Cross of Iron
Historical Fiction Intermediate Primary Sources
🇩🇪 German
Sergeant Steiner's platoon fights the Red Army in front and its own officer corps behind, in the 1943 retreats.
The Verdict
The German army's own great combat novel came from a man who had bled for it five times. Willi Heinrich, an Eastern Front veteran, wrote the story of Sergeant Steiner and his platoon caught between two enemies in the 1943 retreats — the Red Army in front and a caste of contemptible officers behind, one of whom will get men killed for the sake of a medal. It is bleak, class-conscious, and utterly without illusions about glory, and it fixed an image of the ordinary German soldier that Sam Peckinpah's film later burned into memory. Harder and angrier than the movie.
Who Should Read It
Read it if you want
- The Eastern Front from the German ranks
- A bleak, class-conscious combat novel
- The 1943 retreats and their futility
- The source behind Peckinpah's film
Look elsewhere if you want
- Heroism or redemption
- Strategy and the wider campaign
- The Soviet perspective
Why We Rated It 4.2
Historical Context
Cross of Iron (1956, originally Das geduldige Fleisch) is a novel of the German army on the Eastern Front during the 1943 retreats, following Sergeant Steiner and his squad. Heinrich drew on his own front-line service; Sam Peckinpah's 1977 film adaptation made the story widely known.
Events Covered
Editions & Reading Notes
English translation (1956)The standard English text.
Film tie-in reprintsIssued around Peckinpah's adaptation.
Read It Alongside
The Forgotten Soldier Guy Sajer · 1965 · ★ 4.5
Memoir 
Blood Red Snow Günter Koschorrek · 2002 · ★ 4.4
Memoir 
Das Boot Lothar-Günther Buchheim · 1973 · ★ 4.7
Historical Fiction Where to Buy
ISBN: 978-0304366378
Read This Against
The same events seen from a different vantage point. The fullest understanding often lives in the space between accounts that don't agree.
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Frequently Asked Questions
- Is Cross of Iron based on real experience?
- Heinrich served on the Eastern Front and was wounded repeatedly, and drew on that experience for the novel.
- How does the book compare with the film?
- Peckinpah's film captures the bleakness but the novel is angrier and more explicitly concerned with class and the officer caste.