Feldgrau.net

Sorry Tom, you'll have to explain the phrase "taking it easy". Not in my vocabulary.

As long as you have good friends to support your research nothing impossible



Jan-Hendrik

I'm always amazed by how helpful, generous and above all knowledgeable the international historical community is.

Danke an alle!

Richard Hargreaves wrote:Sorry Tom, you'll have to explain the phrase "taking it easy". Not in my vocabulary.

The Graveyard is full of Indispensable people Richard. Remember all work and no play.......

Regards

I'm always amazed by how helpful, generous and above all knowledgeable the international historical community is.

Those who are digging deep enough are only few...that's why we are condemmed to help each other



Jan-Hendrik

Richard,

I received my copy of Blitzkrieg Unleashed and have finished the first three chapters thus far. I have to say I knew nothing of the Polish Campaign, or of the general atmosphere that existed at the time, so your background chapters are fascinating to me. I also appreciate that you do not treat the campaign as simply a matter of tactics and operations, but as something part of the generational fabric between the two combatants shaped by geography and German-Polish culture.

I had an "ah ha" moment when you quoted Stanislaw as saying in 1939 "From today we will dedicate every edition of this newspaper to the coming Grunwald in Berlin."

Not sure if you knew this, but Zhukov had to order the 1st Polish Infantry Division into Berlin to back up the two remaining corps of the 2nd GTA that effectively ran out on infantry. The Polish unit fought there way to the Victory Column. After the war they established a whole new order of medals that included the equivalent to the US Army's Combat Infantry Badge. You can see the photo below. Note the tie between Grunwald and Berlin. I guess Stanislaw was right!

Looking forward to reading the rest of this excellent book!!

I ordered my copy from Amazon today and will be here Friday. Looking forward to good reading. I don't know a lot about the Polish Campaign, so I should learn something.

Wally

Stephan H. wrote:Richard,

I received my copy of Blitzkrieg Unleashed and have finished the first three chapters thus far. I have to say I knew nothing of the Polish Campaign, or of the general atmosphere that existed at the time, so your background chapters are fascinating to me. I also appreciate that you do not treat the campaign as simply a matter of tactics and operations, but as something part of the generational fabric between the two combatants shaped by geography and German-Polish culture.

I had an "ah ha" moment when you quoted Stanislaw as saying in 1939 "From today we will dedicate every edition of this newspaper to the coming Grunwald in Berlin."

Not sure if you knew this, but Zhukov had to order the 1st Polish Infantry Division into Berlin to back up the two remaining corps of the 2nd GTA that effectively ran out on infantry. The Polish unit fought there way to the Victory Column. After the war they established a whole new order of medals that included the equivalent to the US Army's Combat Infantry Badge. You can see the photo below. Note the tie between Grunwald and Berlin. I guess Stanislaw was right!

Looking forward to reading the rest of this excellent book!!

Hi Stephan,

Nope, I knew absolutely nothing about that. I do now.

It was interesting in Wroclaw the other month seeing the Soviet monument near the Century Hall - and the monument to the Poles who fought with the Red Army. Utterly neglected. It's as though it's a part of Polish history the post-1989 generation wish to expunge.

I'm a firm believer that history should be told through the eyes of those who made it, rather than Corps X was here and Regiment Y was on one flank, Z on the other. To be sure, that's important, especially to military types who look to understand a battle. Me, being a journalist, I just look for a good story and there are good stories to tell in the Polish campaign (and some really atrocious ones). To understand the 1939 campaign, you've certainly got to go beyond 'blitzkrieg' and look at the social, religious and historical background to get a grip on just how vicious it was on both sides.

Hope you enjoy the rest of the read. It'll be a good three years before the next one comes out of the Hargreaves stable as it's chugging along very slowly at the moment.

I finally got around to cataloguing my WW2 German-language collection on Library Thing.

http://www.librarything.com/catalog/Richard.Hargreaves

All that's left now is to add the WW1 books... and the English-language books...

Hi Richard


I would concur with all the the readers here in Feldgrau. Western Front is being researched to death. I would love to see more Ostfront books

Memel 1945
Kolberg 1945
Danzig 1945
Breslau 1945 (of course, you're working on it :) )
Prague 1945

The only topics I would love to see on the Western Front were

Dunkirk 1945
Lorient 1945
Metz 1945

Best wishes
Panzermahn

Norway 1940 is now shelved sine die. There's one substantial new book on the subject due out imminently.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/German-Invasion ... 168&sr=1-1

And I have a feeling there's another Norwegian campaign book either just out or imminent, so there seems little point putting a third one out there in four or five years' time.

Oh well, only several hundred quid on research down the proverbial...

... the good news is that the Caucasus book is probably next after Breslau... unless something else catches my fancy (which is entirely likely as I have a habit of being capricious; hmmm, that's an oxymoron... )

Richard, I wonder of that's a German Invasion of Norway...the way Peter Schenk's book on Sealion only really concentrated on the German preparations...? If anything , it might ramp up the need for a balanced, detailed overview...

Henrik Lunde just put out a book on Norway as well. No reviews yet, so it's hard to say if it's any good.

There's a ton of really solid material on the invasion of Norway (first hand accounts and whatnot) that's pretty much untappable unless you speak the language, so doing a well-rounded book on the topic is hard. A more one-sided approach à la 'Blitzkrieg Unleashed' would still be appreciated, though. "The Germans in Norway"

Haven't read much on the Caucasus, so a book in the narrative style on that would be intriguing. The two subjects that interest me the most are the very end of the war (1945 with Berlin, Breslau, Küstrin, Danzig, etc) and Dirlewanger (the man himself and his unit), though. There's not a single decent book on the latter in English, hint hint.

That was the one; couldn't remember the title and could not find it on Amazon. There's a lot of German first-hand material which has never seen the light of day and which I've picked up down the years.

The Norwegian campaign was to have formed the second strand of a series of either three or four books from Poland through to Sealion and all would have been German-centric and written in the same(ish) style as Blitzkrieg Unleashed. I may revisit the project when I see the two new books as they may be completely different, but it's going to be some time before a publisher's wishing to tackle Norway again.

Caucasus is still a "go". Dirlewanger's a "no" (doesn't interest me and I think the market would be very limited).

Haha, yes, I suppose that writing a book about Dirlewanger and the 36th SS wouldn't be particularly financially rewarding .

How many copies have you moved of your other two books, by the way? Writing military history doesn't seem to be very profitable (especially not the very specialized stuff, like books about award holders) unless your name is Antony Beevor or Cornelius Ryan.