The cross of Iron

Cross of Iron sets the standard for WWII East Front fiction. I first read it maybe 25 years ago and have reread it twice since -- and I rarely reread a novel. Willi Heinrich draws you in with his vivid characteriazation and settings, but keeps you turning pages with his pulse-racing action scenes. Steiner must go down as one of the greatest charaters of WWII fiction. If you read no other novel of WWII on the Eastern Front, you must read this one. Read this novel and get a real sense for the desperate fighting of the Russian front. Take note -- as ususal, the movie is no substitute for a well written novel.

This novel, written by a veteran of the Russian Front, gives us through the eyes of his main character insights into the German army of the Russian front in gritty and realistic detail. This is not a thumbs up and cherio type novel but the graphic bitter story of survival written by a man who was there. I read this novel while in High School and found it most insightful into the German army of WWII as well as the hell of war. My father's experiences in Korea were undoubtedly similar.

Unlike so many of his fellow German veterans, Willi Heinrich elected to relate his WWII experiences through his outstanding novel, The Cross of Iron. The book deals with the German withdrawal from the Kuban Peninsula. This is one of the far flung fronts that comparatively little has been written. Heinrich's protagonist is Sgt. Steiner, the veteran platoon leader that has seen more than his share of combat and knows how to achieve an objective and keep his men alive. He is the cynical sort of heroic soldier, who does his job not for medals or politics, but to keep himself and his men alive for one more day. Heinrich's Landser are a great cross section of Germans from the young replacements to the grizzled veterans to the true Nazi. Into his group arrives Cpt. Stranksy, who has been in the occupied West and seen virtually no combat, yet is foaming at the mouth to win his Knight's Cross as befits his status as a member of the Prussian Officer Class. His motivations are purely self-serving and contrast sharply with Steiner. Heinrich portrays the German officer class with fairness and realism. Officers like Kiesel and Brandt represent the best characteristics of German officers and Stransky and Triebig show the dark side of that same group. And of course Steiner and his men aren't that far removed from Bill Mauldin's Willie and Joe slogging it through Italy. The book is at its best during Steiner's Platoon's efforts to escape a Soviet occupied factory. It is riveting reading and as frightening as any horror movie. And in truth what could be more frightening than knowing that you are being hunted by an enemy that wants to kill you with extreme prejuidice. Heinrich brings the reader into that factory and into the dark woods of the Kuban peninsula. He succeeds in making the reader see Steiner and his men, not as Nazis, not as German Soldiers, but as men trapped by circumstance in the most awful of situations. And finally, he creates in a Steiner, a man that we can all respect and root for. We want Steiner and Kruger and Schnurrbart to make it back to their own lines. But war is war and Heinrich does not hold back its punches. And in the end the best anyone caught in the cataclysm of war can hope for...is a trip into the light.

I loved this book very much, and think that like others have said, it is comparable to All Quiet on the Western Front. Furthermore, I think it surpasses AQWF in terms of exploring war and the people involved, especially from the German/Nazi side. It's harsh and crude at times, with descriptions more direct than poetic. Perhaps many would be put off by the fact that it's written from the Nazi perspective, but the truth is that 'Nazi' is more a description of an ideology that not all followed, rather than a term for the foot soldier who is simply fighting to save his life and what he may believe at first to be the survival of his country.

...P>A far better book than Guy Sajer's THE FORGOTTEN SOLDIER, the characters are richly developed; everyone who serves in the military for any length of time eventually encounters a Captain Stransky - a man bent on "spriritual domination of his battalion." Sympathetic to the German soldier, but not the Nazi cause, this is a gripping and honest portrayal of men at war, with many surprise turns along the way.