Blood Red Snow: The Memoirs of a German Soldier on the Eastern Front

By Gunter Koschorrek

Günter Koschorrek wrote his illicit diary on any scraps of paper he could lay his hands on, storing them with his mother on infrequent trips home on leave. The diary went missing, and it was not until he was reunited with his daughter in America some forty years later that it came to light and became Blood Red Snow.

The author’s excitement at the first encounter with the enemy in the Russian Steppe is obvious. Later, 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, some six decades later, the fulfilment of a responsibility the author feels to honour the memory of those who perished.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Pen and Sword
• Release date: Apr 13, 2011
• ISBN: 9781473812482

Reviews for Blood Red Snow

[jamespurcell · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This review will serve as a review for two WW2 memoirs that unrelated by distance and disparate cultures are inexorably bound by the profound similarities of their wartime experiences. One was a heavy machine gunner for the German Wehrmacht and the second was a mortar gunner for the US Marine Corp. Both started as replacements but were very soon the veterans. Both served in hellishly brutal campaigns; one started at Stalingrad and fought all the way back to Germany during the retreat from Russia, the other was part of four island landings, Peleliu and Okinawa the two notable for their US casualties, as part of the "Old Breed" in the Pacific. Their experiences clearly demonstrate that "War is Hell"Not authors but storytellers as they describe the wounding and deaths of their comrades some of whom, they never knew their names. Neither side was taking prisoners and it seemed appropriate given the circumstances. Heroism abounded and ineptitude at the command level was a frequent cause of casualties. Hitler's and Tojo's ambitions sent them to a war that became a fight to the bitter end.