In Deadly Combat: A German Soldier's Memoir of the Eastern Front (Modern War Studies (Paper))

This is a great story, on par if not better than Guy Sajer's `Forgotten Soldier'. This is a combination of a combat history of the 132nd Infantry Division and the author's role and experiences in the fighting on the Eastern Front. The author, Gottlob Herbert Bidermann, won two Iron Crosses, the Crimea Shield, the Close Combat Badge, the German Cross in Gold, the Gold Wound Badge (wounded five times), the Honour Roll Clasp and the Tank Destruction Badge. What is remarkable is that the author survived five years of combat on the Russian Front fighting in Crimea, Leningrad and later in the Courland Pocket. I found his stories about his early years fighting with an anti-tank section using the Pak 37 "doorknocker" very interesting, I had always believed these weapons to be next to useless on the Russian Front however I was surprised.

You can trace the change in the author from a novice who still cared about human beings, even his enemy to one whom has been brutalised by warfare to a point past indifference to death and destruction. I have taken the liberty to include below a short section of the text from the first chapter to give you an idea of the author's style of writing:

"The NCO was grasping one of the wheels of the Maxim carriage, his sightless eyes peering forward at the ammunition belt where it fed into the chamber of the weapon. Another held his rifle clenched in cold fists, his head resting against the ground as if asleep, the olive-colored helmet secured tightly under his chin.

Hartmann slipped past me and slowly approached two other figures lying closely together, side by side. One of the figures had draped an arm across the other in a last embrace, as if attempting to comfort a dying comrade. As Hartmann neared, a cloud of flies rose in protest, breaking the deadly silence and I moved forward to join him in surveying the ghastly scene.

Moving silently among the carnage, Hartmann suddenly turned and slipped past me without speaking, heading in the direction from which we had come. Carefully avoiding the eyes of the dead, I quickly followed him.

In this abode of death, only the trees, still and quiet, appeared to be survivors and witnesses to the struggle that had occurred, hidden within this wooded glade".

I found this book to be a very fascinating account of the fighting conducted on the Eastern Front from the perspective of a young German soldier. It offers some very interesting insights into combat and its affect on men who in the end just tried to survive against immense odds. There is a number of absorbing black and white photographs supplied from private sources that give the book a human touch. The only real problem that readers may find with this book is the lack of maps detailing the movements and combats of the 132nd Infantry Division. Overall this is the sort of book that should be in the library of every serious reader or student of the war on the Russian Front during World War Two.


An Infantryman's Story   September 5, 2001
E. E Pofahl (HUNTINGTON, WV USA)
62 out of 65 found this review helpful

Much has been written about the Wehrmacht, discussing strategies, campaigns, results and commanders; less has been written about the common German soldier in W.W.II. In this
extraordinary book, Gottlob H. Bidermann narrates his experience in the 132 Infantry Division on
the Eastern Front from June 1941 to May 1945 followed by surrender and internment in Russia
until the summer of 1948. He was commissioned and received officer training in 1943 but
continued to be assigned to the 132 Infantry Division. Bidermann's memoirs were written for and
distributed to the survivors of his regiment and division, and originally were not for general
audiences. Derek S. Zumbro, a US Naval officer and friend of the Bidermann family, was given a
copy of his memoir in 1985 by Bidermann which Zumbro translated; the memoirs were published
as the book IN DEADLY COMBAT.

The text is basically an accurate chronology of the events Bidermann personally experienced on
the Eastern Front. Daily death, suffering and destruction was encountered and the author states
"We tended our wounded, buried our dead and moved forward to the next encounter, knowing
that eventually, we would meet the end of our journey". He later notes "Most of us owed our
lives to the skill and self-sacrifice of other in our company, many of whom were no longer with
us."

It is interesting to read the author's personal reactions to brutal combat. He relates how his
training and discipline gave him life saving split second reactions when face to face with the
enemy. While generally not critical of German combat general officers, many of whom he
admired, like the common soldier in all armies he "called it like was". For example, commenting
on one general "And the highest commander, to whom credit for the catastrophe should be
awarded, was not present to witness what his decisions had wrought. As always, the soldiers in
the field bore the brunt of these mistakes and paid with their lives." In another case he wrote
"When captured" General Shoerner "was wearing a traditional Bavarian alpine costume, for
which he had exchanged his uniform and golden party badge. Only weeks earlier he had subjected
untold numbers of soldiers to summary execution for similar displays of cowardice."

Equally interesting is his attitude serving on the Eastern Front, as his division went from a
conquering army in 1941 to the desperate fight for survival in the Courland pocket. Bidermann
writes "....those who continued to cling to the belief in a "final Victory", now realized the
hopelessness of our situation. That said the will to resist the Soviets, the fighting spirit within the
ranks of the Courland fighters, remained unbroken" resulting in the fact "....the troops in
Courland were .... the only combat units in the German army that were never defeated in open
battle." The author makes the interesting statement "We saw the true sense of our operations in
Courland as having one clearly defined objective: the defense of European culture..." then he
laments that the West ignored what he termed "the tragedy unfolding in eastern and central
Europe. Communism descended on an entire culture...."

The text is dictated by the framework of the German army in which Bidermann fought, by the
nature of the Reich and largely by a set of cultural and intellectual conventions in the army which
differed widely from those of the British and Americans. These factors contributed a cohesiveness
that allowed Germany to maintain front-line effectiveness when units like the 132 Infantry
Division fought the enemy for 3 1/2 years, almost without relief. Amazingly, Bidermann relates
that within the framework of the army there were no plans, policies or training for retreat and a
strategic withdrawal which could have reduced losses and preserved unit strength. When orders
were received to surrender on May 8, 1945 the author writes "The philosophy of fighting to death
had become so ingrained within us during the past years that to surrender, as we were now being
ordered to do, was inconceivable." Although they knew that the Russians liquidated thousands of
Polish officers in Poland and expected possibly the same fate, the culture and strict discipline of
the army did not allow for disobeying orders; Bidermann's division surrendered as ordered.

Throughout the text, references to events at home are noted such as "....our relatives lived in a
daily terror of the bombs...." and "The attempted assassination revealed that the war was lost.
Hitler was nothing more that a dictator in brown." Then finally, "In general, news of the death of
Hitler was received by the troops with indifference; however, it must also be said that some
breathed a sigh of relief."

The Epilogue describes of the brutal life in the Soviet prisoner of war camps. The text states "In
the twentieth century prisoners were often afforded little or no protection in any form and
remained free game for the victors. One could beat them, work them to death, shoot them or
simply let them starve." Bidermann observed all of this in Soviet prisoner of war camps. It should
be noted that the same philosophy was followed in Japanese prisoner of war camps. In contrast,
the author states "In the United States prisoners had confinement vastly different from our ordeal
in the gulags. They were well-fed and in the best of health...."

While the writer did not report witnessing atrocities, neither does he ignore their existence. This
work is refreshing as it narrates the hard, brutal life of a front-line an infantryman in combat with
none of the usual apologies of "we were just following orders." often found in other memoirs.
This is a "must read" for those interested in W.W.II history.


The other view   June 13, 2000
Mitch Reed (Washington DC, United States)
35 out of 40 found this review helpful

I have read both "Soldat" and the "Forgotten Soldier", I must rate this book over the other two. This book is a great first person account on the hell of the Russian Front. Bidermann's account of his AT gun crew knocking out Soviet tanks in the the Crimea, reads like a novel. Bidermann also fills parts of the Divisions (132nd ID) history that he himself was not present for with great detail. This book described the mindset of the typical Landser so well I felt like I was their too. A must read for anyone who wishes to see the war from German eyes.


A useful text, but misleading if not dishonest   December 8, 2005
A reader (USA)
31 out of 51 found this review helpful

A lot has already been written in other reviews so I'll keep this short. To get anything out of this book you must read Dennis Showalter's introduction, which contextualizes Bidermann's narrative. It also points out that never had men fought in a worse cause, which is well worth keeping in mind.

Bidermann's narrative is interesting, though at times it gets a bit dull and repetitive. It is as its best when describing the early battles, up to and including the capture of Sevastopol. After that, it begins to become increasingly less useful and honest. Once on the Leningrad front, Bidermann occiasionally lapses into bizarre "omniscient narrator" mode, in which he even tells us the name of the Soviet gunner firing on him from long distance. At times like this, he sounds more like Ernst Junger than any kind of objective reporter. Skip over these bits: they are simply embarrassing. Likewise, while he claims early on to write only about his own experience, as the Germans begin to lose the war, he increasingly discusses higher-level decision making that he could not possibly have witnessed, most likely as an excuse for why his men lost.

More important and disturbing, though, is Bidermann's continual assertions that he never witnessed or even heard of any atrocities commited by German troops. Of course, it goes without saying that he never participated in any. In Bidermann's world, Soviet prisoners are given medical care, good food, and the same treatment the Germans get. This was certainly true once in a while, but Bidermann protests his good intentions too much. In his world, Soviets commit atrocities and Germans are the good guys. Given the well-documented historical realities, this is not believable.

Bidermann also harps none-too-subtly on the "we would have won if the Americans had not supplied the Soviets" theme that we hear so much in certain Ostfront memoirs. I stopped counting how many times he mentioned the ubiquitous crates marked "Oscar Meyer-Chicago" that the Russians seemed to have in such abundance. He never explains the significance of these caches, but he is clearly trying to point out that the Soviets won with US supplies. This is partly true, but not nearly to the extent that he would like us to believe. US help was important, but the Soviets outproduced Nazi Germany in every category on their own. That is undeniable. At least Bidermann is more subtle than Carius and other Germans who acuse the US of "betraying" Germany by fighting on the Soviet side. Still, Bidermann presents a very biased, very carefully engineered view of the last two years of the war, one that is designed to put the Germans in the best possible light.

There is a lot here that is worthy of your attention, and the day-to-day diary of the first 2 years is very good. However, once the Germans start losing, Bidermann begins to spin his tale with a good deal of self-serving and disingenuous material. Read it, but read it carefully, and haul out your BS detector, especially in the second half.


An Engrossing And Valuable Study Of Men In War   June 1, 2000
Barron Laycock (Temple, New Hampshire United States)
30 out of 31 found this review helpful

This is a very interesting and quite different approach to experiencing the events of the second world war. It is interesting in the fact that it tells the story of a German Division from the perspective of the members of the Division, and does so primarily for the benefit of those members rather than for the public at large. So, this then is a fascinating if somewhat oddly focused study of the war along the eastern front from the viewpoint of the German foot soldier.

It is often frightening and revealing, especially when one considers the fact that the author actually survived over five years of combat. So, although the writing style is a bit stiff and belabored, it is well worth the effort. This is the story of an "average" foot soldier involved up to his muddy ankles in the most outrageous and provocative battles in modern history. This is truly a story for the record books, one told with honesty (at least from the author's perspective), and one deserving of your time and study. Imagine slogging through the heat and rain and mud and snow and ice of the campaign into and then through Poland and Russia, and retracing mile by mile, yard by yard, foot by foot as the Russians relentlessly push the 200 divisions of the German Army slowly and painfully back from all of the gains, inflicting murderous tolls along the way. The portrait given is one revealing the levels of hardship, depravations, depravities, and extreme experiences of a common soldier involved in the most terrible and hard-fought campaign of World War Two, Operation Barbarossa.

This man was really there and on the ground throughout it all; the battle experiences, decorations and wounds suffered rolling through the Crimea, the taking of Sebastopol, the long and savagely fought campaign in Leningrad, and then later the long, slow and very costly retreat while trapped in the "Courland Pocket". The author obviously matures and changes in the process of these experiences, although one sometimes wonders how much of this change is the result of faithful recollection as opposed to selective memory after the fact. But this is a minor quibble, for it is a story quite well told. One sees the changes such experiences must make on any ordinary human being; the slow but inexorable metamorphosis from a sensitive and caring young man to a battle -hardened survivor who does what he needs to do to protect himself and his comrades with trained indifference.

This is indeed a worthwhile and well-described (which is not to say easily read) story of the view from the ground level by someone who was there, and who, while writing ostensibly for the attention and approval of his comrades, must have been (at least minimally) accurate in describing the conditions, experiences, and lessons of war. Of course, for anyone who has lived through the crucible of war, whether in WWII or Korea or Vietnam, finally it comes down to living in the small community of buddies and surviving in that context that becomes paramount in the day-to-day experiences. This is, in that sense at least, a very moving and graphic document in describing such experiences, and should be read and understood by any serious student of WWII.