destroyed by cruel Nazi lies. Thanks to a kind, caring British trooper, the boy-soldier now amaturing teenager began to heal.Willi’s graphic and emotionally moving story is told from a Nazi-ordered perspective untilback home helping Germany rebuild. It is not only an amazing and inspiring war account of a kidin battle, but also a happy postwar story of resoluteness and determination fulfilling his dreamof a married life, children (two daughters), and professional life as a lawyer. In 1979, Willi wasawarded the medal of European Merit for his contribution to the advancement of democracy inEurope. He passed away in 2018, leaving daughter, Heidi Langbein-Allen. Willi lived for 88years.In “EASTERN FRONT SNIPER – The Life of Matthaus Hetzenauer”, by Roland Kaltenegger,Introduction by Martin Pegler. Greenhill SNIPER Library Books/Pen& Sword: 148 pages, sc;$22.95. Visit, www.greenhillbooks.com. Or, contact@greenhillbooks.com.Serious WWII buffs, especially those intrigued with the minutia of successful Wehrmachtcombat battle strategies, sniper training techniques, a 3 rd Mountain Division unit’s defeats,Soviet captivity, and homecoming, will be thoroughly mesmerized, nay, riveted, to this well-written biography of one of the war’s three highest-scoring snipers from both the Allied andenemy sides.Consider for a moment the much sought-after German military decoration, the Iron Crossawarded in eight classes. The first, the Great Cross of the Iron Cross was awarded only to FieldMarshal Hermann Goring, leaving seven. Young Matthaus Hetzenauer won all seven. See theloyal sniper warrior wearing them on page 61. His other badges, orders and decorations are toonumerous to be listed here. Suffice enough, potential book buying-reader, or Christmas gift-giver (if so, read the book before wrapping!), to describe who Matthaus was by quoting twosentences from his superior’s recommendation for his final Iron Cross 17 days before the end ofthe war in Europe in early May of 1945, “Gefreiter Hetzenauer has distinguished himself as asniper by especially outstanding dynamism and dare-devil aggression. Hetzenauer fights withunparalleled bravery, tirelessly and without regard to the constant danger to his life and isknown throughout the division for his fearless adventures as a lone soldier.”Read back-to-back, as the Greenhill/Pen & Sword editors intended, and Casematedistributors hoped, the two provide unparalleled views of enemy youth coming of age quicklyunder intense fire. Rarely are such reads of two brother-combatants combined and offered as
one – teenagers believing early on all the Nazi ideology of the late 1930’s and early 1940s.
