Blood Red Snow

The Memoirs of a German Soldier on the Eastern Front

By: Günter K. Koschorrek

Narrated by: Nigel Patterson

Gunter Koschorrek wrote his illicit diary on any scraps of paper he could lay his hands on. As keeping a diary was strictly forbidden, he sewed the pages into the lining of his thick winter coat and deposited them with his mother on infrequent trips home on leave. The diary went missing, and it was when he was reunited with his daughter in America some 40 years later that it came to light and became Blood Red Snow.

The author was a keen recruit at initial training, and his excitement at the first encounter with the enemy in the Russian Steppe is obvious. The horror and confusion of fighting in the streets of Stalingrad are brought to life by his descriptions of the others in his unit; their differing manners and techniques for dealing with the squalor and death. He is also posted to Romania and Italy, assignments he remembers fondly compared to his time on the Eastern Front.

This book stands as a memorial to the huge numbers on both sides who did not survive and is, over five decades later, the fulfillment of a responsibility he feels to honor the memory of those who perished. Gunter K. Koschorrek was a machine-gunner on the Russian front in WWII. He lives in Germany, having retired from his job as managing director of a sales company.

©2002 Greenhill Books (P)2018 Tantor

One of the best personal accounts coming out of WW2

I’ve read many many wartime biographies and autobiographies including such classics as the thin red line, helmet for my pillow, with the old breed, samurai, forgotten soldier and this beauty holds its own. The author did a fantastic job balancing foxhole detail with thoughtful and intelligent reflections which show he never really lost perspective on what he was going through. What a masterpiece.

Simply one of the best.

Whether you are looking for a German WW2 story. WW2 in general, or just a first hand accounting of war in general, Blood Red Snow is a vivid real telling of some of the ugliest most brutal combat in modern history. Splendid telling of a terrible experience. 5 stars.

Amazing!

To those saying he doesn’t speak of German atrocities, it truly shows just how much you don’t know and just pretend like you are educated. Let me guess, you know know they difference between the SS vs Wehrmacht vs Nazis. Until you have more than a 5th grade level of education on the matter, just stay silent. You only know of the holocaust and just remembered that the winners of wars are “Always the Good Guys”’ why is that? How is that possible? Because the winners get to write the history books. How is it that over 1 million German POW’s died after the war ended, yet not a mention of it. Are Jews more important than innocent young men who were not SS or Nazis, but you wouldn’t understand, because the education you have is that they are all Nazis and they couldn’t have possibly fought for their country because of patriotism or the fact they would be executed without trial if they even “Questioned” the war effort. Stop being a brain dead woke idio* who only knows what the victors what you to know. Did you know the media lies and that wiki is just leftest propaganda? The end, this book was amazing! You served your motherland with Honor and may you Rest In Peace.

Good listen.

A glimpse into the life of a German soldier on the eastern front. Well written.

intresting

easy to listen to. great to learn how the german soldier lived on the eastern front