OPIS: Fighting a hellish war on the Finnish front - a war of ice, blood, cold and wolves. A war where it didn't matter who won. All that mattered was to surviveBut even survival could be dangerous in an army where the Fuhrer's fanatics were rife. To survive the Russian tanks, the machine guns, the flame-throwers could mean shipment to the infamous and brutal Torgau Prison where conditions were almost more savage than the Front. Survival could mean arrestcourt martialand a cold grey day facing the execution squad AUTOR: Born in 1917 in Fredensborg, Denmark, Sven Hassel joined the merchant navy at the age of 14. He did his compulsory year's military service in the Danish forces in 1936 and then, facing unemployment, joined the German army. He served throughout World War II on all fronts except North Africa. Wounded eight times, he ended the war in a Russian prison camp. He wrote Legion of the Damned while being transferred between American, British and Danish prisons before making a new life for himself in Spain. (NR KAT. 24)