The Scent of Roses in Winter

Edward Klein has an obsession. Before he dies of cancer in the mid-1960s, he wants to tell his grandson about his life and something more. But before he can do that he has to take a trip though his past. His combat stress syndrome, stimulated by sights, sounds, and smells, causes him to relive his life from boyhood in the Ukraine living in the German colonies to fighting on the ramparts of Verdun and participating in the revolutions of 1918 -1921. Tempering this trip are the trails and tribulations of two marriages.

Michael P. Kihntopf is a retired U. S. Air Force officer as well as a retired high school history teacher. He has written two books about the Eastern Front of World War 1 along with numerous articles about the Great War that deal with such subjects as cooking in the trenches to a general retreat of the Russian army in 1915. He takes this expertise and couples it with a unique family history. Both grandfathers and their three brothers fought in World War 1 in the German army and participated in the post war Freecorps movements on the Baltic coast and in Germany. Their experiences along with his own Vietnam and Cold War experiences are melded in this book to create an individual picture of war and its effects on the individual.