Breslau 1945

[Richard Hargreaves]

Thanks John. There are three more pages of it, but I'll keep them to myself, otherwise the entire book will be on the web before I know it. The odd snippet here and there builds up the tension...

For anyone interested in first-hand accounts, Frodien's memoirs, Bleib Übrig, are particularly good, charting his brief service on the Eastern Front summer-autumn 1944 and his escape from Breslau in January 1945. They're also a joy to translate - surprisingly easy. He became a journalist and newspaper editor in later life, which probably explains the vivid nature of his memoirs.

[B Hellqvist]

There's no dramatisation, no poetism Jukka. It's all there in the source material. I could, of course, simply post the sources and link them with a very loose narrative. But then the book would be five times thicker and never be published.

I found "The Germans in Normandy" a very good read, so I'm looking forward to this book. The grim realities of the Endkampf make for powerful reading.

To be sure, a Panzerschreck is more accurately a bazooka and a Panzerfaust is what today we'd call an RPG - but that designation wasn't around at the time.

The Panzerfaust was technically a LAW, a disposable light anti-tank weapon, while the Panzerschreck was a RPG (or "bazooka").

[Uncle Joe]

Actually the Panzerschreck and bazooka are closer to the Swedish 84 mm Carl Gustav multi-purpose weapon since all 3 are rear loading weapons whereas most RPGs are muzzle loading weapons.

[FalkeEins]

.very nicely written piece Richard..well done! Looking forward to the final product. One comment - as a scene-setting passage I felt that the flow was a little disrupted by the abundance of parenthetical dashes...
thanks for the Frodien recommendation..4 euros on amazon.de

[panzermahn]

Hi Richard

There is another apocrypha story about Breslau 1945 and I'm not sure if it is true. When Gauleiter Karl Hanke was preparing to escape the fortress, it seems that he used a Fieseler Storch aircraft to flew off. However it was said that there is a helicopter (I read somewhere that it was a Focke-Angelis, not a Flettner Kolibri) that was prepared for him. But Hanke used the Storch rather than the helicopter.

Do you know if this true or not?

Thanks
Panzermahn

[Richard Hargreaves]

I've only ever seen reference to the Storch, which (I think) was the fortress commander's. There are so many apochryphal stories about Hanke's fate it's untrue - they run to pages and pages in Breslauer Apokalypse.

[Nicolai]

Didn't the helicopter story originate from Speer's book?

[FalkeEins]

The mention of 'Panzerfaust bazookas' made me raise an eyebrow, but I suppose that it's not so bad if they're referred to as plain 'old Panzerfausts for the rest of the book. ".

..that's the point of the additional word for the writer/translator...because the "s" is very rarely a plural in German ! Reading 'Panzerfausts' in an English text is far more cringe-worthy IMHO than reading "Panzerfaust bazookas" - which was a decent attempt to avoid the 's' plural while providing meaning for the non-specialist without parentheses

[Nicolai]

Mean to write Panzerfäuste. Noticed it after a while, but you can't edit posts after they've been replied to, so I was unable to correct it. No big deal.

Most people know what a Panzerfaust is, in any case. If not, they can look it up on Wikipedia.

[Richard Hargreaves]

Ah, to 's' or not to 's'. Personally, I don't have a huge problem with Anglocising German words. Let's face it, we already do it. Panzers. Languages regularly assume words and phrases from other tongues. I've never found anyone in a German shop who says "Auf wiedersehen", but plenty who say "cheers".

Ideally, of course, I'd like not to pluralise Panzerfaust, but until I put pen to paper, I really don't know how it'll turn out. I'm fairly certain I don't want Panzerfäuste all over the place in an English-language book.

I'm sure many of my readers know what a Panzerfaust is, but not all have access to the web, so it will have to be spelled out. My dad complained my last book had "too much German" in it... even though every phrase and word was thoroughly explained. He's not renowned for his proficiency in foreign tongues, believing that shouting slowly in English will work the world over.

[FalkeEins]

...agreed you can't write Panzerfäuste everywhere ...not so sure about anglicising German though

[panzermahn]

I don't have a problem with authors that anglicized German words that were loaned into English. It is actually inevitable for authors who wrote on books that were focused on German side during WW2.

Authors had to face the situation of writting and using words that can be easily understood by readers, but also need to balance so that the context of what he is writing would not deviate from what is needed to be conveyed. For example, Panzer is a German word which is loaned into English, therefore the word Panzers is fine with me. Just like panzerfaust or panzerfausts. But German words like Obersturmbahnfuehrer, don't try to translate as "Senior Regimental Leader" (SS Lieutenant Colonel would be fine for me but I would prefer if it remains as Obersturmbahnfuehrer). I would rather have a glossary of terms in the back of the book to explain the German loanwords than to have a direct literal translation written in the text.

Just don't do the type of translation ala Professor Richard J. Evans as in his book, The Third Reich At War (e.g. Leibstandarte Adolf Hitler = Adolf Hitler's Personal Flag )

Panzermahn

[FalkeEins]

..I don't accept that 'Panzer' has been 'loaned' to the English language...we know its the German for 'tank', simple as that. Its not a foreign word like 'restaurant' or 'menu' for which we have no better English equivalent. Simply put, the word 'Panzers' is not a 'proper' word! Its not the correct German term ..and its certainly not English. Of course if enough people use it then thats something else.. and the Germans are much further down this road than we are, with what is known as Denglish (words like 'Handy' etc ....take an English word and completely 'mis-translate' it !)..See 'False friends, bad translation, Denglish" for much more on this
http://falsefriends-mcsquared.blogspot.com/

BTW here's a late-war Wochenschau featuring Breslau which may be of interest

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_YcFDgHIGCU

[Groscurth]

All the respect Richard, but I think it is best to leave this here because I think you will be dissapointed (I hope not!) with the next if you want too see this in a fiction book:

"But not by the Frodiens. Ulrich’s mother and younger brother Michael had already fled Breslau. His father had every intention of joining them and sent the young Gefreiter into the city centre to see whether there was a chance of fleeing the city via the Freiburger Bahnhof. He left the family’s comfortable third-floor apartment in Kaiser Wilhelm Strasse – renamed Strasse der SA in honour of Nazi brownshirts (a thousands books repeated such kind off phrase). He passed beneath the railway bridge where two elderly militia, Volkssturm – people’s storm – stood guard, shouldering Panzerfaust bazookas.(hmm, OK, what's new, just a discription that I read in XXX mediocrate and easy written books before) He crossed Tauentzienplatz, past the Ufa Palast, the city’s largest cinema (why do anglo americans keep introducing the UFA places as it is a new cool thing just discovered, sorry, here again). The hoarding over the entrance still spelled out the title of the last film shown – an Agfacolor melodrama, the story of a Hamburg politician’s son which becomes infatuated with a young woman – Opfergang, ( I like this part!,most authors would make it easy and mention a classic late war propagenda movie-old feldgrauers know what I mean-) The Great Sacrifice. Frodien passed the Wertheim department store, again the city’s largest, now known as AWAG after being appropriated from its Jewish owners. He skirted around the edge of an empty square where once Breslau’s new synagogue had stood and came to the frozen moat, staring across at the Schlossplatz, recalling that Sunday in 1938. ‘I was seized by a profound feeling of sadness and despair at the thought that perhaps it had all been utterly pointless, our belief in Germany, our belief in the ideals of National Socialism, the endless sacrifices and the many fallen comrades,’ he wrote. For a moment he considered reporting to the nearest barracks, joining one of the hastily-formed Festungskompanien – fortress companies – and manning a machine gun, determined to go down with his home. Reality quickly made him change his mind. Pain from his shattered thigh, his bandaged head, his scarred chest, pulsed through his body. Ulrich Frodien, just eighteen years old, was, he realised, ‘a wreck, utterly unsuited to any heroic fantasy of going under’. " (That's is a lot of Konsalik and Kirst in the late seventies and early eighties style... I find that part really mediocrate, you can do and must do better, sorry to tell you but I find that more honnest than slimming)

It is good here and on other fora when I see the reactions of otherposters, but I fear that those posters dont know the publishers well.
Keep on posting here, I think that it is a great part of your hobby and I like to read and encourage it here!
BTW I admire what you write, but I just don't think that it is the new WWII kind off literature that breaks with the common.

Sorry for my English

Coninue here

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[kanzel]

..I don't accept that 'Panzer' has been 'loaned' to the English language...we know its the German for 'tank', simple as that.

A little off topic, but a neighbor of mine once had a riding lawn mower called "Lil Panzer".

http://www.geocities.com/MotorCity/5702/