Feldgrau Author: Charles Trang

[John P. Moore]

Place holder for discussions specifically related to forum member Charles Trang and his various published works.

Charles recently published his second volume of his "Leibstandarte" series that covers the period 1943 - 1945. His other work published by Heimdal include a multi-volume series on the Totenkopf division along with another on the "Florian Geyer" cavalry division. Charles does an excellent job of turning up previously unpublished photos that are usually very well reproduced in his books by the publisher. Although the text for most of his books is only in the French language the photos alone make the books worth the purchase price and the photo captions are easy for most readers to understand.

[Marc Rikmenspoel]

I've enjoyed all of Charles' books, and I had the privilege of contributing to the second LAH volume, so I look forward to seeing that book later this year.

[Jan-Hendrik]

I have his Volume on FG and was very pleased, the text was well researched, the pictures outstanding (OK,I already knew a few of them, thanks to Mr.Wachter ). Our dear Charles seems to be one of the Good ones



Jan-Hendrik

[Charles Trang]

I am very proud to be invited in such a venerable circle. This is something I did not think to be possible a year ago as most of my books were only published in french language. Thank you John and all of you for such positive comments. I hope the Leibstandarte series to be translated in english very soon or, at least, the "1933 - 1942" and "1943 - 1945" volumes. Apart from the photos, I have brought to light - or tried to - a number of facts which have been ignored by most of the historians so far. This is the result of a research of many years and this is why I keep on writing books in such a prolific way at the moment. Next month, a small leaflet, much in the same mould than "Thule", will be published. It will be bilingual (french/english) and contain about 100 photos of Frundsberg. None of them have ever been published before as they are issued from veterans albums. In May, "Leibstandarte Archives" will be out. It will contain many fac simile of documents and 600+ additional photographs (most of them never published before). In June, an album with 600 photos of SS-Kriegsberichter Augustin will be published. Contrary to the SS-KB Roth book, the photos will be of good quality this time. As you can see, I am very busy and this is why my presence of this forum has been very erratic so far.

[Nicolai]

I just finished reading your Totenkopf book, top notch stuff! 'tis sad that your publisher chose to excise a lot of the text bits to make room for the Thule album instead of just inflating the page count, though. (What was up with the big "Totenkopf" on the spine being upside-down, by the way? Is that how you roll in France?)

Here's to hoping Heimdal gets around to publishing an English version of Leibstandarte: 1933 - 1942 this year. Do you have any idea about whether a translation is in the works? I suppose that I might as well grab the French version and see how my mastery (cough ) of the language holds up if it's not hitting the shelves anytime soon.

[Charles Trang]

Thanks for your positive comments Nicolai. Yes, it is a shame the whole text could not be translated : in fact, the english text is about one quarter of the original one ! Many informations are thus lost for the american and english readers. Heimdal could not allow to increase the page number because of rentability matters.
Concerning "Leibstandarte 1933 - 1942", it seems that the publication rights have been sold to a US publisher. But news from the latter's financial situation are not very good so I wonder if an english version of this book will ever be made ...
Good news is that my "Frundsberg" book is going to be bilingual (french/english) as I made the translation myself when I wrote it. It will be published next month. However, the text will be minimal : 3 or 4 pages as most of the content is filled with never before published photographs (about 100 of them). The photos come from my personal collection and from Pierre Tiquet's.

[Uncle Joe]

What do you mean by "rentability matters"?

[Nicolai]

Thanks for your positive comments Nicolai. Yes, it is a shame the whole text could not be translated : in fact, the english text is about one quarter of the original one ! Many informations are thus lost for the american and english readers. Heimdal could not allow to increase the page number because of rentability matters.
Concerning "Leibstandarte 1933 - 1942", it seems that the publication rights have been sold to a US publisher. But news from the latter's financial situation are not very good so I wonder if an english version of this book will ever be made ...
Good news is that my "Frundsberg" book is going to be bilingual (french/english) as I made the translation myself when I wrote it. It will be published next month. However, the text will be minimal : 3 or 4 pages as most of the content is filled with never before published photographs (about 100 of them). The photos come from my personal collection and from Pierre Tiquet's.

Thanks for the quick reply. If you have the name of the US publisher I could perhaps shoot them an email and see if I should hold out for a translation or just order the original French versions before the print runs sell out.

Good news regarding the Frundsberg book, put it on my buy list for April.

What do you mean by "rentability matters"?

^^ Perhaps that it would have caused extra costs that would have lessened their profit margins? Increasing the price could have been one solution, but I suppose that they would have risked losing some potential customers by doing so. (Personally, I wouldn't mind shelling out an additional $5-10 for some extra content)

[Charles Trang]

The more pages the book contains, the less profit is for the publisher. Yes, you are right, Heimdal do not want to increase their prices and that is why they limit the number of pages in their books. I do not know whether it is a good choice or not but it is very frustrating for an author ... and for the readers as well.

[Uncle Joe]

Considering the fact that Heimdal´s books are already in the "higher" price class, I don´t understand their decision. After all, a person who is willing to pay e.g. 60 bucks for "x number" of pages is certainly willing to pay e.g. 80 bucks for "1.5x" number of pages.

[Charles Trang]

I totally agree with you. This is the kind of logic Heimdal do not want to understand.

[Charles Trang]

But they surely have their own reasons which are unknown to me ...

[joefraser]

Hi,
It might not mean much to you, but I was speaking to a friend today who recommended your Totenkopf book to me. Like I said, it may not mean much until you know that it came from a former member of the division (not a contributer to the book ). Upshot is, now I have to buy the book.

[Charles Trang]

It is a great satisfaction for me to learn that my book is recommended by a former member of the division. I would be glad to get his name and email so I could join him. Thanks a lot right now.

[Mark C Yerger]

What are your future plans for other divisional (or regimental or other topic) books ? I'd like to have something on the mountain units (6th, 7th, 13th, 23rd) and finding material always seems difficult at best.

Also something similar on the senior Allgemeine-SS units and commanders.

If you do decide to do anything on these or other odd topics, contact me and I'll help with whatever small amounts I've found.

Of the Heimdal SS books I've liked the books on 9th and 3rd division aspects/elements best so far, also the Afrikakorps book.

Mark