William Lubbeck - At Leningrad’s Gates: The Story of a Soldier with Army Group North
Here you can read online William Lubbeck - At Leningrad’s Gates: The Story of a Soldier with Army Group North full text of the book (entire story) in english for free. Download pdf and epub, get meaning, cover and reviews about this ebook. year: 2010, publisher: Casemate, genre: Non-fiction. Description of the work, (preface) as well as reviews are available. Best literature library LitArk.com created for fans of good reading and offers a wide selection of genres:
Romance novel
Science fiction
Adventure
Detective
Science
History
Home and family
Prose
Art
Politics
Computer
Non-fiction
Religion
Business
Children
Humor
Choose a favorite category and find really read worthwhile books. Enjoy immersion in the world of imagination, feel the emotions of the characters or learn something new for yourself, make an fascinating discovery.
- Book:At Leningrad’s Gates: The Story of a Soldier with Army Group North
- Author:
- Publisher:Casemate
- Genre:
- Year:2010
- Rating:4 / 5
- Favourites:Add to favourites
- Your mark:
At Leningrad’s Gates: The Story of a Soldier with Army Group North: summary, description and annotation
We offer to read an annotation, description, summary or preface (depends on what the author of the book "At Leningrad’s Gates: The Story of a Soldier with Army Group North" wrote himself). If you haven't found the necessary information about the book — write in the comments, we will try to find it.
. . . a well-wrought ground level view of daily life in hell.World War II Magazine
This is the remarkable story of a German soldier who fought throughout World War II, rising from conscript private to captain of a heavy weapons company on the Eastern Front.
William Lubbeck, age 19, was drafted into the Wehrmacht in August 1939. As a member of the 58th Infantry Division, he received his baptism of fire during the 1940 invasion of France. The following spring his division served on the left flank of Army Group North in Operation Barbarossa. After grueling marches amidst countless Russian bodies, burnt-out vehicles, and a great number of cheering Baltic civilians, Lubbecks unit entered the outskirts of Leningrad, making the deepest penetration of any German formation.
The Germans suffered hardships the following winter as they fought both Russian counterattacks and the brutal cold. The 58th Division was thrown back and forth across the front of Army Group North, from Novgorod to Demyansk, at one point fighting back Russian attacks on the ice of Lake Ilmen. A soldier who preferred to be close to the action, Lubbeck served as forward observer for his company, dueling with Russian snipers, partisans and full-scale assaults alike. His worries were not confined to his own safety, however, as news arrived of disasters in Germany, including the destruction of Hamburg where his girlfriend served as an Army nurse.
In September 1943, Lubbeck earned the Iron Cross and was assigned to officers training school in Dresden. By the time he returned to Russia, Army Group North was in full-scale retreat. Now commanding his former heavy weapons company, Lubbeck alternated sharp counterattacks with inexorable withdrawal to Memel on the Baltic. In April 1945 his company was nearly obliterated, but in the last scramble from East Prussia, he was able to evacuate on a newly minted German destroyer.
After his release from British captivity, Lubbeck emigrated to the United States where he raised a successful family. With the assistance of David B. Hurt, he has drawn on his wartime notes and letters, Soldatbuch, regimental history and personal memories to recount his frontline experience, including rare firsthand accounts of both triumph and disaster.
Table of Contents
Preface
Introduction
PROLOGUE
1. A VILLAGE UPBRINGING
2. UNDER THE NAZI DICTATORSHIP
3. PRELUDE TO WAR
4. TRAINING FOR COMBAT
5. WAR IN THE WEST
6. BLITZKRIEG INTO RUSSIA
7. TO THE GATES OF LENINGRAD
8. WINTER AT URITSK
9. COUNTERATTACK AT THE VOLKHOV
10. THE DEMYANSK CORRIDOR
11. HOLDING THE LINE AT LADOGA
12. OFFICER CANDIDATE
13. KRIEGSCHULE
14. RETURN TO THE FRONT
15. RETREAT INTO THE REICH
16. CATASTROPHE
17. THE PRICE OF DEFEAT
18. POST-WAR GERMANY
19. A NEW LIFE ABROAD
EPILOGUE
Acknowledgments
Appendices
Endnote
This is the remarkable story of a German soldier who fought throughout World War II, rising from conscript private to captain of a heavy weapons company on the Eastern Front.
William Lubbeck, age 19, was drafted into the Wehrmacht in August 1939. As a member of the 58th Infantry Division, he received his baptism of fire during the 1940 invasion of France. The following spring his division served on the left flank of Army Group North in Operation Barbarossa. After grueling marches amidst countless Russian bodies, burnt-out vehicles, and a great number of cheering Baltic civilians, Lubbecks unit entered the outskirts of Leningrad, making the deepest penetration of any German formation.
The Germans suffered hardships the following winter as they fought both Russian counterattacks and the brutal cold. The 58th Division was thrown back and forth across the front of Army Group North, from Novgorod to Demyansk, at one point fighting back Russian attacks on the ice of Lake Ilmen. A soldier who preferred to be close to the action, Lubbeck served as forward observer for his company, dueling with Russian snipers, partisans and full-scale assaults alike. His worries were not confined to his own safety, however, as news arrived of disasters in Germany, including the destruction of Hamburg where his girlfriend served as an Army nurse.
In September 1943, Lubbeck earned the Iron Cross and was assigned to officers training school in Dresden. By the time he returned to Russia, Army Group North was in full-scale retreat. Now commanding his former heavy weapons company, Lubbeck alternated sharp counterattacks with inexorable withdrawal to Memel on the Baltic. In April 1945 his company was nearly obliterated, but in the last scramble from East Prussia, he was able to evacuate on a newly minted German destroyer.
After his release from British captivity, Lubbeck emigrated to the United States where he raised a successful family. With the assistance of David B. Hurt, he has drawn on his wartime notes and letters, Soldatbuch, regimental history and personal memories to recount his frontline experience, including rare firsthand accounts of both triumph and disaster.
Table of Contents
Preface
Introduction
PROLOGUE
1. A VILLAGE UPBRINGING
2. UNDER THE NAZI DICTATORSHIP
3. PRELUDE TO WAR
4. TRAINING FOR COMBAT
5. WAR IN THE WEST
6. BLITZKRIEG INTO RUSSIA
7. TO THE GATES OF LENINGRAD
8. WINTER AT URITSK
9. COUNTERATTACK AT THE VOLKHOV
10. THE DEMYANSK CORRIDOR
11. HOLDING THE LINE AT LADOGA
12. OFFICER CANDIDATE
13. KRIEGSCHULE
14. RETURN TO THE FRONT
15. RETREAT INTO THE REICH
16. CATASTROPHE
17. THE PRICE OF DEFEAT
18. POST-WAR GERMANY
19. A NEW LIFE ABROAD
EPILOGUE
Acknowledgments
Appendices
Endnote
William Lubbeck: author's other books
Who wrote At Leningrad’s Gates: The Story of a Soldier with Army Group North? Find out the surname, the name of the author of the book and a list of all author's works by series.
William Lubbec
W. Chales de Beaulieu
David Stahel
Germany. Heer. Panzer Division Grossdeutschland
Germany. Heer. Armee Gruppe Nord.
Guy Sajer
At Leningrad’s Gates: The Story of a Soldier with Army Group North — read online for free the complete book (whole text) full work
Below is the text of the book, divided by pages. System saving the place of the last page read, allows you to conveniently read the book "At Leningrad’s Gates: The Story of a Soldier with Army Group North" online for free, without having to search again every time where you left off. Put a bookmark, and you can go to the page where you finished reading at any time.
Light
Font size:
↓
↑
Reset
Interval:
↓
↑
Bookmark:
Make
Published in the United States of America in 2010 by
CASEMATE
908 Darby Road, Havertown, PA 19083
CASEMATE
908 Darby Road, Havertown, PA 19083
and in Great Britain by
CASEMATE
17 Cheap Street, Newbury RG14 5DD
CASEMATE
17 Cheap Street, Newbury RG14 5DD
Copyright 2006 William Lubbeck and David Hurt
ISBN 978-1-935149-37-8
eISBN 9781935149798
Cataloging-in-publication data is available from the Library of Congress and the British Library.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical including photocopying, recording or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission from the Publisher in writing.
Printed and bound in the United States of America.
For a complete list of Casemate titles please contact:
CASEMATE PUBLISHERS
Telephone (610) 853-9131, Fax (610) 853-9146
E-mail: casemate@casematepublishing.com
CASEMATE PUBLISHERS
Telephone (01635) 231091, Fax (01635) 41619
E-mail: casemate-uk@casematepublishing.co.uk
MAPS
PREFACE
IN TELLING MY STORY, I do not wish to impress anyone or present myself as a hero. Like millions of other troops on the frontline of the Second World War, I was just a soldier who obeyed orders and carried out my duties. The heroes were those comrades who never returned home and were often left unburied in far-off fields.
God had other plans for me and spared my life. This testament of my experience is a memorial to the service and sacrifice of those soldiers who did not come back.
This book is also dedicated to Anneliese, who served as a Red Cross nurse in German field hospitals attending wounded troops during the final two years of the war. On a more personal level, words cannot express my eternal gratitude for the hope that her love gave me during my long years in combat and for the many happy decades of marriage that we enjoyed after the war.
During a trip to Germany in the summer of 2003, my daughter discovered my wartime correspondence with Anneliese. Reading through these letters brought forth bittersweet emotions, but helped to give me a kind of closure. I also feel a sense of relief in being able to share my experiences of the war with my family and a broader audience.
It is my hope that this account will help to increase public understanding of the Second World War, especially of the brutal nature of the fighting on the Eastern Front. In particular, Americans often misunderstand the motivations of German troops who fought in World War II. Most of the common soldiers were not supporters of Hitler and the Nazi regime, but simply patriotic Germans who sought to serve their country.
I am deeply indebted to the people of the United States for accepting my family and me as their fellow citizens and for allowing us to realize the American dream. It is my hope that this story may help the citizens of my adopted country to gain a more complete appreciation of the diverse experience of American immigrants.
WILLIAM LUBBECK
July 2006
INTRODUCTION
READING THE FIRSTHAND account of a soldier who marched into Russia with Napoleons army in 1812 personalized that distant conflict for me in a way that a general history could not. By the end of that memoir, Jakob Walters The Diary of a Napoleonic Foot Soldier , I had become convinced that a more recent veteran of warfare in Russia, William Lubbeck, should narrate an account of his own remarkable experiences as a German soldier during the Second World War.
While from todays vantage point we often perceive the past as following an inevitable course to the present, Lubbeck lived through the unfolding history of that struggle, uncertain of his own fate or of the larger outcome. His modesty made it difficult to persuade him to share his exceptional story, but he ultimately concluded that the testimony of a surviving German soldier would serve to honor the memory of his fallen comrades. In addition, a memoir could help a modern audience to develop a wider perspective on an increasingly remote war.
The writing process involved countless hours of recorded interviews as well as even longer periods transcribing the tapes. Memories do not occur in chronological order, so as the story gradually revealed itself it was necessary to flesh out ever-more details and fill in the gaps. In this task, Lubbecks recently discovered wartime correspondence with his late wife Anneliese proved invaluable in helping him to recall events as well as recapture his personal feelings at different stages of the war. A divisional history written by Kurt von Zydowitz, Die Geschichte de 58.Infanterie Division 19391945 (Podzan, 1952), was also invaluable in reminding Lubbeck of the larger chronology.
After many years living in the United States, Lubbeck generally related measurements in non-metric terms. For consistency we have kept the American usage of yards, miles, Fahrenheit, et al., throughout, at times calculating them from metric. He also often utilized American syntax in other observations, employing terms like gung-ho and boot camp. With military ranks he made distinctions in German which are included here in parentheses.
Although Lubbeck has naturally acquired a greater overview on the war today than he had while serving in it, we made a conscious decision to confine this work to his personal experiences at the time rather than overviews, criticisms, or what ifs. His actions, observations, and emotions during those tumultuous years were our sole focus.
While he had never spoken in depth about the war since his arrival in North Americain fact, he was reluctant to do sothe wealth of information that poured out as our interviews progressed impressed me greatly. The decades faded away as he recalled his prior life as a citizen and soldier for Germany, leaving the vigorous younger man in the photographs only barely concealed behind the erudite, retired U.S. engineer.
In the period before and during the Second World War, the German peoples perception of events contrasted sharply with the American outlook. Allowing ourselves to see these events from a different point of view does not undermine the ultimate morality of the cause for which the United States and the Western Allies fought, but rather helps us better comprehend why educated, civilized Germans were prepared to fight and die under such a regime.
William Lubbecks account of these years explains how the Nazi regimes early success in reviving Germanys power and prestige helped it win a broader measure of public support. Yet, he also argues that many Germans nonetheless mistrusted the Nazis and recognized a darker side to Hitlers dictatorship. This contradiction raises the critical question of why many Germans were prepared to wage war, even if they often held deep and growing doubts about their government.
Nazi propaganda played an important role in shaping German public opinion, manipulating deeply held popular convictions about the world. In the end, most Germans accepted that war was necessary to overturn the perceived injustices inflicted on their nation by the Treaty of Versailles and to eliminate the threat to European civilization posed by Stalinist Communism.
While Lubbeck approved of the rebuilding of Germanys economic and military power and believed in the justice of his countrys cause, he opposed the Nazi regimes repressive character and radical extremism. Yet, despite his mistrust of Hitler and lack of faith in the Nazi ideology, he was nonetheless willing to persevere through six years of war. As with most German soldiers, his fight was inspired by a patriotic love for his country, a deep sense of commitment to duty, and a basic desire to bring himself and his comrades through the war.
Light
Font size:
↓
↑
Reset
Interval:
↓
↑
Bookmark:
Make
Similar books «At Leningrad’s Gates: The Story of a Soldier with Army Group North»
Look at similar books to At Leningrad’s Gates: The Story of a Soldier with Army Group North. We have selected literature similar in name and meaning in the hope of providing readers with more options to find new, interesting, not yet read works.
William Lubbec
W. Chales de Beaulieu
David Stahel
Germany. Heer. Panzer Division Grossdeutschland
Germany. Heer. Armee Gruppe Nord.
Guy Sajer
Reviews about «At Leningrad’s Gates: The Story of a Soldier with Army Group North»
Discussion, reviews of the book At Leningrad’s Gates: The Story of a Soldier with Army Group North and just readers' own opinions. Leave your comments, write what you think about the work, its meaning or the main characters. Specify what exactly you liked and what you didn't like, and why you think so.