442ndRCT Soldier's Forum

You'll hear me reference Sven Hassel and his books every once in awhile. Well to help explain:

Essentially he wrote a book called Legion of the Damned. Supposedly he was a Dane who joined the German Army and decided he didn't really want to, tries to get away, gets caught, gets set to a penal camp (where they hike and drill in new boots to be broken in for the troops at the front and then for a shortened sentence he volunteers to defuse unexploded ordnance), then later to the infamous 27th Panzer Regiment (Penal) who spend more time as infantry than as tankers. The first novel can be considered an autobiography in a way, its probably the most accurate. His 2nd, Wheels of Terror kinda filled in some time gaps and still had them fighting on the Eastern Front. Everything still jived well...

Then comes the other 12 books. Which you need to take as like a Sgt. Rock comic. The characters are memorable (Tiny, Porta, and The Legionnaire are just a few as well as the indomitable soldier/Nazi Julius Heide) and the stories are well written even the particular battle scenes are brutal and well written.... but... things get mussed up, either factually or translation wise. Many are translations between the Danish and English, which for a WW2 buff should be easily recognized, some aren't. But factually he has the group fighting on all fronts (minus the PTO) at times that are chronologically the same (somehow when they fight on the Eastern Front in one novel, they are at Monte Cassino in another, or even France) or just goofy things, like the Anzio landing being headed by Marines fresh from the Pacific carrying Samurai swords... Which is another thing, some of the outlandish stories he tells could be secondhand (or more) from other soldiers of the war, maybe that was something somebody feared when they learned Anzio was being invaded.

All in all if you are looking for some good WW2 action-adventure reads I recommend them. There is currently a reprint going on (from Cassell Publishing) but the translations of ranks and names are horrible and as a departure from the British translations Tiny and Porta lost their cockney accents/attitudes which was kinda a charm of their characters oddly enough. If you can find 1st Edition Corgi books you are in luck, but they seem to be collector's items, luckily my dad owns them all. You'll recognize them because the covers are very gruesome.

OGPU Prison for instance:


His own biography site, rumor among the old fans is that he is working on another novel, but at his age.... its slow going.
http://www.svenhassel.net/

Porta's Kitchen is a Yahoo Group for fans all around the world. We used to be hopping back in the day but usually only a few convos come up from the Aussies and from people trying to trade/buy/sell books. Its got good character bios, and book synopses, as well as FAQs (on the drop bar) about various aspects you find in the novel such as Africans serving in the German Army (its True! Stabsgefreiter Albert Mumbuto could have been a real person or just a representative of that part of the German Army)
http://www.svenhassel.info/

And Sven's Wiki page where they also note Eric Haest and his Anti-Hassel campaign. Which because he levels such high "charges" upon Sven make people think he is full of it and upset that he didn't hit his big time with the war-adventure novels (I believe he wrote his own collection anyways, but I may be wrong).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sven_Hassel

Well Rich, sounds like he was a royal pain in the butt which probably led to a shorter war for the Germans.

Thanks for the link. I will read the first book and get back to you.

mexbob wrote:Well Rich, sounds like he was a royal pain in the butt which probably led to a shorter war for the Germans.

Thanks for the link. I will read the first book and get back to you.

Believe me all of them were if they are truly based off of real people...

Sven is a deserter and a coward (to German eyes but he is a decent soldier)

The Legionnaire is a stupendous soldier but I don't remember his "crime" other than being PU (Politically Unstable) because he is a former French Foreign Legionnaire (hence the name)

Joseph Porta is a big time Communist and supposedly hung a Soviet flag off of a church in Berlin (I've heard there are pictures of the event though no necessarily him)

The Old Un I don't remember what he would have done. Most likely a PU.

Barcelona Blom had fought on both sides of the Spanish Civil War so he was allready PU for having fought with the Communist side of that war.

The Professor used to be in a SS unit but was kicked out for cowardice.

Hugo Stege and Gregor Martin are PUs I believe.

Who knows what Tiny did... probably association with Porta as well as a minor character named Pluto (who was a thief before he joined the Army).

Leutnant Ohlsen is a PU and is the only good officer the group has and Assignment Gestapo is pretty much his trial for execution.

Julius Heide is a hardcore soldier and through that a die-hard Nazi (Porta irritates and baits him constantly with anti-Hitler talk). They suspect his crime being cowardice but he'll never admit it.

Albert Mumbuto is an African colonial in the Heer that Porta and Tiny had come across on accident in the Balkans. ]

A motley group indeed. I've heard that these penal units may have existed. One of the "Special Battalions" was supposedly real and was made up of criminals and such who were essentially cannon fodder just like their Russian counterparts.