"The forgotten Soldier" by Guy Sajer

What an incredible book. Its supposedly a autobiography of a young frenchman whose mother is german but father is french, from Alsace. He gets drafted by german army in 1942, is 17yrs old, and because of his age gets put in a supply company. He drives trucks, and just about anything else as it turns out (half tracks too). He is sent to the East front, just about at the time Stalingrad (Volgograd) was winding down. After Stalingrad fell and the German army under Field Marshall Paulus surrendered, Sajer was trained as an infantry soldier in the Gross Deutschland division. He experienced just about every major battle in Russia, and ended up surrendering to the British after escaping from Danzig by ship and landing in Kiel. He was handed over to Americans, and when it was discovered his father was french, was sent back home. He passed his mother on the street and she didnt recognize him: he called to her, she walked to him, looked at his face in disbelief, and fainted. He carried his mother home and his brother saw him approaching and wondered, who is the strange man carrying my mother?

His descriptions of battle were amazing. how he survived is a miracle. He was proud to serve in the Gross Deutschland division, had an insignia on the right arm of his coat, an elite division. he couldnt get over that the british didnt shoot him when he surrendered.

There is a movie based on the book, here is trailer from Youtube. I cant find it on IMDB. On someone's blog they describe it as amateurish movie, suggested that you watch it drunk (?) That bad?

The book describes the equipment of the german army, like the Zundapp-Russland sidecar - it was fun looking up the equipment to see it on the web. Here is a restored Tiger Tank. Germany outtanked the Russians as far as design goes, but the Tiger appeared too late in the war, and by then the number of Russian tanks overwhelmed the German army. The panzer tank was more numerous but lacked the firepower of the Tiger.

Here is the ME 110 airplane that Sajer talks about during the battle of Kursk (the battle that destroyed the German army, after that it was steady retreat.

Incredible book. It took me to youtube and i discovered some really crazy stuff there, memorials to the Waffen SS and stuff. Here is a decent video of Waffen SS in Russia, objective.