Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #70851 in Books
• Published on: 2006-08-01
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 296 pages

Synopsis
Dutch SS accounts are very rare, particularly ones such as this, covering recruitment, training, and frontline service first with 5th SS Panzer Division 'Wiking', then later with SS Regiment Besslein. He not only informs and illustrates the general politics of the time, but also explains how Dutch views of the Third Reich changed so radically, discusses the founding of the Waffen-SS, the recruitment of Dutch volunteers into it and why so many non-German Europeans volunteered to fight and risk their lives for Germany. His discussion of the intensity of the SS's training is also noteworthy. Of course, the core of the book lies in Hendrik's recollections of his service on the Eastern Front between 1941 and 1945, initially with the 5th SS Panzer Division 'Wiking'. He offers the reader an impressive and fluid account, whether it be describing the midst of battle, surviving 50 degrees below zero, frosts and frozen ground, or traversing quagmired roads.

Of particular historical interest are his later recollections of service during 1944-45 with SS Regiment Besslein on the Eastern Front, focusing on his participation in the epic defence of Breslau - this siege remains little-known in the West, and first-hand accounts such as Hendrik's are even scarcer, making this title a worthy addition to the literature on the Second World War.

Customer Reviews

Fairly interesting but a bit vague
The author is quite vague about his actual combat experiences. It's more of a general overview of what happened during his time fighting on the eastern front. For example he was wounded in one of his first attacks on a russian village but he doesn't tell you how he was wounded. He just states he felt some blood on his arm and that the wound wasn't very serious. Later when he is fighting in Breslau he just states there was bitter house to house fighting but again gives no real detail. I'm wasn't looking for all the blood and gorey details but I was expecting to read more detailed accounts of his participation in the battles. If you want to read a gripping combat memoir there are better books out there ie. Sniper on the Eastern Front and The Blood Red Snow are just a couple.

Excellent coverage of Siege of Breslau 1945
This is a very interesting book. The author manages to cover a lot of interesting ground, which is not usually written about in other German World War II memoirs. In particular, his perspective as a Dutch volunteer is written about at length. The prewar conditions in the Netherlands that the author views as responsible for the early years of World War II seeing so many of his fellow countrymen volunteer for service at the front with the Germans are explained in detail (even if one may not always agree with his political opinions).

Likewise, the way the early volunteers joined the SS, their induction and training is also explained at some length.

If you are looking for combat experiences, then the fact that the author served in the East in Silesia during 1945 easily justify buying this book. His account of service in a Kampfgruppe in besieged Breslau with SS Regiment Besslein is very good indeed. There is plenty of detail, particularly as these events are little known in the English-speaking world, and even less written about.

This title is well worth buying because of the different perspective it offers, and particularly for its excellent coverage of some aspects of the final months of the war on the Eastern Front which receive very little coverage elsewhere.

not for the casually interested
In a nutshell: In the Fire of the Eastern Front left me with mixed feelings. On the one hand as the publisher's blurb suggests WWII memoirs of Dutch Waffen-SS volunteers are very rare and this makes this book interesting and worth having in it's own right. On the other hand for me it did not deliver on all points. Foremost is the fact that from a purely military-history point of view the descriptions of the frontline experiences are a lot less detailed than one could hope for. For instance there is little specific technical information relating to (the use of) small-arms in combat nor much about tactics, little unit or order of battle information and the author surprisingly rarely mentions specific comrades or unit commanders. The time the author Hendrik Verton spent in the ranks of the Wiking division (in fact with a detached sub- or ad hoc unit of said division) was limited to the winter of 1941-1942 and spring of '42 on the central part of the front. Verton then fell ill with typhoid fever and was transported back to Germany. The period from the summer of 1942 to the summer of 1944 is covered in only a few pages; after recuperating from his illness the author took part in a couple of training courses. The action only picks up again in the second half of 1944 when Verton is posted to a Kampfgruppe in East Prussia and afterwards to SS (fortress) regiment Besslein in Silesia (an area of Eastern Germany which is now part of Poland). Unclear remains why Verton never returned to the Wiking division. The Silesian and Breslau siege part of the book I found to be the most interesting. Breslau held out till after the fall of Berlin and it is an epic episode in the closing stages of the Russo-German war which is not well known outside of Germany. Verton's experiences during the siege are well worth the read. The fairly extensive post-war part of the book is fairly interesting but one could secretly wish more of these pages had been spent on his actual front-line experiences.

Completely superfluous however to all but the complete WWII novice are the many pages relating the general course of the war. Who for example wants to read some digression about the Battle of Britain in an Eastern Front memoir? Having read about two dozen German veteran memoirs it still amazes me why some editors do not make their authors stick to what they personally experienced, with say only the broadest outlines of the bigger picture of the front where the author served to put things in perspective.
Unsurprising but perhaps for some after a while annoying are the many `apologist' statements in the book. They do not detract from the substance of this memoir and of course the author is free to expound his views on whether WWII was really such a clear-cut showdown between pure good and pure evil. Interesting in this light is the recent book on WWII in Europe by Norman Davies. However Verton is not an historian and while he repeatedly accuses Western opinion of being unfairly biased towards Germany in general and to the Waffen-SS in particular the author then resorts to his own bias and paints a very one-sided picture of stalwart volunteer idealists bravely fighting Communism and saving Western civilization. No shades of gray here. However precisely because of the fact Verton is not a historian it is interesting to see how so long after the war a person can still be so adamant and unwavering about his views and convictions.

The translation from the original German could have benefited from better proof reading. Some sentences seem a bit quirky. A couple of times an obviously Dutch word or name should have been translated into Dutch instead of being left in German. Also a Dutch newspaper is called National Socialist instead of Socialist (or Social Democrat), an embarrassing mistake. Sometimes abbreviations are not explained, footnotes and an index are sadly missing and some quotes are not attributed. The bibliography is almost exclusively German.

So there you have it, a mixed bag. If you are not familiar with WWII nor with eastern front memoirs from the German point of view do not buy this book, you will be disappointed. A far better start would be Blood Red Snow for instance by Koschorrek. If you are more familiar with the Eastern front and or are interested in the Waffen-SS volunteers then this book should be in your collection, despite its faults. Before you order it though you might first want to have a look see at Twilight of the Gods by Hillblad and Wallin.