Devil's Guard
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
55 of 59 people found the following review helpful
By S L Locker
Format:Mass Market Paperback
I FIRST READ THIS BOOK WHILST SERVING IN THE FALKLAND ISLANDS MANY YEARS AGO. IT HAD BEEN LEFT THERE BY A PREVIOUS OCCUPANT. I READ IT TWICE AND THEN, BECAUSE OF MY ENTHUSIASM, LENT IT TO SOMEONE WHO DID NOT RETURN IT. SINCE THEN I HAVE SEARCHED HIGH AND LOW FOR THIS FANTASTIC, ENGROSSING READ. IT REALLY GIVES YOU AN ACCURATE INSIGHT INTO, WHAT SOME MIGHT SAY IS A FORGOTTEN WAR, A CHAPTER THAT SOME AUTHORITY FIGURES MAY NOT WANT TO BE PUBLIC KNOWLEDGE. AS YOU READ THIS, YOU FEEL AS THOUGH YOU KNOW THE CHARACTERS, YOU FEEL THIER PAIN, SENSE THIER FRUSTRATIONS AND FEEL SORROW AT THIER LOSSES. THE BLACK HUMOUR DISPLAYED BY THE SUBJECTS IS SHARED WITH THE MILITARY FORCES OF TODAY. THIS IS THE STORY OF HANS JOSEF WAGEMULLER AND HIS FELLOW KOPFJAEGER AND I TRULY WISH I HAD A COPY, AND COPYS OF THE SEQUEL WHICH I DID NOT KNOW EXISTED UNTIL COMING ON LINE TONIGHT. CONGRATULATIONS MR ELFORD, I THOUROGHLY ENJOYED EVERY SECOND.
31 of 34 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
In The Devil's Guard, author George Robert Elford has compiled the shocking testimony of an unrepentant Nazi mercenary, fighting for the French Foreign Legion in Indochina. The Devil's Guard follows SS Officer Hans Josef Wagemueller, from fighting the Russians on the eastern front at the end of World War II, through a training period with the French Foreign Legion and finally to prolonged and intense combat in the jungles of southeast Asia.
The book is in essence a confessional, though perhaps with the antagonist bearing no guilt, only a desire to reveal man's inhumanity to man, in its rawest and most unexpurgated terms. This ultimately means that the reader is confronted with chapter after chapter of how a Nazi and his platoon of fellow ideologues fought, shot, bayoneted, tortured and poisoned the Viet Minh; these scenes are depicted in their unflinching brutality in a way seldom captured by purveyors of war-memoirs, whether they be the literati of the late Norman Mailer's The Naked and the Dead, or Andy McNab's tale of dubious authenticity, Bravo Two Zero.
The Devil's Guard does indeed have the whiff of verisimilitude, not to mention sulphur. However, the book is an "as told to" story, whereby Wagemueller met the author in a bar in the capital city of a small, unnamed Asian country - and then dictated this testament into a microphone over the subsequent eighteen days. As such, the book is entirely uncorroborated, as far as I can determine. If it is fiction, it is an exceptional rendering. If, as this reader believes, the story is essentially true, then author George Robert Elford has succeeded in capturing a remarkable document. A book such as this is a rare artefact indeed. Bloody, uncompromising, disturbingly vicious, relentlessly compelling, The Devil's Guard is a shocking revelation, unmatched in its intensity.
The book is in essence a confessional, though perhaps with the antagonist bearing no guilt, only a desire to reveal man's inhumanity to man, in its rawest and most unexpurgated terms. This ultimately means that the reader is confronted with chapter after chapter of how a Nazi and his platoon of fellow ideologues fought, shot, bayoneted, tortured and poisoned the Viet Minh; these scenes are depicted in their unflinching brutality in a way seldom captured by purveyors of war-memoirs, whether they be the literati of the late Norman Mailer's The Naked and the Dead, or Andy McNab's tale of dubious authenticity, Bravo Two Zero.
The Devil's Guard does indeed have the whiff of verisimilitude, not to mention sulphur. However, the book is an "as told to" story, whereby Wagemueller met the author in a bar in the capital city of a small, unnamed Asian country - and then dictated this testament into a microphone over the subsequent eighteen days. As such, the book is entirely uncorroborated, as far as I can determine. If it is fiction, it is an exceptional rendering. If, as this reader believes, the story is essentially true, then author George Robert Elford has succeeded in capturing a remarkable document. A book such as this is a rare artefact indeed. Bloody, uncompromising, disturbingly vicious, relentlessly compelling, The Devil's Guard is a shocking revelation, unmatched in its intensity.
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
By History Geek
Format:Mass Market Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
Following the end of the Second World War, a group of SS soldiers escaped and ended up fighting in Vietnam as part of the French Foreign Legion. What follows is a brutal and graphic description of jungle warfare. This book is presented as non-fiction, the result of a chance meeting between the author and the main character in south-east Asia which led to eighteen days of interviewing. Whether that is the case, or alternatively it is all a work of fiction, is still disputed. If this book is non-fiction, it is sensationalised and exaggerated, written with the benefit of hindsight to portray the SS soldiers in the best possible light. If it is fiction, it is a thorough and well-researched account of jungle warfare. Historians are not going to use this - there are too many question marks over its reliability for this to be a useful historical record. But for a gripping tale of war and survival in Vietnam, whether true or not, there are few better.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars
Devils Guard 1St Class read
Very good reading, one of the most moving and pertinent stories I have read in a very long time, well worth reading.
Published 14 days ago by AC
5.0 out of 5 stars
Devils Guard a Great Read
Excellent Book well worth the read, I was engaged from the first page and found it hard to put the book down.
Published 17 days ago by Mathias
3.0 out of 5 stars
A difficult read
Read the book from start to finish but unfortunately there appeared to be a general repetition of events and towards the end my concentration began to flag. Read more
Published 1 month ago by Mr. James Blundell
5.0 out of 5 stars
Devils Guard
Excellent story well written and phenomenal subject matter makes one yearn for adventure. Looking for more of the same calibre.
Published 1 month ago by SIMON TULEY
5.0 out of 5 stars
devils guard
A good yarn but comes across as a bit over the top with a high body count which seems unbelievable. It also tries to make heroes out of ex nazis and glorifies them, not to taken... Read more
Published 1 month ago by denis knowles
4.0 out of 5 stars
Devils Gaurd
I read this book years ago so I decided to purchase it for the Kindle. Well worth a read if you're into Military Fiction it bumps along at a cracking pace and you find yourself on... Read more
Published 1 month ago by Paulo
5.0 out of 5 stars
Devils guard
I first read this book about twenty five years ago serving with HM forces. It totally engrossed me then and has since eluded me to find a copy until I found it in the kindle store. Read more
Published 1 month ago by kg murphy
4.0 out of 5 stars
Fact or fiction?
I first read this book some years ago.
Reading it again I find myself unable to accept the story, as I originally did, as pure factual history. Read more
Reading it again I find myself unable to accept the story, as I originally did, as pure factual history. Read more
Published 2 months ago by die Kriegshund
5.0 out of 5 stars
My favorite book
I read this book 20 years ago and still rate it as one of the best reads ever if you like war books.
Published 2 months ago by john
5.0 out of 5 stars
Great read.
I read this book years ago when I was in the military. i had been looking for it for years and was told it was out of print until I bought my kindle and found it, a great book!!
Published 2 months ago by maxwell wylie mills
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