They Lie Around in Heaps

World War II, Eastern Front – With anti-tank gunner Leonhard März to the Tarnopol Pocket, the “Little Stalingrad”

Markus Bauer tells the moving story of his great-uncle, Leonhard März, who experienced the madness of the Eastern Front as an anti-tank gunner – and never returned from the Tarnopol encirclement in 1944.

“If things continue as they are now, there won’t be anything left of our regiment within a month. Every day ten to twenty of the boys are wounded or killed.”
“We drove the Russians out of the city. They had suffered terrible losses. They lie around in heaps.”

Drafted into the Wehrmacht in early 1941 and trained on an anti-tank gun, the young soldier is thrown into the hell of the Eastern Front within months. For three long years, Leonhard fights for his life along the front lines. He is wounded, patched up, and sent back to the front. Finally, in 1944, his trail is lost in the battle for Tarnopol. Surrounded by the Red Army, the German troops fight desperately “to the last bullet” in a doomed attempt to break out of the pocket.
Decades later, author Markus Bauer discovers a storage box in his grandmother’s estate: inside are photos, documents, and dozens of field post letters from his great-uncle Leonhard. From this treasure, a unique contemporary testimony emerges.

This book presents the complete collection of Leonhard’s field post letters – unvarnished, personal, and brutally honest. Gain direct insight into the deprived everyday life of a front-line soldier. From Kiev to Kursk, from Gomel to Orel, Leonhard takes part in numerous major battles until he is finally trapped in the Tarnopol pocket. Letter by letter, you feel how the young soldier becomes increasingly embittered as the war drags on and his fear for his own life and that of his comrades grows with every passing day.

But this book offers much more than just letters:

• Over 50 illustrations and photos provide a rare visual insight into Leonhard’s military service.
• Contemporary newspaper articles show how propaganda at the time reported on the fighting.
• Never-before-published material from the US National Archives reveals what really happened in the Tarnopol pocket. The Tarnopol pocket is also known as the “little Stalingrad”, yet the bitter struggle for this Ukrainian city is still largely unknown. They lie around in heaps closes this important gap and offers first-hand impressions of an almost forgotten chapter of German military history.

Secure this unique contemporary witness to German military history now and immerse yourself in the reality behind the front-line reports and propaganda.