Blitzkrieg Unleashed: Poland 1939

[william russ]

Hi All,
Yes, Bethhell's book is interesting for what it talks about. Luckily a local library has a copy I can read. To me it is one of those books you don't really need to buy because it does not have hard information.
Njorl, it's good to see that someone has made of study of the Luftwaffe's operations during the campaign. Just wish it was in English . Maybe someone will translate it and sell it over here, but I doubt it. There is a study available in English that was published by the United States Air Force in the early 60's. The USAF published several studies of Luftwaffe operations that ranged from the Polish Campaign to the Russian Front. They have been reprinted several times since then and they are now available online for free download at the USAF's Historical Center website at Maxwell Air Force Base. What was aggravating about the Polish Campaign study was that the text is all there, but the Appendices are missing with all the tables and maps . Anyway it is still worth reading.

Best regards, Bill

[Frederick L Clemens]

Is this book military history or is it a novelization? I'm a little confused by the opening with Willi Reibig - true name or character name? Are the sources footnoted or were you just "inspired" by the sources?

[Richard Hargreaves]

Hi Frederick,

No it's real, it's all there in the original documents/books. Willi Reibig might be a pen name (possibly for a PK reporter), but his book does exist. Everything is referenced as far as possible to the original printed or BA-MA source, newspaper, journal article etc. There's one book which I'm not sure whether it was memoir or fiction, which is included, by the improbably-named Wolf Oeringk, but otherwise, its fact, all backed up by the original source material. No 'interpretations' here.

[Frederick L Clemens]

Okay, glad to hear it. Sounds like I might be buying a copy of that there book.

By the way, you probably have hurt Wolf Oeringk's feelings (and maybe his mother's as well). He does have other books so he is no Hauptmann Wesreidau.

[Richard Hargreaves]

Anyone managed to work their way through all 120,000 words yet? I'd be interested in feedback, good or bad (preferably the former, but I have to take it on the chin if you've paid £25 and are not impressed...)

[Njorl]

Unfortunately it's not available in Polish bookstores (including internet ones), nor on Ebay.de...

I have yet to come up with a plan to get it from UK Or get myself a PayPal account...

Regards,
Michal Jungiewicz

[Richard Hargreaves]

There's already a second hand copy on Amazon. Someone is either a very fast reader... or really doesn't like it...

I hope there'll be a Polish-language version, given the huge market for WW2 literature in Poland.

[Stephan H.]

Richard,

Congrats on getting this out. I've put my pre-order in at Amazon. . .I just need to find the time to read it.

Someone famous once said "We purchase books expecting that we are also purchsing the time to read them."

Stephan

[Richard Hargreaves]

Many thanks Stephan. I hate to count the number of books on my shelves which are half-read. Too many...

[Richard Hargreaves]

Anyone read this yet? I'd be interested in feedback as I've not had a single review yet, apart from Andreas' on the AHF.

Preferably favourable, but I also have to take it on the chin if people didn't like it...

[Benoit Douville]

I have just started to read it, why in almost every book including this one there is an explanation of the events before the actual Polish campaign, is it for the casual reader? I am interested in the events in the Polish Campaign not before, that's my criticism but maybe you have no choice Richard? I am sure the rest of the book is awesome, the pictures inside are great, I will give my final review when I finish the book.

Regards

[Richard Hargreaves]

Hi Benoit,

I cannot think of any campaign book which begins on the very day that the battle itself begins; I would argue that you need some preamble to put the battle in both its political and military context, lay reader or veteran Third Reich historian. No account of Barbarossa begins on June 22, Horne begins his account of the French campaign in 1919 because why France fell as it did in 1940 can only be explained by what happened between 1918 and 1940 on both sides.

To be sure, the approach to war has been written many times, but I've thrown a lot of fresh material into the melting pot - or at least material never seen in English before. Of all the 120,000 words in the book, the chapter 'Is it War or Peace' is my finest hour simply because it weaves so many different things in. It was a bugger of the first order to write - seven/eight months.

Knowing when to start a book is tricky. Normandy originally began on June 6 with a prologue and then flashed back (but changed as the publisher hacked the word count down). The Polish campaign was, ostensibly, about Danzig and the Corridor, so the birth of the free city and corridor seemed an obvious place to start. Plus the intervening two decades of antagonism between the two nations goes a long way to explaining the viciousness of the September campaign.

Glad you liked the images. The ones from Hugo Jager's collection cost me a bloody fortune.

[Benoit Douville]

I have read it and I highly recommended to everybody interesting about the Polish campaign. The book is great because it is like a historic novel and at the same time you have great accounts of the several Battles during that campaign. You will learn a lot of new stuff like the fact that Hans Frank the Governor General was willing to take responsabillity for the atrocities committed in Poland, I was unaware of it. Also the maps at the end are great. I won't revealed everything, you must read it. Great job Richard.

Regards

[Richard Hargreaves]

Hi Benoit,

Many thanks for the kind words. I think "historical novel" is exactly the way I try to write... except that it's fact rather than fiction. I want the reader to turn every page, to imagine they were there. It's not to everybody's liking and I won't say that I always succeed, but I'm a firm believer that history is made by people therefore people should be at the heart of history.

I owe a huge debt to Bill Russ' work for pinpointing specific units on specific dates. I used a combination of his maps, Zaloga's, official OKH Karte, divisional histories and a few contemporary accounts to draw my maps, plus I borrowed an idea of my friend Jack Sheldon, the WW1 expert on the German Army, for marking on the various 'narrators' in the text - I think it helps the reader follow what is going on much better. I added to that a little by marking on the locations of

Spoil the ending? The Germans win initially, but lose in the end...

[Richard Hargreaves]

Some you win, some you lose:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/pdp/profile/ ... _cr_dp_pdp

Next time I promise to learn yet another language and double the size of the book...