Scorched Earth

Yes sir you are correct....bildband is essentially meaning photo book. I cannot even find the publisher of the German version. I want to say an English one was done however......maybe through Schiffer pubs ? Don;t worry about it being in German if you do find a copy, everything is very clear via the pics.
Everything was done in German and then the rights were sold to US translators and distributors. I can think of the Munin Verlag, Podzun and several others that come to my small pee brain--

E

 

Nope, they're in English.

'Hitler's War On Russia' published Geo. Harrap, London 1964
'Scorched Earth' published Geo. Harrap, London 1970
'Bildband' published Ullstein, Germany 1967 ( as this is a picture book, language doesn't really matter ).

Harrap published these books in highly-illustrated, good-quality format. In their day, they were not cheap and are now very sought-after by collectors.

 

Intersting Martin. I have a very old copy in Deutsch from the 1960's.

E

 

I just remembered, both books were published as paperbacks by Corgi/Transworld in 1971 and even these are now hard to find !
The paperbacks are OK but lack most of the original photos - the Harrap ones are the ones to go for.

 

And on occasion--you can find these kind of books for sale on Detlev Niemanns site.

 

What site is that you refer to?

 

Its an EXCELLENT miloitaria site that is owned and operated by Detlev Niemann of Hamburg Germany. I will send you the UrL tomorrow when I get back online. By German law--to enter his site--I think one now has to have a username and password--but for a new visitor--I dont know.

Anyway--Detlev has an impressive book section.

 

Sorry to bump this one back up, but I've been using Carell again lately. It seems I had been too cursory in my examination of Carell.
He relys on first-hand accounts of veterans... This is both good and bad in my opinion. On the specifics, the numbers, strengths and losses, Carell I think is rather unrelaible. This is inevitable- the average private in the field often lacks information. And Carell was working without the benefit of many recently available sources on more specific numbers.
But as far as the war "as it happened" in the east, I underestimated Carell. I revoke (mostly) my criticism!

[ 16 August 2002, 11:17 PM: Message edited by: CrazyD88 ]

 

Thanks for the posting, Crazy - and for changing your mind !

Your criticism is absolutely justified but, as we've said before, Carell was first and foremost a journalist and not an academic historian.
In some ways, he is similar to Martin Middlebrook in 'letting the veterans speak '.
As must be obvious by now, Carell's books are some of my personal favourites and are cornerstones of my collection.

In any event, they are now unique and unrepeatable.

 

He does have a great journalistic style. I guess this is what turned me off at first. Before I grabbed Healy's Kursk book, Carell was one of my main sources for working on Kursk. And as you probably know, if one is trying to get an objective picture of the whole battle, Carell is not too good. But his work is invaluable... we actaully get an idea of what the fighting was like. It's very easy, I think, for a historian (speaking of us now!) to look at a battle or operation and focus too much on the impersonal view, using only the numbers and statistics. To really understand something, you need both views- the numbers and figures to know how the battle actually went, and a wortk like Carell's to know how the FIGHTING actually went. Carell also does shed some good light on some of the specific tactics used by both sides.
Overall, Martin, I'd have to agree- give me a few more weeks working on Kursk, and you will probably get a complete turnaround on my views on Carell.
Just keep me going on the Kursk thread to make sure!

 

Martin is right on the money with SS-Obersturmbannführer Schmidt aka Paul Carell. He also gave propagandistical advice on how to deport the Hungarian Jews to Auschwitz without causing to much protests or feeding anti-german propaganda.

He was a 100% nazi and his books are reflecting that.

Cheers,