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This book will folow the trail of the 11th ss Nordland, and the 24th ss Nederland. the book also contains story's of personal tragedy's, and the truest sense of kameradeships. For people interrested in the european volunteers serving in the waffen ss, than this book must belong in your library.
especialy the korps defence of Narva, while being grossly outnumbered by the red army, the korps fought with determination and dealt out death and destruction out of proportion to their numbers. once you start reading you will not want to put it down. and continuesly managed to withdraw in good order.
I found this book, a superbly written account of the germanic ss panzer korps. I must add from a purely militairy point of vieuw, i was facinated by the 3ss panzer korps militairy accomplishments.1 the immense personal bravery and courage, and their willingness to sacrifice for what they believed in. excellent work Tieke.
however, I found it something of a hard read, becaause it's very detailed, so you constantly need to fight your way through a lot of unit designations.For me however, this book is another major piece of a puzzle concerning the european volunteers of the waffen ss serving in the soviet union. Not much is really written about these divisions, so if you are interested than this book is a must have.
Awaste of time and Money. True the book can be descriptive and informative but its largely biased and unnapealling. I grabbed this book a year ago expecting the best, however i was in for a rude awakening. The book is monotonous and its structure is terrible, it fails to appeal to the reader or communicate to the reader in anyway and besides that it gives a stereotypical description of the Red Army as a faceless horde.It also tends to endorse the SS and its actions calling it Europes first Army of defense against the Reds before NATO, another inadequate book on the East.
There is next to nothing about politics or judgment. This book was an interesting read about the III SS-Panzer-Korps (Germanisches).The book is rather terse and rather detailed which might bore those the like light reading about personal experiences. Tieke asked an interesting question if Germany had saved Europe from the Soviets with Barbarossa.Again this is a must have book for the serious scholar of the Eastern Front. The closest thing to it is at the end of the book where Tieke mentions the Soviet records showing that Stalin had planned to invade Germany and possibly the Rest of the Europe. This book is for the die-hard historical types.The book covers the formation of the III (which was made up of Norwegians, Swedes and Dutch who were recruited to fight the Bolsheviks) it actions till the end of the war.Chapters: Formation, Transfer to Croatia, The 18th Armee, The Storm Breaks Loose, Withdraw of the III, Fighting in Estonia, Between HungerBurg and Narwa, The Soviet Landing Operation at Merkula, The Southern Front of Narwa, The Narwa Bridgehead, The evacuation of Narwa, The Tannenberg Position, Fire Brigade in the Northern Sector, Withdrawal from Estonia, 'The Baldone, Doblen and Autz Areas of Operation', Preekulan - Skuodas, Sea transport to Pomerania, The III in Pomerania, The Altdamm Bridgehead, Reorganization West of the Oder, Operation Berlin, The Storm Breaks, The Battle for Berlin, The Russian Assault on the Center of Berlin, The Final Phase of the Battle for Berlin, Breakout or Captivity, The Remnants of the 9. Armee Break out of the Halbe Pocket, The end of Heergruppe Weichsel in Norther Germany.The are also Appendices that offer more detail to formations, info on the Finnish Volunteers, assorted recommendations for medals, and an explanation about punishment.There are many maps and photos some of which are said to have never been published.Overall this book was a fun read and is guided in principle about detailing what happened.
Also note, this book was selected as one the Top Ten Military Books for the year 2001 as determined from the Stone&Stone.com Military Book Survey. Recommended without hesitation for anyone interested in the Waffen SS or War on the Eastern Front. Like most of Wilhelm Tieke's books, excellently written blending tremendous historic details along with many engrossing personal accounts. Of the 60 JJ Fedorowicz titles that are in my collection, this book is my favorite.
This book recounts in full details the idealism and ultimate sacrifice of the Germans, ethnic Germans and European volunteers in the Korps which fought to stem the Red Bolshevic hordes from the cradle of civilization.
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