Thread: Seven Hassel Books - anyone have one?

Need a couple to read for a trip down south when tent bound. Can swap with a few NZ Hunter mags or Rod and Rifle - recent editions.

Reside in the Christchurch Area. Anything out there?

Do you mean SVEN Hassle , ww2 novels ?

Those are bloody great books! Had the whole collection but sadly sold them all off while flatting. Have you had a look on Kindle? I just use the app on my phone and have hundreds of books with me all the time. Set the background to black and have white writing, nicer to read then

Yep, meant Sven Hassel. Same, had the entire collection late 70's then moved on. The history of the author itself is a story - passed away 2012. He served in WW2 and ended up in prison after the war for treason of all things? But the Penal Battalion - no other story like it. Prefer hardcopies if available?

Dont forget bloody road to hell in greece also look up leo kessler bit of a sven knock off but ok read

I still have the entire collection . Be honest not willing to part with any of them as took me years to track them all down but do know a local second hand bookshop that often has a couple of them hidden on the shelves and may be able to have a look for you see if any there ?
I also own the entire 'Sharp's' collection by Bernard Cornwell.... another great read about an English soldier during the English/French napolean wars .
The battle scenes in those books are quite vividly described and also well worth a read . It must have been terrifying to be formed up facing those huge cannons just waiting for the next ball to remove your head from your shoulders...

It was a while since I read it, but I seem to remember our very on Lieutenant General Bernard Freyberg, getting a mention in the Monte Cassino book. I think he called him the mad New Zealander but it was 40 yrs ago that I read it so could be imagining things

first read the March battalion when i was 15. Jolly good read.
Had a shit ton of them but suspect they were in in the box of books my mother said got wet and buggered in her shed while we lived in aussie

As a youngster I ate those books up, looking back now I realise they were most likely BS. The first one and maybe the second seem the closest to reality.
The author had a few allegations made against him but I think you have to look at it within the greater context. There was a lot going on, were those records lost or did they never exist?

At the end of the day truth is stranger than fiction, the stories seemed plausible to me. If anything I think they show what a crazy time it was. I cant even imagine what it would have been like to be caught up in all. The scale of the barbarity is difficult to understand in modern times.

I cant help with the books. Ive long lost mine but you should be able to find them in second hand shops. Maybe you could trade your mags for them?
Ebooks might be another option https://www.svenhassel.com/bookstore/

I quite liked "Wheels of terror" and "Cross of iron" as well.
Heres the movie to tide you over until you can pick a few up
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NPXy7rNv-wo

FWIW One of the themes that interested me was the idea of localised ceasefires. Years later I was working with a Frenchman who had fought in Croatia as a volunteer. He said the Serbs would keep moving their blokes around as they would try and organise ceasefires as well. It just goes to show Soldiers often have more in common with their enemy than the people that sent them.

Legion of the Dammed was(I believe) a story of his exploits during the great fracas….

The others ( I think) were fleshed out stories.

The Commisars Gold (I reckon) was a story using the characters…..


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I read all of them too, and had a bunch. You dont see them around any more.
The author may or may not have had combat experience on the Russian front...not that it matters. But the little things seemed authentic. The books are a genre of their own, sort of like Spaghetti westerns are to normal westerns....

The book that was the quintessential Sven Hassel book to me, was Blitzfreeze.

I believe the first book which was mostly about being in a labour camp/penal battalion was based on the author's actual experiences, the rest were fiction. (I dont think anyone would really believe that the Germans armed penal battalions with tiger tanks and sent them to fight the Russians...)

I have a Sven Hassel book incoming. That movie made about the Penal Battalion is very low budget - needs a Peter Jackson remake! If you google Sven Hassels life - most of the real Hassel comes to light including his real name and his criminal back ground. The fella had a lot of secrets to his real past and exploits.

Originally Posted by Hunteast

I have a Sven Hassel book incoming. That movie made about the Penal Battalion is very low budget - needs a Peter Jackson remake! If you google Sven Hassels life - most of the real Hassel comes to light including his real name and his criminal back ground. The fella had a lot of secrets to his real past and exploits.

Hunteast - it's hard to say - the guy spreading all the defamation also claimed that Sven Hassel's wife wrote all his books. This seems unlikely. I remember seeing the guy confronting sven hassel on a talkshow just standing up in the audience and yelling, and it was hard not to come to the conclusion that he was a bit mad. Sven Hassel was the highest grossing Danish author at that time, and may have been a bit of a target.

True - but really its about the quality of his books - all a bloody good read at the end of the day.

Read most of Sven Hassel and the Sharpe series.

Can any of you remember the Edge series of westerns? A high body count in each book and the last sentence of each chapter contained a terrible pun.