Book
Comrades of War
by Sven Hassel
Book 3 in the Legion of the Damned series.
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Severely wounded on the Eastern Front, Sven and several comrades are transported west in overcrowded trains and placed in a military hospital in Hamburg. Their temporary removal from combat exposes another face of the war: damaged bodies, corrupt officials, propaganda and civilians attempting to preserve ordinary life inside Nazi Germany. Drink, sex and illicit trade provide distraction, but recovery carries the threat of return to the front.
The novel is less concerned with a single campaign than with the social and psychological machinery that keeps Adolf Hitler’s war operating. Medical staff, military police and recovering soldiers occupy a world in which official heroism bears little relation to pain or fear. The comrades’ abrasive friendship becomes their principal defence against both the battlefield and a home front structured by surveillance, lies and compulsory obedience.
