March Battalion - Softcover

Danger was forgotten, death was forgotten, the war was forgotten. They only knew they had to kill...The figures in khaki were no longer soldiers, no longer men. Sven Hassel and his comrades are once more hurled into the ferocity of the frontline. The Eastern Front is a sight of unprecedented destruction. The soldiers there - the tank battalions of Hitler's penal regiments - are considered expendable by the German high command. Treated like animals, they learn to live like animals, to fight like beasts. The only other option is to die a bloody death...Sven Hassel based his unflinching narrative on his experiences in the German army. He ended World War Two in a prisoner of war camp, where he wrote his first novel Legion of the Damned. March Battalion is a gripping testament to the soldiers sacrificed on the Russian Front.

Born in 1917 in Fredensborg, Denmark, Sven Hassel joined the merchant navy at the age of 14. He did his compulsory year's military service in the Danish forces in 1936 and then, facing unemployment, joined the German army. He served throughout World War II on all fronts except North Africa. When the war ended in 1945 he was transferred between Russian, American and French prison camps, and upon returning to Denmark, was sentenced to 10 years in prison for treason. He began writing Legion of the Damned during his time as a prisoner of war. His fourteen World War II books, which draw on his own encounters and experiences as a soldier, have sold over 53 million copies worldwide and have been published in more than 50 countries. He peacefully passed away in Barcelona in 2012, where he had resided since 1964.