As you read the book you feel that these men are also your friends and together you are suffering from these horrors. It is this remarkable document, a unique day-to-day account of the common German soldier’s experience, that makes up the memoir that is Blood Red Snow.

The author describes himself and most of his comrades as gentleman soldiers and absolves himself of any participation in or knowledge of the barbarous actions of the Nazi regime and the SS. Also, one reviewer has suggested that the account may be suspect in certain areas, especially about the veracity of Koschorrek’s recollections of witnessing the aftermath of the October 1944 Soviet massacre in the East Prussian town of Nemmersdorf. No high rank, no Nazi party line, no discussion of grand strategy and tactics; there's already fine memoirs from the Wehrmacht's top brass for all that, so this is ideal for a feel of the average recruit's experience.Sedgwick’s use of the diction, rhetoric and devices of the fairytale transposes itself with remarkable ease to the contrasting courtly world of Russia and the raging discontent that powered the revolution.

As he explains, keeping a diary was forbidden, and though a lot of the situations he gets into seem too insane to be real, given the conditions of the war I can give him a pass on authenticity questions. This book stands as a memorial to the huge numbers on both sides who did not survive and is, some six decades later, the fulfilment of a responsibility the author feels to honour the memory of those who perished. Void of discussions of high politics, the book reveals the destructiveness of war, at both a physical and spiritual level, for countless individuals who have little or no say in their fate in such an event. In addition, the maps used in the book are poorly drawn and don't really provide much of a sense of location to the battles described.In the second part of the novel, "One Night in Moscow", Ransome is haunted by the scenes he has witnessed. His memoir relates these horrific experiences and it draws the reader in so that he feels that he too is in the frontline standing next to the author. A lot of the book is about small things: food, new shoes, cigarettes, letters to home, and complaining about officers. Even if not all soldiers could be fully aware of this at the time of the events, there is no excuse when writing after the end of the war, when everything is made clear.