Sven Hassel books are about to be republished you can preorder at amazon. They come out on the 14th August.

Also Legion of the Damned is about to be made into a film I think production starts the end of the year.

I have no idea who will direct it though lets keep our fingers crossed.

Wodin

Actually that's a point worth asking. I've never read a Sven Hassel book -

Who was he ? And are the books any good ?

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"Stand by to pull me out of the seat if I get hit" - Guy Gibson

I have never bothered with them as I was told they are all fiction. Novels. Man, I have enough non-fiction to read to last me several lifetimes, so I am not going to bother with novels.

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"Facts are meaningless. You could use facts to prove anything that's even remotely true!" - Homer Simpson

Sven Hassel fought for the germans on the eastern front. He was I think and dutch volunteer into the waffen SS.

His books are fiction but are drawn from his own experiences as he has said he is in a position to write fiction novels on the war as he was there.

Here is abrief description of him and his work.

The Sven Hassel world classics of war books are sold in 52.000.000 copies -only in the UK 15 millions.

Sven Hassel has been compared to Hemingway, Hasek and Homer. His work is considered a monument against war and dictatorship as well as one of the best pictures ever given of the plain soldier with his racy humour. Hassel tells us about the men, who do not make wars, but have to fight them.

This unique series of the world literature is about a German platoon (Porta, Tiny, Old Man, the Legionnaire, Heide, Barcelona-Blom, Sven, etc.) on different fronts during WWII and narrates the atrocity and absurdity of war as well as the brutality and stupidity of the nazi regime.

The Second World War both frightens and fascinates those, who do not carry that period as an awful memory. Its history can be told in different ways - as eyewitness descriptions, as thrillers with the war as background and as documentary works.

Sven Hassel does not use either of these genres. There is no doubt about his participation in the war on German side. But even so Sven does not give us the eyewitness description. A great part is based on his own experiences, but part is also based on his comrades' stories and as Hassel says, on the author's legitimate right to use free fantasy.

It is the small melted group of soldiers, Hassel narrates about, a brutal and talkative collective, whose overview is no further than their chin straps. Sven Hassel gives, however, a picture of the war as a way of life and at the same time as a meaningless madness.

For the private front soldier in the Wehrmacht, the only thing that matters without false hope is to survive, and to do so, the raw and cynical humour of Sven Hassel's characters is a tremendous help.


Wodin

Hmmmmm, Sven Hassel...

I have many of his books, and they get more and more bizarre. Many of his later books involve him getting one over on the evil ss men and he spends more time fighting them than the russians.

I think his early books were good but then as he became popular his worked entered far more into the realms of fiction and what was palatable at the time he wrote them.

In fact I have just recovered mine from my grans loft, and they are a bit dodgy to say the least but still worth a read.

But borrow dont buy...

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"Watch that Fu*ker, he'll 'ave someones eye out!" King Harold at Hastings 1066.

Well, I've never really taken to Hassel myself. His books are not better than some of the authentic accounts available so I would also recommend borrowing rather than buying. I most certainly regard all his writings as pure fiction and I highly doubt the author (some claim there are more than one author behind the series) ever saw any action during ww2.