Feldgrau Author: Charles Trang

[Charles Trang]

I am sorry for the late answer but I was away from home and from my documents.
These Hungarian SS soldiers were fighting within SS-Kampfgruppe "Hengstmann" in April 1945. Their unit was largely destroyed near lake Weliger along with SS-Pi.Bau-Btl.2. It seems that these men had belonged to Waffen-Pionier-Bataillon der SS 26 but this have to be confirmed.

[zoltay]

Thank you Charles for the information. Is this information in your book(s)?
A list of names of the "transferred" men exists in the Hungarian military archives but I cannot remember if it mentioned the unit they came from and you cannot take a copy of the documents under the museum rules. I am sure I read somewhere of members of 26 SS pioneer battalion taking part in a battle group near Brun (?) in Czechoslovakia in early 1945. Is this the same battle group or yet another one?

[Charles Trang]

No, it is a different one. SS-Kampfgruppe "Hengstmann" fought with 32.SS-Grenadier-Division "30 Januar" on the Oder front, which is hundred miles away from Moravia. The loss of 250 men from the battalion did not mean that the latter had to be dissolved. But I suppose that the Germans selected the best trained men within Waffen-Pionier-Bataillon der SS 26 to use them in an endangered and most important area.

[Charles Trang]

Oh, and I forgot to add that Brun is certainly Brunn (currently Brno), the largest city in Moravia. But there was no fighting there in early 1945, only in May 1945.

[raingun]

finally ,i got this excellent works,congratulation!

[Charles Trang]

Thank you Raingun, you are my most faithful reader ! I am conscious that my books are very expensive so to have the whole collection can lead to some sacrifices.

[raingun]

Thank you Raingun, you are my most faithful reader ! I am conscious that my books are very expensive so to have the whole collection can lead to some sacrifices.

Its Worth It I Suppose

[Charles Trang]

I regret I cannot upload a letter which Eberhard Heder wrote to me a few weeks ago. Maybe could I open a new post so I could show it to you ?

[pimberg]

Please do Charles.

And are there any updates on your future book(s) ?

[Charles Trang]

It is of no avail to open a new post as the quota of attachments has been reached. Nevertheless, I can tell you that volume 4 of "Dictionnaire de la Waffen-SS" contains corrections and additions relative to the other volumes of the series.

[Charles Trang]

My last book has just been published but it does not concern the German army. So, just a few words here : its title is "The Old Breed" and it is about the 1st US Marine Division through its campaigns of WWII (420 pages with about 800 photos, most of them having never been published before).

[John P. Moore]

Charles Trang said,

My last book has just been published but it does not concern the German army. So, just a few words here : its title is "The Old Breed" and it is about the 1st US Marine Division through its campaigns of WWII (420 pages with about 800 photos, most of them having never been published before).

Charles - Were you aware that a book with this same title was already published in 1983?

http://www.amazon.com/Old-Breed-History ... +old+breed

Then there is the classic With the Old Breed by Eugene Sledge

You may have a copyright issue here.

John

[Mark C Yerger]

Hope the US topic book sells well. I've found it hard enough to have a knowledgeable level and archive for a single subject, much less two. Must require an unheard of amount of study to do books on totally different areas.

Best,
Mark

[Charles Trang]

In fact, the exact title is "The Old Breed : La 1st Marine Division dans l'enfer du Pacifique". This is my second book on the US Marines. The first one was "Les Marines à Iwo Jima" which was essentially a photo book. It is a relatively new subject for me but it was easy to find the documents from which I could write my text. In fact, it was somewhat too easy as every document and data concerning the US Marines during the Second World War is available which is not the case for the Waffen-SS ! Moreover, the US photographs which are detained in the US NARA are all provided with detailed captions. But my favorite domain of interest is still the Waffen-SS. I was less than 9 years old when I began to gather books on it and that was more than 40 years ago ! The fact that the original documents concerning the Waffen-SS are fragmented and incomplete makes the researches even more fascinating.

[John P. Moore]

Charles - Thanks for the explanation. This sounds interesting and you appear to have found a treasure trove of good archival material. Did any USMC vets work on this book with you? Did all of your material come from NARA or did you also work with the USMC University at Quantico, VA? Who wrote the Forewords for these books? I am not sure about your military background, but did you serve in the French Marines or similar? I have read quite a few good books about the USMC in WW II and the subkect is of great interest to me.

John