In Deadly Combat: A German Soldier's Memoir of the Eastern Front

Modern War Studies

by Gottlob Herbert Bidermann, Derek S. Zumbro (Translator)

In the hell that was World War II, the Eastern Front was its heart of fire and ice. Gottlob Herbert Bidermann served in that lethal theater from 1941 to 1945, and his memoir of those years recaptures the sights, sounds, and smells of the war as it vividly portrays an army marching on the road to ruin.

A riveting and reflective account by one of the millions of anonymous soldiers who fought and died in that cruel terrain, In Deadly Combat conveys the brutality and horrors of the Eastern Front in detail never before available in English. It offers a ground soldier's perspective on life and death on the front lines, providing revealing new information concerning day-to-day operations and German army life.

Wounded five times and awarded numerous decorations for valor, Bidermann saw action in the Crimea and siege of Sebastopol, participated in the vicious battles in the forests south of Leningrad, and ended the war in the Courland Pocket. He shares his impressions of countless Russian POWs seen at the outset of his service, of peasants struggling to survive the hostilities while caught between two ruthless antagonists, and of corpses littering the landscape. He recalls a Christmas gift of gingerbread from home that overcame the stench of battle, an Easter celebrated with a basket of Russian hand grenades for eggs, and his miraculous survival of machine gun fire at close range. In closing he relives the humiliation of surrender to an enemy whom the Germans had once derided and offers a sobering glimpse into life in the Soviet gulags.

Bidermann's account debunks the myth of a highly mechanized German army that rolled over weaker opponents with impunity. Despite the vast expanses of territory captured by the Germans during the early months of Operation Barbarossa, the war with Russia remained tenuous and unforgiving. His story commits that living hell to the annals of World War II and broadens our understanding of its most deadly combat zone.

Translator Derek Zumbro has rendered Bidermann's memoir into a compelling narrative that retains the author's powerful style. This English-language edition of Bidermann's dynamic story is based upon a privately published memoir entitled Krim-Kurland Mit Der 132 Infanterie Division. The translator has added important events derived from numerous interviews with Bidermann to provide additional context for American readers.

Genres: History, World War II, War, Nonfiction, Military History, Military Fiction, Memoir

344 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1995

Reviews

['Aussie Rick' · Rating 5 out of 5]

Firstly, before launching yourself into this excellent book please take the time to read the introduction by Dennis Showalter as it will help explain the style of writing to be found in this book. The book was originally written for the survivors of Bidermann's regiment and division, not for the general public. Bearing this in mind you will have a better understanding and feeling for the author's account of his experience of fighting on the Eastern Front during WW2. At times you might find the narrative old fashioned and even cliched but this is definitely not the case, it has to be taken in context of when and why this book was first written.

This is a great story, on par if not better than Guy Sajer's Forgotten Soldier. This is a combination of a combat history of the 132nd Infantry Division and the author's role and experiences in the fighting on the Eastern Front. The author, Gottlob Herbert Bidermann, won two Iron Crosses, the Crimea Shield, the Close Combat Badge, the German Cross in Gold, the Gold Wound Badge (wounded five times), the Honour Roll Clasp and the Tank Destruction Badge. What is remarkable is that the author survived five years of combat on the Russian Front fighting in Crimea, Leningrad and later in the Courland Pocket. I found his stories about his early years fighting with an anti-tank section using the Pak 37 "doorknocker" very interesting, I had always believed these weapons to be next to useless on the Russian Front however I was surprised.

You can trace the change in the author from a novice who still cared about human beings, even his enemy to one whom has been brutalised by warfare to a point past indifference to death and destruction. I have taken the liberty to include below a short section of the text from the first chapter to give you an idea of the author's style of writing:

"The NCO was grasping one of the wheels of the Maxim carriage, his sightless eyes peering forward at the ammunition belt where it fed into the chamber of the weapon. Another held his rifle clenched in cold fists, his head resting against the ground as if asleep, the olive-colored helmet secured tightly under his chin.

Hartmann slipped past me and slowly approached two other figures lying closely together, side by side. One of the figures had draped an arm across the other in a last embrace, as if attempting to comfort a dying comrade. As Hartmann neared, a cloud of flies rose in protest, breaking the deadly silence and I moved forward to join him in surveying the ghastly scene.

Moving silently among the carnage, Hartmann suddenly turned and slipped past me without speaking, heading in the direction from which we had come. Carefully avoiding the eyes of the dead, I quickly followed him.

In this abode of death, only the trees, still and quiet, appeared to be survivors and witnesses to the struggle that had occurred, hidden within this wooded glade".

I found this book to be a very fascinating account of the fighting conducted on the Eastern Front from the perspective of a young German soldier. It offers some very interesting insights into combat and its affect on men who in the end just tried to survive against immense odds. There is a number of absorbing black and white photographs supplied from private sources that give the book a human touch. The only real problem that readers may find with this book is the lack of maps detailing the movements and combats of the 132nd Infantry Division. Overall this is the sort of book that should be in the library of every serious reader or student of the war on the Russian Front during World War Two.

[Positive Kate · Rating 5 out of 5]

The memoirs are of a WW2 German soldier who spent almost four years on the Eastern Front. He gives an honest account of the action and horror while being on the front lines during the war. He actually wrote this book for the other survivors of his Army regiment and not for the general public.

As for the Eastern Front, Bidermann describes the enemy in great detail. At the beginning of the German invasion, Russian troops ran from the front lines due to fear of poison gas use since the German soldiers carried gas masks on their hip. The Russian troops were on the defensive and rarely attacked at night. As the war continued, Communist leaders called to sacrifice oneself for Communism as patriotic duty. As the Americans joined the war, Russia received supples and food that they desperately needed.

I highly recommend this book.

[Ellie Midwood · Rating 4 out of 5]

It was a great Eastern front memoir but I admit, there were things I liked and didn’t like about it. First of all, if you’re looking for a highly detailed account of events (with the names of the companies, regiments, their commanders, dates, fronts etc.) this book is certainly for you! Bidermann does an amazing job in providing valuable information which is accurate and presented with meticulous precision. However, for me personally, it killed the whole “feeling” of the memoir, which was so characteristic of Guy Sajer’s “The Forgotten Soldier.” Reading Sajer’s memoir, I felt like I was actually there, in the thick of the events, feeling every emotion of the author: the terror, the angst, the agony of the collapsing front… In Bidermann’s book, I sometimes got lost in all the technicalities, which sometimes made even the most fearsome battles lose their colors and read like something from the history book. This lack of emotion was definitely a minus for me, even though the author does have several wonderfully written passages, showing the emotional state of his comrades and him as well, but there are only a few of them.
Another negative moment for me was his lack of understanding behind the whole war: he does blame Hitler and his clique a lot for the troops’ military losses and misadventures but he completely and utterly refuses to acknowledge that the Wehrmacht shouldn’t have been in the Soviet Union making that war in the first place. He complains a lot about the mistreatment of the German POWs in Soviet captivity when the Soviet POWs in German captivity were treated even worse and died in much bigger quantities. However, the positive moment in those last few chapters for me personally was to learn about the organization and the life in the GULAGs from the person who was actually there, so huge kudos to Bidermann for writing about his experience there. If you’re interested in the history of the Eastern Front, this book should definitely be on your to-read list. A truly invaluable source of information, especially if you’re doing research.

[Bogdan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Until now, from all the memoirs about the WWII, I haven`t met an account about the life of the german prisoner of war in the Russian Gulag. In plus and outside the war memories this book has some tremendous & interesting chapters about that ordeal and the hard road to lasting freedom.
You have to keep in mind that this was a war in which a lot of millions of innocents have died and this book has the subjective opinion of the story from the german perspective. There are a lot of discussions on youtube about the german (allied also,too) shaped history after the ww2, and that we know almost nothing from the russian version of things, because of the one side knowledge of the events.
Anyway, the book has some a lot of aspects and elements abot the daily routine that other memoirs didn`t and this was what I was really searching for.

[Lawrence · Rating 5 out of 5]

In the hell that was World War II, the Eastern Front was its heart of fire and ice. Gottlob Herbert Bidermann served in that lethal theater from 1941 to 1945, and his memoir of those years recaptures the sights, sounds, and smells of the war as it vividly portrays an army marching on the road to ruin.
A riveting and reflective account by one of the millions of anonymous soldiers who fought and died in that cruel terrain, In Deadly Combat conveys the brutality and horrors of the Eastern Front in detail never before available in English. It offers a ground soldier's perspective on life and death on the front lines, providing revealing new information concerning day-to-day operations and German army life.
Wounded five times and awarded numerous decorations for valor, Bidermann saw action in the Crimea and siege of Sebastopol, participated in the vicious battles in the forests south of Leningrad, and ended the war in the Courland Pocket. He shares his impressions of countless Russian POWs seen at the outset of his service, of peasants struggling to survive the hostilities while caught between two ruthless antagonists, and of corpses littering the landscape. He recalls a Christmas gift of gingerbread from home that overcame the stench of battle, an Easter celebrated with a basket of Russian hand grenades for eggs, and his miraculous survival of machine gun fire at close range. In closing he relives the humiliation of surrender to an enemy whom the Germans had once derided and offers a sobering glimpse into life in the Soviet gulags.
Bidermann's account debunks the myth of a highly mechanized German army that rolled over weaker opponents with impunity. Despite the vast expanses of territory captured by the Germans during the early months of Operation Barbarossa, the war with Russia remained tenuous and unforgiving. His story commits that living hell to the annals of World War II and broadens our understanding of its most deadly combat zone.

[Elh52 · Rating 4 out of 5]

Boy, that Gottlob, he was one lucky guy to live through the war. There must be 50 memoirs by Germans of life on the Eastern Front, but they're probably the only ones who survived it. This is a good, no-nonsense view of the Eastern Front. It is very clear-headed, militarily speaking. Morally, less so. Herr Bidermann insists no atrocities were committed by his unit or by anyone he knew. Well, maybe. I read it together with another first-hand account, that one by an Alsatian who fought in Russia for Germany, and that one will really knock your socks off. The two books make a great pair. But I can't remember the other's name and Google isn't helping. I think Beverly loaned it to me. ...I found it - The Fogotten Soldier, by Guy Sajer. Read these two together.

[Jeff · Rating 4 out of 5]

One of the better German memoirs of war on the Eastern Front.

[Patrick · Rating 4 out of 5]

Provides a detailed war diary of the infantry division that the author served in. The account is intermixed with events in detail where the author engaged in combat in the eastern front. If you’re getting into WW2 accounts from the German perspective I would start with other more popular titles. While the book was well written it did not hold up to blood red snow or the forgotten solider.

[Doug · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a straightforward, nearly stoic memoir. As its foreword points out, it was written for an audience of fellow veterans, and has a distinct matter-of-factness of events to it. The translator has skilfully left a lot of German infantry slang in the text (knobelbechers, sanka, spiess, etc.), but helpfully provides a glossary. It bogs down in places with names and numbers of units, and language less emotional and more formal than one might expect from such harrowing experiences. But don't let that put you off - this story has some riveting moments, and even comic ones, and its special value is painting a rare picture of the Wehrmacht's long slog into the USSR and its ultimate defeat, with the author stuck in the infamous Courland pocket. It's miraculous that Bidermann survived to recount the story. This long account is well worth reading, and should be tackled in combination with Guy Sajer's The Forgotten Soldier and Vasily Krysov's Panzer Destroyer: Memoirs of a Red Army Tank Commander. I wish Bidermann had more to say about the disconnect between Berlin and the common soldier, but this is his story for his audience. I don't doubt he had much more going on internally than he put down on paper.

[Devy · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the best firsthand accounts of the Eastern Front. Much heavier on troop dispositions, divisional placements, and strategy than The Forgotten Soldier. His observations about the average landser's view of the Third Reich and Nazi government is very insightful. Must read for anyone interested in WWII, especially, in my opinion, as what is often overlooked as the real theater of that struggle.

[Marquise · Rating 4 out of 5]

A frank account from a frontline soldier in the Wehrmacht. The author wrote this memoir with his comrades-in-arms in mind and not the general public, so the style and narration assume that you have at least some overall familiarity with the Eastern Front theatre of the war.

[John Thompson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Incredibly gripping account of a horrid, horrid war.

[Srinath · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was lucky to come across this book, the author did not intend to publish his memoirs, it was meant for private circulation amongst his comrades.

The author as an young soldier is very lucky to have survived nearly 4 years in the eastern front in active combat, the casualty rates amongst the Germans and the Soviets were unbelievably high at that point of time.

The author makes note of the regular happenings in his unit and the struggles both physical and mental that one must endure just to survive. He is a reasonably decorated veteran with a number of tank kills, and get promoted from a private to a Lieutenant commanding his Machine gun nest.

The details of his units campaign and the overall objectives of the battalion are well described with additional details; from the initial successes to the inevitable retreat in the eastern front.

There were many interesting things to note, like how the allies industrial power helped the soviets overcome certain defeat from the German army, how much the soviets were despised by the people they had previously conquered (like the Tartars).

But the author doesn't delve much into the politics of the war much, there are few references to Hitler and his clique, but not very detailed enough to pass a judgement on how the author actually feels about the whole political situation before the war erupted.

He distances himself from Hitler and his cronies during the war, but I find that hard to believe.

Overall a good read as it is written about the front line of combat and a very personal experience.

[Bleys · Rating 5 out of 5]

A staggeringly gorgeous book that stands as a fantastic monument to the brave German infantry who gave their lives on the battlefield of mans bloodiest war, and to the Soviet Work Camps, which chewed them up like some God-forsaken meat grinder. It is refreshing to read the memoirs of the basic foot soldier, not the prestigious sections of the Wehrmacht shrouded in legend and adored by wehraboos like the SS or the various well-known Panzer units.

Like all good Military books, it is also chalk-full of criticism of the higher command. It addresses, in a very minor way -- for this book focuses on the front-lines, not the politics back home -- the genocide by the monstrous heads of the National Socialist German Workers' Party and how the infantry were unaware of the undertakings, as they were in the heart of Russia, shooting at the Reds.


My final reflection on the piece is that I find myself with a new-found sense of respect for these brave men, who gave as much as any soldier, Axis or Allied, and am honored to have had the opportunity to expand my knowledge on the subject.

[Ian · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have read several memoirs from Axis soldiers in WWII and this is so far the best one. Even though it is made clear that this book was written for Bidermann's fellow veterans, it is done in a way in which even the complex transformations of battles, positions and the war itself are clear and concise to the entire audience. There is a ton of detail, but none of it feels dry. Everything is relevant. A lot of German memoirs talk extensively of their mutual hatred for the enemy and the horrific, unimaginably cruel, and sometimes dubious-sounding things they would do to each other, but you will find very little of that in this book, or any ideological discussion at all for that matter. Bidermann is neither apologetic nor defensive about his service and laments only the losses of his comrades.
This book is probably one of the most professionally written of its kind - it's clear that the author was educated and was a skilled writer in addition to being an incredibly lucky man. Highly recommended for anyone interested in the Eastern Front and Axis voices in general.

[Joe · Rating 4 out of 5]

It was fascinating to read the account of an infantryman who saw combat from the start to the end of the war in the east. Particularly his experiences fighting in the Crimean campaign having read von Mansteins account of commanding the 11th army during that campaign.

It really does almost defy belief that someone could survive so many years of brutal combat.

I also found his account of his time in Soviet captivity and how he survived very interesting. Most of the other memoirs I have read of Germans in the east are from people who survived probably because they avoided Soviet captivity for one reason or another.

[Robert · Rating 3 out of 5]

In the end what it is not the horrifically intense and close-up glimpse of combat on the Eastern Front that stand out, but rather the brief reflections and personal details that Bidermann shares Attending advent Mass in the Tatar mosque in the Crimea or sharing with pals the warmth of a Christmas candle and gingerbread from home on Christmas Eve during the assault on Sebastopol: "we had become old together and had developed a brotherhood between us, a closeness of spirit and trust that those who live in safety throughout their lives cannot know." Or upon hearing that the United States had entered the war and realizing -- by late 1941! -- that Germany could not win the war: "Despite the knowledge that the bulk of the world's industrialized strength was turned against us, never did we realize the full extent of the defeat that was to befall us."

Also notable, Bidermann reveals that in the final months of the war German line infantry knew of the Morganthau Plan which convinced them to fight to the death rather than suffer the coming defeat.

Unfortunately, there are few seriously self-reflective passages about what he experienced, fascism, war, the Holocaust, captivity in the Soviet Union.

[Grant · Rating 5 out of 5]

Biderman, with editorial help from Zubro, gives his account of war on the Eastern Front from 1941 to 1945 and on into captivity after the German defeat. His is the story of a relatively "clean" war, with little mention of the atrocities that accompanied the German advance into the Soviet Union. How much he did not see and how much he chose not to see remains unclear. The suffering of the landsers, the common German infantry, is clear. Of the 12 men in Biderman's original antitank gun crew, only 3 survived the war, all having been wounded.

[Patrick · Rating 4 out of 5]

First as a private in a Pak battery and then as an offcier the author saw action in the Crimea and the Siege of Sevastopol, participated in battles south of Leningrad and the Courland Pocket. He was captured in 1945 and spent three years in Soviet captivity. While there are several detailed accounts of the authors actual experiences under fire unfortunately a good part of the book covers events that he learned after the war.

[Rejeev Divakaran · Rating 3 out of 5]

It covers the minute details of the infantry combat. However, it has a one-sided view of it. I can understand any person will have a bias towards his side, however, that will diminish the usefulness of the book. I was curious particularly about the turn of the tide from the perspective of a soldier in the trench.

[Luke · Rating 5 out of 5]

Amazing firsthand account of the Eastern Front. From the early victories and marching into Russia, to the war turning, retreat, and then surrender. The author covers his years of service on the Eastern Front with the reality of loss, combat, and returning home on furlough seeing the damage from Allied bombings and Germany losing the war. There are not many of these type of books written.

[Darren · Rating 4 out of 5]

Any soldier that fought on the Eastern front in WW2 is going to have some jaw dropping stories to tell of their experience. This book is a great example of the bravery of a soldier in the face of such adversity.

[Alex · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent account

Great account given by the author of his units activities during the war and his personal experiences. Somewhat devoid of emotion and reads. Ore like a military chronology in places but that’s to be expected

[Edward L · Rating 5 out of 5]

My Review

This book describes in vivid detail the hell that was the life of the
German infantryman on the Eastern Front against the Russian Army. I particularly liked battle field descriptions of the author as a battle hardened NCO and later as an officer.

[Msaout · Rating 1 out of 5]

Very dry and impersonal

[Faisal Khan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great

[Chris Leader · Rating 5 out of 5]

Eyeopening

Very interesting book with clear descriptions of what it meant to be an infantryman during the Nazi invasions and then retreats into and from Russia.

[EDWARD L SEMLER · Rating 5 out of 5]

Well written and very interesting

This is a well written biography which covers a relatively large chunk of WWII. Being an American I found it a very interesting perspective.

[Mark Haydock · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent book about Comabt on the Eatsern Front from 1941-1945

[Saman Perera · Rating 3 out of 5]

Dry but informative.