More than 10 english voices! Names, characters, places and incidents are either products of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
Cover art by Luis Fernandez Printed in the U. Thanks, Gerry. To Chet Burgess, one of Ted Turner's originals at CNN, for doing likewise and not only for commenting on the portions of the book concerning the media but for giving valuable advice on other areas as well. Even though my name is on it and theirs aren't, no book is a one-person effort. Finally, as always, I extend to my wife and children a special thanks for putting up with the long hours and all too frequent fits of passion that this book produced.
Too often they absorbed the brunt of shots meant for others and still came back smiling. I can't think of anyone more deserving of my thanks and appreciation than those who kept me going by providing a gentle smile and encouraging word when I needed it.
As a nation of free men we must live through all time or die by suicide. There were no birds chirping, no animals scurrying about to announce that a new day had started. The only difference that day was a slow, almost torturous, change from the cold oppressive darkness of night to a leaden gray sky that brought no warmth, no hope to those people who huddled in the corners of their shelters.
Even the thought that the end of their nightmare was at hand brought no relief, no end to their strain. Six years of war and twelve years of National Socialism had crushed all emotions, all hope.
All they had left that morning was eyes that had stopped seeing, ears that stopped hearing, and souls that stopped living a long time ago. It was truly the twilight of the gods. In the corner of one of the basements, a mother and her five-year-old daughter huddled together.
Only an occasional spasm or hacking cough shook the bundle of rags that covered them and differentiated the mother and daughter from the stack of corpses across the room from them. The mother was ever mindful that little separated them from the heap of dead. Whenever the little girl shook, the mother tightened her grasp on her in an effort to keep the girl from slipping away from the living. Though she no longer understood why she struggled to stay alive and keep her daughter warm and safe, it was all she knew, all that was left to her.
Slowly over the past years everything that she had ever known and had ever loved had been stripped away and smashed as they had descended into a world of death and nightmares. Now only the five-year-old daughter and an eight-year-old boy who had once been her son were left. With the corruption of the boy's mind by the Hitler Youth, the mother had only had her daughter to keep her in touch with life and the living. With all the strength that she had left, the mother tightened her hold on her daughter.
She would not let that life go. Across the dark, dank basement the eight-year-old boy paced. Unlike his mother and sister, he was animated, alive, anxious to continue.
The stench of rotting bodies and human waste that could not be disposed of mingled with the smell of burning wood and stagnant water. Such smells did not bother him. They, like many things, had to be endured. The smells, like the dead, were a part of war. As he moved from one side of the basement to the other, his piercing gray eyes didn't see the torment of his own mother or the pile of bodies which, in accordance with regulations and emergency orders, he had dutifully segregated from the living and covered with a layer of lime.
Soon he and the other boys in his unit would have their chance to join his father, a tank commander who had fought the Russians and now faced the Americans. Keeping as close to the rear of the Sherman tank as he dared, Private George Kozak kept his eyes open and his rifle at the ready. He hated going into towns and villages, hated it with a passion. There were so many places for the enemy to hide, so many places from which a sniper or a machine gun could suddenly appear.
Out in the country, where it was more open, you didn't have to worry about basements and sewers or death from above. In a city the bastards could be, and usually were, everywhere. Just the thought of a firefight caused Kozak to tense up. Sweat began to bead up and run in little rivulets from under his helmet liner band down his face.
For a moment he considered unbuttoning his jacket but decided not to. Kozak knew that as soon as he paused, he would lose the protection of the tank. Another member of his squad would quickly move around him from the more exposed tail of the squad file and take Kozak's spot right up next to the tank, leaving Kozak in the open.
Or if he turned his attention away from his search for the enemy to fool with his jacket, they might choose that moment to open up. No, Kozak thought, best to keep my eyes open and stay where I am. Something was about to happen, he could feel it. And when it did, he wanted to be ready. In a little over a month he would be twenty years old, an age not many of his friends had lived to see.
Though he would still be too young to legally drink or vote back in Pennsylvania, his next birthday would nearly coincide with a rare event, completion of a full year in continuous combat. To see what your friends thought of this book, please sign up. To ask other readers questions about The Ten Thousand , please sign up. Lists with This Book. Community Reviews. Showing Average rating 4.
Rating details. More filters. Sort order. Jan 26, Rich Putnam rated it did not like it. Harold Coyle's first novel, Team Yankee, was by far his best. The Ten Thousand has an interesting premise and is prehaps well-written, but his characters are simply unbelievable. They come off as strutting, arrogant super-soldiers with no humanity, in short, as cardboard 1-dimensional characters. Coyle must be misogynistic, the way he treats his female characters, they're either simpering and weak or - like the compnay commander - a super bitch.
If I'd had a MALE commanding officer like the woman in this book, I'd have quickly been charged with assaulting a superior officer, and willingly taken the punishment for it. I hated this book, and I only recomend it for those who have no personal military experience themselves. I really enjoyed all the hypotheticals Coyle presented in this book.
There's a lot to think about in regards to human motivation and war. I read Harold Coyle occasionally as a teenager and remember those books of his that I read for their having provided me with delicious—though vicarious—warrior fare.
Now however, hoping to satisfy a recent urge to procrastinate on much more important academic work, I picked this up and thought I could justify my reading the unjustifiable by insisting that my interest in this book was—though perhaps loosely, I could say—academic. But everything failed: I never got to try out my shiny absurd excuse on anyone, and the book is just an awful book, a distraction so bad that I kept looking for distractions from it.
The whole premise behind the main plot modern day Germany elects a closet Hitler Youth as Prime Minister was so absurd and so poorly planned that it was simply impossible for anything to come to life. My recommendation: read the better book. Nov 26, Sue rated it did not like it. I just could not find any interest in or compassion for the characters so I had to stop reading.
I wish I saw what some of the other readers did. View 1 comment. Nov 04, Austinl rated it really liked it. I thoroughly enjoyed this book by Harold Coyle and how he describes the details of military strategy and military equipment.
I liked the novel not only followed American and German troops, but also took the perspective of government leaders, their cabinet and even a neutral party like the Russian military adviser Ilvanich.
I appreciated the fact that the author thought out each character and knew how each of those individuals would react in their difficult situations. The book really delves into I thoroughly enjoyed this book by Harold Coyle and how he describes the details of military strategy and military equipment. The book really delves into the politics between nations. The novel begins with the Americans invading the Ukraine in an operation to capture nuclear missiles that the Ukrainians have seized with the aid of the Russians.
As the nuclear devices are being transported through Germany the German Chancellor, who is bitter about losing WW II, devises a scheme to get back at the Americans. It soon begins a cat and mouse game for advantage in the conflict. Apr 21, Andreas rated it liked it. Even though the premise is a bit unrealistic, I really enjoyed this. A German Chancellor who is something of an anti-nuclear weapon fanatic forbids an American division transporting nuclear arms to go through Germany. Said division has to fight their way to the sea.
The military stuff is well done, and the characters are truly three dimensional. May 23, Ian Pattinson rated it did not like it. The depiction of the combat and tactics was okay, but the premise was just stupid. American army units based in Germany go to war with their hosts after breaking the rules governing their presence in the country. Coyle tries to justify his protagonists' appalling behaviour by portraying the German leader as an unrepentant Nazi who just wants to take revenge on the Yanks.
This book's attitude of 'US might is right' is one of the things I was satirising in Sounds of Soldiers. Nov 10, Scott rated it it was amazing. Outstanding read. Take an Army division and march it across Germany to the safety of the sea, all while defying the full might of the German military with WWIII in the balance. May 05, Chuck rated it liked it. Present day tale about stolen nuclear weapons and war with Germany.
Good story overcooked by the author. This is still one of my favorite books after all these years. A great look at leadership and the brotherhood of war. I suppose it would be more "historical fiction" now, though.
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