The deadly days
The fatal day is the title of a 1955 published novel by Werner rolling . The novel tells the story of a Panther tank crew retreating from the Eastern Front in the spring of 1944 over a period of ten days during World War II .
theme
Five, sometimes very different, people are forced to get along in the narrow space of the tank as its crew and to withstand the dangers of war. The commandant of the tank is Sergeant Jöckel, a irascible man who suffers from complexes due to his simple origins. Particularly between him and his gun loader Masold, who in civilian life academics and urban Board is serious tensions occur up to the mutual threat. Masold is also a Reserve Officer Candidate (ROB) and has the prospect of leaving the rank of crew . The gunner of the tank is Buchta, whose father is imprisoned as a Jehovah's Witness in the concentration camp , the driver is Resl, who comes from Bavaria, and Blessing, the only friend of Masold's, is a radio operator.
content
The novel, in which the tense alternates between the present and the past tense in order to involve the reader more closely in the plot, tells of the everyday military life of soldiers on the one hand, but also of sudden events such as fighting, accidents and crimes. Masold, for example, witnesses how Jöckel kills a Wehrmacht truck driver out of anger. He covers him out of comradeship, although he knows that Jöckel sees him as an enemy and wants to harm him. He is hoping for an improvement in their relationship. Towards the end of the plot, however, Jöckel sends him out as the leader of a scouting party, in the hope that Masold will be killed in the process.
In addition, important episodes from the earlier life of the soldiers and their relatives are described in flashbacks. Letter texts, memories, dreams and religious visions give an insight into the inner workings of the characters. What the relatives experience back home is also reported: Masold's former girlfriend, for example, is being interrogated by the Gestapo because she is friends with Masold's politically suspicious superior, and a member of Jehovah's Witnesses talks about his experiences in the concentration camp at a secret meeting . Blessing's mother worries about her second son, who is insane and lives in a mental institution. Rumor has it she heard about the National Socialists' euthanasia program .
The novel ends with Jöckel and Blessing falling and the tank destroyed. Masold, Buchta and Resl split up; everyone goes his own way in the general dissolution on the run from the enemy.
expenditure
- First edition: Die tödlichen Tage , Roman, Grote'sche Verlagsbuchhandlung, Hamm , 1955
- Paperback edition: The Deadly Days , novel, Pabel Verlag , 1961