The Sergeant in the Snow - Mario Rigoni Stern (c.1953)

This is another book that I read because I saw others reading it or talking about it in CSW. This book is an English translation of the original Italian text. The Author was a Sergeant in the Tridentina  Division, part of the Italian Alpini Corps that served on the Eastern Front in WWII. The Author is a Sergeant Major in charge of a machine gun platoon.

The book opens around Christmas 1942, where our author's unit is holding a section of the Don River North of Stalingrad. About the first third of the book deals with the unit holding the line across the river from the Russians. The unit has been in the line for some time and Stern talks about the daily tasks and we get to know some of the men in his unit and their officers. The later two thirds of the book deals with the encirclement of his unit (along with many other German, Italian and Hungarian units) and their attempts at breaking out and reaching friendly lines.

I had a hard time getting into the book initially. Part of this has to do with the translation I think. I found myself re-reading sentences quite often. However I eventually got used to the cadence or rhythm of the writing and stopped thinking about it and found myself wrapped up in Sterns trek across the frozen steppe trying to keep his men together and alive. I was very taken by the pace of the book. When they pull off the line, things are orderly and he has a detailed narrative of the events. As the retreat progresses he is able to articulate his own as well as those around him gradual deterioration from lack of food and rest.

I have read a number of accounts of German soldiers on the Eastern Front in WWII and I was really taken by how different this one was from them. You could tell our man and the men he was describing are Italian and really have no interest in being on the Don in the middle of a Russian Winter. There isn't a lot of talk of politics or parasitism, just a bunch of guys that would much rather be at home in their villages. And yet, our guy is obviously a leader and trying his best to serve his unit and take care of his men.

He mentions other periods of his service, for example running into friends from his time in Albania and other places. I know also that his unit was as far as the Caucasus the prior summer as part of Operation Blau. Yet none of this is covered, the book stays focused solely on the retreat and his eventual escape back to friendly lines.

There are a couple of actions described in detail and one amazing incident involving a dove and a one in a million shot (Stern 1, Dove 0). Also I was taken by how humanely he and his men treated the locals. This seemed to be the case with other Italian units as well. It goes without saying that the things he and his men had to overcome (and most of them didn't) to reach friendly lines was nearly superhuman. I know I get cranky when the temperature in the house gets near 60F, I simply can't imagine what it would be like to walk for days on end, with little or no food in the sub-freezing temperatures they were exposed to. Amazing stuff.

So this was a good book, not a great one but one that I am certainly glad I had the chance to read.