The Forgotten Soldier

Guy Sajer, the pen name of Guy Mouminoux, recounts his service on the Eastern Front in the German army during the Second World War. Full of ideals, he enters the infantry in the summer of 1942, while the German army is still advancing in Russia, and is posted to the Grossdeutschland division with its brutal instructors. He soon meets hunger, fatigue and deprivation; as winter sets in and the tide turns, shelling and combat become constant. Sajer called it a personal, anecdotal narrative and admitted his own mistakes; some details have been questioned, and others cannot be checked for lack of surviving witnesses and records. Lily Emmet translated it into English from the French original, Le soldat oublié.

James Mattis included it on the list of favorite books in an appendix to Call Sign Chaos.