Paul Carell (1911–1997)

Doubly historical: as a history of the Normandy invasion and also as a historical comment (the book was published in 1960) on the rehabilitation of Germany during the Cold War. Author Paul Carrell needed a little rehabilitation himself, as he was an Obersturmbannführer. in the Allgemeine SS, It’s interesting enough as an account of things from the German side – you get exactly the same slice of life stories that you would in, say, The Longest Day, except instead of being from Yorkshire and Ontario and Oklahoma and Wales and California and Manitoba and Sussex and Georgia, the boys are from Westphalia and Saxony and Bavaria and, well, Georgia (the Georgians in the Wehrmacht didn’t do that well; one German general commented “We really couldn’t expect Russians to fight Americans in France for Germany.”)


As an account of the Normandy campaign, it is pretty good; in particular, it has better coverage of the Battle of Mortain and the Battle of the Falaise Pocket than anything I’ve read from the Anglo-American- Canadian side. (Hmmm. Keagan’s Six Armies in Normandy might be as good for the Falaise Pocket). Carrell, of course, blames everything on the materiel superiority on the Allied side; instead of using tactical skill the Americans simply obliterated anything in their path with high explosive. Well, we could.


In rehabilitation mode, Carrell is always ready to point out that this or that German soldier is now (i.e., 1960) an officer in the Bundeswehr or an official in some European organization or another. This also might explain Carrell’s admiration for Montgomery – emphasizing Germany’s new relationship with England. The only American general Carrell has any sort of praise for is Patton; Bradley is “too cautious” and Eisenhower gets acknowledged but neither praised nor criticized.


There are a couple of trivia items; I was surprised to find that tank commanders in the Wehrmacht were often corporals; I believe a tank commander in the Allied armies would be at least a sergeant or lieutenant. German defensive positions in Normandy often had what Carrell describes as “remote control mortars”; I’ve never heard of these anywhere else and can’t quite imagine how they would work. My best guess is something like a long distance minefield; perhaps the mortars were zeroed on a particular patch of terrain and could be discharged when something entered it? In any rate, there’s no account of the things actually being used in action; they were always disabled by shelling or bombing before they could be employed. The Germans were heavy users of captured ordnance; French R35 and H35 tanks were dug in as pillboxes and several artillery units are described as being equipped with “122mm guns”, which I assume came from the Russians.


Accounts like this always bring up the question of whether acknowledging that some WWII Germans were brave and honorable is somehow a validation of Nazi Germany. I suppose anybody who’s reasonable about it will accept that, and anybody who isn’t reasonable is by definition beyond argument anyway. It’s still a little creepy, though; kind of like playing the German side in a WWII wargame and winning.… (mais)

This is a journalistic and colourful account of the campaign in Normandy up to the battles around Falaise in 19th August in 1944. Now, he calls it a breakout, as many German soldiers escaped with small arms by leaving their tanks, etc..behind. the English speaking writers call it a massacre. Be prepared for several such changes in terminology. But if the reader is interested in the ideas from "the other side of the hill" this is a valuable book. Carell did similar books on the invasion of the USSR, and North Africa. Good stuff well served by the translator.… (mais)