PUNISHMENT BATTALION 999 – 1960 (STRAFBATAILLON 999)This World War Two film is set on the Eastern Front just as the war is turning against the Germans. The film is about the men of one of the penal battalions assigned to clear mines, dig earthworks etc. The battalions are made up of criminal types as well as deserters and men convicted of being politically unreliable.The story follows several men assigned to Penal Battalion 999. These include a thuggish brute, Hanns Ernest Jager, a disgraced doctor, Georg Thomas and a nasty NCO, Werner Peters.The men are considered to be expendable by the High Command and are given all the most dangerous jobs at the front. They clear mines, fight Russian partisans and take on Soviet tanks with nothing but hand grenades. The losses among the men mount daily.There is a side story here involving the doctor, Thomas' wife, Sonja Zieman who is back in Berlin trying to get Thomas freed. She even agrees to "step out" with several high level Nazi types if that will help her husband. There is another bit with soldier, Jager dealing with an officer who has it out for him. He arranges for the man to be shot while visiting the trench line. He then sets it up so it looks like the Soviets got the officer.The Battalion is now sent out on a dangerous patrol to gather intelligence on a possible Soviet attack. The night time raid fails miserably with most of the unit wiped out. The Soviets attack and it is now a big scramble to make it back to the German lines.Only one man, Peters, makes it back to safety. He is given a promotion and sent back to the front.The film is okay, but it should have been better. The story, though based on a popular book, misses the mark and there is far too much dead time. The battle scenes are also a bit on the weak side. I would recommend "Hunde, wollt ihr ewig leben" 1959 as a much better film about Eastern Front combat.

The film focuses on life in a World War II German penal battalion camp somewhere in Russia. The convicts include a heroic doctor unjustly convicted of avoiding military service, an officer who retreated against orders, and common criminals. It shows their life in the camp, clearing mines, living in trenches on the front line, etc.This film has the quality of Hollywood films of the same era. There are melodramatic romance sub-plots (can the beautiful doctor's wife get her husband's conviction overturned?) (will the doctor fall in love with a lovely Russian "doctor's aide"?) and it depicts life in a penal battalion much too mildly.There is an interesting scene of an attack by T-34 Russian tanks, but if you're looking for a realistic war movie that covers some of the same ground, see Joseph Vilsmaier's awesome "Stalingrad" from 1993.

The prisoner bataillons of the german army were basically troops,where the soldiers were sent, who could not be tolerated in nazigermany´s army - for there political backgrounds or other reasonsand confessions. In general they were labeled as criminals.These commandos had to accomplish most dangerous missions. Many times these missions ended up in "Himmelfahrtskommandos", that led these men straight to theirgraves. Bataillon 999 tells the story of these man. Interesting reallive background, though the characters described have theirweaknesses. The story of this movie is from a book by germanwriter Konsalik, also known for other novels on worldwar 2.