Amazing firsthand account

Giampietro was an ethnic German from South Tyrol. Despite being let down by Hitler who valued his ally Mussolini higher, the people of South Tyrol were eager to join the Wehrmacht.
Giampietro’s story moves quickly through training and onto Greece where the Brandenberger unit raced the motorcyclists to raise a swastika over Athens.
The book only starts to take a darker turn with the invasion of Russia. Giampietro claims that he unit initially believed a rumour that they were transiting Russia to Iran to attack the British.
Brandenburgers camouflaged themselves in Russian uniforms (taken from prisoners because issued uniforms were too clean) their task was to cross bridges and cut detonation wires. First couple of attempts, the bridges were not wired. At one point they had to pop orange smoke to keep a Messerschmidt away. By the time they arrived at Dünaberg, Latvia, the Russians had succeeded in wiring the bridge. After the battle a sniper took a heavy toll on the unit, with the first death attributed to a random bullet.
A year later at Rostov, the Brandenbergers were again called upon to seize a key bridge. Sepp criticizes one officer who supported plan he only wanted an iron cross. They had taken the bridges at Dünaburg on the sixth day of war, Rostov was a fortified city with well entrenched positions.
And in a grisly reminder that this wasn’t a war of mere steel and machinery: the stench of dead horses. Mission was swapped from camouflaged to urban warfare. They arrived at the first bridge two days late and with part of it blown, they found and repaired a barge to make their way across.
They then made their way to yet another bridge. Unlike many of his Russian counterparts, Sepp had a luminescent watch. Unlike actions the previous year, they could not sneak their way across, they had to storm the bridge and the operation went badly. The commander was killed and Sergeant Giampetro had to order a retreat. Sepp was shaken and although he recovered from the initial shock he began to question what they were doing. Another survivor of the battle in Rostov eventually committed suicide with a hand grenade.
There are a few nitpicks and question marks. Inconsistent nomenclature for various small arms such as machine pistols, pistols and machine guns.
Although by 1942 Giampietro has seen enough failures and death to start questioning what he was doing most of the horror visited on civilians is only obliquely mentioned. The translator could perhaps have provided a bit more background. But this book is focused on the Brandenburg unit and is useful in that context.
A useful memoir for those interested in tactics, but it has some obvious limitation.

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