Authors Erhard Steiniger & Anthony Tucker-Jones (http://atuckerjones.com) will publish the book “Radio Operator on the Eastern Front: An Illustrated Memoir, 1940-1949” in 2021 (May 14). Mr. Steiniger has three books to his credit and Mr. Tucker-Jones has a dozen.

I categorize this book as ‘R’ because it contains scenes of violence. The book follows the life of Erhard Steiniger as he lives through the war years. Steiniger lived I the German-speaking Sudetenland area of Czechoslovakia. After Germany took over, he was drafted on October 12, 1940. After arriving in the Wermacht he received training as a radio operator. He was assigned to the 151 Infantry Regiment, 61 West Prussian Infantry Division. His primary service was on the Eastern Front ranging over Estonia, Latvia, and Russia.

After capture by Russian troops in 1945, he served as a POW in Russia. In 1949 he was finally allowed to return home. He tells tales of his time in combat and how he survived. He also tells of atrocities he saw carried out by both the Russians and Czechs.

I thoroughly enjoyed the 6+ hours I spent reading this 320-page WWII history. It is primarily a biography of Erhard Steiniger. The book includes several photos of Steiniger and his comrades. It was a little different to read of the war from the Axis point of view. I like the selected cover art. I give this book a 4.4 (rounded down to a 4) out of 5.

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I enjoyed reading about the author's experiences as he traveled from place to place across the Eastern Front. There is not much detail provided about his experiences performing the responsibiliries of operating his radio, and I found the lack of details to be a partial letdown. The author describes the landscapes and general experiences in a much more detailed manner that made it feel as if I was right there watching the events. All in all, this was a journal of his travels crossing the Eastern Front written for his family so they would know of his entire experience serving in the German army as a radio operator.
The narrative is written from the neutral perspective of a soldier following orders and is told without political commentary or bias.
The translation is rather atrocious and full of long, complex sentences containing dependent and independent clauses, which is acceptable if the rules of punctuation are observed. Sadly, this was not the case, and the author's story suffered as a result of the translator's inability to apply correct punctuation to the written narrative.

Thank you to netgalley and the publisher for providing a copy of this book to read and review. The opinions expressed here are my own, honest opinions written voluntarily.

‘Radio operator on the Eastern Front’ follows Erhard Steiniger’s memoir of his 2ww experiences whilst lugging around his very heavy Wehrmacht radio whilst being shot, blown up, starved, frozen to -40c, but avoided death unlike like so many on all sides of the battles of the Eastern front (approx. 11m Axis and 20m Russian died) finally being captured and incarcerated in Siberia, managing to get home by 1949 but a broken man. Many of you will know and read Forgotten Soldier by Guy Sajer one of the classic memoirs written in 1965 of a German Soldier again on the Eastern Front, the difference between these two is that our Radio Operator (signaller) is a fresh look through eyes of a generally non combat personnel, so many memoir’s are from combatants, soldiers, fighter pilots and submariners and concentration camp survivors, there is nothing wrong with these so but this book caught my interest as being so different – the title caught my eye straight away, on the whole the book is about ‘what it says on the tin’ a Radio Operator but I feel I would of liked to read more about the radio operation, how it worked, issues the signallers experienced and the challenges; what we had was generally a monologue of his travels across the Eastern front as a Radio Operator not as its operator. That's not to degenerate his experiences which as he shares with us some have never left him, the atrocities on both sides, the inhumanity of war with moments of humour – for example how do you eat frozen bread? Slicing it up with a saw of course, and attempting to drink frozen wine giving a different meaning to ‘crack open a bottle’; Erhard’s memoirs are written in a neutral style he does not attempt to justify the war but rather tells his story as it was without any political comments to inform his family of his experiences. Lots of B&W photographs adorn the book, the majority from the era described but I felt a bit to many of graves and the fallen (nothing gratuitous or offensive) maybe the translator or publisher wanted to show us the ‘humanity’ of the German Soldiers not the few who carried out atrocities. The descriptions of the endless vistas, swamps, seasons of the year are all vividly described to make you feel part of the intense action mixed with intense nothing waiting for the next incoming shell or sound of the Soviet tanks. Very little is shared with us about his 4 years in Siberia and as Erhard shares with us that part of his life could fill another book, one we will never read. Well deserving a read as a different perspective on a wartime memoir of a soldier on the Eastern Front.

This was an interesting down to earth tale of a German soldiers experience during ww2.
Unfortunately the translation is not that good and it contain sentences which are long and incomprehensible.
The narrative is good and always goes at a trot but there is very little about places or people. A great read for WW2 buffs.

An excellent look at the war on the Eastern Front in WW2 from the German perspective. I found the story engaging and highly gripping! The story is one of human courage and perseverance. A must read for those who enjoy historical books.

Thank you to #NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for my honest review.

The scope of the experiences of Erhard Steineger is truly huge! From the start of the war in 1940 in his hometown to the end in 1945 the whole horrible tragedies of war are honestly offered. Erhard served with a signal division that did much more than just communicate via telephone and code. They fought battles with enemy soldiers who had broken through to the rear and were attacking with desperation. This book is not political in discourse and its truly only a soldiers story. The brutality of war and the strange coincidences of battle are described almost so well that I felt I was there in the trench. Or hiding in the bunkers with the others waiting for the horror to end. This book is remarkable IMO for the reason that the honest feelings and ideas of the people of the time are given without sugar coating or attempting to rewrite history . If you want to read a real story of the hell of the Eastern Front through Barbarossa to the end in 1945 then this true story will hold your attention. Well written and easy to understand , events described in detail that has meaning to the story. A story from a common soldier who is duty bound and trying to stay alive to see his family again. Tragic but true, these stories continue to this day.

An interesting German perspective on the second world war on the Eastern front. I enjoyed the book, and found interesting the reviewing of the campaign. Sadly the book was let down by the overview feel of the book, with little detail in there to satisfy the historian of combat.
There were a number of photographs taken by the author at the time of operations which were most welcome.
A good book but let down by lack of detail.