The Willing Flesh
The Willing Flesh is a novel by Willi Heinrich, chronicling the Eastern Front combat experiences of a depleted infantry platoon during the 1943 German retreat from the Taman Peninsula in the Caucasian coast of Russia.
In the United States, the novel was published in 1956 by Bobbs-Merrill Company under the title Cross of Iron. Thus the 1977 Hollywood film directed by Sam Peckinpah used this title.
Historical basis
The literary and cinematic "Sergeant Steiner" character may be based upon Johann Schwerdfeger who soldiered from 1935 to 1937 in Infanterie Regiment 84, and in 1939 was transferred to the Third Company of Infanterie Regiment 186 of the 73rd Infantry Division, at the Polish Campaign's start.In June 1942, after serving in Jägerersatzbataillon 75, Schwerdfeger joined Jäger Regiment 228 of the 101st Jäger Division, who fought in the Don Bend, at Rostov, and at Maykop, in the Caucasus, and joined the retreat through the Kuban and the Taman Peninsula, the setting of the novel Das Geduldige Fleisch.
On 17 May 1943, Feldwebel Schwerdfeger was awarded the Knight's Cross as a platoon leader in the First Company. In April 1944, in the breakout from Hube's Pocket, he was severely wounded, and was awarded Oak Leaves for his Knight's Cross on 14 May 1944; moreover, Sergeant Schwerdfelger also earned two tank destruction badges.
In two passages of The Willing Flesh, Meyer tells Stransky that Steiner saved Lieutenant Colonel Brandt's life; in the original German edition, "Meyer" is named "Schäfer", and "Brandt" is named "Strauss".
From The Willing Flesh, in English:
During the war, a similar action occurred to the First Battalion of the 228th Jäger Regiment. Two German military history books about that division chronicle how one of the battalion's companies was surprised and pinned down by two Russian regiments and eleven tanks of the 296 Division, who had crossed the Donets River the night of 19–20 May 1942.
Characters
The Platoon
- Feldwebel Rolf Steiner
- Unteroffizier Krüger
- Obergefreiter Karl 'Schnurrbart' Reisenauer
- Private Dorn
- Private Hollerbach
- Private Pasternack
- Private Dietz
- Private Kern
- Private Zoll
- Private Maag
- Private Anselm
High Command
- Lieutenant-Colonel Brandt
- Captain Stransky
- Captain Kiesel
- Lieutenant Meyer
- Lieutenant Gausser
- Lieutenant Triebig