The best narrative of a German soldier that I have read.

books:


	• In Deadly Combat: A German Soldier's Memoir of the Eastern Front (Modern War Studies (Paper)) Gottlob Herbert Bidermann University Press of Kansas, 2001 - 344 pages average customer review:based on 54 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

Great Insight

I'm pretty familiar with the German perspective in WWII. Most books like this are very good, but this one is, perhaps, a step above. Detailed, apolitical (as the German Army should be), and a smooth read. The unuaual (and not often written about in detail) areas where the 132nd Infantry fought (Crimea/Leningrad/Kurland) are a nice treat, too.

Prompts nostalgia for my Father's tales of WWII

Biderman gives a fantastic, continuous narative that had me cringing at the thought of hardships to come and exhausted by the never-ending, life-threatening encounters with the Russians. Biderman fails only in the lack of maps and the repetitious descriptions of the campaign of the northern army, but this is in keeping with the drawn-out events in the battles surrounding Leningrad. The conditions endured by Biderman and his colleagues will humble the hardiest mountaineer and reminded you of just how easy you have it in life. I wish my father had lived longer so that we might sit and ponder Biderman's experiences. My father served in the US army on the Western Front, and met the Russians at the end of the war. Read this book along with stories of Shackleton, and H. W. Tilman for the sheer adventure of it.

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A Layperson's Guide to Reading "In Deadly Combat"

First of all, the scope of this man's experience is vast: after a third of the book he's already been through more than the guys in "Band of Brothers". By the last third of the book, you're just trying to push through it and all the endless brutality blurs together, which tends to trivialize his experience. Skim through it first to get the "so what happens next?" stuff out of your mind, then go back and read the individual experiences with the attention they deserve. Remember that this book is chiefly a memorial to ALL those in his division, so about 70 percent of it recounts movements and actions of other parts of the group. This stuff may be important to historians, but for the rest of us it's like those endless sections of the Bible where they slog through who begat who. For the lay reader, the heart of this book is the shocking and numbing personal experiences in combat. To understand these accounts, make sure you know which way they are going (North or South? Attack or Defend?), the time of day (can people see?), the terrain (where can people hide?), the climate/weather, and which way his friends are. It's also important to look up German words in either the glossary or the table of military rank. The rest you can figure out later, including guessing where all these obscure towns are on the map. With these caveats in mind, I think that most laymen will find this book as gripping and as shocking as I did.

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A "Keeper" for your library

Outstanding upclose view of a German infantryman's experiences on the Eastern Front. He didn't win the Knights Cross, he wasn't a pilot or a panzer leader and he wasn't a member of the SS or an elite division. He was a "common" combat soldier doing his duty in a lethal environment. I now have a better understanding of what made the German soldier "tick" during WWII. Outstanding says it all, it's very readable and it's a keeper.

The best narrative of a German soldier that I have read.

If you like reading what the other side was dealing with during WWII, this book fits the bill. It's one of the better ones of the genre. Bidermann's story is interesting and full of insights into the German soldiers experience. I recommend this book whole-heartedly. Bidermann does not make excuses for being a German soldier, or for his actions during the war, but just tells his story honestly, I believe.

Enjoy.

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reviews: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, page 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11

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Don't no much about military history
Essential Soviet-German War Reading
Eastern Front books (new/old)
Books about German Soldiers
WAR IN THE EAST 1939-1945

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