From the Dnieper to the Rhine (Hardback)

The brutality of war is often overlooked by historians eager to record with detail the facts of a battle or campaign. Even the stark reality of the casualty lists becomes just numbers, robbed of their individuality. Not people, soldiers, civilians, just totals. Shocking, but just statistics. Which is why From The Dniper to the Rhine is such a profoundly important addition to the historiography of the Second World War.

Opening in the Ukraine, we find Sergeant Martin Hajek of the 105th Grenadier Regiment, holding the line of the Dniper at Cherkassy as Soviet forces attempt to encircle the German Army Group South. Around 100,000 Germans troops became trapped in what became known as the Cherkassy ‘Pocket’, surrounded by three times their number and massively outgunned by ten times the artillery, twice as many tanks, and thousands of aircraft against the pitifully weakened Luftwaffe.

These though are mere statistics. What the killing, the numbing cold, the starvation, the fear – the constant paralysing fear – was for those trapped in the pocket can only be gauged through the eyes of those who endured it and survived. Those like Sergeant Hajek.

Hajek survived the Battle of Korsun–Cherkassy but, as with others, only to face yet more horrors as his regiment battled constantly against the incessant Soviet attacks that pushed the Germans slowly westwards. Hope of peace or victory had long left Hajek and his companions, hope even of living beyond the next minute. Death surrounded Hajek, coming closer, just as did the Red Army.

From The Dniper to the Rhine is a salutary tale. There is only glory in war when the fighting stops. For Hajek it seemed it would never stop. Left with just a handful of ill-trained, ill-equipped recruits – mere boys in uniform – on the Dutch border, Hajek was surrounded and trapped once again. He knew his own war was over. But it was into the hands of the Americans he eventually fell, and the warrior laid down his arms. He had survived, but the scars remained, physical and mental scars which could never be healed.