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Legion of the Damned #13
The bloody road to death
English, Danish (translation)
316 pages, Hardcover
Published January 1, 1979
About the author
Sven Hassel
162 books348 followersHassel served in the Danish merchant navy till 1937, when he moved to Germany to join the army. He served with the second Panzer Division stationed at Eisenach and in 1939 was a tank driver during the invasion of Poland. A year later he attempted to escape because of being mentally exhausted. He was transferred to a Sonderabteilung, a penal unit manned by criminals and dissidents. He served with the 2nd Cavalry Regiment and later the 11th and 27th Panzer Regiments (6th Panzer Division) on all fronts except North Africa and was wounded several times. Eventually he reached the rank of lieutenant and received an Iron Cross 1st and 2nd class. He surrendered to Soviet troops in Berlin in 1945 and spent the following years in various POW camps. He began to write his first book Legion of the Damned while he was interned. He was released in 1949, and was planning to join the French Foreign Legion when he met Dorthe Jensen. They got married in 1951. He went to work in a car factory. In 1957 Sven Hassel suffered from an attack of a sickness caught during the war and was paralyzed for almost two years. After recovery, he began to write more books.
See also Sven Hazel
See also Sven Hazel
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Displaying 1 - 23 of 23 reviews
January 2, 2024
The book and the series present many similarities with The Good Soldier Svejk by Jaroslav Hašek, the same black humor, the contempt for war, the stories in story, mostly funny but with plenty of philosophy included.
The difference is that Bloody Way is harder and more abstract(see Rasputin, the bear), but the main message is the same: be afraid of war...
The difference is that Bloody Way is harder and more abstract(see Rasputin, the bear), but the main message is the same: be afraid of war...
December 18, 2024
The rise to power of Hitler was the beginning of the bloody road to death for many Germans including the characters in this novel. Operation: Barbarossa or what is known as the Nazi invasion of the Soviet Union was a fiasco that is credited by historians as the main reason for the collapse of Nazi Germany. The enemy that the characters face is not just the Reds but commanders that see soldiers lives as expendable in the service of the Reich. The soldiers in the novel find ways of striking back at men like Von Pader. who gets killed, and dies like a whiner not a proud soldier. What I found lacking for me in this novel was sympathy for anyone who fought for Nazi Germany because I was taught that Fascism was evil. I also don't like seeing good people suffer because their lives mean nothing compared to the goals of a totalitarian state.
November 20, 2025
The Darjeeling tea incident is one of the funniest things I have ever read.
Well at least it was when I was a teenager.
But then I was also reading Spike Milligan's war memoirs around about that time too and there is a clear similarity, humour-wise.
I wonder how it would stand up now?
You should read this book just for this chapter:)
Well at least it was when I was a teenager.
But then I was also reading Spike Milligan's war memoirs around about that time too and there is a clear similarity, humour-wise.
I wonder how it would stand up now?
You should read this book just for this chapter:)
November 21, 2009
Maybe the speed with which 27th Panzer Regiment moves between the fronts is amazing and unbelieveable, but the books is still good. It shows the brutality of war and difference what is in places where war is distant and "life" on frontline. The book shows also sometimes being a misfit and not paying attention to regulations can save your life.
March 25, 2011
Being a huge fan of Sven Hassel I got very disappointed after reading this. Very little action in comparison to the early titles from the same author.
The story takes place in the Balkan and Greek front lines initially, to finish up on the Eastern front. The plot spins all around the different shenanigans from Porta & company behind the lines, with a lot of surrealistic situations happening.
By surrealistic I mean both funny and silly things.There's specially one thing that got me baffled, and that's when a Ferrari sports car is mentioned in a discussion among the soldiers. Given the fact that Ferrari didn't produce their first road car until 1947, how come its name appears in a WW2 conversation??. That's not serious.
Other than that, there's a extremely funny story in the book. It's when Porta gets a fur coat packed of fleas, and he is able to sell it to several characters. Most notably to one Oberst who sworn to kill Porta after suffering a massive attack from the fleas.
But as I said, expect very little action from this book. If you knew Sven Hassel already, then I suppose you might enjoy this one. If not, by all means try one of the earlier titles (Legion of the Damned, Wheels of Terror) which are more accurate and far entertaining than this.
The story takes place in the Balkan and Greek front lines initially, to finish up on the Eastern front. The plot spins all around the different shenanigans from Porta & company behind the lines, with a lot of surrealistic situations happening.
By surrealistic I mean both funny and silly things.There's specially one thing that got me baffled, and that's when a Ferrari sports car is mentioned in a discussion among the soldiers. Given the fact that Ferrari didn't produce their first road car until 1947, how come its name appears in a WW2 conversation??. That's not serious.
Other than that, there's a extremely funny story in the book. It's when Porta gets a fur coat packed of fleas, and he is able to sell it to several characters. Most notably to one Oberst who sworn to kill Porta after suffering a massive attack from the fleas.
But as I said, expect very little action from this book. If you knew Sven Hassel already, then I suppose you might enjoy this one. If not, by all means try one of the earlier titles (Legion of the Damned, Wheels of Terror) which are more accurate and far entertaining than this.
March 29, 2018
Porta, Tiny, The Old Man and Sven. This time, the do or die veterans of the 27th Penal Regiment are in the Balken around Greece, Yugoslavia and Albania. The pulp war stories of Sven Hassel are sometimes alive with black humour. The characters are marvellous as they chat during lulls in the fighting. Then there remains the horrific fighting. Sometimes it is vile and repulsive. It is meant to be. It is dehumanising on a level where the men are just fighting for their own survival. Gripping pulp war story.
The Last Days of Thunder Child
The Last Days of Thunder Child
May 28, 2021
Classic World War Two drama written by the master story Sven Hassel. The Penal battalion move from Greece to Yugoslavia and finally the USSR. All the regulars are here, Porta, Tiny, the Legionaire, The Old Man and Barcelona plus many others. Porta is the star of the show selling flea written furs to has many people as possible and finding Jin Sing tea which he thinks the British have put in laxatives. He and Tiny go the long way round while taking a prison to be executed but the best is finding a bear christened Rasputin. Forget the bad press that surrounds the author because he has no equal when it comes to war novels.
April 28, 2023
They were known as the Old Man's unit – the most savage section in the whole German army. They were seasoned front-liners – veterans of the trenches. In the deadly cactus forest, Tiny, Porta and the rest found a place God had forgotten ever existed. crawling with snakes, scorpion and giant ants.. a place that reeked of danger and death. When their water rations ran out, they came close to madness from thirst in the blistering hell which surrounded them. There were ready to commit murder for a drink
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
December 1, 2011
Sven Hassel has unique talent to make up story which seems almost like true memories of soldier who went trough the hell of Eastern front. However there are historical mistakes and some hints which makes you believe that author likes to bend memories and reality in to something else packed together with huge portion of blood. He is merciless to everybody.
January 19, 2014
From the start, I must say that I never considered myself a fan of Sven Hassel's literature and this novel did not made me change my mind. This one is the third novel I have read in the span of last couple of years and to be frankly, I expected at least something different between them. They are not, of course, exact copies but the tone, the characters, the situations are pretty much the same. Did it not happen anything else in that war? I doubt it as other writers found some other aspects to write regarding the same historical period.
Well let's take it one by one and analyze the novel in several aspects, in order to rate it. First, the premise. Apparently, it has no premise as the author just describes various hilarious stories involving him and his colleagues from the 27th Panzer Regiment during World War II. But after reading some of it, the reader may come to the conclusion that the author wanted to display the horrors of war, so that such a thing will not repeat in the future. Unfortunately, from various hints, I am not convinced the author truly believed in such a premise and thus, that it was the main book message. More likely, he did not thought of a message, but just wanted to describe some funny stories during war time that would entertain the reader. I will give it a 2 for premise.
On the form element, I have the most things to reproach to Sven. First of all, the first half of the novel, the one that takes part on the Greece front, it is very badly written. Paragraphs without any connections with the preceding ones pop up at almost every page and the narrative line is so interrupted that it is hard to follow. Secondly, the author changes the narrative voice from first person to third person for a chapter. Also the rest of the novel is not flawless. The main point that I challenge it is the sick humor. Although it can make you laugh at times, it is not a book for the faint hearted. So I cannot rate it more than 1 at form.
In terms of originality, it is clearly taking up the model from Sven's Legion of Damned series. But it is more that just applying the same recipe, only changing slightly the background. It is using the same type of situations, that I thought at a moment that I am re-reading parts of the first novel from the series. I will rate it with a 2, as this recipe seems to have been invented by Sven.
The characters are highly stereotypical and do not seem real. Plus, they are the same as in the previous ten novels from the series. Except from the filling characters that are there just to play a small part in one of the story, the main bulk of 10-11 characters that form the main gallery seem to be absolutely the same. They are never changed from one novel to the other and appear to be immortal. They can pass through the enemy lines, fight on all European fronts from the WWII and still none of them dies. And they do not change. They have the same traits as in the original novel and despite being in the greatest war on Earth, they remain pretty much the same persons. I did not liked this at all, so I will rate it with a 1.
Regarding the complexity and difficulty, I believe the novel is pretty simple. It was perhaps just another one made on the same recipe of the Legion of the Damned. As it worked out the first time, it must work out this time as well. I will rate it with a 1 for complexity and difficulty.
The last criteria is edition. I read a Kindle edition translated into Romanian, and the translation was pretty good for the most part. I wished the editor would use some kind of separators for the first part between various stories happening in the same chapter, as it was pretty hard to follow. I will rate it for edition with a 3, as there were no other major issues.
To summarize, the novel seems just another clone of Legion of Damned. It has few original things in it and the level of credibility is almost none. Even if it is a fiction work, I expect the stories within it to be credible. All in all, my final rating for the novel is 1.67, rounding it up to a 2 stars on Goodreads system.
For more details on how I rated and reviewed this novel, please read these guidelines.
Well let's take it one by one and analyze the novel in several aspects, in order to rate it. First, the premise. Apparently, it has no premise as the author just describes various hilarious stories involving him and his colleagues from the 27th Panzer Regiment during World War II. But after reading some of it, the reader may come to the conclusion that the author wanted to display the horrors of war, so that such a thing will not repeat in the future. Unfortunately, from various hints, I am not convinced the author truly believed in such a premise and thus, that it was the main book message. More likely, he did not thought of a message, but just wanted to describe some funny stories during war time that would entertain the reader. I will give it a 2 for premise.
On the form element, I have the most things to reproach to Sven. First of all, the first half of the novel, the one that takes part on the Greece front, it is very badly written. Paragraphs without any connections with the preceding ones pop up at almost every page and the narrative line is so interrupted that it is hard to follow. Secondly, the author changes the narrative voice from first person to third person for a chapter. Also the rest of the novel is not flawless. The main point that I challenge it is the sick humor. Although it can make you laugh at times, it is not a book for the faint hearted. So I cannot rate it more than 1 at form.
In terms of originality, it is clearly taking up the model from Sven's Legion of Damned series. But it is more that just applying the same recipe, only changing slightly the background. It is using the same type of situations, that I thought at a moment that I am re-reading parts of the first novel from the series. I will rate it with a 2, as this recipe seems to have been invented by Sven.
The characters are highly stereotypical and do not seem real. Plus, they are the same as in the previous ten novels from the series. Except from the filling characters that are there just to play a small part in one of the story, the main bulk of 10-11 characters that form the main gallery seem to be absolutely the same. They are never changed from one novel to the other and appear to be immortal. They can pass through the enemy lines, fight on all European fronts from the WWII and still none of them dies. And they do not change. They have the same traits as in the original novel and despite being in the greatest war on Earth, they remain pretty much the same persons. I did not liked this at all, so I will rate it with a 1.
Regarding the complexity and difficulty, I believe the novel is pretty simple. It was perhaps just another one made on the same recipe of the Legion of the Damned. As it worked out the first time, it must work out this time as well. I will rate it with a 1 for complexity and difficulty.
The last criteria is edition. I read a Kindle edition translated into Romanian, and the translation was pretty good for the most part. I wished the editor would use some kind of separators for the first part between various stories happening in the same chapter, as it was pretty hard to follow. I will rate it for edition with a 3, as there were no other major issues.
To summarize, the novel seems just another clone of Legion of Damned. It has few original things in it and the level of credibility is almost none. Even if it is a fiction work, I expect the stories within it to be credible. All in all, my final rating for the novel is 1.67, rounding it up to a 2 stars on Goodreads system.
+--------------------------+-----------------+
| Criteria | Rating |
+--------------------------+-----------------+
|Premise | 2 |
+--------------------------+-----------------+
|Form | 1 |
+--------------------------+-----------------+
|Originality | 2 |
+--------------------------+-----------------+
|Characters | 1 |
+--------------------------+-----------------+
|Difficulty/Complexity | 1 |
+--------------------------+-----------------+
|Edition | 3 |
+--------------------------+-----------------+
|Total | 1.67 |
+--------------------------+-----------------+
For more details on how I rated and reviewed this novel, please read these guidelines.
March 2, 2022
22 septembrie 1943
Cântând cât îl ţine gura, torpilorul Klaus Pohl părăseşte bordelul „La semnul patului legănat" din Pirgos. În depărtare poate fi auzit vacarmul unei partide de bile dintre un grup de marinari germani şi nişte soldaţi italieni din trupele alpine.
Klaus Pohl rânjeşte fericit şi se hotărăşte să joace şi el un tur, dar se răzgândeşte în clipa în care privirea-i cade pe o fată drăguţă pe care-o observase, în seara aceea, ceva mai devreme.
— Hei, Liebling, o strigă, ecoul vocii sale răsunând în tăcerea nopţii. Aşteaptă flota! E periculos să ieşi din convoi! Îşi duce degetele la gură şi sloboade o fluierătură ascuţită punând pe fugă toate pisicile din zonă.
Fata priveşte înapoi şi zâmbeşte provocator.
Klaus măreşte pasul. Plecase dezamăgit de la bordel. Erau acolo mai mulţi clienţi decât puteau suporta damele. Fluieră din nou: e atât de absorbit de fată încât nu bagă de seamă figurile indivizilor, iviţi de pe o stradă laterală, care îl urmăresc.
Fata coteşte pe o alee mică. Odată ajunsă acolo, i se pare că a înghiţit-o pământul.
Patru bărbaţi fac cerc în jurul lui.
— Ce dracu! strigă, ducându-şi mâna la pistolul său P—38.
Un laţ aruncat cu dibăcie din spate îi alunecă strâns în jurul gâtului. Se sufocă şi cade în genunchi, mâinile agitându-i-se prin aer. Bereta rotundă de marinar i se rostogoleşte pe stradă ca o roată pusă pe fugă. O cizmă i se afundă în vintre, un pat de pistol îl pocneşte în ceafă.
În ziua următoare, torpilorul Klaus Pohl e găsit de câţiva civili greci care anunţă poliţia. Leşul său despuiat zace în şanţ, la numai câţiva paşi de Cartierul General German. Identificarea e foarte anevoioasă, identitatea cadavrului fiind stabilită abia atunci când flota sa îl dă dispărut.
Cazul e tratat ca o investigaţie de rutină, fără importanţă. Zilnic, ies la iveală, prin şanţurile greceşti, leşuri de soldaţi germani despuiate.
Două ore mai târziu, trei prizonieri greci sunt spânzuraţi în public drept represalii.
Cântând cât îl ţine gura, torpilorul Klaus Pohl părăseşte bordelul „La semnul patului legănat" din Pirgos. În depărtare poate fi auzit vacarmul unei partide de bile dintre un grup de marinari germani şi nişte soldaţi italieni din trupele alpine.
Klaus Pohl rânjeşte fericit şi se hotărăşte să joace şi el un tur, dar se răzgândeşte în clipa în care privirea-i cade pe o fată drăguţă pe care-o observase, în seara aceea, ceva mai devreme.
— Hei, Liebling, o strigă, ecoul vocii sale răsunând în tăcerea nopţii. Aşteaptă flota! E periculos să ieşi din convoi! Îşi duce degetele la gură şi sloboade o fluierătură ascuţită punând pe fugă toate pisicile din zonă.
Fata priveşte înapoi şi zâmbeşte provocator.
Klaus măreşte pasul. Plecase dezamăgit de la bordel. Erau acolo mai mulţi clienţi decât puteau suporta damele. Fluieră din nou: e atât de absorbit de fată încât nu bagă de seamă figurile indivizilor, iviţi de pe o stradă laterală, care îl urmăresc.
Fata coteşte pe o alee mică. Odată ajunsă acolo, i se pare că a înghiţit-o pământul.
Patru bărbaţi fac cerc în jurul lui.
— Ce dracu! strigă, ducându-şi mâna la pistolul său P—38.
Un laţ aruncat cu dibăcie din spate îi alunecă strâns în jurul gâtului. Se sufocă şi cade în genunchi, mâinile agitându-i-se prin aer. Bereta rotundă de marinar i se rostogoleşte pe stradă ca o roată pusă pe fugă. O cizmă i se afundă în vintre, un pat de pistol îl pocneşte în ceafă.
În ziua următoare, torpilorul Klaus Pohl e găsit de câţiva civili greci care anunţă poliţia. Leşul său despuiat zace în şanţ, la numai câţiva paşi de Cartierul General German. Identificarea e foarte anevoioasă, identitatea cadavrului fiind stabilită abia atunci când flota sa îl dă dispărut.
Cazul e tratat ca o investigaţie de rutină, fără importanţă. Zilnic, ies la iveală, prin şanţurile greceşti, leşuri de soldaţi germani despuiate.
Două ore mai târziu, trei prizonieri greci sunt spânzuraţi în public drept represalii.
Read
August 5, 2011"- Du borde vara den siste att prata dumheter, hånar Porta. -Krigsgalen sedan du var sjutton. Frivillig i Spanien där du inte hade ett skit att göra!
- Jag kände det som min pikt att slåss för de små, protesterar Barcelona. - Diktaturen skulle tvinga dem in i slaveri.
- Fraser och skitprat, säger Porta. - Det är diktatur alltihop, men jag medger att de röda är hederligast. De bekänner färg. De tycker om att se blod. Det gör våra också, men de döljer det bakom ett brunt kamouflage."
- Jag kände det som min pikt att slåss för de små, protesterar Barcelona. - Diktaturen skulle tvinga dem in i slaveri.
- Fraser och skitprat, säger Porta. - Det är diktatur alltihop, men jag medger att de röda är hederligast. De bekänner färg. De tycker om att se blod. Det gör våra också, men de döljer det bakom ett brunt kamouflage."
January 2, 2019
Similar to other books written by Sven Hassel, it was quite fun to read, I laughed at many moments (especially involving Tiny and Porta); the book covers events happening on the southern (Greek) frout and on the Russian frount; It wasn't the best in the series, I don't think it necessary head a central theme or a common subject to all events (like SS General / Gestapo / Liquidate Paris); I might be (too) subjective and probably tired of the series by now, last year a read quite many books written be Hassel
December 1, 2022
El libro es lo que se espera de él, historietas bélicas con mucha acción y sin transfondo o desarrollo de los personajes. Las oraciones son muy cortas y sencillas lo que ayuda a que la acción sea trepidante al mismo tiempo que bulgar.
Son varias historietas que pueden ser entretenidas, aunque si te has leído una y no es para ti, te recomiendo que no sigas leyendo, ya que las historietas son muy parecidas.
Son varias historietas que pueden ser entretenidas, aunque si te has leído una y no es para ti, te recomiendo que no sigas leyendo, ya que las historietas son muy parecidas.
Read
April 23, 2018En esta novela aparecen los personajes tan conocidos por los lectores de Sven Hassel: "El Viejo", "Hermanito", Porta, "el Legionario", … a los que se unen otros nuevos. La unidad a cuyo mando se halla "El Viejo" se enfrenta con los partisanos griegos. Los "500" van encontrando por doquier, en su marcha, una ruta sangrienta, y asisten a escenas verdaderamente desgarradoras.
January 30, 2022
Entretenido libro que habla de las andanzas de una cuadrilla del ejército alemán en tierras griegas. Como en el resto de las novelas de Sven Hassel, en esta se mezclan situaciones estrambóticas y más o menos cómicas, con historias dramáticas que muestran la crudeza en una Europa castigada por la Segunda Guerra Mundial.
June 23, 2024
Un volum diferit de celelalte prin faptul că ne arată modul în care soldații aplicau propria lege. Foarte haios episodul cu ceaiul englezesc, sper să fi fost adevărat și dacă da sper că englezii care l-au plănuit să fi aflat ce efect a avut asupra generalilor nemți. Ultimul capitol este foarte interesant, cu așa comandanți de carton cum naiba să câștigi un război.
July 9, 2024
For me this was hard to read. Maybe because I had put it down for a few days before picking it up again but felt I couldn’t get into it. It was all over the place and there were parts that were unbelievable such as Rasputin the bear ! Say no more hence the lower score
July 12, 2014
Bloody high-jinks during WW2 seen from the POV of a punishment battalion in the SS. Not for everyone, I suspect.
May 29, 2018
De los más flojos de la serie
January 11, 2020
More of the same from Hassel
June 19, 2023
One of my favourite Sven Hassel books. Crudely funny in parts but a good read if you have the desire to read something not too demanding.
March 28, 2024
I just love Hassel, can't get enough of his war stories. I recognize all the crazy types of people that you meet in the army, and that makes me appreciate it even more.
Displaying 1 - 23 of 23 reviews