Audiobook9 hours
Blood Red Snow: The Memoirs of a German Soldier on the Eastern Front
Written by Gunter K. Koschorrek
Narrated by Nigel Patterson
Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars
4.5/5
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About this audiobook
Gunter Koschorrek wrote his illicit diary on any scraps of paper he could lay his hands on. As keeping a diary was strictly forbidden, he sewed the pages into the lining of his thick winter coat and deposited them with his mother on infrequent trips home on leave. The diary went missing and it was when he was reunited with his daughter in America some forty years later that it came to light and became Blood Red Snow.
The author was a keen recruit at initial training and his excitement at the first encounter with the enemy in the Russian Steppe is obvious. The horror and confusion of fighting in the streets of Stalingrad are brought to life by his descriptions of the others in his unit; their differing manners and techniques for dealing with the squalor and death. He is also posted to Romania and Italy, assignments he remembers fondly compared to his time on the Eastern Front.
This book stands as a memorial to the huge numbers on both sides who did not survive and is, over five decades later, the fulfillment of a responsibility he feels to honor the memory of those who perished. Gunter K. Koschorrek was a machine-gunner on the Russian front in WWII. He lives in Germany, having retired from his job as managing director of a sales company.
The author was a keen recruit at initial training and his excitement at the first encounter with the enemy in the Russian Steppe is obvious. The horror and confusion of fighting in the streets of Stalingrad are brought to life by his descriptions of the others in his unit; their differing manners and techniques for dealing with the squalor and death. He is also posted to Romania and Italy, assignments he remembers fondly compared to his time on the Eastern Front.
This book stands as a memorial to the huge numbers on both sides who did not survive and is, over five decades later, the fulfillment of a responsibility he feels to honor the memory of those who perished. Gunter K. Koschorrek was a machine-gunner on the Russian front in WWII. He lives in Germany, having retired from his job as managing director of a sales company.
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Reviews for Blood Red Snow
Rating: 4.506622516556291 out of 5 stars
4.5/5
151 ratings8 reviews
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Very well written and read. I must say that the mention of Kalashnikov rifles puts some doubt to the credibility of the story. I would assume it could just be an error in translation or because the books was written so long after the war.
1 person found this helpful
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Great book. Very straightforward account of one man's experience on the eastern front. Lots of lessons to be learned and much to contemplate about the average German soldier in ww2
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5A shocking perspective into the daily realities of war from the eyes of a German soldier. A must-read for anyone who doubts the fear and suffering of the foot soldiers of our once-enemy.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Seems like a very factual account of what it must have been like to be a German soldier on the eastern front. What hell!!
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Excellent, non-historian, personal and revealing.
The amazing personal account of WW2 on the Eastern front through the eyes of a machinegunner. Gives a rare glimpse into what the brutal life was like for a regular soldier on the Eastern front. Contains descriptions of many touching and brutally honest accounts of what war was like on the Eastern front.
Does not really contain any real information about larger troop movements, but that just adds a realistic feeling of confusion and lack of the bigger picture as regular troops must have felt it. Very detailed as events come from a hidden diary instead of from memory and official documents. - Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Wow, an excellent book with a very different point of view of ww2. It was really eye opening
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5It is very easy to read as it has no fancy author trying to show you his education, except for the constant use of German terms for people's positions and rank. It is a very different view on war and all its horror, with down to earth front-line explanations, only slightly tempered from the vulgar. It starts with entry into battle and continues with his adjustment to it. and ends with the war and his realization he is the looser. Any WWII or war enthusiast should read it, as it is material they are likely lacking.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5This review will serve as a review for two WW2 memoirs that unrelated by distance and disparate cultures are inexorably bound by the profound similarities of their wartime experiences. One was a heavy machine gunner for the German Wehrmacht and the second was a mortar gunner for the US Marine Corp. Both started as replacements but were very soon the veterans. Both served in hellishly brutal campaigns; one started at Stalingrad and fought all the way back to Germany during the retreat from Russia, the other was part of four island landings, Peleliu and Okinawa the two notable for their US casualties, as part of the "Old Breed" in the Pacific. Their experiences clearly demonstrate that "War is Hell"Not authors but storytellers as they describe the wounding and deaths of their comrades some of whom, they never knew their names. Neither side was taking prisoners and it seemed appropriate given the circumstances. Heroism abounded and ineptitude at the command level was a frequent cause of casualties. Hitler's and Tojo's ambitions sent them to a war that became a fight to the bitter end.