The most fascinating aspect about Bidermann's memoirs is "what went through his mind" during a terrible & horrific experience.
After my readings of the US combat veteran in WW2, the Korean War, and Vietnam; the perils of 3 1/2 years of continous combat seem momentus compared to the shorter combat tours. Of course, any combat tour must be incredibly sickening, but the realization soldiers of the Red Army and German Army lasted so long boggles the mind.
Finally, Bidermann depicts 3 1/2 years of combat on the Eastern Front in a concise, entertaining and easily read book. His work both as a soldier and author is INCREDIBLE!
I found his first person accounts absolutely riveting. He first serves as a anti-tank (37mm gun)crewman, through the first year and into Von Manstein's brilliant Crimean campaign. His details on the actions in the Crimea are outstanding, heat, thirst, lack of food, and of course a determined enemy are all felt by the reader. After the Crimea, his unit is shipped north to the Lenningrad front & a whole new list of horrors, hot mosquito infested swamps that turn to icy cold nightmares in the winter. Of course well seasoned with a helping of determined Soviet soldiers. In the end his unit surrenders to the Soviets in May of 45 and his ordeal is just beginning. His descriptions of life as a Soviet prisoner are as chilling as anything he endured in combat.
Much of the book (which was originally intended to be distributed to 132nd Division survivors after the war) is a description of his division's history in the war. While these are a little more "dry" than his first person accounts, I still found them fascinating. This is not one of the over-glorified panzer or Waffen SS formations, but an ordinary infantry unit, the type that comprised the bulk of Hitler's Whermacht. I highly recomend this book to anyone interested in the story of infantry combat on the eastern front in WW2.