The Outermost Frontier: a German Soldier in the Russian Campaign by Helmut Pabst
London: William Kimber, 1986 (first published in England 1957) ISBN 0718306007
(translated from the German by Andrew and Eva Wilson)
On reading another book to do with the Eastern Front I read that The Outermost Frontier was a minor classic of its kind, and so I managed to hunt out a copy to read. I'm very glad I did, as it is quite well written as well as moving. The book is an edited version of letters sent by Pabst - signals N.C.O. in an artillery regiment - back to his family in Germany, chronicling his time on the Eastern Front, from the beginning of Operation Barbarossa up until the time he was killed in action in September 1943. Pabst was thirty at the time of the invasion, a veteran of France, and a former law student from Frankfurt-on-Main.
What the reader gets in this book is not a description of battle as much as a description of living on campaign - there is more material to do with building the succession of dugouts that Pabst and his comrades occupied, and of finding food, entertaining themselves with songs, and the interminable waiting that is synonymous with military life, than there is about fighting. It would be interesting to see the unexpurgated letters, as I did wonder while reading whether they have been skillfully edited to create a story-line.
For there is a narrative flow in this book: a first section of rapid advance, with the emphasis on movement and tiredness, then a middle section of static front warfare, where not much happens, and the focus of the troops is making themselves as comfortable as possible, and then a final section of retreat, where the focus is on being attacked by Russian forces, death, and confusion. While we know at times where he is, most of the book is set in places in Russia that are not identified in the text.
The best parts of this book are Pabst's descriptions of the countryside and his comrades, and his more philosophical moments, where he tells his readers back home that despite the danger, he is as happy as he can be at that time - "The nights are cold. The earth is frozen again. Snow squalls wander through the changing light. But if you shoot with a pistol into a birch tree, the sap spurts out, and it drips from the branches where shell splinters have cut into the tree-tops. I believe in the birch tree."
He is however a loyal soldier, who does his duty. There are no politics in this book, and from what we have it seems Pabst treated Russians as human beings rather than animals, but he does find joy and satisfaction in his work, especially when he does it well and saves the regiment.
Another point of interest is that Pabst and his unit are almost completely horse-drawn, right through from 1941-1943. While the Russians develop their technology throughout the book, it's clear that Pabst has little new equipment during his whole two years at the front. Just before he is killed he is riding in a horse-drawn cart, much as his father would have in World War One, and the Germans in all the wars before that.
This is not a book to read if you wish to find out what happened on the Eastern Front in World War Two. But if you want an insight into the life of a soldier during that time, it's worth reading.
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