36 waffen division
36 waffen ss
A01=French L. MacLean
anti partisan warfare
Author_French L. MacLean
Category=JW
Category=NHD
Category=NHWL
Category=NHWR7
Cruel Hunters
Dirlewanger brigade
eastern front war crimes
eq_bestseller
eq_history
eq_isMigrated=1
eq_isMigrated=2
eq_nobargain
eq_non-fiction
french maclean
french mclean
oskar dirlewanger
Polish Uprising
sonderkommando
sonderkommando dirlewanger
the ss
waffen ss war crimes
warsaw uprising
Product details
- ISBN 9780764304835
- Weight: 767g
- Dimensions: 152 x 229mm
- Publication Date: 20 Mar 1998
- Publisher: Schiffer Publishing Ltd
- Publication City/Country: US
- Product Form: Hardback
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This is a brutal story – but, from the safety of fifty years distance in time – it is an extremely compelling one. It is also an enduring lesson that a military unit, formed under an evil ideology, led by a social outcast and composed of vicious criminals, will sink to its lowest common denominator – hate.
The Dirlewanger Battalion, also known as “Sonderkommando (special commando) Dirlewanger” was perhaps the least understood, but at the same time the most notorious German SS anti-partisan unit in World War II. German propaganda correspondents and wartime photographers did not follow them in action. And for good reason. Wherever the Dirlewanger unit – named for and led by Oskar Dirlewanger – operated, corruption and rape formed an every-day part of life and indiscriminate slaughter, beatings and looting were rife.
Formed as a battalion of convicted poachers in 1940, the unit operated in Poland until 1942, guarding Jews in forced labor camps and making life miserable for Poles in Lublin and Cracow. From there Dirlewanger spent two years combating partisans in central Russia, giving no quarter and expecting none in return, during vicious fighting against an elusive foe in the midst of inhospitable swamps and dismal forests. In 1944 Dirlewanger savaged Warsaw during the Polish Uprising, before moving to Slovakia to crush another rebellion there.
The end of the war saw the unit, which was now a division in size, fighting for its life south of Berlin against the Soviet Army. Medieval in their outlook on war and certainly not indicative of many German military formations, this unit none-the-less remains a reflection of a segment of mankind gone mad in the inferno of World War II on the eastern front.
Size: 6" x 9" over 50 b/w photographs, maps, fully annotated
The Dirlewanger Battalion, also known as “Sonderkommando (special commando) Dirlewanger” was perhaps the least understood, but at the same time the most notorious German SS anti-partisan unit in World War II. German propaganda correspondents and wartime photographers did not follow them in action. And for good reason. Wherever the Dirlewanger unit – named for and led by Oskar Dirlewanger – operated, corruption and rape formed an every-day part of life and indiscriminate slaughter, beatings and looting were rife.
Formed as a battalion of convicted poachers in 1940, the unit operated in Poland until 1942, guarding Jews in forced labor camps and making life miserable for Poles in Lublin and Cracow. From there Dirlewanger spent two years combating partisans in central Russia, giving no quarter and expecting none in return, during vicious fighting against an elusive foe in the midst of inhospitable swamps and dismal forests. In 1944 Dirlewanger savaged Warsaw during the Polish Uprising, before moving to Slovakia to crush another rebellion there.
The end of the war saw the unit, which was now a division in size, fighting for its life south of Berlin against the Soviet Army. Medieval in their outlook on war and certainly not indicative of many German military formations, this unit none-the-less remains a reflection of a segment of mankind gone mad in the inferno of World War II on the eastern front.
Size: 6" x 9" over 50 b/w photographs, maps, fully annotated
Colonel French L. MacLean, United States Army, (Ret.), served over thirty-four years in the Senior Service. Born in Peoria, Illinois, he graduated from the United States Military Academy at West Point in 1974, and later from the Army's School of Advanced Military Studies. He has written numerous history books under the Schiffer label.
