Before the first light of dawn on the morning of June twenty-second, 1941, Oskar Scheja stood on the western shore of the Bug River, looking to the east. The Russian army was camped on the other side. When the signal arrived to commence Operation Barbarossa he and his comrades from the German Wehrmacht stormed over the River and began an assault that took millions of Germans deep into Russian territory. For some the journey was brief. For others, like Oskar, it lasted for years, and the struggle did not end when the fighting was over. This is one German soldier's experience in combat and captivity. It is a story of bravery, despair, deception, and survival.