Whiting Charles (Kostov K.N.) The Gulag Rats

London: Severn House, 1982. — 208 p. — ISBN: 0-7278-0786-2The 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…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’.