To the Gate of Hell

A Memoir of a Panzer Crewman

Armin Böttger

• Publisher: Frontline Books
• Year: 2012
• eBook ISBN: 9781783033485
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: Military Biographies
• Index: History

Until seriously wounded in August 1944, when he was badly burned when his tank was hit and caught fire during fighting in southern Poland, Armin Böttger experienced the horrors of the Second World War on the Eastern Front from the perspective of a tank radio operator in the 24th Panzer Division. In this memoir he gives a full and honest account of his wartime career, encompassing both the hellish terror of combat and the everyday annoyances and injustices of army life in wartime. Böttger had volunteered to join the Wehrmacht, but only because this would allow him to receive his Abitur (school leaving certificate) without sitting an exam. He is perfectly honest about his efforts to make his service life as comfortable and safe as possible, for instance becoming a radio operator because it was less hard work than being a Panzer driver and by getting himself postings as a courier to keep out of the front line. He also freely admits to lying about the state of his health to avoid being thrown into the hopeless battles in East Prussia at the end of the war. He was a skilled photographer, and was never without his camera, and his unique collection of color and black and white photographs illustrate this book. This is a story that graphically portrays the reality of war on the Eastern Front, without heroics and told with contempt for the high command and the Nazi leadership, who were mostly safe at home while Böttger and his comrades suffered and died.

Table of contents

• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Table of Contents
• Foreword
• Translator’s Note
• Author’s Introduction
• Chapter 1 - The Reich Work Service (RAD)
• Chapter 2 - A Recruit Twice Over
• Chapter 3 - Transporter Missions
• Chapter 4 - The Death Sentence
• Chapter 5 - I Join 24.Panzer Division in France
• Chapter 6 - Second Class Soldiers?
• Chapter 7 - Interlude in Northern Italy: The Eastern Front
• Chapter 8 - In the Southern Ukraine: Defensive Fighting on the Dnieper
• Chapter 9 - Behind the Lines at Kirovograd
• Chapter 10 - The Swine in a Corporal’s Uniform
• Chapter 11 - On the Defensive in the Nikopol Bridgehead
• Chapter 12 - With Damaged Panzer on the Russian Highway
• Chapter 13 - Journeying on Leave
• Chapter 14 - The Fighting at Jassy
• Chapter 15 - Awards and Decorations: Pro Virtute et Merito
• Chapter 16 - A Mysterious Camp
• Chapter 17 - Seriously Wounded: Virtute in bello
• Chapter 18 - Reserve Hospital: News of the SS Miracle Weapon
• Chapter 19 - Courier in East Prussia
• Chapter 20 - Special Leave: Memories of School, the Jungvolk and Hitler Jugend
• Chapter 21 - In East Prussia Again
• Chapter 22 - Escaping the East Prussian Encirclement
• Chapter 23 - Courage instead of Obedience
• Chapter 24 - Flight into US Captivity
• Chapter 25 - Released – Home with Anxiety and Luck
• Chapter 26 - The Transition from Wartime Existence
• Chapter 27 - The Question of the Simple Soldier’s War Guilt
• Appendix 1 - Field Post Letters to My Mother
• Appendix 2 - Essays at High School, 1939 – 1940
• Bibliography