Devil’s Guard by George Robert Elford (PDF)

Description

Condemned to death for the bloodbaths of World War II, they served their sentence—on the killing fields of Vietnam. The fascinating, true story of the French Foreign Legion’s Nazi battalion WHAT THEY DID IN WORLD WAS II WAS HITORY’S BLOODIEST NIGHTMARE.The ashes of World War II were still cooling when France went to war in the jungles of Southeast Asia. In that struggle, its frontline troops were the misfits, criminals, and mercenaries of the French Foreign Legion. And among that international army of the desperate and the damned, none were so bloodstained as the fugitive veterans of the German S.S. WHAT THEY DID IN VIETNAM WAS ITS UGLIEST SECRET—UNTIL NOW.Loathed by the French, feared and hated by the Vietnamese, the Germans fought not for patriotism of glory but because fighting for France was better than hanging from its gallows. Here now is the untold story of the killer elite whose discipline, ferocity, and suicidal courage made them the weapon of last resort.

User’s Reviews

Reviews from Amazon users which were colected at the time this book was published on the website:

⭐I found the discussions regarding the veracity of the facts as described in the book as being irrelevant for the most part. Whether it is a work of fiction, or a version of actual events is, IMHO, not worth the discussions surrounding the book. The one fact which does come through very clearly, however, is the descriptions of the atrocities which the Viet Minh committed throughout the co-joined conflicts which they and their successors, the Viet Cong and PAVN inflicted on both the civilian and various military populations.The underlying truth is the “civilized” view of warfare which many of the western nations conduct their operations these days is a losing proposition. Barbarians will always use the most brutal, inhumane, and painful methods of forcing people to conform to their wishes without regard to the suffering of their victims. Although savagely violent, the view espoused by the “author” in their countering the Viet Minh with equal savagery was, and is, the only thing that barbarians understand. Calling a cease-fire for Christmas, limiting bombing to only strictly military targets, wanting to win the hearts and minds of the general population all only contribute to the knowledge of the barbarians that the western powers are too weak to sustain combat for any lengthy period of time.Americans, and in particular American politicians, have had no stomach for total warfare since World War II, preferring to work towards a stalemate which then ultimately results in complete defeat (Korea, Vietnam, GWOT, etc.) Were they to ignore Christmas, Tet, Ramadan and other holidays and continue combat operations, it would send a message to the barbarians. The same is true if they would remove all restrictions on bombing campaigns (Hanoi, Haiphong, mosques, population centers, etc.) it would remove the barbarians will to continue fighting.I found the book to be very true in that perspective and having spent 3 tours in SEA, I can say that America would not be in the position it is today had we fought the communists on their terms instead of naively believing they would fight on ours. Any person who has studied even superficially the history of warfare in both Asia and Europe over the centuries would understand.

⭐This book is a great contribution to the history of the defeat of the French in Indochina and of Communist tactics that are still in use today. I recommend it highly.

⭐Welcome to war. These men knew war all too well.

⭐After reading all the reviews there is nothing more I can add. This book at $7.99 is a huge bargain, buy it while you can. I had to download the book to read it initially, now that it is available at $7.99 I have purchased four books. Eventually it will go back up.This book intently held my attention and I could not find any obvious inconsistencies. If it is partly fiction the author did a wonderful job of research and must have spoken to people who were there.I found this on the web:I can repeat some info from the book and from what he (Hans) told me when we talked on the phone. First of all, he was an Obersturmfuhrer (2nd Lt) in a “headhunter” outfit. The book starts in the last few days of the war and they were I think in or near mountains near Liberec, Czecholslovakia.The Russians knew there were a sizable number of men in the mountains but did not know exactly who or how many. The Russians tried to get them to surrender–telling them everything that if you were to become a POW, that you would want to hear.Eventually, most of them decided to surrender and were executed by the Russians after they surrendered. Those who remained in the mountains supposedly 300 or so men strong, decided to make their way back home westward. “Hans-Josef Wagemuller” is the book name. His real name was Hans-J. Schwartz. He had eventually become an American citizen and lived in (FL) the Southern part of the USA.When I talked with him by phone and asked questions about what was said in the book, he did answer many things that were printed in the book. As I do give the benefit of the doubt to someone who says he was here or did this or that, and especially since he was able to cite things from the book, I have to believe what he told me was true. True he could have been reading froma copy of the book as we spoke but, I asked many questions and I doubt he could have found or known the answers to them, as fast as he did–if he had to hunt for them in the book–unless he had the entire text memorized.Anyway, the part of the massacre of surrendered German personnel was true. His description on trying to make his way back home was true. The part when (while his force was still together at the beginning of their exodus home) when they came upon a group of German POWs doing some logging. They took out the Russian guards and freed the pows–who were all German officers.I don’t know how true it is on how many of these men of this group perished on the way home. Apparently many of them did and many probably did after they split up into small groups. I do not know if his friend “Karl Pfirstenhammer” was a Fallschirmjager or not–or even if he really existed. Evidently, this guy was based on some real friend of his.One of his chief Sergreants “Sergeant Rudolf Schenck” was also supposed to be based an another true ex-Wehrmacht soldier. “Corporal Altrieter” was yet, another one. I do not know if the character of the ex-Gestapo agent “Karl ????” was true or not.I do know that he described tactics–which were mentioned in the book, such as the “L” shaped ambush, the bamboo bombs, poisonous arrows and the part of the East Germans who were helping the “Reds” out with translations of intercepted messages were also reported to be true. This time–talk about those East german traitors, came from another German vet of this all German Bataillon. He was also interviewed by The History Channel several years ago.Also, I do not know what all is supposed to be fictionalized that is in this book. At any rate, what I was told by Hans was supposedly all the truth.Carl, he was the man who did the research.

⭐Fictitious juvenile account for the weak minded and undereducated, laced with nazi propaganda hate for idiots. Full of racism. Read a war comic instead, it has pictures in it. The only consolation is knowing the Vietnamese eventually won their country back from colonist/imperialists/corrupt. normally I donate read books to charity – not this one though, its going straight into the burner come winter !

⭐Due to Amazon’s new page lay out and my phone I never looked at book size only how many pages, story etc…Received package and was shocked Much smaller than a standard paper back. The paper is the same as youget in a cheap kids colouring book, and it looksl ike the print has been shrunk to fit..If your going to reprint your books . Or write a new one why NOT give a better look and feel to them. I am going to struggle to read the print in this book even with glasses on

⭐Fantastic book hooked from day one. Read a few things about the Nazi Division of the French Foreign Legion and all claims have been either dismissed or claimed as exaggeration by war historians. Doesn’t surprise me that all army’s and country’s used these types of expertise to reclaim colonies after the war, just like the British used Japanese soldiers to keep the peace after the war in the Pacific. Great book.

⭐I would suggest you take any historic fact from this book with a pinch of salt as there is several conflicting and confusing reports of former SS troops serving at that time with the Legion but once you see past this and take the work as fiction it really was a superb read and I would highly recommend it to anyone interested in military history or Vietnam of that era.The writer is very skilled in making you feel sorry at times for the evil SS which I was surprised at. He is also skilled at telling a very gripping story of jungle warfare and the various weapons and tactics used and he has clearly some personal military history himself or he has done his homework very well.It’s been a very long time since I have purchased a Kindle book that I looked forward to every night before bed.

⭐A very interesting story, dealing with a very unpopular protagonist. Unflinching, it’s a great read for anyone interested in warfare and guerrilla tactics. Whilst it is definitely based on a true story I feel like the author has definitely prettied the account up in places to make it read better and be more engaging. This book also lead me to purchase “The Jungle Is Neutral”, a similar read which is you believe “Devil’s Guard” was where the Legionnaires learned much of their jungle tactics.

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