Title: SS Panzer Battalion (The Dogs of War, Vol. 3)Author: Leo Kessler
Pages: 192 pages
Publisher: Spellmount Publishers
ISBN: 1862272662
Reading Time: 2 Days (09/07/2008 to 10/07/2008)
Note: 9/10
I’ve been hearing about Leo Kessler for some time. Some books I’ve read were translated to Portuguese and it was a long time ago. When I saw this collection I immeaditely bought 7 books. So far I’ve read this one and I was most pleased. Leo KeSSler is a knowed prolific World War II writer called Charles Whiting and he have written more than 100 books with different pen names.
This one is the third book of its most famous series. Dogs of War. This book it’s the third in this series but it’s the first chronological order.
January of 1940 was the coldest winter within living memory so far… but the Winter of 1943/1944 was harsher (as they would feel in the eastern theatre. So far, the Western front was still paralysed by the phoney war, but, at the Adolf Hitler Kaserne, a new battalion of SS troops were being put through the most gruelling training programme in the history of the German army. SS Assault Regiment Wotan were preparing for a mission so secret that it was known only by its codename, Zero. Only the Vulture, Major Horst Geier, knew that the objective was the key Belgian fortress guarding the junction of the River Meuse and the Albert Canal. It was the most impregnable stronghold in Europe and had to be taken, regardless of the cost of human lives, if Hitler's handpicked SS Panzer troops were to turn the flank of the Maginot line and force the phoney war to explode into the Blitzkrieg.
The characters even if Nazis easily seduce us and in the end we are cheering for them. There are several sub-plots that will be taken care of in the next chapters. I would advice anyone to start reading from this book and not the First in the Series.
It’s a great book and we get the feeling that “Kessler” knows it’s historiy. It has some pictures/maps to make it easier for us to read and imagine. It’s not pure history but in the end we get the feeling to read more about it. Not only History but Kessler books.Along with Sven Hassel books, this ones are the best. (There is also Iron Cross.)
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