Erhard was a German soldier who spent time fighting the Russians during WWII. He saw some awful things and ended up spending time in Siberia after the war.
Since he was a regular soldier, reading his perspective was interesting. He was just trying to survive and watched many of his friends die. Also, the mental stress he endured by repeated retreats had to be discouraging.
Overall, he had a detached attitude for the most part. He relayed the facts as he remembered them and seemed to keep his personal thoughts on the edges of his descriptions. He learned some things about the war afterwards, so he had a greater sense of perspective than if he had just written down his experience.
He brought up his disdain for the bombing of Dresden. I looked into it a bit, and it's one of those controversial events that happens in wars and are argued about for years afterwards. No matter which side you're on, war is a terrible thing. After the war, unfortunately Erhard spent time in Siberia, but he made it out alive and spent the rest of his life with the woman he met during the war.
The writing is easy to read, and the book is full of pictures. They weren't always necessarily relevant to what I was reading at the moment, but it wasn't a big deal. He doesn't spend time talking about his experience in Siberia. He only mentions that he could write a whole other book about that experience and leaves it at that. I appreciated getting his point of view, and I'm glad I read this book. Good Book!
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