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The year is 1944.

As the tide turns against the Nazis, the Red Army begins its relentless advance west.

Heading over the border, Punishment Battalion 333 is at the forefront once more.

Comprised of criminals, pimps, murderers, thieves and perverts, the dregs of the Gulags, they kill, burn, rape and ravage across the landscape, destroying everything that gets in their way.

But the feared Colonel Katukov is dead, and at their head is a new man, known only as “the Colonel”.

A proud, lonely officer, once he had been an honoured hero and a beloved general, but Stalin’s purges had left him imprisoned, humiliated and stripped of all dignity.

Now he is back in uniform…

Trying to lead Punishment Battalion 333, let alone keep them together, is no easy task, and Marshal Rokossovsky’s orders only complicate matters.

Soon the Colonel finds himself at a crossroads and, along with his command, faces a terrible choice.

To choose one path, they will face almost certain death on the battlefields of Poland.

To choose the other, they will face certain death at the guns of the NKVD’s firing squad.

March or die has always been the way of The Gulag Rats…

‘The Gulag Rats’ is a gripping World War Two thriller from master of the genre Charles Whiting. It was originally published under the pen name K. N. Kostov.

With nearly 300 books under his belt, Charles Whiting was one of the most prolific writers of his time. His best-known books were published under the name Leo Kessler and featured the Assault Regiment Wotan, Hitler’s hand-picked SS battle group. They include ‘The Valley of the Assassins’, ‘Schirmer’s Headhunters’, ‘Cauldron of Blood’ and ‘Guns at Cassino’. As K. N. Kostov he wrote the Punishment Battalion 333 series, starting with ‘Baptism of Blood’ and followed by ‘The Gulag Rats’.

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208 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1981

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About the author

Charles Whiting

269 books55 followers
Charles Whiting was a British writer and military historian and with some 350 books of fiction and non-fiction to his credit, under his own name and a variety of pseudonyms including Ian Harding, Duncan Harding, K.N. Kostov, John Kerrigan, Klaus Konrad, and Leo Kessler.

Born in the Bootham area of York, England, he was a pupil at the prestigious Nunthorpe Grammar School, leaving at the age of 16 to join the British Army by lying about his age. Keen to be in on the wartime action, Whiting was attached to the 52nd Reconnaissance Regiment and by the age of 18 saw duty as a sergeant in France, Holland, Belgium and Germany in the latter stages of World War II. While still a soldier, he observed conflicts between the highest-ranking British and American generals which he would write about extensively in later years.

After the war, he stayed on in Germany completing his A-levels via correspondence course and teaching English before being enrolled at Leeds University reading History and German Language. As an undergraduate he was afforded opportunities for study at several European universities and, after gaining his degree, would go on to become an assistant professor of history. Elsewhere, Whiting held a variety of jobs which included working as a translator for a German chemical factory and spells as a publicist, a correspondent for The Times and feature writer for such diverse magazines as International Review of Linguistics, Soldier and Playboy.

His first novel was written while still an undergraduate, was published in 1954 and by 1958 had been followed by three wartime thrillers. Between 1960 and 2007 Charles went on to write over 350 titles, including 70 non-fiction titles covering varied topics from the Nazi intelligence service to British Regiments during World War II.

One of his publishers, Easingwold-based Rupert Smith of GH Smith & Son said he was a quiet man and prolific writer.

"He's one of a band of forgotten authors because he sold millions of copies and still, up to his death was doing publishing deals.He was the kind of man who was very self-effacing, one of Britain's forgotten authors, still working at 80 years of age, with his nose down and kicking out books."

Charles Henry Whiting, author and military historian died on July 24 2007, leaving his wife and son.

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61 reviews
February 11, 2018
Great read, combines all the cruelty of war, hate ,hope and loss of faith in the political leadership.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews