Reliability of Paul Carell

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ljadw
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Re: Reliability of Paul Carell

#46

Post by ljadw » 19 Feb 2015, 09:09

Sean Oliver wrote: even journalists have at least some scruples!
Do you believe this ? :P

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Urmel
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Re: Reliability of Paul Carell

#47

Post by Urmel » 19 Feb 2015, 12:29

Felix C wrote:I recall from reading his various books in English translations conversations among soldiers would frequently start with "Man,.." Do not know if common practice among German young males of the era or not.
It still was a normal way to start a whinge in the blue-collared or farming classes when I was much younger, 30 years ago, so I could imagine it was a normal figure of speech in the 1930s and 40s. So you would say something like 'Mann, bin ich fertig' (I'm exhausted), or 'Mann ist das Scheisse' (What a load of sh*te that is), or 'Mann, kannste Dich mal zusammenreissen' (Can you get a grip!), just to give some examples.
The enemy had superiority in numbers, his tanks were more heavily armoured, they had larger calibre guns with nearly twice the effective range of ours, and their telescopes were superior. 5 RTR 19/11/41

The CRUSADER Project - The Winter Battle 1941/42


Felix C
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Re: Reliability of Paul Carell

#48

Post by Felix C » 19 Feb 2015, 13:19

Thanks Urmel. Ironically in my youth 30years ago "Man" as a conversational pivot was used often as well. Just like you referred to above.

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Urmel
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Re: Reliability of Paul Carell

#49

Post by Urmel » 19 Feb 2015, 17:35

Yes, quite possible it was imported from the US as well after the war, given the amount of US soldiers stationed in Germany.
The enemy had superiority in numbers, his tanks were more heavily armoured, they had larger calibre guns with nearly twice the effective range of ours, and their telescopes were superior. 5 RTR 19/11/41

The CRUSADER Project - The Winter Battle 1941/42

Sean Oliver
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Re: Reliability of Paul Carell

#50

Post by Sean Oliver » 03 Mar 2015, 09:22

Sheldrake; Like many military historians, D'Este is biased against staying silent when there's evidence to suggest past wars might have been fought and won with greater professional skill and with less loss of life than they actually were. Which is a very good bias.

The Americans never once suspected Britain wasn't pulling her weight. They just thought that Churchill ought to keep Montgomery from commanding Allied armies, and that Alanbrooke ought to keep Churchill from formulating Allied strategy. It seems many if not most British commanders agreed with this notion, more or less.

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Re: Reliability of Paul Carell

#51

Post by Michael Kenny » 03 Mar 2015, 10:19

Sean Oliver wrote:
The Americans never once suspected Britain wasn't pulling her weight. They just thought that Churchill ought to keep Montgomery from commanding Allied armies
Where, prior to late 1944 can we find this 'anti-Monty' movement?

And which Montgomery trait made him an unsuitable commander of Allied Armies?

Sean Oliver
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Re: Reliability of Paul Carell

#52

Post by Sean Oliver » 04 Mar 2015, 16:34

All of them...

Michael Kenny
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Re: Reliability of Paul Carell

#53

Post by Michael Kenny » 04 Mar 2015, 16:51

Sean Oliver wrote:All of them...
This one perhaps?

The German commander of the 5th Panzer Army, Hasso von Manteuffel said of Montgomery's leadership:

The operations of the American 1st Army had developed into a series of individual holding actions. Montgomery's contribution to restoring the situation was that he turned a series of isolated actions into a coherent battle fought according to a clear and definite plan. It was his refusal to engage in premature and piecemeal counter-attacks which enabled the Americans to gather their reserves and frustrate the German attempts to extend their breakthrough


'D'Este:
Such resentments, and many seem to be of postwar creation, were not evident to James Gavin, the 82d Airborne commander, when he dined with Hodges and his staff several days later. "The staff spoke of Montgomery with amusement and respect. They obviously liked him and respected his professionalism." For his part, Gavin was impressed with Montgomery as a soldier. "I took a liking to him that has not diminished with the years."

"Montgomery saved the (U.S.) 7th Armored Division," said Robert Hasbrouck
.




Hey you think he would at least get a thank you!
Last edited by Michael Kenny on 04 Mar 2015, 17:51, edited 6 times in total.

Sean Oliver
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Re: Reliability of Paul Carell

#54

Post by Sean Oliver » 04 Mar 2015, 16:55

Where, prior to late 1944 can we find this 'anti-Monty' movement?
N. Africa, the Mediterranean, S. England, and N. France
And which Montgomery trait made him an unsuitable commander of Allied Armies?
All of them

Michael Kenny
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Re: Reliability of Paul Carell

#55

Post by Michael Kenny » 04 Mar 2015, 17:07

Sean Oliver wrote:
Where, prior to late 1944 can we find this 'anti-Monty' movement?
N. Africa, the Mediterranean, S. England, and N. France


Why do otherwise normal people lose focus when their visceral anti-Montgomery paranoi rears its ugly head?

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Sheldrake
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Re: Reliability of Paul Carell

#56

Post by Sheldrake » 04 Mar 2015, 18:10

Michael Kenny wrote:
Sean Oliver wrote:
The Americans never once suspected Britain wasn't pulling her weight. They just thought that Churchill ought to keep Montgomery from commanding Allied armies
1. Where, prior to late 1944 can we find this 'anti-Monty' movement?

And which Montgomery trait made him an unsuitable commander of Allied Armies?


1. In the minds of Generals Bradley, Clarke and Patton on whose toes Montgomery had at times trodden. Carlo D'Este does a good job of dissecting the relationships in "Bitter Victory."

2. Lack of dimplomacy. Lack of an American passport. It was obvious that as the proportion of US forces rose, they would expect to their generals to command them.

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Marcus
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Re: Reliability of Paul Carell

#57

Post by Marcus » 04 Mar 2015, 19:58

Please get back on topic, i.e. the reliability of Paul Carell.

/Marcus

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Re: Reliability of Paul Carell

#58

Post by Feldwebel_Steiner » 13 Feb 2018, 23:13

maarten swarts wrote:What a complete useless discussion. Of course was Carell everything for what you blame him. But who wasn t in 1960 in Germany? Everybody was in some way connected with the nazi regime, with or against their will. If not, you were not a part of the German society. Germany had lost the war, POWs were just returning from russian camps. The only experience they had in life were war and camps. Nobody wanted to hear their stories, so the Landser Hefte and Carell s books fell on fertile ground. But what s more there wasn t anything else. Yes some division stories but those were not for the average soldier unless they were part of that unit. And Carell could surely write. In 1960 I was in Köln on holiday (bike&tent) and there I bought the magazine "Kristall"
They put every fortnight a piece of his (then) new book "Barbarossa") in it. It was completely new to me. On the first four pages were nothing but letters from readers who said "at last, somebody noted there was a war fifteen years ago". It was then the only book you could read about the war in the east.
So you never thought about the credibility or from where he got his information. You were lucky you had something. Later I recognized how he didnt write of a lot of episodes, especially in Sorched earth. And years later when came up what the Germans did in Russia- killing jews and other people on an enormous scale and the Russian behaviour the books of Carell lost their attraction and credibility.
That Carell s books were dangerous is nonsense, They filled a gap when there was nothing else. They were a good read and didnt turn me in a die hard Nazi. Nowadays there is not a serious historian that uses his books as a reference.

Maarten Swarts
Vol 1 ...Stalingrad, David Glantz

Uses Carell in his bibliography. Funnily enough it’s his Stalingrad book...

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Re: Reliability of Paul Carell

#59

Post by uhu » 14 Feb 2018, 02:55

Yes, books were published in Germany prior to the 60's. Here's a nice two volume set of pictorials published in 1952. Most of the photos have not been published since. I suspect the photos were from Signal magazine and the reproduction is not that clear as would be today, but still interesting.
https://www.amazon.com/ZWEITE-WELTKRIEG ... eg+im+bild

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Re: Reliability of Paul Carell

#60

Post by Panther V » 04 Jan 2019, 19:40

I often wondered why he did not ever write the third book on War in the East since the second ended after the destruction of Army Group Center. Any thoughts?

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