" The Cruel Hunters - S.S.Sonderkommando Dirlewanger " ?

Anyone here read it - Got a view on it, please?

It's one I'm interested in ~ but with reservations. I'd probably snap up a paperback, just for a look. But the hard back will set me back about thirty quid and, like I say, I already have my reservations about this one.

Seems like they really should tie it in with the film " Come and See " though!

 

Come and see I didn't know what to make of it - the idea of a disorderly drunken motorcade left me wondering.
I expected something different although the terror of the boy and his shocked experience did seem realistic.
"The Cruel Hunters" have not seen it.

Amazon.com: The Field Men: The SS Officers Who Led the Einsatzkommandos - the Nazi Mobile Killing Units (Schiffer Military History): French MacLean: Books
This is one I intend to get at some stage.

 

James; Cruel Hunters is a Book. By French Maclean. Consensus seems to be that it's not the best book ever written. But that it's one of the only two or three works available on the subject.


I agree, Come and See was a weird film. Regards Das Pissedgruppen ? I rather got the impression the Director was just trying to slot in a series of vignettes to demonstrate the wider picture in visual bites.

Thus the 'examples' we're shown throughout the film. 'And, for example, they sometimes turned up half cut.' (Perhaps it happened once or twice? I wouldn't know) But we all know about the Reprisals.

I also liked the way we were given a slice of the various units characters, when they had them under that bridge. Again, just sound bites and spot examples. I'm sure not all German Generals went to pieces in the face of death. Nor that All Totnkopf SS had the mind set to still just sit there, blathering on about sub humans. But it got the points across. Perhaps in a form more graspable to the wider audience?

I don't suspect he made the film for War Anoraks. This book, however ....?

 

Steve, "C.A.S."I will try and watch it again and see what I make of it second time around.
I did find it a bit hard to follow .

I too would like to see something or a few books which would pull together a good history of the Ez.gruppen and their bloody activities.
The Maclean book deals only ( it seems) with their officers and probably tells only part of what they took part in.

Will have to do a bit of "hoaking around" and see what comes up.

 

There's a book on the Einsatzkommandos called Masters of Death by Richard Rhodes. I was impressed by it in a fairly lengthy browse in a bookshop but decided to buy books relevant to my academic studies (WWI) instead.

Masters of Death: The SS-Einsatzgruppen and the…Amazon.co.uk: Richard Rhodes: Books

For a book dealing with war crimes committed during anti-partisan warfare, the 'Customers who bought this item also bought' feature of Amazon brought up Hitler's Bandit Hunters by Philip W. Blood.

Hitler's Bandit Hunters: The SS and the Nazi Occupation of Europe: Philip W. Blood: Amazon.co.uk: Books

 

Gibbo, I think the first book ("Masters of Death" is one I will look about , thanks for the recommendation.

 

Spins round to glance at his, fast filling, book shelf ....." Masters of Death ". Richard Rhodes? Got that one! I've been a busy little B! Just need time to watch about a years worth of DVD and read a small library now. But I'll try!

Gibbo; That 'Bandit Hunters' has definitely caught my eye! Bit rushed this minute, but I'll be through that link presently and shall examine the evidence. One I'd missed thus far. Thanks!


James; CAS is definitely worth a second look, I'd say. I mean; Yes. It Is a 'weird' film. But then, we're not Russians. I'm sure a lot of the first half bemused us. No? But, as I said above, I feel the Director was trying his best to summarise what went on and, from my own view, as a total novice scrabbling around for a hand hold on the first rung of all this? He managed to talk my language.

Regards it being hard to follow? Again, I suspect ye may have looked too deeply ~ due to ye own level of knowledge? Myself? I just accepted the surreal stuff and thoroughly enjoyed the arrival of the Nazi's. It was gratifying to realise how much of That made perfect sense to me.

Not quite worked out how that Commander chapie came by what I believe might have been a Slow Loris though! Where in hell had he been, to come up with that?!

Bit rusty on my 'More obscure animals of the world', these days!