Radio Operator on the Eastern Front: An Illustrated Memoir, 1940–1949

by Erhard Steiniger, Anthony Tucker-Jones (Foreword)

This is the true and dramatic testimony of a German grenadier during World War II.

Genres: World War II, Memoir, Nonfiction, Biography, War, Autobiography

320 pages, Kindle Edition

First published April 5, 2021

Reviews

[Bobby Daugherty · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not bad, he does not spare the allies the vulgarity of the bolsheviks and communist troops. Nothing really new though. I will more or less read any book written by a German soldier in the war against communism.

[Mark · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good firsthand account of a German fighting on the Eastern front in WWII. Erhard mainly fought around the Leningrad area. His firsthand accounts really put you there with him.

[Andrea Di Bernardo · Rating 5 out of 5]

Over the years, the Greenhill Books publishing house has published a whole series of books concerning the war experience of German forces in the Second World War. This prolific production of texts, some of extreme rarity, involved volumes of all kinds, but mostly war memoirs. One of these memoirs is the book I am presenting to you today, written by a veteran of the 61st Infantry Division, recruited mainly in the areas of East Prussia. The author, Erhard Steiniger, however, is the representative of a minority that was at the base of one of the triggering causes of the Second World War, or perhaps, to be more correct, concerned the Munich accords of 1938, which deceived all the public opinion that the war had been turned away. Steiniger is in fact the son of a landowner from the Sudetenland, that is the area with a German majority incorporated into the newborn Czechoslovakia formed after the Great War. His youth experience describes all the harassment suffered by the Germans incorporated into a state that was a mosaic of populations all in a certain way discontented with the central government. This is already an element of great interest in this memoir.
The other element is Steiniger's role once he enlisted: as the title says he was a radio operator, obviously also a telegraph operator. This role, extremely specialized and important in the Blitzkrieg tactics, in a certain way helped our author, saving him the trouble (even if the radio was very heavy) and the dangers of an infantryman of the line. Not only that, the deployment and use of the 61st Division led him to little-known actions such as the assault on the Baltic islands still occupied by the Soviets long after the beginning of Barbarossa. This operation, called "Beowulf" was certainly not easy.
Steiniger then found himself fighting in the northernmost sector of the entire invasion of the USSR, near Leningrad and Lake Ladoga, suffering the most intense cold and problematic conditions of the first winter in Russia. His descriptions of the destruction left behind by the German bombers on the Russian columns are extremely crude and graphic, but it must be said that the photos, while rare, do not always go hand in hand with the story. Surely this is due to the vicissitudes of Steiniger who certainly lost his album in the maelstrom of war. The book in fact presents mostly photos of another regiment of the 61st Division, the 162nd and not the 151st of Steiniger. For the most part we see photos of burials, almost symbolizing the entire German experience in Russia. But there are also photos of the author, certainly preserved thanks to the effort of his pen friend, girlfriend and lifelong wife. Steiniger's luck is always present in many choices and situations and he makes no secret of these lucky "turns" that often saved his life. This happened often, but above all in the confusion of the last fights in which not only the enemy bullets and artillery could cut off its existence. In this case he was also helped by the knowledge of a doctor who took a liking to him and used him as a nurse, making him remove the symbol of his specialization, and transforming him into an excellent medical assistant. The devastation of the last days, the capture by the Soviets and the imprisonment, the latter only briefly mentioned, are briefly treated but above everything one can understand the great desire to live, certainly aided by the desire to see his girlfriend again, and rebuild a life in peace.
A memoir that remains impressed in the reader for the origin of its protagonist, for his role, with great precision in recounting facts and events, and for the extraordinary frankness that Steiniger demonstrates. A book that adds to the great series of memoirs produced by Greenhill Books.

[Danie van der Merwe · Rating 4 out of 5]

An enjoyable read. This quote summarised a lot of what this book meant to me: "Lying propaganda – and in general it always is – stirs people to hatred and is the basis for much cruelty in war".

Every government practices propaganda, and often it is politicians that misrepresent a situation to get the population conscripted into a war. This book represents what an ordinary German experienced fighting on the front lines. He is not making any excuses for Nazi atrocities at all, but what we do see is that the Russians were pretty cruel, and supposedly the US stood aside allowing some things to happen. The treatment of the ordinary German soldiers after the war does not exactly paint a rosy picture of the conquerors.

All wars have their heroes, just as they also have their villains. Populations only get told what they "need to hear" by their governments. I've read many fictional stories about WWII, and of course we hear about the lives of great generals and Prime Ministers, but this was a fascinating insight into an ordinary soldier's war. There was nothing boring about it at all.

[James W Ross · Rating 5 out of 5]

Report of an Ostfront survivor

Interesting story, almost a diary report, of a German survivor of about 4 years at the eastern front and about 4 years in Soviet work camp/gulag. He not shy about crediting repeating luck seeing him survive it all. Clearly, shows how even a few hundred yards of distance from the front lines greatly increases your chance of survival and even meager comfort. Between the lines you gather that his ability to survive and report depended at least a little on careful disregard of orders.

[THOMAS OGDEN · Rating 5 out of 5]

Good wartime autobiography

An interesting and informative read. It does seem to be true that history is written by the victors. The Russians are always going on about the great patriotic war, they went into Poland in 1939 too. Lets not forget the Baltic countries and Finland. They would have taken over Europe also if they had invaded sooner. A good book to read is Icebreaker. Some interesting theories in that book.

[Jamisco · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great book. Simple read

The author accounts his time as a soldier throughout the war.

The fight between doing your duty and self-preservation really questions the readers' own morals on what being a hero is.

The author does not hold back nor disavows his initial views prior to joining the war. I liked this for it showed conviction.

[Edward L · Rating 5 out of 5]

My Review

This book was an eye opener. It was not well known how the Czechoslovaks mistreated the Sudetenland Germans. The book also chronicled how a Wehrmacht signal soldier survived on the Eastern Front.

[pierre bovington · Rating 5 out of 5]

Exactly what it says on the cover. A memoir. I like first person accounts. There is a flavour of realism that often missed by historians.
A consistent read, author is German after all.
The eastern front must have been brutal for all soldiers.

[Thomas Spencer · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very good front line depictions of life as an enlisted communications German soldier

Read it! Detailed day by day life at the Russian front. You won't be disappointed with this well written account.

[Gregory · Rating 1 out of 5]

Let’s talk about Geneva Convention now

Evil Russians put him on slave labor camp with only one letter home in two months. I wonder, how many letters had Jews or Soviet prisoners in German camps ?

[Karl.bromley · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5

[Saman Perera · Rating 3 out of 5]

Quite revealing history.

[Simon · Rating 4 out of 5]

‘Radio operator on the Eastern Front’ follows Erhard Steiniger’s memoir of his 2ww experiences whilst lugging around his very heavy Wehrmacht radio whilst being shot, blown up, starved, frozen to -40c, but avoided death unlike like so many on all sides of the battles of the Eastern front (approx 11m Axis and 20m Russian died) finally being captured and incarcerated in Siberia, managing to get home by 1949 but a broken man. Many of you will know and read Forgotten Soldier by Guy Sajer one of the classic memoirs written in 1965 of a German Soldier again on the Eastern Front, the difference between these two is that our Radio Operator (signaller) is a fresh look through eyes of a generally non combat personnel, so many memoir’s are from combatants, soldiers, fighter pilots and submariners and concentration camp survivors, there is nothing wrong with these so but this book caught my interest as being so different – the title caught my eye straight away, on the whole the book is about ‘what it says on the tin’ a Radio Operator but I feel I would of liked to read more about the radio operation, how it worked, issues the signallers experienced and the challenges; what we had was generally a monologue of his travels across the Eastern front as a Radio Operator not as its operator. That's not to degenerate his experiences which as he shares with us some have never left him, the atrocities on both sides, the inhumanity of war with moments of humour – for example how do you eat frozen bread? Slicing it up with a saw of course, and attempting to drink frozen wine giving a different meaning to ‘crack open a bottle’; Erhard’s memoirs are written in a neutral style he does not attempt to justify the war but rather tells his story as it was without any political comments to inform his family of his experiences. Lots of B&W photographs adorn the book, the majority from the era described but I felt a bit to many of graves and the fallen (nothing gratuitous or offensive) maybe the translator or publisher wanted to show us the ‘humanity’ of the German Soldiers not the few who carried out atrocities. The descriptions of the endless vistas, swamps, seasons of the year are all vividly described to make you feel part of the intense action mixed with intense nothing waiting for the next incoming shell or sound of the Soviet tanks. Very little is shared with us about his 4 years in Siberia and as Erhard shares with us that part of his life could fill another book, one we will never read. Well deserving a read as a different perspective on a wartime memoir of a soldier on the Eastern Front.

[Cerisaye · Rating 3 out of 5]

I've read a fair few war memoirs now, in recent years focussed on Russian and German perspectives, to redress the balance having grown up in a 60s Britain obsessed with WWII (we still are, which says much about the sorry state of this country). This one is better than some and has the advantage of covering almost the whole war, 1940-45, and, in the epilogue, its aftermath.

Steiniger's memoir is detailed and realistic, an on-the-ground account by a radio operator (though he was also called upon to fill different roles, especially when it began to go wrong for the Wehrmacht) who experienced front line service in Russia, the Baltic and, at the end, East Prussia,from day one of Operation Barbarossa through to humiliating defeat and surrender.

The book is especially good on the day-to-day experience of the ordinary soldier, what they ate, or didn't, what it felt like and how they thought about the war and their role in it. Steiniger mentions the behaviour of the Red Army towards civilians yet fails to point out their desire for vengeance as they advanced on Berlin was due to appalling treatment and outright atrocities committed by German soldiers, particularly SS, during their advance and Occupation of the eastern territories where he (Steiniger) fought. It is widely known now just how many Russians died in the Great Patriotic War, how they suffered in Leningrad, Stalingrad and lands invaded to secure German 'living space' to be cleared of local inhabitants deemed subhuman by the Nazis. However the tone of the book is matter of fact and informative, a story told so that those left behind and those growing up in postwar Germany would understand what their fathers and sons went through.

Steiniger was one of millions of German soldiers who surrendered to the Red Army in 1945, though they tried hard to reach the Americans. Steiniger throughout the book comments on his remarkable luck, and it continued to hold even when the fighting was over. He spent four years subsequently in a Russian penal camp, though his experience there is not part of this book, before returning to Germany. Not however to his home, his family being one of many Sudeten ethnic Germans forcibly removed from their farm, under the postwar settlement now in Czechoslovakia.

An interesting addition to the field of Axis war memoirs, the book will appeal to those who enjoyed Guy Sajer's The Forgotten Soldier, or if you've read historical accounts and would like to know what it felt like to experience warfare on the Eastern Front.

[John Purvis · Rating 4 out of 5]

Authors Erhard Steiniger & Anthony Tucker-Jones (http://atuckerjones.com) will publish the book “Radio Operator on the Eastern Front: An Illustrated Memoir, 1940-1949” in 2021 (May 14). Mr. Steiniger has three books to his credit and Mr. Tucker-Jones has a dozen.

I received an ARC of this novel through https://www.netgalley.com in return for a fair and honest review. I categorize this book as ‘R’ because it contains scenes of violence. The book follows the life of Erhard Steiniger as he lives through the war years.

Steiniger lived in the German-speaking Sudetenland area of Czechoslovakia. After Germany took over, he was drafted on October 12, 1940. After arriving in the Wermacht he received training as a radio operator. He was assigned to the 151 Infantry Regiment, 61 West Prussian Infantry Division. His primary service was on the Eastern Front ranging over Estonia, Latvia, and Russia.

After capture by Russian troops in 1945, he served as a POW in Russia. In 1949 he was finally allowed to return home. He tells tales of his time in combat and how he survived. He also tells of atrocities he saw carried out by both the Russians and Czechs.

I thoroughly enjoyed the 6+ hours I spent reading this 320-page WWII history. It is primarily a biography of Erhard Steiniger. The book includes several photos of Steiniger and his comrades. It was a little different to read of the war from the Axis point of view. I like the selected cover art. I give this book a 4.4 (rounded down to a 4) out of 5.

You can access more of my book reviews on my Blog ( https://johnpurvis.wordpress.com/blog/).

[Bogdan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting point of view as usual, from a german living at the time of Nazi Germany, as a minority in Czechoslovakia. Overall the tone it`s not very remorseful or apologetic, ok, I don`t really want something like that, but still, he has seen then his cause as just and from what I could conclude here, he hasn`t change his mind very much.
Anyway, a lot of useful and new information about that times and the war in the Baltic states.

[The Bauchler · Rating 4 out of 5]

Informative, easy to follow, told well, and with dignity.