Sven Hassel--Legion of the Damned

[ripper]

Legion of the Damned by Sven Hassel (Corgi, 1980; originally published in 1953)

Written in the first-person with Hassel as the main character, it tells the story of how Dane Hassel deserts from the German army after being conscripted, is captured and sent to a concentration camp, and finally forced to join a penal tank unit. After brutal training, Hassel's unit is sent to North Africa, but his landing ship is bombed and the unit is sent instead to the Eastern Front at the time when Barbarossa ground to a halt in the fierce Soviet winter of 1941. The rest of the book tells of his adventures and battles with the Red army, ending seemingly some time before D-Day.

I read several of the Sven Hassel titles that littered the book shelves in the 70s and 80s, but truth be told I can remember little about them. I found this book to be rather good. It is not a boy's own type of tale; rather, it is in the 'war is hell' camp, with most of the characters hating the war, and detesting Hitler and his nazi and SS followers. It is not a gratuitous book in terms of violence, but Hassel does not stint on showing the horror of war, and there are some shocking scenes. It is also quite moving as Hassel's group of friends are killed or maimed or sent mad, their places being taken up by increasingly young and old men, showing the huge losses that the German army sustained and the desperate efforts to stem the Soviet advance. There are also several humorous sections, usually originating from Hassel's friend, Porta. Neither the ordinary German nor Soviet armies are portrayed as brutal and cruel, rather they are normal men placed into the middle of a hellish situation. It is made clear, however, that the ordinary German soldiers hated the Waffen SS, and it is stated that the SS would equally have to fear being shot at by the German army as they would the Soviet army. Also, a couple of fanatical nazis are dealt with by Hassel and his friends. The book ends with Hassel and one of the last of his old group visiting a comrade who has gone insane due to the war and is in a mental hospital.

There are a further 13 or so titles by Sven Hassel and I shall almost certainly try the next in the series, which I believe is 'Wheels of Terror'.

[paulfinch]

I always thought the best one was Blitzfreeze, which told how the unit broke out of the Stalingrad encirclement. It was incredibly vivid, with astonishing battle scenes, but I seem to recall some controversy about Hassel not actually being present at the real event and having learned about it from former members of Viking SS, who he made contact with after the war.

Either way, it's a damn good read.

[David A. Riley]

I read loads of Sven hassel's years ago but it's a long time since the last. Loved the humour and utter grittiness of them.

[the paperback fanatic]

I think there was a tipping point from "war is hell" into "war porn" in the Hassel series.  My favourite was Reign of Hell, but that may have been down to the age that I read it - about 11 and very open to my brain being warped.  And I do think it was after the tipping point!

Hassel is controversial due to his flights of fancy, and in my experience, those who are particular about their military accuracy preferred the Leo Kessler books and gave Hassel the unfortunate nickname of Seven A**holes".  

For me, what is so interesting, is why these books toook such a grip on the British psyche in the 1970/80s.

[ripper]

It is, indeed, curious that back in the 70s and early 80s the shelves of war fiction were crammed with titles from Hassel, Kessler and others. 'Action' comic also got in on the act with its 'Hellman' strip. I suppose that back then WW2 was so much fresher in peoples' minds and there were more TV programmes concerned with the conflict. The landmark series 'The World at War' was broadcast in 1973-74 and was a big hit at the time, though I have no idea if it had any influence on the popularity of the Hassel/Kessler books. In my limited experience of reading this kind of thing it seems to me that a disproportionate number of books were set on the Eastern front, rather than having British soldiers as adversaries, but, again, I don't know if that had anything to do with their popularity.

[ripper]

I've just finished Wheels of Terror. It's more of the same from Hassel, only I thought it was more brutal this time. There are still passages of humour, often very black. It was a surprise to see many of the characters killed off in Legion of the Damned return for this sequel. Hassel himself did not feature nearly so prominantly as in Legion of the Damned, rather he was more of an observer for much of the book. But the characters are quite engaging, particularly the Old Un, Porta, Tiny and the Legionaire. The last quarter of the book was very intense, with some shocking scenes, though none were, I thought, gratuitous. It is still leaning on the side of 'War is Hell' for all participants be they in uniform or not, and, for me, the author captured well the desperation of men fighting what they know to be a war already lost, plus the atrocities heaped upon non-combatants. The end of the book is a bit of a cliffhanger, so I do feel that I will read at some stage the next in the series.

[ripper]

I came upon a copy of 'SS General' and read it over about a week. It is from later in the series, not the sequel to 'Wheels of Terror'--my last Hassel--but I think you can read the series as stand-alone books and not really miss out on too much.

The plot puts Hassel, the Old Man, Tiny, Porter and the others in his unit into the hell that was Stalingrad. After some fierce and bloodily-described fighting, the realisation dawns that the German 6th Army--of which Hassel's unit is a part--have been surrounded and cut off from the remainder of the German Army by the Soviet forces. General Paulus, commander of the 6th Army, is forbidden by Hitler from breaking out; they must fight to the last man. An SS General gathers together a group of 800 assorted German soldiers, including Hassel's unit, and attempts to independently break out and reach the main German force. The remainder of the book tells of how the group fights its way through the Red Army lines. The weather is terrible, with many dying of cold, hunger and disease, not to mention being attacked by Soviet soldiers. Eventually, the remnants of the group reach the German lines, but even then their ordeal is not over.

Overall, this is more of the same from Hassel. Bloodily-described action with passages of black humour, plus a shocking finale. The tank action of 'Wheels of Terror' gives way to mostly foot-slogging here, though there is a memorable section set in Stalingrad in which Hassel and his unit are attacked by T34 tanks. Probably the funniest passages are those when a German aeroplane airdrops a crate close to Hassel's unit, while they are breaking through Soviet lines. Starving, they open it, imagining all sorts of delicacies, only to find lots of photographs of Hitler, who actually makes a cameo appearance towards the end of the book.

I didn't think this entry in the series was quite up to 'Legion of the Damned' and 'Wheels of Terror'. The action wasn't quite as intense, nor shocking, and it seemed a little far-fetched in a passage where Hassel and one of his friends manage to easily escape from the NKVD after being captured. Nevertheless, I will seek out more in the series.

[ripper]

I have just finished Blitzfreeze. This time Hassel, Tiny, Porter, The Old Man etc are on the Eastern Front in September 1941 and taking part in the push on Moscow. The book follows their adventures as the German army approaches the Soviet capital and then reels back in shock and disarray after the massive Soviet offensive of early December. After that, Hassel and his comrades must fight their way through the Soviet lines to get back to the fast-retreating German army.

Well, it's really more of the same here as in earlier books. As usual, there is a rather shocking ending plus many humorous stories from Porter and Tiny. In one chapter, Hassel and his comrades are sent into Moscow to blow up a factory. I found this part the most difficult to accept. Hassel's group are basically penal panzer crews, not commandos, and surely the German army would have had better suited soldiers for such a task. Speaking of panzers, there is little tank action in this tale, compared to earlier books. Hassel is largely an observer again, apart from near the end of the story, and again he manages to become separated from his friends. Overall, I thought this wasn't quite as good as others in the series I have read so far.