Memories of a Machine Gunner on the Eastern Front During World War II: 1943-45

Kindle Customer: I find memoirs of WW2 from Germans and Russians to be fascinating. This is a powerful book, compelling, honest and moving. A real gift to others. Could not recommend more.

United States on Aug 16, 2023

Airborne: easy reading and great when you are traveling for a quick read

United States on Aug 11, 2023

Timberforester: Found this by accident. It shows the craziness of what ( even the " bad guys") went through. Maybe people will learn from these accounts. Likely not

United States on May 14, 2023

David: La vivencias de un soldado alemán adscrito a los cazadores de montaña, escrito apoyándose en su diario y con la ayuda de su nieto. Interesante.

Spain on Feb 17, 2023

Karen Seamsterk: Author describes life as a small-holding family farmer before the war in Austria, tells of traditional customs, etc. Then he is drafted and sent to the Eastern Front as a machine-gunner with 3rd Gebirgsjäger (mountain troops) Division after the war had already turned against the Germans. Describes the process of learning to survive on the front as a new replacement, the comrades who taught him and saved his life many times. Tells of his privations, desperate battles and retreats, being wounded, etc. He does as good a job as any I’ve read in conveying what life was like as a Landser in the waning days on the Eastern Front, although it’s impossible to truly understand unless you’ve lived it. A fast read that was well paced and hard to put down. You will come to care about certain of his comrades, and their fates. Highly recommend!!

United States on Jan 19, 2023

Hans Lutter: Like the author of 'Until the Eyes Shut' I was conscripted into the German army as a young soldier during the last year of World War 2 on the Eastern Front. 1944-45.
Unlike the author who became a POW by the Russians, I was lucky to be taken prisoner by the Americans on 8-5-1945, the last day of the war, aged 16.

Australia on Nov 10, 2022

Tristan: There’s nothing as bleak a war story as that of German troops in constant retreat on the Eastern front, battling the elements as much as the enemy, where no quarrel is taken. The story is to the point, not dwelling in details of the war unfolding around them, as they can’t know that in the moment themselves, just chronicles the endless retreat and suffering as the troops pull further west. There’s many a unbelievable story this man has lived through, and I think a movie on this account would be one the best and darkest war movies to ever grace the screen. When reading this I can’t help but relate it to the other book, Sniper on the Eastern Front, the memoirs of Sepp Allerberger, one of the most hard to read at times war story I’ve read, because both these men fought the same running retreat through the same countries, with many a similar story. That book is far more in gritty details that this one, due to the unique visions a snipers role gives him. Overall this is a great book, the only reason I took off a star is due to the flow of the writing. I understand it’s translated from German so we have to take what we can get in that regard, and it’s translated very well,...

Canada on Oct 09, 2022

Cody S.: An excellent piece that I think most WW2 enthusiasts should read. It gives a German soldier's perspective from an unusual viewpoint that isn't often seen in literature; the author's grandfather is not a Panzer ace. He's not a general or a "war hero". He's not a fighter ace with 150 kills. He is a machine gunner who entered the war after the tide had already turned for Germany - an undesirable job to be certain but one he did as best he could. Politicizations of the book are nonpresent; in fact political factors barely weigh in to the narrative. In fact, there is more criticism of the German high command (and indeed of the Fuhrer himself) than there is praise, both from the author's grandfather and from other troops in the novel. Some may attribute this to 'whitewashing' but in my case I am willing to argue that these were often troops who knew the tide had turned - they were on the defensive now.

The story of camaraderie between the narrator and the Alsatian is also a powerful piece of this story. It is apparent this man was a very important factor in the narrator's life and his survival through the war. Indeed the title is a phrase that the narrator was often told by his...

United States on Aug 09, 2021

MDJ: I found this relatively short book quite a compelling read. However, after subsequently reading the few one-star reviews on here arguing that this is not a true personal account (especially from one reviewer who sets out the case in great detail), I agree it is odd that so many characters in the narrative are referred to only by their roles - very rarely is anyone named. There is almost nothing traceable to check the veractity of the account. I also found the photo at the end of the book rather strange: There is Hans and his father 'in the 1950s' back on the farm. But who are the woman and girl standing in between them? According to the narrative, his mother died before he returned from Russian captivity. Those people may have been relatives or visitors, so this doesn't disprove the account, but does serve to illustrate the vagueness that runs through it.

I had a similar experience with "The Forgotten Soldier", which I thought was a superbly honest and brutal first-hand account. However, that work is apparently not a factual recolletion of the experiences of the author but an amalgamation of stories that convey typical experiences of a soldier on the Eastern Front.

United Kingdom on Jul 12, 2021

Cougar377: It's a truism of war that transcends time, place and what side soldiers served on... ultimately it's always the "Poor Bloody Infantry" that suffer for the inadequacies of politicians and the ambitions of lunatics.

"Until the Eyes Shut" could be the story of any soldiers serving in combat and the bonds of camaraderie that are forged in war. It just so happens that this book is about German soldiers, but it is every bit as relevant as any other book about infantry in combat.

You can read any amount of books about combat during WW2, but there's not that many books on the German soldiers perspective of what it was like to serve on the Russian Front.
It's hard to imagine what it was like for the average German squaddie while serving in the depths of a Russian winter. This book gives the reader as good an idea as can be described in print as to what that was like, for those of us who haven't lived and fought through a World War. Combat was only one element of the conditions that they tried to survive under....the severe cold, lack of shelter, shortages of rations and the endless fighting against an enemy who's resources were vast is hard to imagine.
Based on his...

United Kingdom on Dec 09, 2020