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Eastern Inferno: The Journals Of A German Panzerjager On The Eastern Front, 1941 43 (2010)

by Christine Alexander(Favorite Author)

3.92 of 5 Votes: 2

ISBN

1935149474 (ISBN13: 9781935149477)

languge

English

genre

History & Biography

publisher

Casemate Publishers and Book Distributors

review 1: I have read six books dealing with the Eastern Front in World War II. All were either memoirs written after the fact or traditionally researched works. "Eastern Inferno: The Journals of a German Panzerjager on the Eastern Front, 1941-43" by Hans Roth, edited by Alexander Christine and Mason Kunze is different. The book is the results of three diaries of Hans Roth. He was accounted as missing in action in 1944. Amazingly a buddy on leave delivered the three volumes of diaries to Roth’s relatives. They cover the years 1941, 1942 and 1943. Sadly, Hans Roth vanishes as another MIA unaccounted for casualty of war.The diaries are incredible. They show that he viewed part of the actions as being pre-emptive (p. 27). There was a clear fear of the Russians being on German soil an... mored killing his loved ones. We learn that the diaries include content that would have never cleared the censors plus he was glad to keep the horrors away from his dear wife.The book is spectacular. Hans Roth provided a wonderful service for his family and future generations by recording what he witnessed and what he was ordered to do.You can feel the fear he felt. You can sense the mixed emotions he experienced. The day to day log of his units actions with his understanding of what was going on are amazing. The detail and description he provides of the surroundings paints a remarkable portrait of the times.Hans Roth realized that luck was a key part of survival. He makes this clear time and time again. The amount of artillery and equipment the Russians had seems to have caught the Germans by surprise. The aircraft strafing runs and Russian counterattacks in 1941 caught me by surprise. Other works reported little or none on these until 1942 and later. Note: As I read I could feel the growing fatigue and cynicism Hans Roth had a result of the war. His love of his wife and family shows regularly in his comments. The book is an important resource for anyone interested in the Eastern Front as well as those who want a realistic look at the terrors of war. It is gripping and paints one of the clearest pictures ever of how war is horrendous.Christine Alexander and Mason Kuntze deserve a big thank you for the editing and translation of this project.
review 2: A Refreshingly Unique Perspective of Germany's War with the Soviet Union ..., March 28, 2011Sometimes history is presented in such a general manner that end results often overshadow the reality of events that lead to those results; this often leads to misperceptions, dare I say "myths", regarding what really happened. World War II is rife with such generalizations, especially the conflict between Germany and the Soviet Union, where four bitter years of brutality are often summarized in only a few sentences. But, occasionally, a lone voice emerges that can provide an honest and refreshing view of events and even contradict popular belief by providing a first-hand, moment-by-moment account of events as they happened ... EASTERN INFERNO is such an example. As the men and women who survived World War II rapidly vanish from the world's population, new information, stories and details of the war continues to flow at an exponential rate. Christine Alexander and Mason Kunze have published three (of possibly four) volumes of their grandfather Hans Roth's wartime journal. Roth, a German soldier (specifically an anti-tank soldier) who participated in the war on the Eastern Front from the initial German invasion of the Soviet Union through the retreat from Stalingrad, provides a unique perspective of those early days of the conflict. Unflinching and brutal at times, the journal sheds new light on the initial months of the "war in the East" by contradicting the ease of the German advance into the Soviet Union. Roth also conveys the deplorable conditions in which the war was fought, the atrocities committed by both sides of the conflict, the unfathomable destruction of life and material, the filth and the miserable weather. What the journals reveal are the inner thoughts of an ordinary German, not an ardent Nazi, who dutifully serves his country, but longs to be home with his wife and daughter. EASTERN INFERNO is divided into three chapters and each chapter represents one volume of Hans Roth's journal. The journal entries are recorded daily with some days being more eventful, descriptive and involved while others are only a sentence or two of personal thoughts about his family. Roth's knack for detail sets an early tone for the book, allowing the reader to witness the life of the typical German soldier in those "heady" early days when the German blitzkrieg seemed unstoppable. It only took a few pages before I realized Roth had taken me alongside him on that hot and humid day in June 1941 with his descriptive journal entries ... and this is exactly the experience I want when reading about first-hand accounts. I could easily imagine the dust clouds created by moving vehicles sticking to the sweaty faces and hands of exhausted infantrymen moving to the front lines under the oppressive sun ... uncomfortable and miserable. Something else the reader will notice early-on is that this soldier's account of participating in the invasion of the Soviet Union does not necessarily jive with the broad, generic summary of events that commonly defines Operation Barbarossa. While the huge swaths of land consumed by the German military and the enormous tally of prisoners taken in the initial weeks/months are well-documented, Roth's experience at the front indicates the Soviet military put up a much more spirited fight than history typically generalizes. With continuing accounts of his comrades being killed or wounded, Roth even reveals a degree of respect toward the Soviet enemy for his tenacity ... as well as his skill. But beneath this begrudging respect reveals the underlying element of Nazi racial indoctrination in that he is shocked that the Russian "swine" could manage to fight as effectively as they could. An early account of witnessing an execution at the hands of the SS is recounted with relative indifference. The journey that Roth takes the reader on is a brutal one filled with fear, death and misery and he meticulously details his observations in a manner that heightens the readers senses into what he actually experienced. The exuberant and optimistic tone present in the first third of the book dissipates as the war drags on and the tides shifts against Germany. Harassed by partisans that melt in and out of the forests and daily strafing attacks by Soviet planes (Ratas), the journal entries reflect a souring of optimism. As a brutal winter sets in, Roth's writings reveal that he and his comrades are a shell of their former selves ... the prior year's youthful enthusiasm is gone ... instead, the men are filthy, infested with lice and suffering from dysentery. Roth effectively describes this sense of despair he shares with his fellow soldiers as they squat in dingy panje huts to escape the deadly cold where the men turn to searching for and destroying lice as a game. Adding to the strain is that the enemy never stops attacking ... regardless of their losses. Roth even witnesses the Soviets murdering their own soldiers after retreating from a failed attack. A recurring theme in many of the journal entries is the gore and mass devastation he sees on a daily basis: his journey into Russia is a path filled with body parts, blood and decaying flesh of man and horses ... many, many horses. Interspersed throughout his journal entries, Roth personally addresses his wife and daughter in what appears to be little moments of solace amid a world of death and destruction. There is no heroic action accounted for, no chest-thumping and no resounding political rhetoric that comes forth in his writing ... just a simple journal of what is seen and felt. EASTERN INFERNO provides an amazing perspective of the average German infantryman's personal experience in Russia from the very beginning of the conflict ... as it happened. Roth's journal entries are vividly clear, informative and captivating. Hopefully, the publishing of this engaging journal will not only satiate those with a craving for history, but generate an interest in younger generations to learn more of about the brutal conflict between the Soviet Union and Germany. less

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