Sven Hassel

my dad read these books when i was a kid.i reckon they are bo##ocks,authours have vivid imaginations,just read harry potter.4th wilts.

 

I'm with Lee on this one. Hassel writes a good story (read all of them meself) but there are too many elements of fiction contained in his novels

For example: the 27th Panzer Regiment was not Penal.

Tiger tanks did not get assigned to Penal Battalions.

There were no SS generals in Stalingrad.

Of the books (and I say this even though its dubious) "Wheels of terror" might be the closest to "real Life" but I still say that its all fiction as are the Characters.

 

Its been well discussed PL, Where all fans, but its not in anyway related to fact.

Kev

 

I've enjoyed the ones I've read but I never took them too seriously.

 

All Hassells books are fiction , he and his books have been discussed at length before on numerous forums, but i must admit they and Purnells history of the second world war were the first things i read on the Eastern Front when i was a kid and they got me hooked for life !!

 

Fiction but a bloody good read nether the less....

There are to many conflicting remarks Characters etc that die in one book by one thing get mentioned in others as having died another way Pluto for example......

For sure a lot of these guys proberley did exist but elaborated on big time.......

Darjeeling tea though had me in stitches the thought of all that top brass throwing each other out of the karsy on rank alone when Porta was stitched on one of his legendary deals....and the flee ridden furs..........real good light hearted stuff and after some of the factual stuff he has written about the eastern front he needed it!

"O and if anyone is interested Wheels of Terror was made into a film and its was pretty good but dont take it to seriously"

 

I do now that Hassels books may be quite fiction, do you think he was REALLY a soldier or a complete liar. Regarding the characters, i think many are real There are some photos of Tiny and Porta in Sven´s official site

 

I hated them.
Am I the only one here who did?
What age were you when you first read them Owen? I got hooked on them when I was about 11 or 12. I re-read one recently and it didn't quite live up to my fond memories.
As Korps says, Purnell's 'History..', the weekly one with the black binders, Commando comics and Sven Hassel were all I read for a couple of years.

Bod.

 

I read them after my teacher had one on his desk he agreed to get me a copy only after I told him it was on the quite language etc!!!

I was about 10........Leo Kessler etc was not my cup of tea although I liked the Douglad Reeman series of books and loved anything to do with the easthern front or tanks or U boats.....

Sven has a website will have to check it out....is he alive still?

 

Just taken a look at his site where are the pictures of the characters?

 

Link to Sven Hassel on wiki
Sven Hassel - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

I think they are the real characters. I dont think the char are fiction but the situations they are involved in, most of these are too strange

 

I hated them.
Am I the only one here who did?
No, I thought they were a complete load of bollocks as well

 

Although a World War Two nut as a kid, I disliked the Sven Hassel books too. 'Leo Kessler' was of course a pseudonym of the ultra-prolific British author and World War II veteran Charles Whiting, who died recently. The Kessler books were a pretty obvious attempt to cash in on the success of Hassel and Willi Heinrich.
Incidentally I am the only person in the world who thought that the Fleetway war comics (War and Battle Picture Library etc) were far better than Commando? I've stiil got a fair collection of them. Some of the Commando covers were superb but the stories were rather repetitive and simplistic, I thought. Each to their own...

 

Sven Hassel.

Complete rubbish and false.

He never experienced war and his CV is purely fictional.One who fancied himself in a Nazi uniform and created the fiction around it.It has been recorded that he was on the fringe of the Gestapo as a petty informer when Denmark was under occupation.

Its a pity he was not subject to an intense interview at "the height of his work".I would have thought that his whereabouts were known only to his publisher.

Nevertheless a good income stream was created by him and it would appear some are still duped by his front.

 

Same age.
In early 1980s I prefered James Rouch.
Gateway To Hell
Tiger
War Machines
The Zone series.

I've mentioned them on here before.
I tried one Leo Kessler book, Monte Cassino, thought that was rubbish too.


Monte Cassino is Sven Owen. Not that it makes the slightest bit of diiference