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Loading... Sniper on the Eastern Front: The Memoirs of Sepp Allerberger, Knight's Cross (original 2005; edition 2008)by Albrecht Wacker (Author)
Work InformationSniper on the Eastern Front by Albrecht Wacker (2005)
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Sign up for LibraryThing to find out whether you'll like this book. No current Talk conversations about this book. One of the grimmest and brutal descriptions of real war I have read. If you do not want to read about real war wounds, torture and death then do not read this book. This story follows one German soldier on the Eastern front who became one of WWII's best snipers. Typical of most young men in war, he was doing what his country ask and thought he would find adventure. Instead he found that he was just being pushed into the meat grinder between to nations who would fight until they ran out of bodies. The only way to stay alive was to win. Germany's Eastern defeat was decided before he killed his first Russian. Very interesting book. Lots of new info I had not encountered before. It surprised me that a very modern Germany was virtually without snipers and only created them in response to the Soviets. Early German snipers used captured Soviet sniper rifles because they had scopes. One of the more brutal memoirs of the Eastern Front. Written by Sep Allerberger, who was one the top snipers of the 3rd Gebirgs Division, it documents many of the attrocities committed by the Red Army. At times, it reads like a Sven Hassel novel,Undoubtedly true, it portrays some of the true horror of war. no reviews | add a review
Josef "Sepp" Allerberger was the second most successful sniper of the German Wehrmacht and one of the few private soldiers to be honored 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 field craft, 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 authorized 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. No library descriptions found. |
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Google Books — Loading... GenresMelvil Decimal System (DDC)940.542147History and Geography Europe Europe 1918- Military History Of World War II Campaigns and battles by theatre European theatre FranceLC ClassificationRatingAverage:
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The god-awful war between Nazi Germany and Soviet Russia has fascinated me since childhood. There was no clear, unequivocal ‘good’ side to be on, despite Russia becoming allied with the Western Allies after Hitler double-crossed them. They had started out as dubious allies dividing Eastern Europe between them and perpetrating the worst crimes on the people in their areas of control. If, by accident of birth, you found yourself embroiled in that titanic struggle, you likely would be outraged by the harsh actions of the other side and excuse or minimalize those of your own. We see this in our own conflicts, when the atrocities of ‘our boys’ are swept under the rug, while those of the enemy are prosecuted with vigor.
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