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    Eastern Inferno: The Journals of a German Panzerjäger on the Eastern Front, 1941–43
    Unavailable
    Eastern Inferno: The Journals of a German Panzerjäger on the Eastern Front, 1941–43
    Unavailable
    Eastern Inferno: The Journals of a German Panzerjäger on the Eastern Front, 1941–43
    Ebook343 pages4 hours

    Eastern Inferno: The Journals of a German Panzerjäger on the Eastern Front, 1941–43

    By Christine Alexander and Mason Kunze

    4.5/5

    ()

    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this ebook

    This book presents the remarkable personal journals of a German soldier who participated in Operation Barbarossa and subsequent battles on the Eastern Front, revealing the combat experience of the German-Russian War as seldom seen before.

    Hans Roth was a member of the anti-tank (Panzerjager) battalion, 299th Infantry Division, attached to Sixth Army, as the invasion of Russia began. Writing as events transpired, he recorded the mystery and tension as the Germans deployed on the Soviet frontier in June 1941. Then a firestorm broke loose as the Wehrmacht tore across the front, forging into the primitive vastness of the East.

    During the Kiev encirclement, Roth's unit was under constant attack as the Soviets desperately tried to break through the German ring. At one point, after the enemy had finally been beaten, a friend serving with the SS led him to a site where he witnessed civilians being massacred en masse (which may well have been Babi Yar). After suffering through a horrible winter against apparently endless Russian reserves, his division went on the offensive again, this time on the northern wing of "Case Gelb," the German drive toward Stalingrad.

    In these journals, attacks and counterattacks are described in "you are there" detail, as Roth wrote privately, as if to keep himself sane, knowing that his honest accounts of the horrors in the East could never pass through Wehrmacht censors. When the Soviet counteroffensive of winter 1942 begins, his unit is stationed alongside the Italian 8th Army, and his observations of its collapse, as opposed to the reaction of the German troops sent to stiffen its front, are of special fascination.

    Roth’s three journals were discovered many years after his disappearance, tucked away in the home of his brother, with whom he was known to have had a deep bond. After his brother’s death, his family discovered them and quickly sent them to Rosel, Roth’s wife. In time, Rosel handed down the journals to Erika, Roth’s only daughter, who had meantime immigrated to America.

    Hans Roth was doubtlessly working on a fourth journal before he was reported missing in action in July 1944 during the battle known as the Destruction of Army Group Center. Although Roth’s ultimate fate remains unknown, what he did leave behind, now finally revealed, is an incredible firsthand account of the horrific war the Germans waged in Russia.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherCasemate
    Release dateNov 30, 2010
    ISBN9781612000244
    Unavailable
    Eastern Inferno: The Journals of a German Panzerjäger on the Eastern Front, 1941–43
    Author

    Christine Alexander

    Christine Alexander specializes in military history.

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    Reviews for Eastern Inferno

    4.5/5

    17 ratings3 reviews

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    • 5/5
      Eastern Inferno is an excellent first hand soldier's account of various actions in Operation Barbarossa, the WW2 German invasion of Russia. It's a translation of Hans Roth's diary starting on 12th June 1941 (Diary 1) and ending on 6th May 1943 (Diary 3). He was reported missing on 25th June 1943.Roth was a member of the 299th Infantry Division, part of the Sixth Army, which started on the left flank of Army Group South as it invaded the Ukraine, involved in what was at first a difficult infantry battle, eventually leading to the commitment of armour and a large scale encirclement around Kiev taking 665.000 Russian prisoners. Subsequently he participated in the battle for Oboyan (winter of 1941-42) and late the German summer offensive of 1942 culminating in the battle for Stalingrad. His unit was outside the Soviet offensive/ encirclement of Sixth Army starting on November 19th but he saw the collapse of the Italian flanking positions and was part of the subsequent rout.Roth's account agrees with other first hand records showing the constant difficulties of supply, the eventual terminal problem of apparently limitless Soviet equipment and manpower and the great distances to be covered in scorching heat or halted in deep mud or Arctic temperatures in which weapons and machinery wouldn't work.A positive aspect of the diary is that it avoids the bias of soldier's letters written for their families (eg. in Fritz's, "Frontsoldaten: The German Soldier in World War II") or Bidermann's "In Deadly Combat: A German Soldier's Memoir of the Eastern Front (Modern War Studies)" with its necessary post-war criticism of National Socialism. The uncomforable reality is that these soldiers were 100% for Hitler and National Socialism.
    • 5/5
      Wow, such an amazing read. It is real "in your face" rendition of the fighting on the Eastern Front, no holds barred. The soldiers seem to "adjust" to mass slaughter and atrocities in a matter of days, and were also aware of the SS cleansing as well.

      The other book is the brilliant " The Forgotten Solider" by Guy Sajer.

      Not for the faint heart !

    • 5/5
      I helped to edit this book and provided background information for Ms. Alexander.