Into the Gates of Hell: Stug Command '41

Начало книги

“BREATH.” SS-Hauptsturmführer Hans von Schroif had no idea why this single word should enter his mind at this time. Perhaps it was because in the still silence of the pine forest, amongst all these men and machines, all he could hear at that moment was the sound of his own breathing. Breath; life begins with the first violent inhalation and ends with the fight for our dying breath. Yet, for something so vital, so fundamental, we spend our lives so unaware of its presence; except in moments like these. How could it be possible? Three and a half million men, countless tanks, trucks, artillery pieces, horses and aircraft along a 3,000 kilometre front◦— stretching across almost the whole span of the continent of Europe, from Memel to Rumania◦— and, despite everything, for one fleeting moment all von Schroif could hear was the sound of his own breathing.

In this briefest of lulls before the coming storm, von Schroif sensed that many of the men in this colossal human chain were attuned to the same delicate sound, the sound of their own breathing. The Führer had been right◦— he was always right◦— in finding the exact words and phrases when speaking to the German people and the fighting men of the Reich. “When Barbarossa begins, the world will hold its breath”.

Читать дальше →