Sledgehammer

Eastern Front #2

by Shaun Hutson

Russia, 1941. Hitler's forces are driving across the steppes, smashing all resistance aside. But the advance is suddenly halted by thousands of enemy tanks arriving via a massive railhead. Sergeant Rolf Kessler's section is ordered to destroy it. Under the command of the ruthless Captain Weiss they set off. But their objective is 150 miles inside the seething hell of the Pripet marshes, an almost primeval expanse of endless swamp.
And Kessler has other problems. His men are being murdered one by one. With Russians all round and a killer in their midst, survival seems impossible. Kessler must discover the killer in time or the section known as Sledgehammer will be annihilated by one of its own number.

Genres: War

160 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1982

About the author

British horror novelist, including horror and urban thriller novels.

His novella Slugs was made into a movie, although Hutson didn't like the movie. He also appeared in two horror movies himself.

Hutson is a Liverpool F.C. fan.

Reviews

[Cerisaye · Rating 3 out of 5]

More of the same from Wolf Kruger, though in contrast to the end of the war first book this is 1941, Operation Barbarossa, the Germans rushing towards Moscow, as they think, to victory and the end of the war. Sergeant Kessler and his men fight to survive, or for vengeance on fallen comrades, following orders, not because they are True Believers. Graphic battle scenes that don't spare detail of how truly horrific frontline fighting is, from military hardware engineered to maim and kill, to hand to hand combat with knives, axex, even a sword.

It's formula stuff but well put together, tense and fast paced action with a small amount of reflection. There's dark humour in the dialogue, the sense of comradeship. Officers are ambitious and self-serving with no thought for the lives of the men serving under them, not when there's glory and medals to be won.

The setting is the Pripet marshes in what is now Belarusia, a harsh and dangerous terrain on the border with Ukraine. This is part of what Timothy Snyder calls 'The Bloodlands', where the Germans fought vicious battles against Russians and guerilla war against partisans, and carried out genocide to clear the population for 'racially pure' German settlement. So, though the violence in the book is hideous and graphic this is as nothing compared with what actually happened there. The Russian film 'Come and See' provides a good overview.

I enjoy WWII action novels and Kruger is growing on me, so I will continue with the series, now the characters are being established and carried over into the next books. They're short and make good distraction from current circumstances.

[Norman Lavallee · Rating 5 out of 5]

This series gets better with each book! It is a true, unflinching and brutal view of the war on the eastern front. Great character development combine with and a fast paced easy read. This can be read as a standalone as the story is not a continuation of the first book.

[Jason Mussett · Rating 4 out of 5]

I liked Mr Hutson's war novels, this being one of my favourites, the Sledgehammer
books were inspired by Sam Peckinpah's "Cross Of Iron"-nothing wrong with that-
great film! In this a section of German soldiers led by enigmatic Sergeant Rolf Kessler
are ordered to destroy a Russian tank hideout in the Pripet Marshes only to discover
the Russians aren't his only problem-his men are being bumped off, yikes!
The characters are quite good, womanising former SS soldier Dierks, Corporal Roth,
Nazi Fischer and the decent Rolf Kessler.
It's a shame Mr Hutson didn't write another in this series after Taken By Force as
I found these quite exciting with good characters. In the hell of the Eastern Front it
often needed men like Rolf Kessler to save his men. Good stuff.

[Raymond robson]

Great little read