Death's Head — Leo Kessler

In this gripping adventure SS Assault Battalion Wotan, the toughest troops in Europe, are sent on an apparently impossible mission against the elite of the Soviet Army in a vital bid to prepare the way for Operation Barbarossa. Once again we meet the ruthless Major Geier, known as the "Vulture," whose sexual practices are a constant threat to his consuming ambition; here too is Captain von Dodenburg, the elegant aristocrat; and Sergeant Schulze, the wisecracking Hamburger who has smelt out the rottenness of National Socialism and views the war with unconcealed cynicism. Under the author's skillful pen their world comes vividly to life and the reader can feel the horror, and indeed the excitement, which was the lot of Assault Battalion Wotan on the road to Rostov.