[This post has been updated since I sort of fell asleep in the middle of writing it last night]
The “Devil’s Guard” trilogy of books by George Robert Elford are an anomaly in publishing, consisting of three books which are among the rarest and most expensive post-1970 publications in the world. It is difficult to find even a paperback version of either DG1 (Devil’s Guard) or DG3 (Devil’s Guard III Unconditional Warfare) for less than $150 anywhere, and DG2 (Recall to Inferno) is almost impossible to find under $295. Try some Amazon searches on “Devil’s Guard Elford”, “Recall to Inferno Elford” without the quotes, and you will see what I mean.
Apparently, the copyright holders have no intention of allowing new printings, therefore the price of these books is ridiculously, artificially inflated.
Why these books are significant: Several months after 9-11, while perusing an Internet forum, I read where someone noted “the only way we can win against this enemy is to go the route of the Devil’s Guard.” After a bit of research, I learned that Elford’s works, though highly controversial, were also viewed seriously by military strategists around the globe. The story in these books traces the experiences of a former German Waffen-SS battalion under the command of “Hans Josef Wagemueller” which joins the French Foreign Legion after World War II and heads to Indochina to fight the Viet Minh and ends up playing a role throughout the Vietnam War.
The books are framed as a narrative by Wagemueller recorded by author George Robert Elford. The gist of the narrative is: This is what you absolutely, positively must do if you want to prevail over a terrorist insurgency. Methods employed are extraordinarily harsh, although in the course of the stories the acts of the “good guys” are consonant with those of the enemies. What you get is a true sense of war and what it takes to win a war in such an environment.
I will wait for NR to weigh in on this, because his opinion is the only one that matters as far as I am concerned. Is the Wagemueller story useful, or is it crap?
Anyway (this was the point of the post in the first place but the hour got late before I could finish) I found a copy of DG1 on Amazon the other day for $11, “used” and of course snapped it up. Then a few days later the reseller e-mailed me saying my copy had been returned from the local post office “water damaged” and would I want them to find another copy. I wrote back, “sure, that would be great” thinking in the back of my mind they were going to come back with a $300 copy of the book. A few hours later they wrote to me that they could not find the same edition (1984) but found a 1972 edition, and would I want that instead. 1972 was the first run in paperback.
I said “Sure, thanks so much” and then wondered if I was in the process of being scammed, either to receive a totally different book for $11 (there is a a similar work by the same title), or a first print edition of DG1 for full market price, an amount I would never want to pay for a book regardless of its rarity. Well, yesterday the book arrived, a pretty clean first edition of DG1 in paperback, with the invoice for $15 inclusive of shipping. How odd is that? It is going to be kept in a very safe place.
Tags: devil's guard
I guess I shouldn’t be surprised to see you touting neo-Nazi propaganda, but I am.
Here’s a description of the book from an article describing it as popular among soldiers in Iraq:
First published in 1971, Devil’s Guard purports to be the true confessions of a German SS officer, Hans Josef Wagemueller. Presented as fact, the book is generally categorised by merchandisers (Abe, for example) as fiction and by military historians as balderdash.
Elford’s hero recounts his exploits – bloody and genocidal – as a soldier in the Waffen SS, fighting on the Eastern Front in the Second World War. The tone is savage and unapologetic. Nazi atrocities are, the narrative asserts (with multiple examples), wholly justified by the inhumanity of the Communist foe.
After the (much lamented) defeat of the Reich, Wagemueller escapes to be recruited into the French Foreign Legion. Under his new flag he fights for France in the Indo-Chinese war against the Communist Viet Minh. More abominable sub-humans, deserving only of extermination.
In the Legion with other former Nazis (some 900 of them) he leads the ‘battalion of the damned’ in daring, ruthless, guerrilla fighting behind enemy lines. Two sequels followed, in which Wagemueller ends up fighting under the American flag.
Elford is an elusive figure, scarcely more substantial in terms of popular image than his alleged warrior source, Wagemueller. Devil’s Guard was, for a long time, an underground bestseller – most reading copies passing from hand to hand. No self-respecting imprint was keen to be associated with what was generally regarded as sickening neo-Nazi pornography.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/arts/main.jhtml?xml=/arts/2008/01/27/bosutherland.xml
How much does Harry Potter go for nowadays? Not only bloodthirsty but magical and mystical! Imagine that.
I think that what zimzo fails to realize is…..what he is talking about. I don’t see the neo-NAZI (NAZI is capitalized ) that he is talking about.
“Elford’s hero recounts his exploits – bloody and genocidal – as a soldier in the Waffen SS, fighting on the Eastern Front in the Second World War. The tone is savage and unapologetic. Nazi atrocities are, the narrative asserts (with multiple examples), wholly justified by the inhumanity of the Communist foe.”
Anything with SS in it is unholy. You know what you are signing up for and atrocities are for-front.
“After the (much lamented) defeat of the Reich, Wagemueller escapes to be recruited into the French Foreign Legion.”
Recruited? The Foreign Legione are a bunch of bad-asses looking for something to exterminate. It was like that before and it will be like that after. It’s who they are and what they do.
zimzo, this ain’t your post of note. You need to be with that other whacko Smith. Then you’ll get your commiseration!
Funny the things Zimzo takes an interest in …
Yes, I’m opposed to Nazis. I’m funny that way. I’m sure my opposition to Nazis will cause you and many of your frequent commenters defend Nazis as being sadly misunderstood, though I had hoped, Joe, that opposition to Nazis might be one area where we could agree.
Aren’t we all opposed to Nazis? I think we’re all opposed to communists, also. So who do you cheer for when the (former) Nazis are fighting the communists?
Honestly, I haven’t decided yet. Fact or fiction, Devil’s Guard was a great read. It’s thought provoking, to say the least. I’m still working on DG III.
Let me organize my thoughts on this one before I say more.
Thanks again for sending me the books, Joe.
The Zimzo Method: Yell first, seek information later.
Yeah, Professor, the protagonist of the books is against Nazi’s also, in fact he goes to some length to make that point at the beginning of the first book. The Waffen SS were not a political entity.
The Waffen SS were not a political entity???!!! Uh, the Nuremberg prosecutors disagreed with you:
“The Waffen SS originated out of the thought: to create for the Fuehrer a selected long service troop for the fulfillment of special missions. It was to render it possible for members of the General SS, as well as for volunteers who fulfill the special requirements of the SS, to fight in the battle for the evolution of, the National Socialist idea, with weapon in hand, in unified groups, partly within the framework of the Army.” (2640-PS)
And so did Hitler:
“It is a standing armed unit exclusively at my disposal. As such and as a unit of the NSDAP its members are to be selected by the Reichsfuehrer SS according to the philosophical and political standards which I have ordered for the NSDAP and for the Schutzstaffel.”
http://www.ess.uwe.ac.uk/genocide/ssnur1.htm#B2C%20The%20Waffen%20SS
It was an elite group of troops who were especially committed to Nazi ideology and its ranks were limited to those considered racially “pure.”
I’ve seen some pretty bizarre revisionist history on this blog before but this takes the cake.
I’m relating the narrative, in which “Hans” and his brigade are strictly a military unit, and in which he distances himself and his men from Nazi ideology.
Send me $400 and I will get you a copy of the book.
Joe,
I am sure zimzo can get his own copy if he wants one.
zimzo,
So, you are against Nazi’s? Whoopee. So is everyone one else here. Thanks for the link.
Hey if you liked Apocalypto as a story but not as history, I bet you would like this one also.
$400 and it’s yours, in a few years it will be worth thrice that much. I know you’re tempted, c’mon live a little. A newly-printed edition from Hailer Publishing, never even cracked open, my man. What else are you going to use the money for?
Have your girlfriend send me a money order and I’ll never even know who you are.
zimzo,
The Waffen SS operated in the field as combat forces. While doing so they killed prisoners, burned villages, engaged in all imaginable atrocities. While bestial, this is not political.
The regular SS where political in outlook and function. Are you sure that Waffen formations where also given this distinction.
“It is a standing armed unit exclusively at my disposal.”
No duh! For that matter, EVERYTHING in Germany under Hitler’s rule was at his disposal. Think of the Waffen SS like our special forces. They were well trained and unrelenting but STILL an enity of the Army. They went were Hitler designated because Hitler had his finger on all things.
The SS was developed as an elite personal guard and replaced the SA. In time the SS took care of the death camps but still were the personal guard of Hitler. Then you had the SS Panzer divisions. Same as the Waffen SS only they used tanks. And, zimzo, I have met some of these people (Waffen SS and one tanker). They were not “all pure” as you think. Some weren’t even NAZIs. Some young lads just wanted to be part of the elite troops. Don’t believe everything you get off the net.
If we’re discussing NAZIs, then we’d be remiss not to discuss homosexuals as well, since the two topics are intertwined.
http://www.leaderu.com/jhs/lively.html
Search for “Ernst Roehm”.
Here’s a tidbit.
“In his classic Nazi history, The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich, author William Shirer describes Roehm as “a stocky, bull-necked, piggish-eyed, scar- faced professional soldier…[and] like so many of the early Nazis, a homosexual” (Shirer:64). “
Maybe in your world, Jacob, killing and torturing people who are thought to be “subhuman” is not political but not in the one most people live in. From the descriptions of the book I found the protagonist then goes on to apply this ideology to Communists in Viet Nam whom he also believes are subhuman. Joe in his original post invokes 9/11 and says, “This is what you absolutely, positively must do if you want to prevail over a terrorist insurgency.” In other words, think of your enemy as “subhuman,” as the Nazis perceived the Jews, gays, gypsies and others, so that you can feel morally justified in torturing and murdering them, methods Joe euphemistically calls “harsh.” Not so surprisingly much of the rhetoric used here about illegal immigrants, the insistence on calling them “aliens,” comparing the way they live to “animals,” etc., is also meant to dehumanize them. So I guess it’s not surprising after all that you would find much to admire in a piece of neo-Nazi propaganda, Joe.
No prob, Zim.
I would not describe the DG narrative as “neo Nazi” because having read it, it is not. But I appreciate your sentiment. So let’s move on.
I mean, we’ve all been frustrated by government bureaucracy at some point. In reality this is the issue we’ve been dealing with here, with regard to Sterling.
zimzo,
‘Maybe in your world, Jacob, killing and torturing people who are thought to be “subhuman” is not political but not in the one most people live in.’
If you can drop the smarmy ‘maybe in your world …’ crap, this might have become a civil discussion. Shame.
Battlefield atrocities historically are not considered political. Atrocities committed by the police, or, paramilitary units far from the battlefield are considered political. Both are crimes against humanity.
The only ones use to war are vets. They were FNGs once and had there world turned upside done. You see many ugly things in war that you wouldn’t believe a human was capable of commiting. The U.S. are a bunch of sissies when it comes to war. We have the might but not the “mindset” to do what is necessary. When that does happen it becomes a crime and the military personnel are brought to justice. Our enemies KNOW this. Go back in time and look at all the wars-classic or otherwise. There have been but a couple “civilized” societies. All the rest know what is necessary.
If you want war to be “short-term”, take off the gloves, suppress the needless rules of engagement and give NO LESS then what is given. The enemy will give you instant respect and if your drive is sincere and your forces great, surrender is preferred over annialation!
zimzo has NEVER been in a fight/no flight situation. That is for damn sure!
ACT: A man after my own heart…….
Just yesterday I was reminded about retired Lt Col Allan West, who fired a gun next to the head of an prisoner and obtained information that saved countless lives, for this he was relieved of his command, read the rest in this excellent article:
http://www.americanthinker.com/2008/03/lt_col_allan_west_and_michelle_1.html
Lt Col West is running for congress in FL, we need men like like him in Washington!
End of rant.
Hands up all who think war is ‘nice’.
Honourable men fighting for a Just Cause And God, with Honour, Humility, and Dignity.
War is war. I suggest those who think wars should be non-violent read the history books. Then they will see the Nazi’s and the SS were no more violent, no more bestial, than any other army or country or people in history. The only sign of ‘civilisation’ was the fact we gave the Nazi’s a fair trial before we hung them. In the old days they were tortured to death, burned, put to the sword, you name it. No trial.
Murder, rape and pillage were actually part of the pay soldiers recieved – and demanded – for fighting wars. Most Great Battles were fought by mercenaries. Or hadn’t you noticed? Just look at Jugoslavia. The world was shocked that they were seeing the same bestiality as in WW11. How could this happen in an enlightened society? But it did. For it is normal behavior in war.
moral: don’t allow war.
Do you ever see that happening?
No. It’s time to prepare for the next big war, it’s long overdue. Hopefully not in my lifetime, or my part of the world, but I’m not counting on it.
Sven,
Actually in Europe prior to WWI the trend had been to leave the civilians out of the fracas. This was reversed by the Germans with their terror tactics in Belgium. The whole Geneva Convention effort is about reducing the cruelty toward uniformed combatants AND to keep the unarmed civilians out of the direct line of fire. War will never be ‘nice’, but the ideas in the 19th century regarding the treatment of prisoners and civilians are worth pursuing.
As for rape and pillage being standard part of the pay/compensation package, true.
But while most of the great battle had mercenaries, not all professional soldiers are such. Alexander’s army was primarily Macedonian in make up, as where most of the Roman forces, until late in the life of the empire. Both of these armies where national armies, not mercenaries.
The concept of a standing army was introduced by Phillip II of Macedonia, Alexander’s father. I believe history shows that following this, there was a decline in the use of state sponsored mercenaries in general warfare.
War as nice ? Will genocide ever be loving thy neighbor ? Of course not. Will war go away ? This question has been asked for thousands of years, and the answer remains the same.