Sniper on the Eastern Front: The Memoirs of Sepp Allerberger, Knight's Cross

Pen and Sword Military, 2008-06-15. hardcover. Very Good/Very Good. 6x2x9. 2005 Pen and Sword Military (Barnsley, South Yorkshire, England), 6 1/2 x 9 1/2 inches tall black cloth hardcover in publisher's unclipped dust jacket, gilt lettering to spine, illustrated with black-and-white photographs and maps, xiv, 146 pp. Very slight rubbing and edgewear to covers. Otherwise, apart from very slight marginal age toning, a very good to near fine copy - clean, bright and unmarked. ~A~ [2.0P] Josef 'Sepp' Allerberger was the second most successful sniper of the German Wehrmacht and one of the few private soldiers to be honored with the award of the Knight's Cross. An Austrian conscript, after qualifying as a machine gunner he was drafted to the southern sector of the Russian Front in July 1942. Wounded at Voroshilovsk, he experimented with a Russian sniper-rifle while convalescing and so impressed his superiors with his proficiency that he was returned to the front on his regiment's only sniper specialist. In this sometimes harrowing memoir, Allerberger provides an excellent introduction to the commitment in fieldcraft, discipline and routine required of the sniper, a man apart. There was no place for chivalry on the Russian Front. Away from the film cameras, no prisoner survived long after surrendering. Russian snipers had used the illegal explosive bullet since 1941, and Hitler eventually authorized its issue in 1944. The result was a battlefield of horror. Allerberger was a cold-blooded killer, but few will find a place in their hearts for the soldiers of the Red Army against whom he fought.