At Leningrad's Gates: The Combat Memories of a Soldier with Army Group North

The memoir of a German soldier on the Eastern Front during WWII
Gives a brutal account of fighting in Leningrad
Warts-and-all narrative of life within a unit under constant attack

At Leningrad’s Gates tells the remarkable story of a German soldier who fought throughout World War II, rising from conscript private to captain of a heavy-weapons company on the Eastern Front.

William Lubbeck was drafted into the Wehrmacht in August 1939. As a member of the 58th Infantry Division, he fought in the 1940 invasion of France. The following spring his division served on the left flank of Army Group North in Operation Barbarossa. The Germans suffered brutal hardships the following winter as they fought both Russian counter-attacks and the brutal cold. The 58th Division was thrown back and forth across the front of Army Group North, from Novgorod to Demyansk, at one point fighting back Russian attacks on the ice of Lake Ilmen.

Lubbeck served as forward observation officer for his company, dueling with Russian snipers and partisans. In September 1943, Lubbeck earned the Iron Cross First Class and was assigned to officers’ training school in Dresden. By the time he returned to Russia, Army Group North was in full-scale retreat. Now commanding his former heavy-weapons company, Lubbeck alternated sharp counter-attacks with retreat, from Riga to Memel on the Baltic.

In the last chaotic scramble from East Prussia, Lubbeck was able to escape on a German destroyer. He recounts how the ship arrived in Denmark, with all guns blazing against the pursuing Russians, only to learn the following morning that the war was over.

After his release from British captivity, Lubbeck emigrated to the United States. With the assistance of David B. Hurt he has drawn on his wartime notes and letters, regimental history and personal memories to recount his four years of frontline experience. Containing rare first-hand accounts of both triumph and disaster, At Leningrad’s Gates provides a fascinating glimpse into the reality of combat on the Eastern Front.

W Lubbeck
Hardcover 256 pages 2007

At Leningrad's Gates: The Combat Memories of a Soldier with Army Group North