Heaven & Hell: The War Diary of a German Paratrooper

by Martin Poppel

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Like so many of his fellow Germans, Martin Poppel joined the Luftwaffe of the Third Reich in a haze of patriotic fervour and fresh from the Hitler Youth. Marked out by his Labour Service department leader as 'something out of the ordinary' he became a fallschirmjager, a paratrooper, eager for war and buoyed by Germany's recent invasion of Czechoslovakia. But he was not to remain so idealistic.In Heaven and Hell, Poppel describes his war at the spearhead of the Wehrmacht, a deeply personal show more book from a man who was there from beginning to end: Poland 1939, Holland and Narvik 1940, Crete 1941, Russia 1941-3, Sicily and Southern Italy 1943, Normandy 1944, Holland and the lower Rhine 1945; and then a PoW following his capture by the 6th Airborne Division. It charts his journey from an eager young soldier desperate for action, to a war-weary veteran whose only ambition (as a company commander at the age of 22) was to bring his men home safely. A singular record of one man's experiences of the Second World War, it is a searing and honest account of a bloody conflict and acknowledged as a classic memoir. show less

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3 reviews
4933. Heaven and Hell The War Diary of a German Paratrooper, by Martin Poppel translated from the German by Dr. Louise Willmot (read 11 Jun 2012) This book was published in German in 1988 and tells of the author getting into the German military at age 18 (he was born in 1920). He became a paratrooper but only seems to have actually jumped in Holland and in Crete. He was also in Poland, Norway, Russia, Sicily, Italy, and France (at the time of the 1944 invasion).. He surrendered in Germany in March of 1945 and spent a year in England as a POW (which sounded like the best of the time he had from 1938 to 1946). Much of the book is a recitation of not too interesting events in Italy and France. There are many photos reproduced very poorly show more in the book and the few maps are singularly unhelpful.. The evolution of the author's thinking in regard to Hitler I found of interest--he says the women of Germany were more perceptive in regard to Nazism than the brain-washed men. show less
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Classifications

Genres
History, Nonfiction, Biography & Memoir
DDC/MDS
940.54History & geographyHistory of EuropeHistory of Europe1918-Military history of World War II
LCC
D757.63 .P6613History of Europe, Asia, Africa and OceaniaHistory (General)World War II (1939-1945)
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Statistics

Members
70
Popularity
446,477
Reviews
1
Rating
(3.86)
Languages
Czech, English
Media
Paper
ISBNs
6
ASINs
1