At Leningrad's Gates: The Combat Memoirs of a Soldier with Army Group North
Nov 2006 · Casemate
4.5star
18 reviewsreport
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288
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About this ebook
“A first-rate memoir” from a German soldier who rose from conscript private to captain of a heavy weapons company on the Eastern Front of World War II (City Book Review).
William Lubbeck, age nineteen, was drafted into the Wehrmacht in August 1939. As a member of the 58th Infantry Division, he received his baptism of fire during the 1940 invasion of France. The following spring, his division served on the left flank of Army Group North in Operation Barbarossa. After grueling marches amid countless Russian bodies, burnt-out vehicles, and a great number of cheering Baltic civilians, Lubbeck’s unit entered the outskirts of Leningrad, making the deepest penetration of any German formation.
In September 1943, Lubbeck earned the Iron Cross First Class and was assigned to officers’ training school in Dresden. By the time he returned to Russia, Army Group North was in full-scale retreat. In the last chaotic scramble from East Prussia, Lubbeck was able to evacuate on a newly minted German destroyer. He recounts how the ship arrived in the British zone off Denmark with all guns blazing against pursuing Russians. The following morning, May 8, 1945, he learned that the war was over.
After his release from British captivity, Lubbeck married his sweetheart, Anneliese, and in 1949, immigrated to the United States where he raised a successful family. With the assistance of David B. Hurt, he has drawn on his wartime notes and letters, Soldatbuch, regimental history, and personal memories to recount his four years of frontline experience. Containing rare firsthand accounts of both triumph and disaster, At Leningrad’s Gates provides a fascinating glimpse into the reality of combat on the Eastern Front.
William Lubbeck, age nineteen, was drafted into the Wehrmacht in August 1939. As a member of the 58th Infantry Division, he received his baptism of fire during the 1940 invasion of France. The following spring, his division served on the left flank of Army Group North in Operation Barbarossa. After grueling marches amid countless Russian bodies, burnt-out vehicles, and a great number of cheering Baltic civilians, Lubbeck’s unit entered the outskirts of Leningrad, making the deepest penetration of any German formation.
In September 1943, Lubbeck earned the Iron Cross First Class and was assigned to officers’ training school in Dresden. By the time he returned to Russia, Army Group North was in full-scale retreat. In the last chaotic scramble from East Prussia, Lubbeck was able to evacuate on a newly minted German destroyer. He recounts how the ship arrived in the British zone off Denmark with all guns blazing against pursuing Russians. The following morning, May 8, 1945, he learned that the war was over.
After his release from British captivity, Lubbeck married his sweetheart, Anneliese, and in 1949, immigrated to the United States where he raised a successful family. With the assistance of David B. Hurt, he has drawn on his wartime notes and letters, Soldatbuch, regimental history, and personal memories to recount his four years of frontline experience. Containing rare firsthand accounts of both triumph and disaster, At Leningrad’s Gates provides a fascinating glimpse into the reality of combat on the Eastern Front.
Ratings and reviews
4.5
18 reviews
Philippe jacob
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November 10, 2017
Any conscience after all these years? Even though the testimony of these nazi soldiers is unique and precious, i am always shocked by how little understanding of their own story came out years after. These guys mistreated and massacred Poles and Soviet civilians and soldiers as he admits himself, and you see him fighting until the bitter end, killing more people. I suppose he wanted to be an officer, what’s wrong with that? even for adolf Hitler... His book is called at Leningrad’s gates meaning the Wehrmacht was unable to enter, but for 3 years the nazis decided instead to let these 3 millions people die of starvation... sounds like we are back to the Middle Age, but it does not make Lubbeck start thinking or questionning his morality, and morality we hear about extensively in his endless work ethics. Well, am I missing anything about his self portrait? Maybe morality again and maybe reflexion too. And the death camps of course he never heard about until after the war as most Germans in these years. He did not mention it but I wonder if he had German boys of 14 or 16 years under his command in the last year or months of that WWII, and if it bothered him? and I am sure he had to but was afraid of losing his benefits as a Wehrmacht officer. He is just one more of these obedient gentleman who tells his own story that will be possibly useful for the future of humanity, I am glad he did.
Shane Starr
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February 22, 2014
A very entertaining, and deeply personal journal of a German soldier from beginning his service in the German Wehrmacht up to his retired life as an American citizen living in Ohio. An excellent read for anyone wanting to gain an inside perspective of an "honorable" German soldier.
Danswell Starrs
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June 24, 2020
very well written memoir. a gritty, detailed recollection of the war from the very edge of no-man' land on the russian front. incredible
1 person found this review helpful
About the author
William Lubbeck rose to the rank of Captain in the German Army, fighting primarily in Russia. He went on to earn a degree in electrical engineering and arrived in the U.S. in 1956. Now retired, he lives in Asheville, NC. He has three children, seven grandchildren and two great grandchildren.David B. Hurt received a B.A. in Political Science from the University of Florida and a M.A. in International Affairs from Florida State University. He worked with William Lubbeck as the co-author of At Leningrad's Gates: The Story of a Soldier with Army Group North (Casemate, 2006). He currently serves as an academic advisor at a college in Knoxville, Tennessee.
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