I might point to the bestseller "Die unsichtbare Flagge" (English title The
Invisible Flag) by Peter Bamm about his experiences as an army surgeon at
the Russian front. He was a brilliant writer and - as the preword says - a
master of the art to tell the serious in a light way. One may not expect
that a normal translation will capture the literary class of the original.
But I'm sure that even in a translation the recounted experiences are
highly interesting and fascinating.
Rainer
"Erinnerungen" schrieb im Newsbeitrag
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By the third week of the Russian campaign total casualties had
exceeded those of the entire French Blitzkrieg in 1940. Officers were
perishing during the initial period at the rate of 500 per week (524
died between 22 June and the beginning of July), with 1,540 officer
casualties occurring in the first seven days of the offensive. This
figure represented the combined officer establishments of three German
infantry divisions.
At the end of July, even before the end of the battle of Minsk, almost
17% more German soldiers had died in Russia than in France. Total
losses were 181,000 killed, wounded and missing, compared to 154,754
for the entire French operation. By the end of September the Germans
had lost 518,807 casualties, or over three times the losses suffered
during the six-week French campaign.
The horror of becoming a casualty was all-pervasive. All-encompassing
shock is the premier emotion engendered as a projectile tears through
vulnerable human tissue. German medical doctor Peter Bamm, serving in
an infantry division with Army Group South, described the impact:
‘A man – a human being – is wounded. In the split second in which he
is hit he is hurled out of the fighting machine and has become, in an
instant, utterly helpless. Up to that moment all his energy was
directed forwards, against an enemy… But now he is thrown back on
himself: the sight of his own blood restores him to full
self-awareness. At one moment he was helping to change the course of
history: at the next he cannot do anything even for himself.’
Following shock there is pain and fear. The wounded were often
condemned to lie unattended for hours during intensive fighting before
they could be recovered. ‘Hours afterwards night falls. Grey fear
envelopes him. Will he bleed to death? Will he be found? Is he going
to be hit again? Are the Germans retreating? Will he be captured by
the Russians?’
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