When I was young and fascinated by good WWII novels (as opposed to now when I'm old and fascinated by good WWII novels) I chanced upon Sven Hassel and life was never the same since. At the time it was a new experience for me - a story about soldiers in action, but instead of being British or American, these were on the other side - members of the Wermacht. Furthermore, they weren't some noble, brave elite go-getters, but the dregs of the dregs. Written by an ex-soldier who had actually seen service in the conflict described (the first of them being penned while in an Allied POW camp), this series truly presents the gritty, unglamorous side of war. The characters are members of a penal battalion - those dragged from prisons and formed into cannon-fodder units, the kind of soldiers always given the dirtiest, most dangerous jobs. As if this weren't enough, most of the stories in this series seem to take place towards the end of the war, when the German forces were overmatched, resources were minimal, and the best equipment and manpower were reserved for the SS.The team have to make the best of what they have, and Tiny, Heide, Porta, "Barcelona" Blum, The Legionnaire, Sven and "The Old Man" proceed to do just that, fighting heroically against impossible odds through a number of volumes, performing such feats of legerdemain as destroying Russian tanks by throwing grenades down the barrels of the cannons and strangling their enemies with cheese wire. They might have been forced into conflict unwillingly, but these guys perform feats of true heroism in the futile defense of their country. Be warned - Hassel certainly doesn't glass over the nastier aspects of war. There is bloody death and corpses on every page, described in livid detail. Porta and Tiny go corpse-robbing after every engagement, and carry special pincers to remove the gold teeth of their deceased Russian adversaries. And when they are not fighting, the heroes spend their time whoring, getting paralytic, and stealing - and frankly, who could blame them? Yet, unpleasant as the soldiers are, one can't help both sympathizing with and, indeed, liking them. Porta, the con-man with only one tooth, who makes the best mashed potato in the whole German Army. Tiny, his gigantic and none-too-bright friend. Heide, the consummate professional who strips down and cleans his machine gun after every engagement. The Legionnaire, who has served (as his nickname implies) in the French Foreign Legion, and breaks into that language at moments of stress. Sven, the narrator, and other characters who seem to appear and vanish at various points. And "Barcelona" Blum, whose dream it is to retire after the war and set up an orange farm in Spain. The one thing that perhaps doesn't quite work is that Hassel has his heroes serve in a tank regiment. As I understand it, in the German Army, as in most others at this time, the Panzer Divisions tended to be made up of the elite units, and it is somewhat incomprehensible how tanks (which were never available in great supply, especially towards the end of the war) were allocated to such a lowly-regarded unit. Perhaps someone more knowledgeable than me will correct me if this wasn't the case. There are moments of absolute hilarity and genuine weep-inducing passion in this series... such as when Barcelona dies and his comrades bury him with a shriveled orange in his pocket. Or the incident when the team are deputized for a firing squad to execute one of their friends - and deliberately turn aside their rifles at the last second, an act noted by the victim. Truly, Hassel gives a vivid and emotionally moving account of what it is like to fight in a modern war. Like other great classics ("All Quiet on the Western Front," "Catch 22") these stories are at once an indictment of war and a celebration of the comradeship to be found by those forced to take part in them. Truly great reading!
"Vi kommer fram till vårt uppmarschområde, spetsen på pansarkilen.Porta visar sig i lucköppningen.- Ursäkta, kamrater, skriker han till infanteristerna, som marscherar förbi. Vill ni inte vara så vänliga att säga mig, om det är här, som det är krig? Jag och Lillebror ska nämligen vara med.- Det kommer du nog underfund med, svarar nån i kolonn.- Tack så mycket för upplysningen, kamrat, kacklar Porta och svänger den gula hatten över huvudet. Det skulle inte ha varit så lyckat, om vi körde vilse i staden och hamnade på ett fredsmöte"
What do You think about March Battalion (2007)?
Top quality war-pulp novel from the master of the genre. Gritty, no-frills writing from a German point of view, strong anti SS / anti-war themes. Good stuff all around and only £1 from the local charity shop.
—Martinxo
7th March Battalion chapter by chapter: -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1. Barcelona tells his Spanish Civil War story. Back to Russia and the freezing cold. Plans are made for a suicidal reconnaisance mission behind Russian lines dressed in Russian uniforms and tanks. Talk about the types who joined the battalion and their past lives. Introduction to Captain Lander the Nazi. Tiny starts interrupting Lander's speech and generally irritating him. Start of patrol. Talk about Allah's garden. Contact with Russians (and the NKVD green cross). Various adventures getting through road blocks etc. Loss of one of the tanks - and M�ller. Everyone starts walking. Tiny talks about No 26 Reeperbahn (a whorehouse of course). Long trek. Encounter with more NKVD. Capture of dog sled and skis. 2. Description of 'the Professor' - the Norwegian SS volunteer. Travel with the dog-sledge. Dig-in for the night. NKVD soldiers pass by. Arguement with the Professor. 3. Talk about the Legionnaire. Heide tells his life story. Reference to killing of mental patients. 4. . Tiny and Heide have one of their fights. Further travels through the ice and snow in the Caucusus. Encounter with camels and camel herders. Visit to a Russian village. German soldier who has survived a firing squad tells his story. Plans to escape to Turkey. Tiny discovers a hidden supply of alcohol. General drinking activity with the locals. Drunken NKVD man arrives. More merry-making. NKVD patrol approaches. Escape from the village. Three day snow storm. Return towards German lines. Running battles. Porta gets hold of a flamethrower. Anti-tank battle. The Professor tells his story. Return to German lines. Death of Captain Lander. 5. Story of Major Karl Ulrich Mercedes. Lugansk 14th March. Tiny jumps out of his tank to rescue a little kid. Drive through marsh. Bit of philosophy on war. Tiny's kid is killed and Tiny goes mental. Legionnaire deals with him. Refueling and rearming of tanks. More tank battle. Picking up stragglers. Back for repairs. Porta plays 'I Was Born And Brought Up In A Brothel' on his flute. More fighting. Comments about the Death's Head badge. Rescue of SS troops (but not for long). 6. Torgau guard duty. Hauptfelwebel Dorn. Story of Lt Heinz Berner (and his fianc�e Else). Tiny visits him in his cell and Berner tries to escape... without much luck. Porta and Tiny play cards in the latreen until the Chaplain arrives. Lots of entertainment as Tiny winds the priest up. 7. More prison stories, including that of Kurt Schwartz, the farmer, and Gustav D�rer, the Head Warder of Torgau, and Feldwebel Hermann Lindenberg (all wonderful stories). 8. Execution of Lindenberg. Katz and Schr�der of the RSHA arrive at the prison to investigate D�rer's death. They start interrogating Dorn. Colonel Vogel arrives and puts them in their place. Major Divalordy arrives. The Colonel sends everyone to the Eastern Front. Read this chapter here 9. Introduction to General von Grabach who deals with appeals. Lots of wonderful political intrigue! Story of Heinz Berner. 10. Return to the front via the Black Sea. Section occupy a house. Old Man goes mad at Tiny for his comments about children and war. Story of Tiny 'feeding an SS man to dogs'. Section on Rumania. Move into a deserted villa - which turns out, naturally, to have been a brothel. Wonderful scenes as Tiny etc go looking for the whores. Rumanian soldiers turn up and join in. General insane debauchery at Mme Olga's. Mme Olga is 'tried' by the Legionnaire - and hanged by the mob. 11. The party continues. Retreating soldiers pass by warning that the Russians are coming. Various stories of retreat. Tiny and Barcelona rescue some German prisoners - troublesome officers from a court martial. They are dealt with and Tiny helps himself to another three gold teeth. General retreat through the marshes.
—Procyon Lotor
