Moarte și viscol

German troops face the harsh winter in Russia. Hitler seeks to seize Moscow. Gun oil freezes in the cold. Men put newspaper under their uniforms to keep warm. Operation Typhoon fails, with over a million German losses. This happens 120 kilometres from the city. Troops follow tanks through minefields. Fear and death shape the choices they make.

Sven Hassel’s war novel gives readers a harsh view of combat. It shows how war wounds both body and mind. Soldiers fight to stay alive. Their leaders treat their lives as cheap. Some men come home as heroes. Yet their fame is brief and soon fades.

Hassel was born on 19 April 1917 in Fredensborg, Denmark. His birth name was Børge Willy Redsted Pedersen. He moved to Germany in 1937 to join its army. He fought on several fronts. He rose to the rank of lieutenant. In 1945, he surrendered to Soviet troops in Berlin. He then spent years in prison camps. There, he began his first book. That book came out in 1953. Hassel died on 21 September 2012.

This pocket edition forms part of the Armada SMART series. Florența Popescu translated the book from English. Its original title is Blitzfreeze.