Legion of the Damned by Sven HasselMy rating: 7 of 10 stars
Pages : 256
Year : 1953
Genre : War
Series : Sven Hassel #1
This is not my first or second read by Sven. Don't know if you know but Sven supposedly fought in WW2 on the side of the Germans as a Danish conscript. He was a criminal and went to fight as a penal legion (27th) and went from Russia, to France, to Italy to Germany , fighting everywhere. Of course this is a lie.
The author was a liar, enamoured by the prospect to fight for Germany (and he did enlist) but then he was in prison. In this book, the first he wrote we've got several friends like Porta, Old Un (old man) a couple others. In another books he introduce us Legionnaire, Tiny, Heide among others.
And why do we know it's fake? Well, each book (apart from this one) focus on one campaign , from italy, france, greece, balkans, france again, russia and germany. How could they fight everywhere , sometimes at the same time? Bear in mind that although they are fake, it's a good vision on how cheap lives where back in WW2. People died and sometimes rather pointless deaths and not all glamourous warlike stuff. It's grim and it's dark. This one , basically introduce us to Sven. In later novels we get to know him more. He gives some hints that he will tell about other stuff that happened.
Although as I've said him fighting is not true, the vast majority is either true or based on true stories. He wrote stuff that other people told him about or that he acquired so, this people may be really true people. This is brutal stuff, Geneva convention fuck off of the eastern front. You can read this book as anti-war stuff , anti-nazi or better, as a person who probably was swayed like millions others by Hitler and then it was too late. IF you want a grimdark war story, look no further. I do believe he wrote better (I've read some) and I will read more. 7/10
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