Hi all; I got a PM to the effect that Guy Sajer's book "The Forgotten Soldier" had been accused of being fiction. This book has been held up for years as a classic military non-fiction, and it certainly did not read like fiction.
First, Guy Sajer's book is still on the reading lists of numerous US military web sites:
google.com
It's one of 6 books on "Nature of War, Tactics, and Warfighting" that participants in this class have to choose three of, as "required reading for company grade officers":
gordon.army.mil
The above class is for the 442nd Signal Battalion's
Signal Officer Basic Course:
gordon.army.mil
The Fort Knox Armor School says this about it:
Mechanized Era Warfare
This book follows one Alsatian draftee in the World War Two German army and vividly portrays the life of the common soldier in war. It is a moving account of the shocking reality of modern combat at its most intense level: the Eastern Front of World War Two.
knox-www.army.mil
knox-www.army.mil
US Fort Benning's 2nd Battalion, 11th Infantry Regiment Infantry Officer Basic Course (IOBC) has it on their list of recommended reading list:
benning.army.mil
The book is listed in the US Military's official Field Manual 22-100 (ARMY LEADERSHIP):
SUGGESTED READINGS FOR DIRECT LEADERS
Sajer, Guy. The Forgotten Soldier. New York: Harper & Row, 1971.
adtdl.army.mil
It's included in the "Leadership Reading Program" at the Center for Army Leadership under the classification "NATURE AND PRACTICE OF WAR", and has an asterisk which indicates that it appeared on the 2000 Chief of Staff of the Army Professional Reading List:
Leadership Level: Direct/Organizational
This classic is a true, first-person account of a Frenchman who fought for Germany on the Eastern Front in World War II. The hardships of the weather, the isolation of the combat actions, the brutality of the enemy, and the gulf between soldiers at the front and desk-bound rear area administrators have never been more sharply drawn than in this book. Whether describing the panic of being surrounded, the chaos of close combat, or the manic laughter after close calls, Sajer's book is an unparalleled account of what combat is like.
leadership.army.mil
With the above as recommendations for the book, it hardly seems necessary to dig into the details as to how it came to be accused of being fiction. But I think that part of the story is the more interesting. The question came down to one of details, and the purpose to which the book was put.
Unfortunately, I can't find a link to the original letter which apparently started the whole thing, (according to the next link) by Lieutenant Colonel Edward L. Kennedy Jr., USA, Combat Studies Institute, Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, entitled "The Forgotten Soldier: Fiction or Fact?" Army History, no. 22 (Spring 1992): 23-25.
But this next link does include some comments on the book by Lieutenant Colonel Brown (who was a West Point educated scholar and armored officer whose service included duty in Germany): "For those of you who are using this as a "Bible" for Grossdeutschland, I recommend extreme caution. There is a substantial body of criticism surrounding this work which generally has caused historians to discount it as what it is purported to be. Simply stated, most historians tend to regard the book as a novel, probably not even written by a soldier. There are two sorts of "criticism" which historians use to evaluate the authenticity of anything from actual documents to artifacts; because they may be of some help, I shall expand a bit: ...
This is followed by a critique of Kennedy's article by Lieutenant Colonel Douglas E. Nash, US Special Operations Command, from the Summer 1997 issue of Army History, "the official publication of the U.S. Army's Center of Military History": "Several years ago Edwin L. Kennedy in an article on these pages entitled "The Forgotten Soldier: Fiction or Fact?" advanced the thesis that The Forgotten Soldier billed as an autobiographical work by Guy Sajer was in fact fictional. ... implication is of course that as a fictional work The Forgotten Soldier's chief significance lies in its entertainment value rather than as a serious work which military professionals may use to enhance their knowledge of the art of war.
... This article argues that Guy Sajer's account of his personal experiences is true. ..."
Next is a letter to the editor by Douglas E. Nash announcing that he has now established contact with Guy Sajer. This is followed by a reply to this letter by Edward L. Kennedy: "In response to Lieutenant Colonel Doug Nash's letter in the March-April 1997 Military Review, I wish to offer a few short observations, then let the matter rest. ..."
Finally, the link ends with yet another letter from Nash, this in reply to Kennedy's: "Regarding Retired Lieutenant Colonel Ed Kennedy's response (in the July-August 1997 issue) to my letter in the March-April 1997 issue of Military Review, I would like to offer one more perspective, then let the debate rest concerning the authenticity of Guy Sajer's book The Forgotten Soldier. ..."
members.shaw.ca
All these guys (Kennedy, Nash, Brown) are respected military authors. So who to believe? My take on the exchange of letters is that Nash kicked Kennedy's butt, as is evident from Kennedy's own words, which are the traditional retreat of the defeated, in this case to a position of the book as a historical document:
...
World War II historians cannot (or should not) cite passages from the book as an official record of the author's unit as they might from General Dwight D. Eisenhower's Crusade in Europe or Field Marshal William J. Slim's Defeat Into Victory to document the combat actions of each of these commander's respective units while researching and writing histories of the European Theater or Burma.
...
But enough blatant misrepresentations and incorrect information occur to cause me serious concern for its use as a legitimate historical reference.
...
I wish there weren't so many errors in the book that make it implausible as a historical autobiography. However, I will not throw out my first edition, hardback version of the book because of its faults.
...
Nash's arguments are getting better, but they are still flawed. My friend, the author and former Grossdeutschland officer, Helmuth Spaeter, has not abandoned his position despite what Nash implies. Therefore, long live Grossdeutschland veteran "Guy Sajer" and his outstanding novel.
Jesus weeps! The book was written many years after the events. Of course it's not an "official record" or a "legitimate historical reference". Such things are written by people who spend time researching archives, and by the way, one of the things they have to deal with is the massive numbers of inconsistencies that humans generate in their descriptions of the same event.
For example, one complaint, from Brown, is this: ""The Forgotten Soldier goes to great lengths to talk about not being fed -- without exception, every German to whom I have spoken about the subject has affirmed that the logistics system, so long as the unit was not cut off or so far away as to be out of supply, continued to work very well right up until 8 May 1945." Since this was not answered in any of the above link, I will note here that Sajer supposedly joined the German military at the age of 16. By the end of the war he was 19. I was a teenaged male once, and I still remember vividly what it was like. Of course he was starving. More seriously, the assertion that the German army was well fed in the retreat from Russia is incompatible with many other well respected historical accounts, for example, The Fall of Berlin by Antony Beevor:
Rations started to get worse towards the end of March. On most days, each soldier received half a Kommissbrot, a rock-hard army loaf, and some stew or soup which reached the front at night, cold and congealed, from a field kitchen well to the rear. If the soldiers were lucky, they received a quarter-litre bottle of schnapps each and, very occasionally, 'Frontkampferpackchen' -- small packs for frontline combatants containing cake, sweets and chocolate. The main problem, however, was the lack of clean drinking water. As a result many soldiers suffered from dysentery and their trenches became squalid. [page 161]
This passage indicates the enthusiasm that the French volunteers (like Guy Sajer) had in defending Germany even when the war was obviously hopeless:
The French 'tank destroyer squads' had played a particularly effective role in the defense. They accounted for about half of the 108 tanks knocked out in the whole sector. Henri Fenet, their battalion commander, described a seventeen-year-old from Saint Nazaire, called Roger, who fought alone with his panzerfausts 'like a single soldier with a rifle'. Unterscharffuhrer Eugene Vanlot, a twenty-year-old plumber nicknamed 'Gegene', was the highest scorer, with eight tanks. He had knocked out two T-34s in Neukolln and then destroyed another six in less than twenty-four hours. On the afternoon of 29 April [1945], Krukenberg summoned him to the subway car in the wrecked U-Bahn station, and there, 'by the light of sputtering candle stubs', he decorated him with one of the two last Knight's Crosses to be awarded. The other recipient was Major Herzig, the commander of the 503rd SS Heavy Panzer Battalion. Mohnke presented him with his at about the same time. Fenet himself and Officer Cadet Apollot also received awards for destroying five tanks each. A Scandinavian Obersturmfuhrer from the Nordland brought three bottles of looted French wine to toast the heroes. Fenet, who had been wounded in the foot, explained that they fought on because they had only one idea in their heads: 'The Communists must be stopped.' There was no time 'for philosophizing'. [page 352]
Off topic, but also of interest from the same source:
Nobody moved by day. A Soviet sniper shot Pohlmeyer, one of Gerhard Tillery's comrades in the 'Potsdam' Regiment of officer cadets, straight through the head as he climbed out of his slit trench. Otterstedt, who tried to help him, was also picked off. They never spotted the muzzle flash, so they had no idea where the shot had come from. The Germans on that sector, however, had their own sniper. He was 'a really crazy type' who dressed up when off-duty in an undertaker's black top hat and tailcoat, to which he pinned his German Cross in Gold, a vulgar decoration known as 'the fried egg'. His eccentricities were presumably tolerated because of his 130 victories. This sniper used to take up position just behind the front in a barn. Observers with binoculars in the trenches would then relay targets to him. One day when little was happening, the observer told him of a dog running around the Russian positions. The dog was killed with a single shot. [page 161-2]
And this passage has a strange resonance with the Israeli / Palestinian issue:
'The following day, a sixteen-year-old Berliner called Dieter Borkovsky described what he witnessed in a crowded S-Bahn train from the Anhalter Bahhof. "There was terror on the faces of people. They were full of anger and despair. I had never seen such cursing before. Suddenly someone shouted above the noise, "Silence!" We saw a small dirty soldier with two Iron Crosses and the German Cross in Gold. On his sleeve he had a badge with four metal tanks, which meant that he had destroyed four tanks at close quarters. "I've got something to tell you," he shouted, and the carriage fell silent. "Even if you don't want to listen to me stop whingeing. We have to win this war. We must not lose our courage. If others win the war, and if they do to us only a fraction of what we have done in the occupied territories, there won't be a single German left in a few weeks." It became so quiet in that carriage that one could have heard a pin drop.' [page 189]
This one reminds me of the movie "Dr. Strangelove":
Army officers also had to remind themselves before entering the Reich Chancellery that saluting in the traditional manner had now been banned. All members of the Wehrmacht had to use the 'German greeting', as the Nazi salute was known. Many found themselves raising their hand to the cap, then suddenly having to shoot the whole arm outwards. [page 58]
The Fall of Berlin, as reviewed by Salon:
salon.com
Anyway, it is clear that the Sajer book is not a suitable text for those attempting to manufacture accurate German WW2 uniform paraphernalia. That wasn't what Sajer was attempting to do, nor is that what the US military uses the book for. He wrote the book as a description of what life was like for him during the war, in particular in combat, not as a concise and accurate description of where to sew on your SS patch.
By the way, Sajer is most definitely not a very nice guy. From what I've read, he's still, after all these years, an unrepentant Nazi sympathizer, and some of his actions betray more than just incipient paranoia. I'd be willing to bet money that he hates both Jews and Arabs. Nevertheless, with all his and his book's faults, it does make fascinating reading, and it is undoubtedly written by a man who was there to see it happen. It's on the required reading lists for a good reason.
-- Carl |
