" Alois Dwenger, writing from the front in May of 1942, complained that people forgot "the actions of simple soldiersÂ….I believe that true heroism lies in bearing this dreadful everyday life." In exploring the reality of the Landser, the average German soldier in World War II, through letters, diaries, memoirs, and oral histories, Stephen G. Fritz provides the definitive account of the everyday war of the German front soldier. The personal documents of these soldiers, most from the Russian front, where the majority of German infantrymen saw service, paint a richly textured portrait of the Landser that illustrates the complexity and paradox of his daily life. Although clinging to a self-image as a decent fellow, the German soldier nonetheless committed terrible crimes in the name of National Socialism. When the war was finally over, and his country lay in ruins, the Landser faced a bitter truth: all his exertions and sacrifices had been in the name of a deplorable regime that had committed unprecedented crimes. With chapters on training, images of combat, living conditions, combat stress, the personal sensations of war, the bonds of comradeship, and ideology and motivation, Fritz offers a sense of immediacy and intimacy, revealing war through the eyes of these self-styled "little men." A fascinating look at the day-to-day life of German soldiers, this is a book not about war but about men. It will be vitally important for anyone interested in World War II, German history, or the experiences of common soldiers throughout the world. The experience of the British and American common soldier in World War II has been extensively studied. Not so, at least in English, that of his principal opponent, the German Landser (infantryman). Fritz draws on both published and unpublished material, little of it previously translated, to make up for the deficiency. The German soldier survived far more rigorous training than his Allied counterparts (which explains much of his superior proficiency), survived (on the eastern front, at least) indescribable conditions, and was more sympathetic to the objectives and attitudes of National Socialism than has been admitted previously. He also feared death and wounds, mourned comrades overtaken by them, yearned for home, and took a dim view of mud, lice, brutal NCOs, inept or martinet officers, and hostile artillery. In short, he was a soldier doing his duty; the tragedy is that he did it so well in such an abominable cause. Roland Green "Helps explain why the German army was so relentlessly efficient in battle." -- Centro Internazionale Promozione Editoriale "Fritz does an impressive job of detailing what war was like for the average German soldier on the front lines in World War II." -- Paper Wars "Drawn from letters, diaries and memoirs, this impressive study presents a rounded, detailed picture of the daily life of the Landser -- the ordinary German infantryman of WWII -- and takes an unblinking look at the stark realities of combat." --Publishers Weekly An excellent collection of first hand accounts. Deals mainly with the traumas of the Eastern Front, and does much to dispel the myths of German Soldiers as unwilling participants in this murderous clash of competing idealogies. Also notable is the intellectual depth of the average Landser. The literary skill with which they relay their experiences makes for interesting reading. The only criticism I have of the book is the poor editing evidenced by repetition of many of the quote passages. --David Kirk I have read many books on world war 2. In most of them, you find military engagaments described on a map as advancing or retreating arrows, stylized squares representing units, dotted lines showing the front before and after, etc. Similarly, the text dwells on breakthroughs and advances, counterattacks, stubborn defence, retreat, new front established... This is the "view from above" of war, the aseptyc description of a chess game where we admire elegance of manouvre, brilliance, sometimes determination. But what about the sweat, the blood, the fear or the men who ultimately had to climb out of their foxholes and attack? What made them stand their ground for years in conditions that defy imagination? This book gives a fantastic insight in the "view from below", on what war really was at the individual level for the average german infantryman (elite formations are excluded). The book relies mostly on letters, diary entries and autobiographical novels, and in this sense it can look fragmented or even repetitive sometimes, as it occasionally repeats some quotes or relies on a necessarily limited number of sources. Still, the book is definitely worth reading. First, the choice of the subject is original and appropriate: the infantry represented the vast majority of the German armed forces, as opposed to the elite units (the armored divisions, the paras, the waffen SS) that have a received a disproportionate amount of attention.