Who is The Veteran, August Wiener from The Forgotten Soldier and what is their importance?

August Wiener is referred to as "the veteran" throughout most of the book. He first meets Sajer on the Belgorod front, where they are assigned to the same assault unit. Sajer initially finds The Veteran's sarcastic pragmatism appalling, and he believes unit morale will suffer from it. Within a few hours, however, Sajer comes to trust The Veteran's nearly infallible sense of self preservation during combat. The Veteran is described as older, he speaks Russian, and he is often armed with an MG 42. The Veteran is wounded at Belgorod but rapidly recovers. He is later seriously wounded during the Russian overrun of the so-called second Dnieper front.