Download At Leningrad's Gates: The Combat Memoirs of a Soldier with Army Group North AudioBook Free
This is the remarkable story of a German soldier who fought throughout World Battle II, growing from conscript private to captain of much weaponry company on the Eastern Leading. William Lubbeck, years 19, was drafted in to the Wehrmacht in August 1939. As an associate of the 58th Infantry Division, he received his baptism of open fire through the 1940 invasion of France. The next spring his division served on the still left flank of Military Group North in Operation Barbarossa. After grueling marches amidst countless Russian physiques, burnt-out vehicles, and a great number of cheering Baltic civilians, Lubbeck's product came into the outskirts of Leningrad, making the deepest penetration of any German development. The Germans experienced brutal hardships the next winter as they fought both Russian counterattacks and the brutal cool. The 58th Division was thrown backwards and forwards across the leading of Military Group North, from Novgorod to Demyansk, at one point fighting with each other back Russian disorders on the glaciers of Lake Ilmen. Returning to the outskirts of Leningrad, the 58th was placed to get the Spanish "Blue" Division. Relations between your allied formations soured at one point when the Spaniards used a Russian bath tub house for goal practice, not knowing that Germans were calming inside. A soldier who preferred to be near to the action, Lubbeck served as forwards observer for his company, dueling with Russian snipers, partisans and full-scale assaults alike. His worries were not restricted to his own safeness; however, as reports showed up of disasters in Germany, like the damage of Hamburg where his lover served as an Military nurse. In Sept 1943, Lubbeck acquired the Iron Cross First Class and was assigned to officials' training institution in Dresden. By the time he returned to Russia, Military Group North was in full-scale retreat. Now commanding his previous heavy weaponry company, Lubbeck alternated sharpened counterattacks with inexorable withdrawal, from Riga to Memel on the Baltic. In April 1945 Lubbeck's company became stalled in a traffic jam and was nearly obliterated by a Russian barrage followed by air attacks. In the last chaotic scramble from East Prussia, Lubbeck could evacuate on the newly minted German destroyer. He recounts the way the ship arrived in the British area off Denmark with all weapons blazing against seeking Russians. The next morning hours, May 8, 1945, he found that the conflict was over. After his release from United kingdom captivity, Lubbeck wedded his sweetheart, Anneliese, and in 1949 immigrated to america where he lifted a successful family. With the help of David B. Harm, he has attracted on his wartime notes and characters, Soldatbuch, regimental record and personal thoughts to recount his four years of frontline experience. Filled with exceptional firsthand accounts of both triumph and disaster, At Leningrad's Gates offers a fascinating glimpse in to the reality of combat on the Eastern Leading.
