Ok It was Guns At Cassino. Loada rubbish cos no Waffen-SS at Cassino. http://tbn0.google.com/images?q=tbn:rvzG9gDtE7h6XM:http://bp2.blogger.com/_XsVALQtGIZM/Rqj-TCFY9KI/AAAAAAAABi0/ecFh3ImEKTc/s400/Kessler-Guns%2Bat%2BCassino.jpg You like it really! OGPU Prison, that one of the best ones. I think that the one with the crazy Puma ride. ALl pretty much the same story. Start with a big offensive, which gets stopped after a big tank battle. Go back the German lines, have moan and fight amongst themsleves and any officers. Get selected for a secret mission. Go one secret mission which will involve getting drunk and a crazy vehicle chase at some point. Some civvies al likely get blown up at this point. Get back in time for tea and medals, but everyone dead except for the boys! Kev
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 a lot of Sven Hassel in my late teens/early twenties. I thought I'd got rid of them all, but found one the other day on the bookcase after reading this thread ~ Monte Cassino. Tried to read it again, but it was dire
commando comics are great,wont have a bad word against them,i even got a hard back book with several stories in when i was a kid.lee.
There's a big nostalgia kick for Commando and the Fleetway comic books and there are several collections in semi-hardback now available.
S H,Loved as a kid,read one or two as nostalgia a few years back but to be honest thought the one dealing with the Warsaw Uprising repulsive after my trips to Warsaw and havnt picked one up since. Ah,Commando comics.I can still remember clearly my first ever one. RFC floatplane in WW1 crashes,German rescues Brit,between wars Brit and German families become mates,Sons end up shooting each other down in N Africa ,Brits captured by DAK,Mad Arabs want to kill 'em all,so brits who outnumber GDs pretend to be the GDs,big fight in a desert fort....brill
Ah Commando Books, Brilliant!! Great books to read as a boy!! All you needed to keep Jerries at bay was a "Sarge" with a Bren Gun!
A Private would say, " I don't like it , it's too quiet." Hero Sarge would reply " Take it easy, son." Commando books, oh , the memories.
And the amount of times two mathildas would hold off a force of 30 or more Panzer IV's are too numerous to mention!
well heres what i got about Hassel: According to editors, the 1st book was real, and when the book turned out to be a best-seller, the editors told Hassel to write similar stuff for them. Many of the events happening did not happen to him, yet he wrote them thanks to oral info he obtained while he was in contanct with troops in WW2 I heard he is now working in another book . So if u dont like Hassel, just dont read it. If u like it, well read and enjoy the books, who the f*** cares if they are real or not nowadays?
How bizarre; 'Sven' has a Facebook page: The Official Sven Hassel Page | Facebook Photos too... Merged a couple of Hassel threads - sure there were more out there ~A.
And Porta's Kitchen as well The 27th (Penal) Panzer Regiment I remember seeing a film based on this book. Utter fiction, but fun to watch. Regards Tom
I too read these books as a child and loved everyone of them. I read all the books by Sven, but as to their crediblity/fact? I think the give away is issuing Tiger tanks to a penal unit!
Did Sven actually write them all? I understood from an afficionado I spoke to years ago that he only wrote the first one or two and the rest were 'ghost written' and contain lots of technical mistakes and continuity erors. The 'Porta's Kitchen' website implies otherwise. I didn't like them but others at school did.
Is "Leo Kessler" also the author Charles Whiting ? Sven H was like a right of passage , few of us would waste time on it now apart from a trip down memory lane for a laugh. "Wheels of Terror" sticks out in my mind , that and "Assignment Gestapo" "to guard the brutal Gestapo Headquarters". "SS General" - fun but utter fiction with a big F. :p Have not seen them in print for ages ..... things must run in cycles...once upon a time Desmond Bagley , Alastair McClean , Sven Hassel , Harold Robbins seemed to be all over the news stands now you never see nor hear tell of them. According to Facebook 93 years old. fair play to the man.
JAMES S. Is "Leo Kessler" also the author Charles Whiting ? Yes James he is and im sure there is something on the net somewhere in ref to it.Edit, here you go. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Whitiing
Kessler is/was Whiting. Though those books were a poor imitation of Sven for my childhood tastes. The Sven books were reprinted fairly recently I'm sure, hopefully fuelling some more 12 year olds interest - though you have reminded me that they used to be a common sight in Newsagents . Can't really see that now. Mark, 'Continuity errors' doesn't even come close - I think Porta and the Old Man must have carked it at least three times apiece.
