Blitzfreeze

Legion of the Damned #10

by Sven Hassel

A shocking insight into the realities of war, the conditions endured by ordinary soldiers and their unwavering solidarity.It was supposed to be Hitler's glorious conquest of Russia...The 27th Penal Regiment has been ordered to invade the Soviet Union. They are half-starved and ill-equipped. To reach Moscow they must defeat the fearsome Red Army.But instead, they find themselves at the mercy of an even deadlier the killer cold of the Russian winter.As they advance across the icy wastes, they think only of survival.

Genres: War, Historical Fiction, Fiction, World War II, Military Fiction, Historical, Danish

384 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 2009

About the author

Hassel served in the Danish merchant navy till 1937, when he moved to Germany to join the army. He served with the second Panzer Division stationed at Eisenach and in 1939 was a tank driver during the invasion of Poland. A year later he attempted to escape because of being mentally exhausted. He was transferred to a Sonderabteilung, a penal unit manned by criminals and dissidents. He served with the 2nd Cavalry Regiment and later the 11th and 27th Panzer Regiments (6th Panzer Division) on all fronts except North Africa and was wounded several times. Eventually he reached the rank of lieutenant and received an Iron Cross 1st and 2nd class. He surrendered to Soviet troops in Berlin in 1945 and spent the following years in various POW camps. He began to write his first book Legion of the Damned while he was interned. He was released in 1949, and was planning to join the French Foreign Legion when he met Dorthe Jensen. They got married in 1951. He went to work in a car factory. In 1957 Sven Hassel suffered from an attack of a sickness caught during the war and was paralyzed for almost two years. After recovery, he began to write more books.

See also Sven Hazel

Reviews

[Razvan Banciu · Rating 4 out of 5]

Porta, Tiny &co. are on their way to Russia.
Panzers, snipers, fighting for survival and some good humor too. That's Sven Hassel, as you might say reading just one of his books is quite enough. Maybe, but these are the sort of books which remain forever young. And somehow actual...

[``Laurie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Danish author Sven Hassel fictionalized account of his WW2 experience as a soldier in the German army.

[Jeff Lewis · Rating 5 out of 5]

Once again Sven Hassel proved why he was the best World War Two fiction writer. His characters including Porter, Tiny, Legionaire and the Old 'Un are not very likeable but they keep you interest until the last page. Blitzfreeze focuses on the German campaign on Moscow from the over optimistic beginning, heavy snow and ultimate retreat. The highlight of the book is a very funny encounter as Porter and Tiny conned a chef from stores that they were uncover gestapo operatives, forcing him cook them a meal while dropping that a man like him would never be caught out by conmen. A great read.

[Anna · Rating 4 out of 5]

For Germans it was unbelieveable that in Russian army women served as regular soldiers, not just as nurses, secretaries or other auxiliary service. Sven Hassel showed the brutal world of Eastern front in World War II where the weather was enemy or support.

[Donnacha · Rating 3 out of 5]

The last quarter was very good, at lot of useless and boring dialogue in some parts. But in the main I enjoyed it. It showed the war in the Eastern front very accurately I'd say. It was a micacle if any solider survived it, a brutal campaign.

[David Haddon · Rating 3 out of 5]

The authors writing is much less engaging than I remembered from another of his books I read thirty-ish years ago. Not sure if that was because my tastes have changed, his writing became less coherent, or the translation became less smooth.

Either way, the long drawn out side stories from Porta, etc. were annoying. The events depicted seemed formulaic. And the bouncing around structure of the chapters seemed very awkward.

Maybe my biggest complaint is the events often feel more like those of a comic book (Marvels's Sergeant Fury for example) than an attempt to project any picture of historical insight.

[Mihaela Abrudan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Foarte bine ales titlul volumului moarte și viscol, asta au trăit soldații germani în încercarea de a cuceri Moscova. Este uimitor modul în care și-a tratat Hitler propria armată, lasându-i fără echipament de iarnă într-o Rusie care e proverbială pentru iernile ei. De admirat curajul soldaților nemți, care deși au de înfruntat un război trebuie să se confrunte și cu ordinele inumane ale suprioriilor.

[Sandra McCourt · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is quite a good book where the German army are told to march through the Russian plains to Moscow. That’s ok but the troops are ill equipped to do anything. They are half starved and looking for clothes and ammunition to keep them going. The whole group are still there. Sven Porta Tiny although his language has changed which threw me a bit, the Old Man Steve and the Legionnaire. Not too bad

[MARK BRIGGS · Rating 1 out of 5]

Abandoned at 72 pages. Rambling nonesense..

[C.A. A. Powell · Rating 5 out of 5]

Our usual crowd of vagabond heroes are at it again. The characters of Porta, Tiny, the Legionnaire and, of course, Sven the Danish writer who tells these stories in the first person singular.

These soldiers are in Hitler's German army on the Russian front. They are a cannon fodder and a penal battalion of political deviants, murderers and other criminal elements. Sven is a deserter who fled to Denmark, his country of birth. When Germany occupied the country in 1940. He got a knock on the door for going AWOL.

All the men of the penal battalion have their own stories to tell. Some of the antics are so comical; you will hold your stomach trying not to laugh. These are kind moments during leave or lulls in the battle of the Russian steppe. The other side of the coin is the horror of the war and the violent and often heartbreaking things that happen to the men as they become more brutalised in their endeavours to survive the madness and Hell on Earth about them.

There are many Sven Hassel stories with the same characters we all grow to love. They are meant to have really existed. However, perhaps some of the stories are made up more with old friends entered into the tales. Great read and easily hooks many readers for this type of genre.



C.A. Powell
The Black and Tan Summer: Ireland's Turbulent Year of 1920

[Amedeea · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is about the events that took place during World War II when the german troops were stopped by the better equipped russian army from reaching Moscow. But it is not the russians themselves that were winning, this was a victory of the harsh russian winter against the german batallions. The story follows a german group of soldiers who is withdrawing, having to endure minus 50 degrees C, hunger and the russian troops that attack them continuously.Poorly equipped, some of them wounded or with frostbite, they move on through winter”s hell, hoping to reach the german front lines alive. Since Sven Hassel has fought in the second world war, he has complete knowledge of weapons and equipment as well as war tactics, this being one of the things i enjoyed reading about in this book. I will definitely read some of his other books as well.

[David Miller · Rating 2 out of 5]

I feel like Hassel is starting to phone these books in. "Blitzfreeze" is deep in the series, and follows the standard formula: lots of Porta and Tiny, lots of colorful mayhem. The Old Man has his moments in this one, but everyone else is fading into the background, even the Legionnaire.

The story of the commando raid into Moscow to blow up a tank factory is pretty good. So is the squadron's reaction on seeing the seemingly limitless supplies of tanks and ammunition and food on the Soviet side.

I rated this only two stars, instead of three, because for the first time Hassel has shrugged his way out of a tight spot. During the commando raid he puts the raiders into an impossible position, as they are crossing the bridge. Then he just says, "How we got across I don't remember." Just like that, they are out of the impossible position!

[John · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was the first Sven Hassel book that I read... funnily enough, considering the title, in the heat of a Spanish summer.

I loved this book and have re-read it several times now and never grow tired of the biting reality of war, the humour found amongst comrades and the solidarity of the fighting unit.

[Toma Nicolae · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's interesting. I know the controversy behind this author, but I'm pretty sure some of the stuff he's described were real. Not sure if I would recommend this author (or book) over another one when it comes to WW2 literature.

[Sunny Day]

Truly eye opening books, everybody considering joining the army should read them. The humour is contagious as is the banality of the horror of war, shocking in places but gives you some idea of the real cost of war and doesn’t look at it through rose tinted specs either.

[Calin Ardelean · Rating 2 out of 5]

After many readers are wondering if his novels from serie were fact or fiction, I think enough is known atrocities committed by both sides in the Second World War.

[Rianna Dumitrescu · Rating 4 out of 5]

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