The Sergeant in the Snow Aotobiography of a Soldier in Mussolini's Army in Russia

 

First published in Italy in 1953, this autobiography details the author's harrowing experiences as a soldier on the Russian front during World War II. Mario Rigoni Stern was barely twenty-one and already a battle veteran at the time of the hallucinating World War II disaster searchingly described in this book. In July 1942, the Italian forces in Russia totaled 230,000 men. They included three divisions of Alpini troops, specially trained for winter warfare; the author of this book belonged to one of these, the Tridentina. In December 1942 following the great Russian counter-offensive to surround Stalingrad, the troops began retreating, entirely on foot, with no supplies, at a temperature of 30-40 degrees below zero. Many of the troops, overcome by exhaustion, broke away from the column, others were cut off and captured by the Russians, and others got lost in the steppes. In the end, about 90,000 were missing or dead; about 45,000 frostbitten and wounded.

Mario Rigoni Stern
Softcover 158pp

Book Code:  AM0016