Berlin Dance of Death
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Rated 5 starsIt is like reading the agony of Huck Finn in the Wehrmacht
It is not hyperbole to suggest that Helmut Altner's Berlin Dance of Death may be one of the most interesting first-person narratives of combat ever written. That it is the story of a German teenager who was called to active duty on March 29th, 1945--to fight in a war that had less than two weeks left to it--makes this book often compelling. It is raw and sometimes clumsy in its prose, but it is genuine. Altner reconstructs...
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Rated 5 starsSoldier's View - chaotic and confused
As a career soldier, one must first remember that soldiers are people, mostly young people that may or may not be students of history or burning with a passion for all things military. Soldiers join the colors for many reasons. Anybody who knows what "Bismarks" are, understands what "pacific" means, or gone searching for squelch oil understands this. So, if a young soldier is basically confused and clueless over grand strategy...
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Rated 5 starsChaos of the Reich's Last Days
Many of stories like this never got told, surviving the last days of the Soviet steamroller on the Oder line and then again in Berlin surely was a chancy bet. A studied and thorough military history, Berlin Dance of Death is not. It is a stunning personal account of a young soldier in the desperate last days of the Third Reich. Altner's story reflects the crushing of the East Front, the harrowing retreat, Soviet encirclement,...
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Rated 5 starsUnbelievable first-person account!
These are the experiences of a 17 year-old conscripted in the last couple months of the war where training was "on the job". Unbelievable accounts of fighting in Berlin where chaos reigns. Very detailed, very graphic. Every male from 14 to 60 gets pressed into service, or shot by the SS. Many don't have useable weapons, very little food and no rest from the hell of war. Civilians carry their few remaining possessions as...
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Rated 5 starsI quite enjoyed it
I look for books on this subject, and have to say I enjoyed this one. Ther style is a bit different from what I expected, and the story is certainly not what I expected - which ads a new dimention to the Berlin fight. It wasn't always constant bitter fighting with tanks everywhere. There was a lot of confusion, and a lot of time when not mnuch was going on. The one weak point is in the maps, which could be improved, but they...
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