Sven hassel books

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Lasse
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#16

Post by Lasse » 30 Jan 2004, 17:08

Yes, they are pretty good, but you most see away from history when you read them.
And remeber: Sven Hassel (This is what i have heard from an guy who knows really much) has never been in the german army.

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Lustmolch
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#17

Post by Lustmolch » 30 Jan 2004, 22:35

There are a couple of Sven hassel websites you can have a look at, Porta's Kitchen is quite good.

Whether or not SH was a soldier in the War is debateable, and a lot of his books are far fetched to say the least but they are quite good escapism when all is said and done.

Mind you the "Wheels of Terror" film was crap with a capital C!


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a.L
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hassel

#18

Post by a.L » 03 Nov 2004, 03:32

i think he had written 14 books. all are translated and selling in turkey now. they are really entertaining.

nopsa
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#19

Post by nopsa » 03 Nov 2004, 19:59

I love the books! I have read 6 of them and I'm reading my 7th now

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Wolfensteiner
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#20

Post by Wolfensteiner » 03 Nov 2004, 23:23

Yeah... they show the real brutality of the combat hardened soldier... is it true he fought in WW2 and for who?

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Vulkan
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#21

Post by Vulkan » 04 Nov 2004, 18:00

Very exciting, very entertaining for youngsters. But they just cannot be true he flips from front to front like the wind!!

nihil
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#22

Post by nihil » 05 Nov 2004, 03:33

Wery inaccurate books. in Wheels of Terror, his tiger tank (which the penal units use..) has MG42's (how are they going to change barrels on them??) and at one point a flame thrower.

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Rand
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#23

Post by Rand » 05 Nov 2004, 12:03

I've always liked this books but they have no value as reality based literature. Hassel was a common thief (of bikes) during the war and was arrested as a imposter when he worn a German army uniform. It is said that he started to learn some of his storys from men he was imprisoned with, and his wife would write all the storys in later years. Still like the books though....

Rand.

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Lawrence
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#24

Post by Lawrence » 09 Nov 2004, 04:34

Rand wrote:I've always liked this books but they have no value as reality based literature. Hassel was a common thief (of bikes) during the war and was arrested as a imposter when he worn a German army uniform. It is said that he started to learn some of his storys from men he was imprisoned with, and his wife would write all the storys in later years. Still like the books though....

Rand.
As far as I know, he really did serve in a penal unit and the story that he was a Gestapo informant is the fabrication. I'm quoting from Wikipedia, which is pretty accurate.
A Danish journalist, Erik Haaest, has spent many years trying to "expose" Hassel. Haaest claims that the author spent the majority of World War II in occupied Denmark and that his knowledge of warfare comes second-hand from other Danish SS veterans whom he met after the end of the war. Haaest also claims that Hassel's first novel was ghostwritten and when it became a success, he employed his wife to write the rest of his books. Although these allegations are believed by relatively few people, they have focussed attention on Hassel's description of his own past and provoked much discussion, particularly on Internet newsgroups and discussion forums, on their validity.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sven_Hassel

He's still alive today and denies the charges. It sounds much more believable that he was really a soldier in the Heer instead of a thief and Gestapo spy. Stories on the internet have a truth to them all their own.

Polynikes
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#25

Post by Polynikes » 09 Nov 2004, 07:01

Love the bit in Monte Cassino where Tiny and Heide fight over a Kalashnikov.

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Wolfensteiner
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#26

Post by Wolfensteiner » 09 Nov 2004, 23:38

I never knew there was a movie made about Wheels of Terror, anyone seen it? The Misfit Brigade?

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B Hellqvist
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#27

Post by B Hellqvist » 10 Nov 2004, 03:34

AussieTiger wrote:I never knew there was a movie made about Wheels of Terror, anyone seen it? The Misfit Brigade?
Haven't seen it, but from what I've heard, you haven't missed anything.

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juhae
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#28

Post by juhae » 10 Nov 2004, 07:31

Kingsley wrote:I'm quoting from Wikipedia, which is pretty accurate.
Just remember it's accurate as long as people are actually filling it with accurate content. For an encyclopedia which can be edited by anybody, I'd take the entries about most controversial and/or debated issues with a grain or salt.

david Cotton
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Monte Cassino - Opening battle

#29

Post by david Cotton » 11 Sep 2005, 22:36

Hello all,
At the beggining of the Sven Hassel novel Monte Casino, he writes about a US landing. If I rember right, the first 3 waves are wiped out by the defenders so they send in the US marines (fresh from fighting in the pacific) to brake the defence. This they do and in the process lop the heads off of a few Germans with their captured Sameria swords. Exciting stuff by jove.

I have not read much about the US landings in Italy, but is their any truth in his discription of the landing at all. I do understand that these books are fiction, but has he used any historucal facts in his description of the landing.

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David

British Sapper
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#30

Post by British Sapper » 18 Sep 2005, 04:42

I read Sven Hassels books when I was a naive British squaddie in the early 1970's.

His books are 100 % fiction. Not a shred of truth in them. Entertaining but BS.

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