Review (PDF) D DAY Through German Eyes - Book 2 - More Hidden Stories From June 6th 1944
The first book of ‘D DAY – Through German Eyes’ fascinated readers around the world with its insight into the German experience of June 6th 1944. Now, Book 2 contains a completely different set of astonishing German testimonies from the same archive.These newly translated eyewitness statements by German veterans show the defenders to be determined but psychologically insecure, often deluded in their thinking and all too human in their shock at the onslaught which they faced.These unique interviews with German soldiers are a historical treasure trove of new insights, heart-stopping combat stories and glimpses of wartime psychology which will absorb anyone with an interest in WW2.“I am astonished by the immediacy of these new translations from the archive, and I believe that readers will find these accounts, if anything, even more compelling than the first book. These statements reveal the ambiguous relationships which the German soldiers had with French civilians, especially women, and the way these relationships were destroyed on D Day itself. There are accounts from a Luftwaffe pilot who was one of the first to witness the Allied armada from the air, and stories from foot soldiers, military police and panzer crews who fought desperately to hold back the beach landings and airborne assaults. The disturbing motivations of the German troops – political, personal and even religious – are presented with an honesty which sheds a radical new light on why the Germans fought so bitterly, so viciously, to keep control of what they perceived to be 'their' precious France.” – Holger Eckhertz, archive holder.
File Size: 617 KB
Print Length: 168 pages
Publisher: DTZ History Publications (July 23, 2015)
Publication Date: July 23, 2015
Sold by: Digital Services LLC
Language: English
ASIN: B012HJK542
Text-to-Speech: Enabled
X-Ray: Enabled
Word Wise: Enabled
Lending: Not Enabled
Enhanced Typesetting: Enabled
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As with the first book, I think this is probably fiction.I might believe this book more if I could find anything about Holger or Dieter Eckhertz or any sign of an original German edition, and if it didn't involve Sprech Media, which has been responsible for several other purported WW2 Gerrman biographical works which appear to me to be pretty much fiction.Why are these reports published only now and (apparently) only in English? What was the editing process? The pieces read nothing like real interview transcripts.As it is, I find the consistent detail and coherence of the memories implausible. The battle scenes are too cinematic and all have far too similar a tone, despite the efforts to present different "characters".Specific nerd-red-flags (acknowledging that I'm open to correction on all of these):- I don't think Assault Gun Battalion 200 had Stug III's (rather, conversions of French vehicles).- I call the section on the crude thermobaric weapon "Typhoon B" complete fiction until somebody produces real documentary evidence. What was the identity of the supposed artillery unit?- I don't know what it would mean for a fighter pilot to be "attached" to Jagdabschnittfuhrer 5. If he was in France before D-Day and he was flying a Bf 109G on June 6, I think he must have been a pilot with III/JG 26 which wasn't based "north of Evreux" and which I think flew no beachhead missions on the day (? - the commander of JG 26, Pips Priller, flew such a mission as depicted in "The Longest Day" but that was in a FW & from a different field than III/JG 26's at Villacoublay).
From an EU form- This entire Sprech media SS Panzer series (Sherman Killers, Hitler's Children, SS Inferno, SS Pride) is a literary fraud designed in part to ennoble the Waffen SS. The series is carefully written and reasonably well researched but the fakery becomes clear as the reader proceeds through the accounts in the various 'books' The recollections are too vivid; the descriptions of combat experiences on widely different battlefields are too similar; the first person accounts are stylistically identical; and the actions portrayed are clearly calculated to excite the reader's interest by including just about every major land weapon system used by the Germans in WWII (Something like the 'Call of Duty' video games.) This is not history, it is is fiction.There are clues within individual "accounts" that reveal the recollections to be bogus--for example, the account (in "SS Inferno")of the battle of Kursk has an Elephant tank destroyer fighting with the SS in Army Group South on the southern side of the salient whereas all Elephants were deployed by the 41st Panzer Corps of Army Group Center on the northern front. Similarly, the account of a Jagdtiger, Tiger I, and Tiger II operating together in the Ardennes is a fantasy--these vehicles fought in separate battalions not in combined groups of single vehicles of each type. Perhaps most obvious made-up story is the first hand description (in "Hitler's Children") supposedly given by a young Frenchwoman (and expert on weapons systems) taking cover in a house in the middle of a ferocious tank battle which she is able to describe with Kodak-like precision despite what must have been a veritable hurricane of shellfire, explosions, mayhem, and destruction--what a corespondent!
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