SS General

Name: SS General
Rating: 4.15 (2696 reviews)

by Sven Hassel Book 8 in the Legion of the Damned series.

First published 1969

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4.2(2,696)

Sven, Porta, Tiny and the Legionnaire are drawn into the Battle of Stalingrad as the German offensive becomes an encirclement and catastrophe. Burning streets, collapsing supply lines and winter exposure reduce units to isolated groups searching for food and a route out. An uncompromising SS general attempts to force the remnants onward even as Soviet pressure and starvation make organised resistance increasingly impossible.

The novel uses Stalingrad to expose the gulf between Adolf Hitler’s orders and the material condition of the soldiers expected to carry them out. Cannibalism, desertion and breakdown replace the language of conquest, while authority depends increasingly on threat rather than strategy. Hassel’s recurring black humour survives, but it operates against one of the war’s clearest examples of command refusing to acknowledge military reality.