Radio Operator on the Eastern Front: An Illustrated Memoir, 1940-1949

Summary

This is the true and dramatic testimony of a German grenadier during World War II.

Erhard Steiniger joined his Wehrmacht unit on October 12, 1940, as a radio operator, a role which required his constant presence with troops at the Front, right in the midst of combat. On June 22, 1941, he accompanied his division to Lithuania where he experienced the catastrophic first day of Operation Barbarossa.

He later witnessed intense clashes during the conquest of the Baltic islands and the battles leading up to Leningrad on the Volkhov and Lake Ladoga. He describes the retreat from battles in Estonia, Kurland, and East Prussia and his eventual surrender and captivity in Siberia. He finally returned to Germany in October 1949, a broken man.