Legion of the Damned

Name: Legion of the Damned
Rating: 4.11 (8118 reviews)

by Sven Hassel Book 1 in the Legion of the Damned series.

First published 1953

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4.1(8,118)

After an attempted desertion, the fictionalised Sven is convicted by the German military and sent to a penal formation on the Eastern Front. There he joins Porta, Tiny, the Legionnaire and other recurring comrades whose criminal records, political unreliability or breaches of discipline make them expendable in the eyes of their commanders. Armoured combat, forced marches and extreme cold reduce the regiment’s ambitions to food, shelter and survival.

The novel presents the war from below, opposing Adolf Hitler’s ideological claims with the experience of soldiers used as disposable manpower. Loyalty develops within the group rather than towards the Nazi state, while military punishment and arbitrary command reveal the coercion behind the German war effort. Although framed through a narrator called Sven and drawing on the author’s claimed experiences, it is an anti-war novel rather than a documentary memoir.