Christine Alexander (2)

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.… (mere)