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 ?
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.
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...
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.
As a long-time Hazel fan, let me correct some of the info in this thread and add a little: 1: Sven Hazel is from Denmark. 2: There is much discussion, whether Hazels claims of beeing a war veteran is actually true. There are 2 primary stories, Hazel's own and Erik Haaest's, that says that Hazel was a member of the HiPo in Denmark and that his eye-witness accounts is from his cellmates (who where members of SS-division( during his treason trial after the war. 3: Most of the material in the books are fictional, although several of the battle descriptions are remarkably close to historial accounts. Besides these facts, I will just say that Sven Hazel's books are a great read, that captures the horror of the war, but also the camraderie of soldiers at war.
I think Hassel got it right with his first book, "Legion of the Damned". This book I consider to be the closest he ever came to an account of his days in WW2 as he would have fantasized about writing while the war was still in progress. Legion of the Damned is the only book that has continuity of the war as a whole from start to finish, with Sven ending up as the only survivor of a 2,000 man unit that he began the war with. (apart from Von Barring, who ended up in a mental asylum). I feel the rest of his books are FACTION, with later ones like The Commissar ending in pure fantasy. Has anyone bothered to check surviving records of units he served with? I personally believe Hassel's claims as you don't claim to be a vet and write million selling novels without someone tearing down these claims if not true. And so far, no-one has actually succeeded in proving Sven to be a liar. My dead step father gave me his book "Reign of Hell" as a first read, and as an adolecent I never really questioned his credentials. My step-father was a Dutchman who had gone through occupation and been sent to Sweden post-war because Holland could not guarantee food on the table for it's postwar citizens. Henk came back unable to speak Dutch, which he had to reaquaint himself with. He introduced me to Sven Hassel as a way of showing me what combat was REALLY like for the participants, rather than having me formulate a glorified opinion. To the end of his life, he always saw modern warfare as a necessary evil, and would not speak the German language out of complete and utter contempt for it. Anyhow, Sven certainly makes for entertaining reading, if at times more than a little shocking for first timers, but thats the way it's meant to be. Better you be shocked in the comfort of your living room than finding out what war does to people first hand.
Hopefully the new production of Legion of the Damned will be better than the Godawful "Wheels of Terror" with David Carradine. The actor they got to play Alfred Kalb could'nt even stoop to learning a French accent. In Hassels novels, Kalb is an ex Foriegn Legion soldier who had his genitalia cut off by SS doctors experimenting on him in a concentration camp called Fagen. Kalb is the only man that can control the out of control giant Tiny, who does not appear in the Legion of The Damned, but there is a character called Titch that seems to fit the Tiny mold. Anyhow, I hope they finally do Sven's books some justice. We who played Avalon Hill's "Squad Leader" used to love the Russo_German scenarios, because they fit our idea of what the Great Patriotic War was like to fight at the grass roots level, so Hassel's books were a natural companion for Eastern Front afficiendos like ourselves.
A Couple of things Boatman 1. I have read the books in Danish, so some of my comments might be voided due to translation. 2. In legion of the damned there is one more survivor: Oberstleutnant Hinka 3. I agree completly with the comments of the early books beeing the most "accurate", whereas the last couple are just a bit too fantastic. 4. As to the qustion of Hazels credentials, there are huge gaps in both stories acording to the sources I've read (it's a long time since I last looked at it, so can't quite remember them, but will try to locate them and post them here, but most are in danish). 5. To youre comment about shocking: So true! 6. Due to translation, I'm not entirely sure who the character Titch is, in the Danish version there is a character named Pluto who fits Tiny's fysical description, but thats the closest I can get Vest
I would be very interested to see any information you may be able to turn up on Mr. Hassel's war record. I take his claims very much at face value. There is simply too much first hand knowledge that I have confirmed from other sources, and his picture of Soviets soldiers and their conduct sometimes defies description. The way his unit reacts to the various external stimuli resonates from the pages. A single word, (like "Siberians") can send shivers down your spine, just as it did for Sven's associates. Other descriptions have more than a ring of authenticity, like German soldiers playing a trench game called "Arse Slap" simply to keep warm, or Joseph Porta bashing the faces of combat shocked unit members as the only way to spare their lives, avoiding them losing their heads entirely and running off from their positions to be buried by artillery. Or the way they take a young girl telephonist down to the frontline, on a river, to show off, getting snapshots of her with the boys and including the bullet splashes in the river for authenticity. The nervous girl is reassurred as to her safety, before she gets her head blown off by a particularly efficient Soviet sniper, with "the boys" indifferently pushing her body forward for 'cover' whilst they withdraw from the riverbank. It all has the ring of someone who has seen it all, and more.
