Willi Heinrich

Willi Heinrich (9 August 1920 – 2005) was a German author and soldier. During the Second World War he fought in the 101st Jäger Division, which suffered massive losses on the Eastern Front, and his combat experiences inspired his first successful novel, Das geduldige Fleisch (1955), published in English translation as The Willing Flesh in the United Kingdom and as The Cross of Iron in the United States (1956), and adapted for the screen as Cross of Iron (1977). He later wrote a series of popular genre novels and potboilers in the 1970s and 1980s.

Quotes

• To my mind there is nothing more contemptible than snatching the laurels that properly belong to a man who fell on the field of battle.
  • The Willing Flesh, as translated by Richard and Clara Winston (1956), V, Steiner

• We have a bunch of women there who are really something. Especially two of them. There’s one of them wears her breasts like I would wear the Iron Cross.
  • The Willing Flesh, as translated by Richard and Clara Winston (1956), VII, Boy

• If there is a God, He’s a sadist. That’s my firm conviction.
  • The Willing Flesh, as translated by Richard and Clara Winston (1956), XII, Brandt