Berlin Soldier: The Explosive Memoir of a 12 Year-old German Boy Called Up to Fight in the Last Weeks of the Second World War - Softcover

This book is an explosive memoir of a 17 year old German boy called up to fight in the last weeks of the Second World War. This is a teenager's vivid account of his experiences as a conscript during the final desperate weeks of the Third Reich, during which he experienced training immediately behind the front line east of Berlin, was caught up in the massive Soviet assault on Berlin from the Oder, retreated successfully and then took part in the fight for the western suburb of Spandau, where he became one of the only two survivors of his company of seventeen year-olds.

Helmut Altner, the author, worked for decades as the Paris correspondent of several German newspapers, and has now retired to live just outside the city. Tony Le Tissier, the translator and editor, is an acknowledged expert on the 1945 battle of Berlin. His other books include, The Battle of Berlin 1945 (also published by Tempus), Slaughter at Halbe: The Destruction of Hitler's 9th Army - April 1945, With Our Backs to Berlin: The German Army in Retreat 1945, Death Was Our Companion: The Final Days of the Third Reich, Farewell to Spandau, and Berlin Then and Now. He lives in Lymington in Hampshire.