Vol. II of Stan Cook's History of the LSSAH
Vol. II of Stan Cook's History of the LSSAH
Members, I've been in recent contact with Colonel Stan Cook, who wrote Volume I of the definitive history (i.e., an unbiased, accurately sourced and reliable account) of the LSSAH, published by R. James Bender in 1994. I asked him whatever happened to Volume II - for a long time I thought that he had passed away or was terminally ill - and he said that he had submitted the completed manuscript to R. James 10 years ago. So, that led me on a quest to contact Herr Bender, who said that he had it, but did not intend to publish it, as it still needed photos and maps to be considered a complete manuscript. Anyway, long story short, I got John J. Fedorowicz interested in it - no guarantees - but he would like to look at it. Roger sent it back to Stan, who now has it and the ball is now in his court. Whether this will lead to a final published product is unknown but the necessary connections have been made. For those of you who don't know, Stan's Volume I (a very rare book now), covered the LSSAH from formation up until 1 September 1939; Volume II was to take the division from that date up to the end of the war. If you've read Vol. I, you'll notice that Stan drew upon a wide variety of official sources, NARA files, and of course Rudolf Lehmann's good divisional history. Vol. II was to be just as well resourced and attributed, and if published, will constitute a work reminiscent of Charles Sydnor's definitive history of the SS-TK Division. Hopefully, JJ Fedorowicz can work out some kind of deal with Stan; it would be a shame if the project dies due to lack of interest.
Re: Vol. II of Stan Cook's History of the LSSAH
For those of you who aren't familiar with the book, here's the unmistakable cover: