The Forgotten Soldier
The Forgotten Soldier, by Guy Sajer is rather unlike any other war book I've read so far. Written in French, the author's native language, published in 1965 under the title Le Soldat Oublié. I'm reading the English translation.
It's about a 16 year old French-German who volunteers for the German army in WWII. This is an account of his experiences in the Military, first in training and then fighting on the Eastern front. He struggles with the German language as it's not his native tongue, which understandably causes him some difficulty as a member of Hitler's war machine. He's self deprecating and seems to consider himself physically unfit (initially) and not a tremendous example of an ideal soldier, yet he endures considerable hardship during the war, and what seems to be an endless stream of horrors. Although he regularly criticizes himself for cowardice, in the performance of his duties he performs acts that I would think require considerable bravery.
I'm only about halfway through the book. It seems rather long, but since it's an eBook I don't have a good frame of reference for it's length, but I am enjoying it so far. As it's written, it's a perspective of war that I've never encountered before.