Feldgrau Author: Charles Trang

[Charles Trang]

Thank you for your very kind proposal, Mark. I accept it with joy and pride as you are my reference writer on the Waffen-SS. I am still working on the Leibstandarte but a small leaflet with about 100 photos of "Frundsberg" (a bit like "Thule") will be published in September. I have planned nothing on the SS mountain divisions but it may come sometime as I have a lot of photographic material on them (6th, 7th and 13th, nothing on the 23rd).

[John P. Moore]

Charles - I agree with Mark that a book on the SS mountain divisions would be a great idea. Maybe you and Tom Houlihan could collaborate on the topic as he has done a lot of research on the "Nord". It takes a lot of work to put together a good book and the collaborative results of Mark Yerger in the USA and Ignacio Arrondo in Spain with the DKiG series by Bender are a good example.

John

[Charles Trang]

I think Heimdal would not be too interested in publishing that book but I would be ready to work with an american editor (and with Tom Houlihan, of course).

[Tom Houlihan]

My work on Nord is progressing slowly, but there is progress. I still have a large quantity of material to translate, and more to acquire.

[Marc Rikmenspoel]

Charles, I know Heimdal's main focus is on France, either units that fought there or campaigns on French soil. 6. SS-GD Nord DID of course fight in France in 1945. So that might help convince Bernages to publish the book

If it ever comes to it that you and/or Tom are working on a book about SS-Gebirgsjäger, I have a batch of unpublished Prinz Eugen Division photos I can contribute.

[Charles Trang]

Thanks a lot, Marc. The main problem is that I am really busy with the Leibstandarte series and I am expecting to work on the Wiking division for next year. So a book on the SS-Gebirgsjäger would have to wait at least two more years ... For the moment, the best I can do is to provide Tom with photos of "Nord" ...

[Heinrich505]

Charles,
I found the author section of this forum quite by accident, and then found some amazing books by Doug Nash, Stephan Hamilton, and Jason Mark, to name a few. These books were pretty much out of the so-called mainstream, ones you would never find normally in a bookstore such as Borders or Barnes and Nobles. You might run across some in an extensive college library. If not for the internet, I probably would never have known about the authors, let alone their amazing books.

I decided to explore some more authors, and read the section set up for corresponding with you. Moments later I was in Amazon.com, looking for your titles. Despite the cost, I managed to convince my fiscal department (the wife) that I really needed your book Totenkopf. This was mainly due to the posted comments by others on this forum. I was so pleased with your book.

I just finished reading it, and was sorry it ended. The photographs and narratives are great. I enjoyed it so much. The quality of the photographs is first rate. While there are some grammatical errors, this in no way detracts from the content. You really get your money's worth with this book. I couldn't be more pleased.

I was sorry there wasn't any record of the fate of the photographer whose photos were included as the album of SS-Infanterie-Regiment 9 "Thule," in the back of the book. It would have been nice to know if he survived the war, and also survived the aftermath in Russia. As we know, very few did.

Thanks for a really first rate book. I couldn't have been more pleased with your research, photographs, and efforts.

Heinrich505

[Charles Trang]

Thanks Heinrich for your very positive comments. I am sorry for the grammatical errors and even more than you may think because the translator is an Englishwoman. Concerning the man who took the Thule photographs, his fate is unknown. I hope he did survive. I will ask Martin Mansson about this.

[John P. Moore]

I just finished looking through Charles Trang's "Leibstandarte Archives" for the third time. This excellent book is mainly a collection of photos with short captions along with some related period documents that Charles has collected from multiple sources. For the most part the quality of the photos is very good and most are previously unpublished. Quite a few of the photos were taken by Kriegsberichters and obtained by Charles from the US National Archives (NARA), indicating that there is still a lot of good material at NARA to be exploited by others who have the ambition to put together such photo collections. This book is published by Heimdal and I would recommend it to others.

However, there is one aspect about this book that merits some special discussion here. That is how one credits photos to individuals and institutions. One way is to list photo credits in end notes which can become a problem in future editions when page numbers change due to the inclusion of expanded material. Another method is to provide a general group listing of sources in the front of the book. However, in this book source credit is given for each photograph, a common practise. As I said earlier, most photos in "Leibsatndarte Archives" were previously unpublished. But some photos first appeared in "Zwölf Jahre 1. Kompanie Leibstandate SS Adolf Hitler" authored by the unit veterans association and first published by Schütz Verlag in 1990. Now in Trang's book we find some of these same photos from the 1930s that most likely came from Theodor Wisch or other unit veterans being sourced to Martin Mansson or Heimdal Collection. One such example is the photo from November 1935 found on page 25 of Trang's book with Theodor Wisch standing in formation to the right of his men. This same photo appeared on the cover of the 1990 Schütz Verlag book. Can people see the problem here?

John

[Charles Trang]

Thank you John for recommending the book. Concerning the photographs, apart the ones scanned in the US National Archives and those from my collection, most were provided to me by Martin Mansson and by Heimdal as you mentioned it. I had no other possibility than to cite their names in the captions as they were the only sources which were at my disposal. I know that most of the Heimdal's collection came from Herbert Walther's own collection. His' could have doubled with the 1.Kp.'s collection as photos used to be delivered in numbers to the unit's members. Herbert Walther served within the Leibstandarte and was well placed to get copies of original photos. Concerning Martin Mansson, he is a very serious and honest author and I doubt he would have given to me photos which do not belong to him.

[langemarkregiment10]

I recently purchased your book Frundsberg 1943 and sent it to a former Frundsberg that is alive and well, soon to be 84. I was able to get his pictures from ww2 and now have them electronically. He has some great stories he has told me and always interesting. His family all survived the war, but he is the only one left now. I am enlcosing one picture of him on leave in 1943 in Nuremberg with his mother. It clearly shows the cuffband in the picture.

[Charles Trang]

Unfortunately, the picture cannot be seen ... What was his comment on the book ?

[langemarkregiment10]

Willy enjoyed the book and it brought back memories. I will try to send pictures.

[Nicolai]

If you're having trouble attaching the photo, you can try to upload it to the website www.imageshack.us and link to it in your post.

[langemarkregiment10]

charles, you may be interested in the Frundsberg Division in 1944-45. This is just one of Willy's stories in January 1945, just before his participation in Operation Nordwind.

Willy had just repaired his Panther tank on the Eastern side of the Rhine and they took a test ride through the area (Alsace/Loraine). While driving he saw a sign Kampfgruppe "Wagner" and asked if they could see if it was his father Oberst Joseph "Sepp" Wagner. Sure enough it was his father as the Panzer caused a lot of commotion for them. Oberst Wagner came out of a building and saw Willy. He said "BeeBee" youngest boy in German as a nickname. Willy asked where his mother was and it so happened their roof in Nuremberg had been destroyed by fire bombing, so she was with relatives a few kms away. So Willy was able to see his mother and father on his 19th birthday on January 18, 1945.

He also told me he remembers July 20, 1944 very well also while in Normandy. He had to pull guard duty and that requires you to not eat, drink, sit down and must wear the great coat with helmet. As he was pulling duty, one of his friends received a package of sausages and cheese from home. His friend came to Willy and gave him some. Just as he was eating it the officer of the guard yelled guard. Willy had to respond instantly. With his mouth full he could not do it. Finally he was able to respond and the officer said you were sleeping and Willy denied it, but could not explain what had happened. So the rest of the day he had to take two jerry cans of water to the field kitchen up and down a hill with two of his friends with MP40s behind him. He said that was tough, but said I knew my friends woundn't shoot me.

Willy held the Iron Class 2nd class for his tank destroying 10 enemy tanks and the Panzerwart im Gold (he could work on any tank in the German forces. All of these documents were destroyed in Czechoslovokia at the end of the war.