Fear and loathing on the Eastern Front: Soviet forests and the memory of Western Europeans in the German military forces, 1941-1944

Abstract

Combatant perceptions of the landscape in which soldiers fight constitute a central element of their memory, especially in the frame of military invasions and occupations. This article addresses the war experience of the Spanish, French, and Walloon volunteers who enlisted in the Wehrmacht and the Waffen-SS. Their views of the Eastern Front were heavily influenced by the close, dense forests that covered much of Eastern Europe. Fear of autochthonous nature was fed by a very specific image of Soviet civilians and soldiers, which ended up conditioning the modus operandi on the front lines and in the rearguard.