Böcker av Roland Kaltenegger

Eastern Front Sniper is a long overdue and comprehensive biography of one of World War II’s most accomplished snipers.Mathäus Hetzenauer, the son of a Tyrolean peasant family, was born in December 1924\. He was drafted into the Mountain Reserve Battalian 140 at the age of 18 but discharged five month’s later.He received a new draft notice in January 1943 for a post in the Styrian Truppenübungsplatz Seetal Alps where he met some of the best German snipers and learned his art.Hetzenauer went on to fight in Romania, Eastern Hungary and in Slovakia. As recognition for his more than 300 confirmed kills he was awarded on the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross on April 17, 1945.After nearly five years of Soviet captivity Mathäus Hetzenauer returned to Austria on January 10, 1950\. He lived in the Tyrol's Brixen Valley until his death on 3 October of 2004.

Under the emblem of the Edelweis, the soldiers of the German mountain corps fought on every front in the Second World War in the tundra of Lapland, in the gorges of the Balkans, on Crete, in the High Caucasus, at Monte Cassino and finally in Upper Italy and the Western Alps, at the Semmering, in Bavaria and Tyrol. Mountain troops even formed part of Rommels famed Afrikakorps. During the war, the army alone formed a total of eleven mountain divisions, plus independent battalions and units. The accomplishments of the Men of the Edelweis are still held in high regard by historians and military experts. Armed forces and special units worldwide use their alpine and combat abilities as an example, for in mountain fighting the weather and the terrain often caused more casualties than the enemy. Through impressive photographs and brief, insightful text, this chronicle offers the reader and extraordinary view into the world of these elite troops, who were always committed where the outcome hung in the balance.

The first comprehensive study on the little-known mountain troops of the Waffen-SS, complete with numerous photographs and documentation. The 6th SS Mountain Division Nord and many other divisions are examined.