Hi,
I was at a garage sale the other day and picked up The Black March by Peter Neumann for 50 cents. Sitting here looking at a large back log of books to read, I was wondering if anybody could tell if the book is worth moving to the top of the pile.
Rohrbach
The Black March by Peter Neumann
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I would be curious too what people think of this book. I have it but have but got distracted by other books and have not gone back to it. I remember reading somewhere that the legitimacy of the book was in question. i.e. that the author was truly not in the SS at all and it was work of fiction not non-fiction.
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It is very much a work a fiction, written by someone (I don't know whom) who knew enough about the Waffen-SS to sound authoritative, but not enough to get little details right. The author had read Reitlinger's works, and shares some of his fanciful notions, such as having Junkers required to dig foxholes in the face of approaching tanks, or balancing hand grenades on top of their helmets.
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Rohrbach and fellow researchers:
Please let me draw your attention to the following site and query:
http://www.thirdreichforum.com/viewtopic.php?t=18465
I too have attempted to ascertain the validity or lack thereof of this text.
Do any of our colleagues have access to the rolls at the Junkerschule or the 5thSS Division for Neumann?
(A recent thread here, of which I too contributed, brought critical questioning, based on scholarship, upon a person who asserted that he was a Tolzer Junker. A similar effort here, with such specificity. could well establish the legitimacy of this otherwise very good book....................Gentlemen?)
R/S
Please let me draw your attention to the following site and query:
http://www.thirdreichforum.com/viewtopic.php?t=18465
I too have attempted to ascertain the validity or lack thereof of this text.
Do any of our colleagues have access to the rolls at the Junkerschule or the 5thSS Division for Neumann?
(A recent thread here, of which I too contributed, brought critical questioning, based on scholarship, upon a person who asserted that he was a Tolzer Junker. A similar effort here, with such specificity. could well establish the legitimacy of this otherwise very good book....................Gentlemen?)
R/S
Neumann's Black March
I've got the complete officer's roster of the Wiking, and no one by that name ever served as an officer in that division. Of course, it could be a nom de plume, but I think that the work is mostly fiction a la Sven Hassel. By the way, the book was originally published under the title "Other Men's Graves".
The same Doug Nash that wrote "Hell's Gate"? If so, I would have to say your words regarding Neumann should carry considerable weight given the obvious intense research and the amount of data that you obviously must have collected for your book.
"Hell's Gate" was an eagerlly awaited book that combined the three elements that I most read - Eastern Front, 5th SS Wiking Div and in particular the battle of Cherkassy. For once the anticipation was matched by the actual book itself. One of my very favorites in my personnal libarary of over 200 books on WWII, the majority of which deal with German forces and the Eastern Front.
Highest Regards,
Wiking5th
"Hell's Gate" was an eagerlly awaited book that combined the three elements that I most read - Eastern Front, 5th SS Wiking Div and in particular the battle of Cherkassy. For once the anticipation was matched by the actual book itself. One of my very favorites in my personnal libarary of over 200 books on WWII, the majority of which deal with German forces and the Eastern Front.
Highest Regards,
Wiking5th