7,000 Kilometers in a Sturmgeschutz: The Wartime Diaries and Photo Album of Knight's Cross Recipient Heinrich Engel

Canada: J.J. Fedorowicz Publishing, 2001. Large Softcover. Near Fine. 11x8x0. Bottom corner of rear cover creased. 2001 Large Softcover. viii, 138 pp. This title represents a fascinating glimpse into assault-gun fighting in World War II by a highly decorated soldier who fought with Sturmgeschütz units in France and Russia. Heinrich Engel started the war a young enlisted soldier assigned to an antitank battalion. After participating in the Campaign in Poland, he volunteered for the newly created assault-gun branch of service, the Sturmartillerie. He was assigned to Sturmgeschütz-Batterie 660, one of the first three assault-gun batteries created by the German Army. He fought in that unit as an assault-gun driver in the French Campaign and the initial stages of the war in Russia. Heinrich Engel not only wrote down his thoughts and feelings during those times in his diaries, but captured much of what he describes in photographs. After combating sciatica, which removed him from the front lines in the early part of 1942, Engel returned to the Eastern Front in 1943 as a gun commander in the newly formed Sturmgeschütz-Abteilung 259. It was there that he was to receive the Knight's Cross for knocking out 15 Russian tanks on a single day in September 1943. Engel returned to Germany due to continued problems with sciatica and spent the remainder of the war serving with various training establishment units. Although removed fairly early from the war, Engel's diaries and nearly 200 black and white photographs offer insight into one of the more fascinating sidebars of armored warfare history. In addition to the many photographs, which accompany the text, additional material is provided the reader concerning Engel's military career and the units he served in.