Moché’s Reviews > The Forgotten Soldier > Status Update

I read a similar book recently, and it was definitely a reminder that fear, hardship, & deprivation was a common experience for all combat soldiers...regardless of which country they were fighting for. I'll look forward to your review, Murray

True, David. His WW1 memoir ranks with Goodbye To All That and All Quiet so I am anticipating the same level of honesty and brilliant writing I experienced with Storm of Steel. It has a very quiet beginning that lulls you. Then I turn the page to Part 2 and the heading in stark dark letters is STALINGRAD. It set me back.

A twin-mounted machine gun covered the rest of the train, which consisted simply of open flatcars like ours, but loaded with a very different kind of freight. The first one of these to pass my uncomPrehending eyes seemed to be carrying a confused heap of objects, which only gradually became recognizable as human bodies. Directly behind this heap other people were clinging together, crouching or stand. ing. Each car was full to the bursting point. One of us, more informed than the others, told us in two words what we were looking at: "Russian prisoners.”

"Did you see that?" he whispered. "They've piled up their dead to shield themselves from the wind."

In my stupefaction I could only reply with something like a groan.

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