Desert Fox
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The Second World War has been marked by the tales of courage of men from both sides of the opposing fronts. From the beaches of Normandy to the jungles and rocky Islands of the Pacific, the decisive moments were all determined by those individuals who risked their lives against impossible odds to do their part towards achieving the greater victory for their respective cause.
Many of these personal accounts have been extensively written about either by the individuals themselves who lived to tell of their experience, or historians who specialize in WW2 history. Reading these inspiring stories today, most of us could hardly believe that such men once existed, but in fact they did exist, and history bears witness to their struggles, to their pain and agony, and ultimately their sacrifice.
One such individual who has become the symbol of courage, heroism, patriotism, and unswerving commitment to the ideals for which he struggled for till his last breath, against whom the entire world had stood against, but nonetheless his defiance and belief in his own cause remained steadfast and firm as an iron wall; this man is General Leon Degrelle; a personality shrouded in controversy. Some say he was a victim to the circumstances which had engulfed Europe in the wake of the Second World War, others say he was a traitor, a collaborator, and a war criminal. He is lauded by many who witnessed his heroism on the battlefields of the Eastern Front, for the glory of his motherland Belgium, and for a unified Europe, while many others despise him, including the post war Belgian government placing a death sentence on his head due to which he could never return to his own homeland for the remainder of his life. And this, not withstanding the fact that the post war Belgian gov.t itself was knee deep in collaboration with the Nazis during the years of occupation.
Nonetheless, Degrelle, a man who had fought for four years with exceptional bravery on the Eastern Front, leading his men into combat as a distinguished soldier, participating in more than 72 hand to hand combats against some of the most fanatical troops of the Red Army and Partisan guerrilla's under the harshest climates known to man, displayed through his actions that he was willing to risk life and limb to secure for his nation a honorable position in a Europe post-Nazi German victory.
In the final days of the war, Leon Degrelle was able to escape unconditional surrender by hitching a 1,500 mile flight from Norway to Fascist Spain, barely making it through enemy controlled airspace as the aircraft crash-landed on the beaches of San Sebastian, and thus the fate of torture, executions, deportations, and imprisonment which had befallen many of his comrades and all axis forces in the days after the war did not befall him.
Unlike most of his comrades, Degrelle lived to tell the story of his struggle, the epic story of the Wallonian Legion which he led through the many battles on the Eastern Front, fighting alongside 37 other pan-European volunteer Legions from all across the continent, in what most Europeans at the time believed to be a ideological crusade against the expansionist designs of Soviet Communism.
For the remainder of his life, Degrelle would write many books, pamphlets, and articles of his experiences on the Eastern Front, on his alliance with Hitler, and on the socioeconomic and political changes which had transpired in post-war Europe. Most of his work is in the French and Spanish languages but few have been translated to other languages including English.
One of Degrelle's most famous works which became popular amongst World War Two enthusiasts, military strategists, and historians alike the world over is Campaign in Russia: The Waffen SS on the Eastern Front, the first English Language Edition published in 1985 by the Institute For Historical Review, (ISBN 0-947554-04-1) from the original French version Front de l'Est, 1941-1945. Paris: La Table Rond. 1969. This book won the praise of US Army Brigadier General John C. Bahnsen in a review appearing in an official US Army Department magazine: ".. The pace of the writing is fast; the action is graphic, and a warrior can learn things from reading this book. I recommend its reading by students of the art of war. It is well worth the price."
Here is a book that offers us a fairly well balanced view of the war on the Eastern Front from the perspective of the Axis; devoid of the usual apologetic, self hating, guilt trodden narrative common to most Books written about the East Front by German WW2 veterans, yet does not contain any of the biases of the Nazi regime, and in fact is critical of the Nazi leadership where criticism is necessary.
Campaign In Russia: The Waffen SS on The Eastern Front
"Degrelle recounts the war in the East as he lived and fought it, across the sun-baked steppes of the Ukraine, in the depths of the marrow-chilling Russian winter, to the foothills of the Caucasus and the threshold of Asia, through the stinking mud and the flaming hell of Cherkassy, across the rolling plains of Estonia and the Pomeranian lake country. You'll be with him as time and time again he leads his men through ******** of shot and shell that would have daunted all but the most fearless. You'll learn what drove the 35-year-old Degrelle—a man who had never so much as fired a gun, a brilliant intellectual and his country's most charismatic political leader, idolized by the multitudes who followed him—to enlist as a private in the legion he himself organized to join his nation's conqueror in its fight against the Communist enemy.
You'll learn the other side of the Bitburg story, the epic of the Waffen SS, suppressed in the controlled media, told by a man whose unique literary talent and unmatched combat experience make him the premier spokesmen for his fallen comrades. War criminals? Victims of Hitlerism? Now you'll be able to judge for yourself.
"Through the epic of the Belgian volunteers—one unit among a hundred others—it is the entire Russian front which is going to come into view once more, with the sunny days of the great victories, with the still more moving days of the great defeats, defeats that were imposed by physical circumstances, but that the will did not accept.
"Out there, in the endless steppes, men lived.
"You, reader, friend or enemy—watch them come back to life; for we are living in a period when one must look very hard to find real men, and they were that, to the very marrow of their bones, as you are going to see."
A free ebook and PDF copy of the original English Language Edition is available through this link
The second edition of the English Language version is available for purchase here on Amazon.com
More links on Leon Degrelle himself, his life and experiences:
LEON DEGRELLE Born Bouillon 1906
Leon Degrelle
Interview with Leon Degrelle « "Neues Europa"
Many of these personal accounts have been extensively written about either by the individuals themselves who lived to tell of their experience, or historians who specialize in WW2 history. Reading these inspiring stories today, most of us could hardly believe that such men once existed, but in fact they did exist, and history bears witness to their struggles, to their pain and agony, and ultimately their sacrifice.
One such individual who has become the symbol of courage, heroism, patriotism, and unswerving commitment to the ideals for which he struggled for till his last breath, against whom the entire world had stood against, but nonetheless his defiance and belief in his own cause remained steadfast and firm as an iron wall; this man is General Leon Degrelle; a personality shrouded in controversy. Some say he was a victim to the circumstances which had engulfed Europe in the wake of the Second World War, others say he was a traitor, a collaborator, and a war criminal. He is lauded by many who witnessed his heroism on the battlefields of the Eastern Front, for the glory of his motherland Belgium, and for a unified Europe, while many others despise him, including the post war Belgian government placing a death sentence on his head due to which he could never return to his own homeland for the remainder of his life. And this, not withstanding the fact that the post war Belgian gov.t itself was knee deep in collaboration with the Nazis during the years of occupation.
Nonetheless, Degrelle, a man who had fought for four years with exceptional bravery on the Eastern Front, leading his men into combat as a distinguished soldier, participating in more than 72 hand to hand combats against some of the most fanatical troops of the Red Army and Partisan guerrilla's under the harshest climates known to man, displayed through his actions that he was willing to risk life and limb to secure for his nation a honorable position in a Europe post-Nazi German victory.
In the final days of the war, Leon Degrelle was able to escape unconditional surrender by hitching a 1,500 mile flight from Norway to Fascist Spain, barely making it through enemy controlled airspace as the aircraft crash-landed on the beaches of San Sebastian, and thus the fate of torture, executions, deportations, and imprisonment which had befallen many of his comrades and all axis forces in the days after the war did not befall him.
Unlike most of his comrades, Degrelle lived to tell the story of his struggle, the epic story of the Wallonian Legion which he led through the many battles on the Eastern Front, fighting alongside 37 other pan-European volunteer Legions from all across the continent, in what most Europeans at the time believed to be a ideological crusade against the expansionist designs of Soviet Communism.
For the remainder of his life, Degrelle would write many books, pamphlets, and articles of his experiences on the Eastern Front, on his alliance with Hitler, and on the socioeconomic and political changes which had transpired in post-war Europe. Most of his work is in the French and Spanish languages but few have been translated to other languages including English.
One of Degrelle's most famous works which became popular amongst World War Two enthusiasts, military strategists, and historians alike the world over is Campaign in Russia: The Waffen SS on the Eastern Front, the first English Language Edition published in 1985 by the Institute For Historical Review, (ISBN 0-947554-04-1) from the original French version Front de l'Est, 1941-1945. Paris: La Table Rond. 1969. This book won the praise of US Army Brigadier General John C. Bahnsen in a review appearing in an official US Army Department magazine: ".. The pace of the writing is fast; the action is graphic, and a warrior can learn things from reading this book. I recommend its reading by students of the art of war. It is well worth the price."
Here is a book that offers us a fairly well balanced view of the war on the Eastern Front from the perspective of the Axis; devoid of the usual apologetic, self hating, guilt trodden narrative common to most Books written about the East Front by German WW2 veterans, yet does not contain any of the biases of the Nazi regime, and in fact is critical of the Nazi leadership where criticism is necessary.
Campaign In Russia: The Waffen SS on The Eastern Front
You'll learn the other side of the Bitburg story, the epic of the Waffen SS, suppressed in the controlled media, told by a man whose unique literary talent and unmatched combat experience make him the premier spokesmen for his fallen comrades. War criminals? Victims of Hitlerism? Now you'll be able to judge for yourself.
"Through the epic of the Belgian volunteers—one unit among a hundred others—it is the entire Russian front which is going to come into view once more, with the sunny days of the great victories, with the still more moving days of the great defeats, defeats that were imposed by physical circumstances, but that the will did not accept.
"Out there, in the endless steppes, men lived.
"You, reader, friend or enemy—watch them come back to life; for we are living in a period when one must look very hard to find real men, and they were that, to the very marrow of their bones, as you are going to see."
A free ebook and PDF copy of the original English Language Edition is available through this link
The second edition of the English Language version is available for purchase here on Amazon.com
More links on Leon Degrelle himself, his life and experiences:
LEON DEGRELLE Born Bouillon 1906
Leon Degrelle
Interview with Leon Degrelle « "Neues Europa"
A list of other works by Degrelle can be found here
![v14n3p22_Degrelle_Hitler[1].jpg](https://defence.pk/attachments/v14n3p22_degrelle_hitler-1-jpg.245170/ "v14n3p22_Degrelle_Hitler[1].jpg")
"You are almost unique in history. A political leader who fights as a true soldier.
If i had a son, i would wish him to be like you"- Adolf Hitler to Leon Degrelle
@Psychic @p(-)0ENiX @Nihonjin1051 @Gufi @Armstrong @KingMamba @Falcon29
@Ahmed Jo @Saif al-Arab @BLACKEAGLE @Tipu7 @Sulman Badshah @AUSTERLITZ
@persona_non_grata
"You are almost unique in history. A political leader who fights as a true soldier.
If i had a son, i would wish him to be like you"- Adolf Hitler to Leon Degrelle
@Psychic @p(-)0ENiX @Nihonjin1051 @Gufi @Armstrong @KingMamba @Falcon29
@Ahmed Jo @Saif al-Arab @BLACKEAGLE @Tipu7 @Sulman Badshah @AUSTERLITZ
@persona_non_grata
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