Review Das Reich: March of the Second SS Panzer Division Through France

[AWP]

Author: Max Hastings. If you don't know the name you should.

BLUF: This book is for WWII students or those studying UW/ FID/ Resistance operations.

Like all of Hasting's work it is a very good book, well researched, and easy to read. it chronicals 2nd SS Panzer Division's march north toward the Normandy beachhead and how it bogged down fighting the marquis. The mission wasn't a popular one, but the division executed it with the vigor known to SS units. Much of the book focuses on Resistance operations with some discussion of SOE/ OSS/ SAS activities.

Hastings had a few interesting conclusions, the main being resistance operations weren't as successful or welcomed by the people as we thought. He said those were post-war fabrications to overstate the maquis' effectiveness. In fact, many Frenchmen hated the resistance because of their actions and cycle of violence. 1) The Res. would loot or steal from the locals. 2) Res. raids would incur German wrath long after the Res. departed the scene. Innocent civilians were caught between the two

Hastings also explained the atrocities committed by 2 SS Panzer without excusing them. In this regard his research was well done and even included the full text of Divisional orders.

I have a few bookmarks, I may drag those out later.

Very good book, but the narrow focus makes lends itself to a different audience than some of his other work.

 

[pardus]

I do like the work Hastings does.

I'm not surprised to hear what you wrote about the resistance.

One thing Ive been mildly curious about for a few years now and I just looked it up, was the fate of the SS Officer who was captured by the resistance, thereby sparking the massacre at Oradour-sur-Glane. The internets say he was executed by the resistance, and buried in a German cemetery.

 

[AWP]

One thing Ive been mildly curious about for a few years now and I just looked it up, was the fate of the SS Officer who was captured by the resistance, thereby sparking the massacre at Oradour-sur-Glane. The internets say he was executed by the resistance, and buried in a German cemetery.

Hastings covers that in detail, a battalion commander, a guy named Kampfe. It was his own doing, driving a car on his own he saw a lorry approaching. He stopped thinking they were his men. The group that captured him would turn him over to another FTP (Communist) element and he was never seen again. Differing reports have him executed on the 10th or 11th and others have him executed as a result of Oradour-sur-Glane, but the former is more likely. Hastings makes no mention of Kampfe's remains.

 

[Gunz]

I read Hastings' very good account of the Falklands War.

It doesn't surprise me either that the resistance was not as popular as they are portrayed...and I'm assuming it's because of indiscriminate Nazi retaliation against civilians for resistance operations. If I feared my family would be dragged out of the house and shot against a wall because my neighbor decided to blow up some railroad tracks, I might not be leading the cheers for the railroad sabotage.

 

[pardus]

Hastings covers that in detail, a battalion commander, a guy named Kampfe. It was his own doing, driving a car on his own he saw a lorry approaching. He stopped thinking they were his men. The group that captured him would turn him over to another FTP (Communist) element and he was never seen again. Differing reports have him executed on the 10th or 11th and others have him executed as a result of Oradour-sur-Glane, but the former is more likely. Hastings makes no mention of Kampfe's remains.

Allow me to top Max Hastings lol

http://en.ww2awards.com/person/13552

PERSONALIA

Name: Kämpfe, Helmut
Date of birth: July 31st, 1909 (Jena/Saxe-Weimar, Germany)
Date of death: June 10th, 1944 (Breuilaufa, France)
Buried on: German War Cemetery Berneuil
Plot: 1. Row: 6. Grave: 176.
Nationality: German

 

[AWP]

Allow me to top Max Hastings lol

LOL

Interesting. I wonder if new info came out since he wrote the book? I can't imagine him missing that important detail.

Good find.

 

[Red Flag 1]

Author: Max Hastings. If you don't know the name you should.

BLUF: This book is for WWII students or those studying UW/ FID/ Resistance operations.

Like all of Hasting's work it is a very good book, well researched, and easy to read. it chronicals 2nd SS Panzer Division's march north toward the Normandy beachhead and how it bogged down fighting the marquis. The mission wasn't a popular one, but the division executed it with the vigor known to SS units. Much of the book focuses on Resistance operations with some discussion of SOE/ OSS/ SAS activities.

Hastings had a few interesting conclusions, the main being resistance operations weren't as successful or welcomed by the people as we thought. He said those were post-war fabrications to overstate the maquis' effectiveness. In fact, many Frenchmen hated the resistance because of their actions and cycle of violence. 1) The Res. would loot or steal from the locals. 2) Res. raids would incur German wrath long after the Res. departed the scene. Innocent civilians were caught between the two

Hastings also explained the atrocities committed by 2 SS Panzer without excusing them. In this regard his research was well done and even included the full text of Divisional orders.

I have a few bookmarks, I may drag those out later.

Very good book, but the narrow focus makes lends itself to a different audience than some of his other work.

How to you think this stacks up aginst, Toland, and Will Shirer's books, for readability? They have sort-a been my personal "Gold Standard" for Third Reich works.

 

[AWP]

How to you think this stacks up aginst, Toland, and Will Shirer's books, for readability? They have sort-a been my personal "Gold Standard" for Third Reich works.

I don't know as I haven't read their work(s).

 

[Red Flag 1]

I don't know as I haven't read their work(s).

I read Shirer's "Rise and Fall of The Third Reich" first. I finished it on the plane winging east bound for Germany and a three year PCS move. It was a pretty good read, and flowed nicely. John Toland's "Hitler", was an equally good read, but focused on the man, and not so much the Reich.

With what you and, @pardus have said, Hastings is now on the list.

Thanks!

 

[AWP]

I read Shirer's "Rise and Fall of The Third Reich" first. I finished it on the plane winging east bound for Germany and a three year PCS move. It was a pretty good read, and flowed nicely. John Toland's "Hitler", was an equally good read, but focused on the man, and not so much the Reich.

With what you and, @pardus have said, Hastings is now on the list.

Thanks!

His books on Korea and the Falklands are good, maybe a bit short, but very good. Armageddon (Germany) and Nemesis/ Retribution (Japan) are amazing works.