Kameraden

Legion of the Damned #3

by Sven Hassel

Sentiamo i cingoli dei carri armati in avvicinamento. –Un T-34. Devono averci scoperti, sussurra Fratellino. - Non muovetevi finché non è qui, poi ce la filiamo! L’orribile stridore dei cingoli si avvicina sempre di più. Riconosco l’angoscia: un brivido lungo la spina dorsale. Muoversi un secondo prima del tempo significa morte sicura. Non so come, riusciamo ad alzarci, le gambe funzionano da sole. Il carro armato passa sopra la buca e schiaccia tutto quello che c’è dentro... Poi si allontana ronfando.

Sven Hassel fu reclutato in una compagnia di disciplina come soldato semplice dell’esercito tedesco. Con un realismo immediato e brutale, narra le atrocità della guerra, i crimini nazisti e il senso dell’umorismo cinico e crudo dei soldati. Con oltre 50 milioni di copie vendute, i suoi sono i libri di guerra di maggior successo al mondo.

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

286 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 1958

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]

One of the best from the series, as it offers the possibility to see the sordid and dirty face of war in Germany.
Tiny, as usual, makes all the money. And Porta gets them all...

[Sean McLachlan · Rating 5 out of 5]

I picked this up from a book exchange at a B&B I was staying in. Judging from the cover (someone one should do with caution) I thought I was getting a mindless action tale to flip through while on vacation. I was wrong.

Comrades of War is a gritty look at the life of a unit of Wehrmacht soldiers as the Third Reich begins to collapse. There are few battle scenes. Most of the action takes place while they are in a hospital recovering from grievous wounds and drinking themselves to oblivion. There's plenty of fistfights, the guys solve a murder, and one of them even falls in love. then they go back to the front, a place they psychologically never left.

I'd never heard of Sven Hassel before I read this novel. Judging from his other titles, Comrades of War appears to be typical of his work. Many of the characters reappear in his other novels. I looked Hassel up and found him to be as intriguing as the books he wrote. He was Danish and claimed to have fought in the German army on the Eastern Front. Another Danish writer researched his past and said Hassel was in fact a Nazi informer in occupied Denmark. Claims and counterclaims shot back and forth and I am not sure who is right, although I'm leaning towards the "Hassel was a fake" theory.

Whatever he was, Hassel was a great writer who understood the madness of war and the mindset of soldiers. You end up sympathizing with these guys despite their being on the wrong side. They never commit atrocities (at least not in this book) and they hate the officer corps and the Nazi party members, who are invariably shown to be corrupt, brutal, and weak. Well worth a read.

[Phillip Fuller · Rating 5 out of 5]

The real enemy of the German soldier was the Nazi Party that treated him as cannon fodder to be expendable and thrown into the ovens if they become useless. I get the feeling Hitler knew the war was lost and decided to have a Viking funeral for the Third Reich. Every able bodied man is sent to the Eastern Front to die a certain death at the hands of a vengeful Soviet military. Nazi Germany was a brutal regime that would not tolerate any dissent even in jest and no one was safe even children. This makes me wonder why anyone would embrace Nazism because look at the suffering that it caused everyone involved. The German soldier was taught to see themselves as worthless compared to the Reich and they heeded the call to war without question.

[Procyon Lotor]

3rd Comrades of War chapter by chapter: -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1. Auxiliary Field Hospital Train 877 East Various chatter amongst wounded (including Tiny, Sven and the Legionnaire) on hospital train. Tiny makes plans for his stay in hospital - "His eyes shone with expectant rapture. It would be the first time in his life he'd ever been in hospital, and he imagined it as a sort of brothel with a quite extensive service for clients." The Legionnaire tells the story of his mistress in Casablanca. The train is attacked by Jabos. Talk about food. More chatter amongst the wounded. Sven thinks he has gangrene. 2. Death's Depot Story of Chaplain von Zlavik. Time in field hospital at Cracow. Operation on Sven. Mention of Ursula (see Legion of the Damned). 3. Dictator Tiny Army hospital in Hamburg. Tribute to Doctor Mahler. George Freytag's famous fever. Talk of recent murders of girls in Hamburg. Mouritz the religious fanatic. Tiny's references to Biblical history! First mention of Sister Emma "The Battleship". Bust up between Tiny and Emma. Tiny starts demanding beer and generally causing trouble. 4. Aunt Dora First mention of Aunt Dora and her love of money and her pimp Ewald. Wind Force 11 is behind the central station in Hamburg. "The best way to keep your friends is to know something about them." Legionnaire starts baiting two 'respectable' women customers. Tiny 'dances' with them. Story of patrol and Tiny's skills with a knife. Story of Ewald the Pimp. 5. The Jew Sven spends time with Gisela (one of the women the Legionnaire was baiting in Aunt Dora's). Comparison between sex and mountain climbing (see The Legion Of The Damned!!) Sven tells the story of hunting partisans in the Czech mountains. Section stops at a cabin. They bury an old man they find dead in his bed. Heide hears noises and everyone hunts around (this doesn't follow Heide's personality as introduced in Wheels Of Terror�but never mind, the new Heide is much better entertainment). Jewish KZ prisoner emerges. Heide taunts him. The Jew tells his story. Porta plays his flute and there is mad dancing. Comparison of penal systems in Russia and Germany, SS and NKVD. All present talk about their time in prison. Old Man talks about the time he tried to hang himself. Tiny and Heide have one of their famous boxing matches. Visit next morning from an SS unit. Old Man's section sent away. SS men catch the Jew and kill him. Legionnaire swears revenge. Classic SH chapter. 6. Revenge Waiting in ambush for SS company. Old Man tries to persuade them against taking revenge. SS reprisals start. The Legionnaire takes command. Ex-SS man in section lets slip that he was once a KZ guard. Description of various KZ practices. Revenge taken. End of story with Gisela. 7. Tiny Gets Engaged Description of brothel. Ward inspection by Doctor Mahler and Matron. Matron has to give Tiny an enema. Strange love affair starts between Tiny and Matron. Description of Tiny's odd behaviour while in love. The happy couple then have a bust up. Terrible consequences. Story of Tiny knocking over the cleaning lady's bucket. Adventures at the whorehouse. Bust up with head-hunters. Description of head-hunter set-up and Hans Braun. Tiny is picked up. Rescue by Matron and her friends. Revenge by Tiny and the Legionnaire on Braun. 8. "Wind Force 11" Introduction to 'Pretty Paul'. Legionnaire talks about his plans for after the war. Various events during an air raid. Rape by U-boat sailor. Schupo visit. SS patrol visit. Aunt Dora deals with them with the help of Pretty Paul (top value episode). Reference to Judge Heinrich Weslar ("still alive, in case anyone wants to pay him a visit"). A few gruesome tales of the Nazi system. 9. Bombs In The Night Air raid on Hamburg. Tiny and friends help to clear up. They start adding names to their list for dealing with after the war. Talk about hospital (and reference to its location in Hamburg) and hospital staff and their fate after the war. This is Hamburg in 1944. Gambling in hospital basement. Tiny has a bet on whether a dog can eat a human appendix which is lying in an operating bowl. Story of Emil the artilleryman who can eat anything. Duel of strength between Tiny and Emil. Another air raid. Hamburg's serial killer strikes again. Pretty Paul takes over the investigation. Paul's adventures in a luxury underground restaurant. Continuing story of the serial killer. 10. The Sex Killer Discovery of evidence in George's rucksack. Attempts at bringing 'justice'. Excellent scenes of the dilemma of how to deal with George the murderer. Visit from the Kripo. 11. The Leave Train End of stay in hospital. Aunt Dora and the Legionnaire and Tiny and Matron say their farewells. Dora tries to get the Legionnaire to desert but he won't have any of it. Various farewells and incidents. Ewald the pimp is drafted. Talk of schemes to get out of frontline fighting. East Prussian soldier imitates Hitler. Tiny collects cigarette butts to re-use. Tiny talks about his childhood in reform school and his eight brothers and sisters (this becomes eleven in Assignment Gestapo) and his drunken father. 12. The Roller Conveyor Description of supply lines. Tiny goes looting. Various incidents on the roller conveyor (the mad colonel who shoots himself, the driver on his way to Cologne). Attack by 'Rattas' Russian planes. First mention of Lieutenant Ohlsen. Talk about volunteers from Axis countries. Tiny mistakes a group of Red Cross nurses for a travelling brothel !! Raid by headhunters. Criticism of God. Everybody taken into custody as traitors or deserters! Executions take place (including Ewald and the Cologne truck driver). Last minute reprieve for our heroes. 13. Back At The Front Reporting back for duty. Bust up with First Sergeant Barth. Tiny acts the idiot to wind-up 'Iron Herbert' Barth. Back to the front line and Joseph Porta. Old Man explains the death of M�ller. Ohlsen takes over from Harder who has been killed. Mission behind Russian lines to pick up prisoners for interrogation. Tiny gets upset when he gets the blame for not capturing any prisoners. He runs off to the Russian trenches. More bust-ups with Heide. Letters arrive, including one for Tiny who has a rather emotional reaction. 14. Behind Enemy Lines Preparation for patrol behind Russian lines. Discovery of T34s. Tanks start up and move towards German lines. Frantic race back. 15. The Partisans Survivors try to make their way back to safety (an S.H. trademark). Porta and Tiny find stores (including a cat). Careful division of supplies by Tiny and Lt Ohlsen. March through forest and swamp. Discovery of Ivans with a truck. Mad drive through forest. Story of Russian girl held prisoner by partisans. Tiny finds the girl and reacts in typical fashion. Girl, Maria, wants revenge against partisans. More talk of what will happen after the war. Porta explains his plans to open a brothel. Meeting with MPs (who are deserters). MPs 'escape' and are found hanged in the forest. Tense moments with the Old Man (who knows what has really happened). Death of Maria. 16. Reunion Ohlsen goes on leave for the first time in three years. Goes to Berlin. Finds his house boarded up but wife and child safe at her father's house. Bust-up with his wife, Inge. His son, Gunni, has been sent to a Nazi home. Ohlsen visits the Nazi camp but can't see his son. 17. An Evening Party At The SS Ohlsen goes to an SS party at Wannsee. Lots of nasty characters in attendance. Description of huge feast. Ohlsen baits the SS by calling them the 'arsch arsch'. Lots of drunken debauchery. Mysterious suicide of SS Major. 18. A Casual Affair Ohlsen almost goes to the Gestapo. First mention of Barcelona Blom. Ohlsen walks in the rain thinking of old comrades. He meets a woman whose sweetheart was at the front. Seduction scene. Back to the leave train. Scams to get extra leave.

[Sicofonia · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a classical example of Sven Hassel literature, war told as it was, with no romantic halo whatsoever.
"Comrades of War" takes place mainly in Hamburg, when Sven, the legionnaire and Tiny are sent back to the hospital after being injured at the Eastern Front.

The plot is essentially a succession of fist fights, orgies and murdering. To my appeal, this made the book quite simplistic as there's no story behind other than the recollection of these events.

One new character is introduced in this book, Lieutenant Bernt Ohlsen. A soldier who discovers his wife is having an affair with other man while he is on leave. His story will be later resumed on the book Assignment Gestapo.

All in all, a good read but not on par with "Legion of the Damned", "Wheels of terror" or "General SS". I suppose if you are a die hard Hassel's fan you will enjoy this anyway.

[Gerhard Venter]

Warning: this book is written in Dutch. Nice, spicy Dutch.

If this was a movie it would be (mostly) one recorded by a first-person handheld camera running around the Eastern Front and panning around the carousing in German pubs and brothels. In other words, everywhere soldiers go. And that's the only reason to read this book — to get that raw, immediate, stinking, rumbling, shaking feel of battle, and a taste of the desperation and depravity on the home front. And the snooty high society untouched by the war. As yet.

The plot sucks and rambles, but still I read the whole book, almost against my will.

Maybe I'm just a WWII junkie.
If you are too, you'll probably like it.

[Eoghan Whelan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Re-reading this after about 30 years to see if it's still as powerful as it felt then. Well written for the most part, this definitely captures the brutality and horror of war. Rather spoiled by the knowledge, which I didn't have when first reading it, that, far from being an autobiographical account of the author's exploits during the war, it is entirely a work of fiction written by someone who was jailed for being a petty criminal and Nazi collaborator in Denmark during the war.

[Manea Ionut · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Şi frigul e bun. Orice vreme e bună, atâta timp cât eşti in viaţă. Până şi o puşcărie e bună, atunci când încă mai trăieşti şi nu te gândeşti la ce ar fi putut fi dacă... Acest "dacă" îi supără pe oameni."

[Edwin · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ik had nog niet eerder van deze schrijver gehoord, en ik vind het jammer dat ik bij het 3e deel van de serie ben begonnen. Ik hoop de overige delen nog wel te pakken kunnen krijgen. Volgens de schrijver heeft hij actief meegevochten aan het oostfront. Een andere Deens auteur schrijft, die Hassel's verleden onderzocht schreef dat hij een informant van de Nazi's in bezet Denemarken was. Ik weet niet wie er gelijk heeft of niet, en doet dat er veel aan toe? Er zijn meerdere schrijvers geweest die een fout verleden hebben.

Zoals al eerder door anderen geschreven, de rauwe werkelijkheid, gezien door de ogen van een groep soldaten in een strafbataljon aan het Oostfront.
Het verhaal is eigenlijk een festijn van vuist-gevechten, orgies, en zuipfeesten.

Zo ver we kunnen weten uit dit boek, hebben de hoofdrolspelers nooit meegedaan aan de wreedheden uit de oorlog, haten ze de Nazi partij en officieren.

Grof, maar eerlijk, zo zou ik dit boek willen betitelen.

[Artur Coelho · Rating 4 out of 5]

Apesar de nutrir uma intensa curiosidade sobre a história da II Guerra, confesso que raramente li romances sobre o assunto. A história, e as histórias, reais são por si suficientemente intrigantes. Já a ficção militarista nunca me interessou por aí além. Peguei neste livro por sugestão do autor de Nome de Código: Portograal e não esperava mais do que uma história grandiloquente de combates violentos e soldados heróicos, vistos sob uma perspectiva germanófila, escritas por um dinamarquês que combateu na Wermacht durante a guerra. Mas, ao contrário do que o nome do autor, título e capa do livro possam deixar pensar, este romance não é nada do que se esperava.

Ao lê-lo remeti-me para memórias longínquas da leitura de O Valente Soldado Chveik, romance satírico onde um não muito brilhante camponês checo sobrevive às inúmeras tropelias da vida como soldado nas forças imperiais austro-húngaras. A sucessão de peripécias caracterizava com uma ironia patética os absurdos da I guerra. Comrades of War segue na mesma linha de sucessão de aventuras irónicas, embora o seu tom esteja muito distante da comédia simpática da obra de Hasek. Há outra obra que me assombrou a mente durante esta leitura: a iconografia de violência infernal das Tentações de Santo Antão do pintor medieval Hyeronimus Bosch. A escuridão, as trevas profundas iluminadas pelo fogo dos incêndios que iluminam pesadelos de violência injustificável, nepotismo, decadência moral e arrastamento do humanismo nas vielas infectas de uma sociedade totalitária dominada pelo horror normalizado.

Acompanhamos as aventuras de um grupo de camaradas de armas que atravessam a II guerra num batalhão penal das forças alemãs. Violentos, desapaixonados, criminosos, são um grupo de anti-heróis que se esforça por sobreviver na turbulência da guerra. Mas, paradoxalmente, são heróis bondosos por comparação ao ambiente que os rodeia, à amoralidade social daqueles que vivem sob o regime, do nepotismo alastrante, da corrupção moral dos que beneficiam do estado das coisas e do ambiente opressivo. Hassel escreve a partir das suas experiências, e descreve uma alemanha nazi à beira do colapso, onde a vida vale pouco menos que nada por entre as bombas aliadas, o horror da frente leste ou o zelo dos sicários do regime.

O romance constrói-se a partir de uma colagem por vezes desconexa de vivências. O grupo de soldados está a convalescer das feridas de guerra em Hamburgo, o que serve como pretexto para um mergulho no mundo das brigas da soldadesca e dos bordeis onde os soldados esquecem o desespero da morte quase certa. Se a viagem dos feridos é um exemplo de desencanto, a convalescença é o abandono aos sentidos. O regresso à frente é inevitável e traz consigo histórias arrepiantes de combate. Termina, curiosamente, como Juliette do Marquês de Sade, com um dos personagens abandonado pela família mergulhado numa orgia debochada de oficiais da SS, convencidos da sua supremacia enquanto ao seu redor o país se desmoronava. Pelo meio ainda temos um mistério psicopatológico com um estrangulador à solta pela cidade.

O que toca e impressiona neste livro não são os feitos dos personagens ou as grandes histórias. São os pormenores, que Hassel desvenda de forma muito seca em poucos parágrafos. Os soldados enforcados por cobardia por capricho do juiz dos tribunais marciais, mais preocupado com o seu animal de estimação do que com a gravidade das sentenças que despacha. A mulher grávida que, ao ver o seu marido partir para a frente, colapsa e insulta o regime, para logo ser levada para destino certo por elementos da polícia política enquanto o seu marido sonha com o regresso enquanto parte de comboio. Este, e outros pormenores entretecidos no livro, traçam e dão corpo àqueles parágrafos dos livros sobre a historia da II guerra. Transmitem uma imagem poderosa e indelével na mente, porque o leitor mais informado sabe que se o romance é ficção estas histórias foram factos históricos. E fica a suspeita que Hassel nos fala da sua experiência, deixando um testemunho do que vivenciou como soldado do Reich na II Guerra. O tom cru da narrativa, com óbvias falhas literárias e o curioso carácter fragmentário parecem indicá-lo. Mais do que histórias, são memórias sublimadas em romance.

[Socrate · Rating 3 out of 5]

Am fost aduşi la Centrul de pansare, unde murdăria noastră respingătoare şi paraziţii ce ne colcăiau pe rănile deschise l-au făcut pe chirurg să turbeze de furie.

— Nu mi-a fost dat în viaţa mea să văd asemenea porci! exclamă el.

Medicul acesta foarte tânăr, proaspăt ieşit din şcoala de la Graz nu văzuse, într-adevăr, mare lucru în viaţa lui. Micuţul îl blagoslovi cu o ploaie de înjurături, ceea ce i-a sporit şi mai mult furia. Se jură pe onoarea lui de soldat că va fi aspru pedepsit, dacă bineînţeles va scăpa cu viaţă. Până atunci se distră cu delicii auzindu-l cum zbiară în timp ce îi scotea schijele de obuz care împănau muntele acesta de carne.

Tânărul medic nu ştia altceva, nu era decât un copil care nu avea să mai crească. Fu împuşcat trei săptămâni mai târziu, legat de un plop. Operase un general ce fusese muşcat de o viperă şi generalul murise sub cuţitul copilului. Chirurgul statului-major fiind beat, nu putuse face operaţia, însă cineva ceruse anchetă, iar chirurgul de la statul-major se grăbi să dea vina pe tânărul său coleg. Incompetenţă şi neîndeplinire a datoriei, declarase consiliul de război. Tânărul zbieră necuviincios în timp ce era legat de plop; au trebuit patru oameni să-l care şi au observat că inima i se zbătea să-i spargă pieptul. Soldaţii l-au îmbărbătat spunându-i că trebuie să se poarte ca un bărbat. Dar e tare greu să fi bărbat când nu ai decât 23 de ani şi iluzia că eşti cineva pentru că ai două stele la mânecă.

[Phil · Rating 5 out of 5]

OK.This was one of the books from my troubled youth. Its about a gang of thugs thrown into a penal regiment on the Russian Front because the Nazis considered them 'criminal elements'.One famous leader of the resistance in France once remarked, "Being in jail under this regime is a badge of honor." Although being in this gang of hooligans had a kind of weird criminal cachet, but they are not honorable in the same way Willi Heinrich's tortured soldiers are (Sven Hassel's work resembles Willi Heinrich very much, by the way). It opens in a freight car filled with wounded men heading west to the hospital in Hamburg. Just as the gang starts to recover from their wounds the allies bomb the city, creating a strange sub-plot with a rapist-murderer stalking the ruins. The nightmarish descriptions of the bombing are amazing. Then its back to the front for some more ultra-violence. Hassel has a whole series of books in the same vein but many of them suffer from crude translation from the original Danish. This is by far the best of the bunch. If war novels are your thing, this is for you.

[David Miller · Rating 4 out of 5]

I found this one in Adelaide, Australia: it seems Hassel is much more popular in England and Australia than in the US. I hadn't heard of him before. This book was published in 1960, and is part of a series of 14 books that take the same characters through all of World War II.

It is a loose collection of stories about a gang of German soldiers that have been wounded and sent to hospital just as the Russian front is collapsing. The stories are all soldier stories: looting, whoring, fighting, stupid officers, the brutality and pointlessness of the war.

The writing is very colorful - very much NOT for the faint of heart or the easily offended. I know from other reading, every event in this book actually happened: no matter how horrifying the story, real people did the same things to other people countless times during the war.

The best sustained writing is the story of how the gang found a Jew hiding in a manse they happened across in their journey; how the gang befriended and feasted with him; what happened after an SS troop happened on the same manse.

[Rick Brindle · Rating 2 out of 5]

OK, so the story. Sven and some of the lads are wounded, following on from the end of Wheels of Terror. They spend a few months in Hamburg, getting drunk, fighting, plus the odd rape and murder, reminisce about the front, go back to the front, do the usual trapped behind the lines stuff, then Lt Ohlsen goes on leave to Berlin.
Sadly the prose is repetitive and the characters very comic book. Sven Hassel seems more at home writing about the front line as opposed to anywhere else, of which there was little, and he was at best badly served by his translator's lack of varied descriptive terms, if not his own.
When I was 14 I loved this book, unfortunately it hasn't aged that well.

[Anna · Rating 4 out of 5]

I like Sven Hassel's books very, very much. They show the brutality of war. This time Sven and his comrades spent 4 months in military hospital in Hamburg after being wounded on Eastern front - they spend time on drinking, going to brothels and getting into fights. And then there back on the front. Great.

[Sabretooth126 · Rating 5 out of 5]

Well, to much carnage
To much gore
At scene with the letter I laughed but after that I was kinda sad
I hated the scene with that corpse being raped ,I hate necrophilia in books or movies(I'm talking like it's a movie)
The scene with the corpse being raped makes the book to be more like a 4,5 than a perfect score
I was also sad for Lieutenant Olsen and his wife

[Sean Peters (A Good Thriller) · Rating 4 out of 5]

One of his best books.


A group of real characters.

Honest and gritty

[Oana Sîrbu · Rating 5 out of 5]

"Amândoi știm că viața este un carnaval mizerabil în care trebuie să porți masca cea buna."

[Hans-Petter Sandseth · Rating 4 out of 5]

Leste den norske utgaven

[Donald · Rating 3 out of 5]

A extremely jaded look at war and death.There are no heros.

[Martin Wardell · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another Great Story

Full of action and well written . The details within the story are well written and very graphic all the way through the book.

[Mitrache Razvan · Rating 4 out of 5]

A bit below the quality of the first 2 books in the series.

[Dragos Lefter · Rating 5 out of 5]

The book is such a good parallel between the horific experience of war but also how awful women and men can be just because of certain circumstances that they were not in control of

[PATRICE PRIVAT · Rating 3 out of 5]

A great book about war on the wrong side; suddenly Covid-19 becomes an insignificant event in the face of the WWII horrors on the Eastern front. Man is abeast.

[Rascal Kirch · Rating 4 out of 5]

8.5/10 solid ww2 era reality based fiction.

[Alice Raileanu · Rating 5 out of 5]

All Sven Hassle’s books are great if you love comedy, war and a bit of detail exageration.

[Lance Graham · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great read

Very good read, as all of these books. It gives an insight on civillian life and the fear and troubles everyone had in the same way as the soldier on the front line.

[Theruben37 · Rating 5 out of 5]

"Și frigul e bun. Orice vreme e bună, atât timp cât ești în viață."
"Doar gura zâmbea, ochii niciodată. De multă vreme ochii și inima lui încetaseră să mai zâmbească."

[José Miguel · Rating 5 out of 5]

Esta entrega de las vivencias de Sven Hassel durante la II Guerra Mundial nos transporta a los campos de batalla implacables en el frente del este con una crudeza que deja una impresión duradera. La novela sigue a un grupo de soldados alemanes en el frente oriental, donde la brutalidad de la guerra y las penurias de la vida militar se entrelazan en una narrativa descarnada.
Hassel, un veterano de guerra danés, aporta una autenticidad inquebrantable a su obra, basando las experiencias en sus propias vivencias. La camaradería entre los personajes se convierte en un refugio en medio del caos, destacando la humanidad que persiste incluso en circunstancias extremas.
La prosa de Hassel es directa y sin adornos, capturando la brutalidad y la crudeza del conflicto. A través de sus descripciones gráficas y diálogos contundentes, el autor arroja luz sobre la realidad desgarradora de la guerra, donde la supervivencia a menudo implica decisiones difíciles y la pérdida de la inocencia.
"Camaradas del Frente" no es simplemente una obra de ficción bélica, sino un testimonio crudo de los horrores de la guerra y las luchas humanas en medio del caos. La novela ofrece una visión impactante de la Segunda Guerra Mundial, recordándonos las consecuencias devastadoras de la violencia y la importancia de la solidaridad en los momentos más oscuros de la historia.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

[ColinJ · Rating 4 out of 5]

I grabbed this out of a pile of paperbacks left in the lunch room at work, and by its presentation I was expecting some kind of Mack Bolan-style pulp trash. But at the the same time it's hefty page count intrigued me. So I cracked the cover and dove in.

Nothing could have prepared me for the sheer frenzied avalanche of violence, degradation and lunacy that comprises of this rambling beast of a narrative.

Sven Hassel really pushes your face into the filth, grue and dehumanisation of war while, at the same time, delivering a steady stream of truly black humour that feels authentic to a group of men trying to survive and stay sane in the most dangerous, insane circumstances.

As bludgeoning an experience as this book was, once I finished it I went straight to the beginning of the series, and I look forward to making my way through all these books.

Highly recommended but definitely not for the delicate.