“Hohenstaufen: 9 SS Panzer Division” by Charles Trang and Pierre Tiquet

Introduction

I’m going to holdup my hand here and admit to being a bit of a sucker for books generally. The subject matter of this particular book is very dear to my heart, c.f. my Armorama moniker. However, to begin with, I was in two minds about buying it. When I checked out the reviews, they were mainly positive except for one critic who had posted “new unpublished photographs, well maybe if you’ve been under a stone for the last 30 years”. Well, I haven’t been under a stone for 30 year sand I have a copy of the first edition (1985) of Furbringer’s book on the subject, so given the cost of the book I did wonder if it was worth it or if it would just be the same information and pictures all over again. In fact, I’m glad that I took the plunge and bought it; a lot of the pictures were new to me, which given I’ve been researching the subject on and off for nearly 40years is something of an achievement.

Review

This offering from Editions Heimdal is a hardbacked book co-authored by Charles Trang and Pierre Tiquet. It has a glossy hard cover as opposed to cloth with dust jacket. The book cannot be considered as light reading due to it providing 416 pages of high-quality reference in a large format. It’s also in French, which will give a lot of people pause, but my schoolboy French from 45 years ago aided by Google Translate is just about up to it. This title comes in at £85, which is a lot, but a quick search on Amazon found it offered for £59 (I paid £51 post free). That’s still a lot, given the restricted subject matter and the foreign language and you may be asking what relevance it has to the average modeller. The answer is the pictures – there are nearly 800 photos in 416 pages and quality ranges from average/good to superb. If you have even a passing interest in the North Western Europe campaigns, the Waffen SS, World War II German equipment or even “Beute” equipment, there is something in it for you. There is plenty of inspiration for dioramas too. The books contents are divided into chapters as follows:

Avent-propos (Foreword/Introduction)

Chapitre 1: Mis sur pied de la division (Putting the division on its feet)

Chapitre 2: Bapteme du feu en Galicie (Baptism of fire in Galicia)

Chapitre 3: La bataille de Normandie (Normandy)

Chapitre 4: La retraite vers les Pays-Bas et la bataille d’Arnhem (The retreat through the Low Countries and the Battle of Arnhem)

Chapitre 5: Remis sur pied en Allemagne (Putting(the division) back on its feet in Germany)

Chapitre 6: La Hohenstaufen dans les Ardennes (the Battle of the Bulge)

Chapitre 7: Hongrie et Autriche: les derniers combats (Hungary and Austria: the final conflicts)

Annexes: Rapports de situation en personnels et materials(Appendices: Strength returns in personnel and equipment; this section also includes reproductions of veterans Soldbuchs etc)

Each chapter is sub-divided into headed sections covering individual actions within the campaign, so you don’t need to read the whole of Chapter 3, for example if you are only interested in say, Hill 112.

 Obviously, this book can in no way be considered the domain of and interest of modellers only; this is probably the first stop and likely to be the only purchase you will need to make where 9SSPanzer Division “Hohenstaufen” is concerned. It will also appeal to historians interested in the relevant campaigns and to those interested in Waffen SS units generally. The writing in the book is well presented and notwithstanding being in a foreign language, is engagingly written. In fact were it translated into English, I believe it would read easily. What is interesting is that virtually all the officers even down to company level are given biographical notes and it is therefore possible to link them with their previous and subsequent units. While previously one could think “I wonder if that’s the same Schmidt that did…?”, this makes the link. There are numerous personal testimonies from division members and some make for grim reading especially when they involve the Falaise Gap battles.

The pictorial content of this title, as I mentioned previously, is one of the main advantages to offset the language barrier. Whereas many titles may include one or two selected photographs from a war correspondent’s film, here you get the lot, which helps put the photos in context. Obviously, there are some well-known shots, but I would say at least half were new to me personally, so for many prospective buyers many will be completely fresh. There are lots of pictures of individuals and groups obviously from veterans’ private collections, which show what was worn rather than what was supposed to be. Vehicle modellers will find plenty to interest them here; how about a Ford V8 staff car in three colour camouflage, British and French trucks used for driving tuition and an unidentified vehicle, possibly a Guy or Fordson (it’s difficult to tell under the foliage!) used as a first line gun tractor? A warning; some of the photos show graphic details of battle, including German bodies.

As my wife pointed out, in buying this book you could save yourself money. Rather than buying several cheaper books or magazines, each of which has some of the photos in, you get them all in one hit here. The only issue is that there are very few of Hungary and the Ardennes and some well-known shots which I expected to see (e.g., Panther 212 in the Ardennes and Jagdpanther 401 from Hungary) aren’t here. My only other beef is with the maps; being reprinted from Furbringer’s book, there is nothing wrong with them per se (he drew them himself and the original quality is good), except that here some have been reproduced much smaller and are difficult to read.

Conclusion

This offering is not a cheap purchase and it is very much up to the individual to decide whether it is of sufficient interest to him/her to justify the price tag. Hopefully I have provided enough detail here to help make an informed decision. I would point out that the original Furbringer book, which was reprinted, is currently out of print and silly prices are being asked on Amazon. I wouldn’t go so far as to suggest that the book is an investment, but I suspect one could get their money back if marketed carefully, were the buyer disappointed. It does make a change to get away from the hackneyed subjects of Leibstandarte, Das Reich, Totenkopf and Wiking, which have all pretty much been done to death. Raised in January 1943, Hohenstaufen fought pretty much solidly from the beginning of 1944 to the end so they compare with the Allied units raised for the NWE Campaign. Moreover, unlike other SS units, they appear to have fought a clean war; there are, to my knowledge, no major atrocities apportioned to them (I am aware of some less chivalrous behaviour by units attached during “Market Garden”, but their conduct towards British wounded and prisoners at Arnhem was more than correct).That is the major attraction for me; it is possible to make a balanced assessment of an elite unit without getting bogged down in war crimes.