is the logic of those trapped in the Stalingrad pocket who wonder why " the beastly Russians could do this to us" conveniently forgetting that it was Germany who invaded Russia & conducted the most bestial and savage military campaign in modern history. The interviews are not helped by the dreadful translation. The book is peppered with mis spellings & quaint phrases. 88mm Flak Guns are referred to as "tubes" and a retreating enemy is described as "bugging out" It could do with some serious editing. Not the best of it's type by a long way.

I found the book shallow and uninformative. It was almost as though these soldiers writing were compelled to write something of their experiences without wanting to. The writing style was lacklustre and boring as was the book.