Thoughts on Leo Kessler as an author?

Currently I'm reading a 50p book from "Age Concern" Charity shop. Its my first Leo Kessler Double edition which I'm thinking of burning as it is quite profane and in my mind slandering of the waffen SS (Wotan division).

I'm no fan of the SS, preferring Wehrmacht but the behaviour of these guys in his book, "Steel Claws" seems very unprofessional, with every page (literally) crammed with either swearwords or really graphic sex scenes.

The other book in the double, "Blood Mission" I stopped reading altogether because it was even more profane.

Now I'm Aussie, so I'm no prude in the swearing department , but these novels are am abomination to professional soldiering! I'll provide quotes if necessary but I was wondering if anyone else has this opinion about Kessler?

 

Well, I'm afraid to say that 'Leo Kessler' is the nom-de-plume of none other than Charles Whiting, whose works have been debated ( and denigrated ) on this Forum before.

I could be nasty & say he's right up there with Stephen Ambrose but even Ambrose isn't that bad...

 

Hate to say it Martin but most of the reviews in the forum archives seem to be positive.

I have not read anymore of "Kessler"'s books but lines spoken by Germans such as: "We'll give the Ivan what for eh?" does not endear me to the fact that he is 100% accurate. Does he write a lot of non-fiction then? Is this what everyone is referring to when they say he is a foremost historian?

He just comes across as an author who uses swearing and sex like a 16 year-old would use to impress his mates at the back of a school bus.

 

The earlier threads mention that 'it's difficult to tell narrative from fact' in Whiting's work.

Don't get me wrong, he has written - and sold - an awful lot of books. Problem is, when you get to know more yourself, you start having doubts. Too many incidents in his non-fiction sound really interesting but turn out to be undocumented and unattributed in notes. Checking the bibliographies doesn't help much - he points you toward many other works by - Charles Whiting !

On the plus side : -

Whiting was the last journalist/writer to interview Jochen Peiper ( a waste, in my opinion - try reading 'Leo Kessler's 'SS-Peiper' if you want to know why ! )
And he is one of the very few writers to highlight 'St Vith' and the disaster of the 106th Divn. in studies of the Bulge. I read his St Vith work but with reservations.

This is only my own point of view - but for me his works are readable, ok introductions to an area of the war, but the deeper I go in my research, the less happy I am with the detail of what he has written.

( The phrase 'Don't let the facts get in the way of a good story' comes to mind but whoops, that could be libellous...)

But the Kessler stuff is, to me, just cr*p - a prose version of those old 'Commando' war comics...

Buy a copy of Guy Sajer's 'Forgotten Soldier' instead !

 

Hiya,
I remember reading Leo Kessler when I was a kid, and thinking he was a marginal improvement on Sven Hassell!
Same for Guy Sajer in The Forgotten Soldier. The copy I bought (1979) had "fiction" as the subject on the back, but I keep seeing it touted as real life experience. In fact, what made me suspicious was the part he describes "meeting" Sven Hassell on the final Eastern Retreat near the war's end!
I'm sure I saw a documentary years ago on Sven Hassell, which stated that he (and others) were allowed to write semi-fiction, because in German law this is allowed as long as the story has some basis in fact.
If I remember, at the beginning of one of his books, he describes finding the long-forgotten archive of an SS-penal battalion, and based Wheels of Terror on the characters named in these papers.
However, this was all a long time ago so feel free to correct me!
Regards,
Gordon

[ 06. November 2003, 07:07 AM: Message edited by: The_Historian ]

 

Absolutely amazing!! How can anyone write such Authoritative non-fiction (at least on the surface) and come up such crap fiction novels...such potential ruined

I'll quote from "Claws of Steel" (now that I'm away from work )

One of the SS Sergeant's in the company has had a bit too much to drink: (warning strong/graphic language following!)

I'll stop there.

The book is either full of the above or so much swearing as to make sailors blush ...

Delightful ... this guy makes Ambrose look like Shakespeare!

Other interesting anecdotes from the book:
Do Germans say the word "Sodding!" or "Happy Landings"?
It mentions Himmler having a Iron Cross 3rd Class?

Gripe over...

[ 07. November 2003, 01:59 AM: Message edited by: BratwurstDimSum ]

 

Maybe this gives you a clue as to why he hides behind 'Leo Kessler' ; it's basically SS-fantasy-soft-porn for the masses....

 

I think you guys haven't heard of Karl von Vereiter, an author which wrote books like "Himmler's whores" and "SS sadists"... Things like those... "himmler's whores" is a fiction novel (obviously) about Lebensborn females speacially trained and manipulated with hormones to kill men by sexing them to death... Then they are sent to the eastern front to retake a very important position, but they como up with Soviet soldiers who turn to be dirty cossacks used to zoophilia... Very disgusting book... Except that I'd agree that the III Reich and specially Himmler is a very good place for fiction. If you research a little you'll get to know that Von vereiter's book isn't that much unrealistic...

 

The best war novels he wrote. Still like to read them. Did you know that his own experience he wrote the books? In my country the books can be purchased in gift box. Gift box

 

Why are there complaints? You read the novels and paid the money, so whether the stories have any basis in reality is not the point.

I do remember one childhood friend complaining that Kessler wasn't much for detail. "How so?" , I replied. "Well", he said, "...How can a tank commander signal his driver to move forward with a kick in the back, (as described by Kessler/Whiting), when there are about five or six feet between the tip of his boot and the driver's seat in a mk IV panzer?"

I left him at that point to ponder. I have wanted an answer to similar questions for many years.

Soldiers turn the air blue, and incidently engage in sexual pastimes with 'loose' women of the town. Germany had "Field Brothels" in both world wars. What is the problem?

I think the job itself is far more worthy of complaints. As Fred Roos said through the guise of Marlon Brando..."We train young men to drop fire on people, but their commanders won't allow them to write F**K on their aeroplane....because it's 'obscene'!"

 

I'm not his fan, and I only read one of his books. I don't recall the title, but it was about a U-boat crew who had sunk a Russian battleship, then had to retreat from the Black Sea because the Russians had taken their port, IN 1943! They ended up being lost off of Sicily trying to attack Patton's landing craft. The guy was full of profanity, true, and he was obviously a Brit judging by how he denigrated Patton in the lead up to the landing, and ripped off the weather prayer from Sep. '44, that came out during the Battle of the Bulge. It's guys like him that put me off of reading fiction, even though I write it.

 

Kesslers books was the first time i met litterature where the WW2 was seen from the perspective of the "bad", who was made to be humans, and it was the first time ever that i saw depictions of something that you never saw on TV:
Rape, people screaming with their guts hanging out of the stomache or the skin on their face torn of by explosions and the smell of week old sweat, urine and feces.
At 13, i was pretty unprepaired for stuff like that, used to old hollywood movies from the 50's on TV, but it seemed to be realistic, and i grew to love the universe around SS-Wotan.
I allways saw "batallion of the Damned" as the final chapter of "Wotan" and one of the best Kessler books.

 

Leo Kessler was the Pseudonym of a WW2 veteran who served in NW Europe and the Battle of the Bulge. Not in the Waffen SS but ex Sgt Charles Whiting the 53 Welsh Division. After WW2 he went to university and became an academic and a very prolific author.

His military history tends to be racy in syle but often un-sourced and full of dubious claims e.g. Patton's affair with his cousin ot the German OPs who infiltrated Clervaux before the battle of the Bulge.

I have never enjoyed reading any of the Panzer porn pumped out by Svern Hassel or Leo Kessler. Much of it is as fanciful and far fetched as "Autumn Mist" , the Dr Who Adventure in the battle of the Bulge... The real accounts are far more interesting.

 

I have read and reviewed two or three of his books for this forum.

Without question he has a easy, readable style, more suitable to fiction. Sadly, much of his content seems to be fiction as well. His only saving grace is that he introduces people to the study of the subject, but too many reader's get lost in the maze of half truth's and innuendo.

 

I read Whiting's works on the Battle of the Bulge and started to read one Leo Kessler. So that's all I can really talk about. But it's amazing how many bad words I could find for describing just a few books. If Whiting was a HIstorian then I'm the next Panchen Lama.

 

I love a bit of Sven, still.
'The Bloody Road to Death' & 'Wheels of Terror' remain two of the great book titles of all time.
Always thought Whiting's Kessler was a rather insipid version thereof. Everyone at school read Sven.

Can only agree on avoiding Whiting's work as a historian though.
The sort of books you devoured as a kid, and then as knowledge grew you went back to with a 'hangonafckingminute, what did he say about that?'.
Good at atmosphere though.

 

Sven was the author of choice in our circle of cadets/gamers.

Most of them went on to become military servicment themselves. I wonder whether Mr. Hassel realized what his books would do to young minds. In his own way, he was glorifying military service. He would never have stated that directly, but this was the result, time after time in our circle. Titles like "Blitzfreeze', and my favourite "Legion of the Damned".

My step father gave me a copy of "Reign of Hell" when I was 14. He had been through the wars occupation, (he was a dutchman), and hated Germans with a passion. He could speak their language, but the night I asked him about it, he got prickly, and told me not to "accuse" him of being able to speak German.

This man, who hated Germans, always felt that Sven hassel was required reading for anyone that wanted , as he put it, "a real look" at what went on. And as teenagers, it was a better look than none at all. We could get any amount of information and photos from Western Europe. But the russian front was like a black hole for information.

 

I also enjoyed Sven in my teens, never picked then up after that though as "suspension of disbelief" is a requirement for me to enjoy fiction and penal battalions equipped with tanks, let alone tigers that I knew were reserved for elite units clashed too much with it.
Not all that surprised it worked as a recruitment poster, they fully respect the romantic idea of the soldier. I tried reading a Kessler book once, possibly an Italian translation so language was somewhat "cleaned up" in translation, but the impression I recall was "second rate Sven imitation" and I think I never finished it.

 

ah! Sven Hassel. Here is a link to the author's details on the "Official" Sven Hassel http://www.svenhassel.net/author.html

This is from the wikipedia entry on Sven Hassel.