Eastern Front Sniper: The Life of Matthäus Hetzenauer (Greenhill Sniper Library)

The book wasn't really anywhere as close to in depth about Matthaus Hetzenauer's experiences on the Eastern Front. Focused more on sniper training and his divisions actions as a whole.

I agree with my fellow critics on this. I think 3 stars is a generous rating, actually. The author essentially goes on tangents throughout, spending perhaps 90% of his time discussing things that in some fashion have to do with the supposed subject of the book, like the Tyrol, sniper training, fellow successful snipers, and the 3rd Mountain Division. But the lack of information about the man himself, primarily in the form of but one wartime newspaper interview, is frustrating and disappointing to discover. Ironically the book otherwise seems well written. At the end of the book the author indulges in his last tangent, that being his and the family's friendly involvement with the last Hapsburg Otto, "pretender to the Austro-Hungarian throne", who was evidently very interested in Tyrolean snipers. Tellingly, the author admits that he gave this man a book on German Snipers that was much appreciated, but did not have the time or interest to write a book on a particular sniper! Incredible...

I honestly expected a biography of Matthäus Hetzenauer, but that is not what I found. Yes, there are what I call biographical glimpses into who Hetzenauer was, but no personal insights from him. This book, however, is interesting in that it reads much like a manual on how to be a German sniper. The illustrations on concealment, camo, and an understanding of what it takes to be a sniper, are presented in detail, augmented by what may or may not be German instructor comments. In the latter regard, this is a fine book. It could have actually been entitled "A German Perspective on How to be a Sniper."

Its OK - just. Matthaus Hetzenhauer only gave one interview in his life about his time as a sniper and it wasn't to the author and it shows. There is so little detail about Hetzenauer and so much padding about what his training might have been like, the nature of the people in the region he came from, the life of a sniper and a lot of excerpts from the sniper training manuals of the day. In short, there is little meat and a lot of potato. The best part of this book is the foreword by Martin Pegler who really does know what he is talking about. Hetzenhauer's life deserves something more than this but given the lack of information of which to base a proper biography this will have to do.

Interesting to see things from the other side. This is the second book I've read from the German side of things. (WD61?) The Germans, much like the Americans who fought in WW2 didn't speak much about their experiences. That shows in this book. I'm glad I got my Father and Uncle to sit down and speak to me about their war time experiences. Almost had to pry it out of them in the late 1990's. I think the Germans that survived the war were much the same. While stationed in Germany in the 1970's there were plenty around. My best friend married a German girl an her father was in an artillery unit. When he realized the war was over his words were "I ran to the Ami!". This is brought out in this book. If the Germans had a choice they tried to avoid capture by the Russians.

The E-book version is pricey at nearly $15, but I took a chance and was disappointed. The first roughly 50 percent of this book discusses the history of the Tyrol area of Austria and some very general info on Hetzenaur's early life and family history. That is followed by excerpts and drawings from German sniper manuals. There is only a couple of chapters on actual wartime activites, but they are mostly on a division level. There are no personal recollections from Hetzenauer himself and very little on his activities. This book was a real disappointment and there are much better books on German snipers out there.

I waited a long time for this book. Sepp's book was great and very descriptive. Sutkus's book was really good as well but a majority of his was about his time in exile in Russia. This book is brief and full of illustrations. Almost no description of Matthaus's action on the front. I now understand he only really gave one interview and hardly talked about action on the front. There wasn't even much description about his time in captivity. I have been to Austria and seen the area described in the book. Very beautiful but I really didn't need another travel guide description about the mountains and the valleys. As far as German war biographies go, there is much written by tankers, pilots and regular Landsers. There were minimal Heer soldiers that admitted to being a sniper if they survived the war and less that really wanted to talk about it afterwards.

Good reading, food for the soul! Great coverage this man’s compulsory journey. Excellent feedback requested and replied! Thank you,Chris

Everything is already said about why this is a poor book. Come here from Sniper on the Eastern Front and you will be massively disappointed. There are two key points that make this a con trick as opposed to just a really poor and uninteresting book:1. The name. The life of this person? Really? Describe some place in dry, historical textbook fashion and then say p.s. our hero would have walked through here once. Then move on to the next dry, historical textbook description of a place.2. The sample you can read on Kindle ends after the foreword/preamble, which is the only decent part of the book. They are deliberately hiding the “actual” book from you - they known it’s trash. They’re just trying to cash in.You’ll be exactly 30% into the book before you hit chapter one. Within one page of chapter one you will know you’ve just thrown money down the toilet. It’s not a good feeling.

After reading sniper on the eastern front almost 10 years ago I became extremely interested in German snipers of WW2. I had always hoped that Hetzanauers story would be told but accepted that it had been lost to history. When I discovered that this book had been published I was very excited and immediately ordered it. Unfortunately I found myself disappointed very quickly upon reading it. There has always been very little information on Hetzenauer and it clearly shows in this book. Although the title states it’s about his life, It contains very about his experiences or the man himself. Due to this lack of information the Author has chosen to fill the book with semi relevant and often generalised information and then loosely connect it to Hetzenauer.In the first half of the book discussing the early part of his life it mainly gives us the history of where he’s from rather than his life there, Later when Hetzenauer attends sniper school instead of his experience the book mainly focuses on general information on sniper training, When Hetzenauer is sent to the front the only information comes from the reports of commander Klatt talking about the regiment as a whole and there is nothing about Hetzenauers time there or his actions.I imagine if you removed the pages that don’t contain information specifically about Hetzenauer this book would be about two thirds shorter. In truth I’d of preferred it as a thin paper back that was relevant and used more for Hetzenauer reference only. Instead though the author has bulked it out with largely irrelevant information no doubt to publish it as a more expensive hardback.Best way I can describe it isImagine buying a book about someone like Bowie. The book then goes on to talk about the history of Brixton, the 1970s music industry and popular guitars of the time. Occasionally referencing Bowie to tie it all together. That’s basically what this book does. Talks mainly about everything else and occasionally references Hetzenauer in order to (somewhat tenuously) tie it all together.Furthermore the entire thing seems incredibly disjointed and does not flow particularly well. This is no doubt on account of there being limited information to begin with and so it seemingly jumps from one thing to the next while rehashing things already mentioned.Still it has some interesting pictures I had not seen before like his KC award documents and pictures of his family. But it’s mainly a book about everything else around Hetzenauer and not his life or experience. For someone just interested in german snipers generally this book maybe ok but anyone looking to read about Hetzenauers life this can only be a disappointment. Unfortunately it would appear that despite there being now three books on the lives of different german snipers still little is known. The account of Allerbergers experience has been somewhat corrupted after being over sensationalised, this book contains no life account but only reference material disguised as such and final the Stukus book while probably being the best of the three focuses as much on his soviet improvement as much as it does his time as a sniper. Overall I think this may well be a subject that will be lost to history.

Don’t bother with this book.They say that there isn’t a lot of books written by German sniper from WW2. Well don’t count this one as one neither.This book tells you that the mountain division had some snipers and he was one of them, it tells you where they went, a bit of what they did whilst there, oh and they had a sniper who shot a few Russians.

very disappointing. not enough material about Matthaus. a filler book.total opposite of Sepp Allenberger memoir.

Ho ricevuto il libro ieri verso mezzogiorno! Imballaggio perfetto come sempre! A tutta prima ( ho dato un' occhiata veloce all' interno) sembra essere ben raccolto nelle sue pagine con una prefazione che pare scritta per chiarire tutta la storia di quest' uomo.So che sepolto nel cimitero del suo paesello assieme alla moglie! R.I.P."Ich hatte eine Kamerade......."Galland5 :-