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Blood Red Snow

The Memoirs of a German Soldier on the Eastern Front

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About this listen

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 40 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.

©2002 Greenhill Books (P)2018 Tantor 19th Century Military Modern Memoir War Scary Russia German Memoirs
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For anyone with an interest in WWII and the soldier’s experiences of fighting on the Eastern Front, this is an absolute must. It ranks as highly as that of Guy Sajer’s personal account. Utterly compelling, I listened to it over 2 days. The narrator is excellent, and avoids the common error in many audio books of trying, and failing miserably, to give each character an individual and inappropriate voice which spoils so many other otherwise excellent listens. Superb.

Excellent

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Great book, vividly explains on the horror of war, had me hooked.
Sad ,occasionally light hearted ,well written ,almost felt I was there with him.

superb

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Great personable insight into life on the Eastern Front. What a story and incredibly, the author survived to tell the tale

Fantastic insight

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A harrowing account of war on the eastern front, told through the eyes of a man caught up in it. The story is told with no political ideals, or historical judgement. A fantastic listen.

Engrossing

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the winners write the history but media dont like talking truth about losers side. itspretty chosenite free account of what happened

Should have been narrated in german english but narrator was good. Told Gunthers story well

This is an edited version of a diary kept by a Wehrmacht enlisted man during the various stages and theaters of his service from mid-1942 until the end of the war, with brief interruptions when he gets wounded or doesn't have time to write. As he explains, keeping a diary was forbidden, and though a lot of the situations he gets into seem too insane to be real, given the conditions of the war I can give him a pass on authenticity questions.

The Eastern Front was by far the most vicious and awful front of the war, and so his descriptions of Stalingrad and Bagration are amazing in how unlikely his survival seems to be. I'm not sure of the survival rates for machine gunners, which was Koschorrek's specialty, so when I was reading I just sat back and marveled as he dodged endless waves of T-34s and mortars, or in the most ridiculous scene, manages to keep one step ahead of the Russians by stealing a pony.

He didn't seem to be stuck in Stalingrad for too long, fortunately for him, but the retreats he chronicles are still epics of chaos and death. Having never served in the military, I read war memoirs for the action and the sense of "what war is like", which he does pretty well.

A lot of the book is about small things: food, new shoes, cigarettes, letters to home, and complaining about officers. It's interesting to see this kind of different take on the war, and I enjoyed Koschorrek's stories

Starts off shortly before Operation Uranus encircles Stalingrad and the Sixth Army. Koschorrek is a new recruit, anxious to get into battle and prove himself. He is quickly disabused of the glory of battle as we get a long exposure to the retreat back to Germany over the next two years.

His incredible survival against the odds brings the fate of the common German soldier into focus. Brutal. He becomes an experienced and lethal Heavy Machine Gun (HMG) gunner. His HMG saves the day many times but the MGs are always a target. His crew pays a heavy price.

We are with him as he loses two assistant gunners in rapid succession to headshots by a Soviet sniper with explosive bullets The unrelenting cold and the mud come to life in his account. Short detours to France, Italy and Denmark break up the story. Wounded 7 times, you get to follow a plain, unassuming mudslogger into the deepest penetration of the USSR and back out

Definitely on par with Forgotten soldier by guy sajer allways really interesting to read of the exploits of the German soldier on the eastern front how some ever got through it god knows nobody can understand what it was like unless they was there and this book takes us as near as possible recommended

no more brother wars and fighting for the so few

believable account of eastern front and aftermath

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