Devil’s Guard Audio Book Review

Devil’s Guard

Written by George R. Elford, Narrated by Nigel Patterson

Audiobook, 12 hours and 36 minutes

Published by Tantor Audio, December 2017

Language: English

ASIN: B078KH8PS3

At the end of the Second World War in Europe the victorious Allied powers occupied Germany.  The Wehrmacht had been defeated and disarmed, but what to do with the soldiers?  The Soviets had a simple solution – deport the German soldiers to Gulags where those who survived spent over a decade.  In the Western Allies’ occupation zones the German soldiers were herded into camps.  War criminals were tried and the rest eventually released, but even many of these had no homes to return to.  For some with tarnished pasts or no future in post-war Germany, the French Foreign Legion offered a new identity and a fresh start.

SS Obersturmfuhrer Hans-Josef Wagemuller (a pseudonym) was one such man.  Rather than surrender to the Soviets and be executed, he made his way to France and joined the Legion.  Soon he was deployed to French Indochina, where the Viet Minh were fighting a brutal guerilla war against the French much as the Viet Cong fought against the Americans in later decades.  There were enough German Legionnaires to form a battalion, most of whom were highly experienced veterans of multiple campaigns.

Elford’s book is told through Wagemuller.  There is apparently some debate as to whether this is a completely faithful telling, but “Wagemuller” is based upon an actual person.  His account is not for the squeamish, no details are omitted and neither side gave much quarter.  The print version of this book was published in 1971 while the Americans were still fighting in Viet Nam, there are many lessons the Legion mastered which would have been of use to the Americans had they been heeded.  Wagemuller also laments the willing propensity of the Western press to parrot our enemies’ propaganda, which if anything has only gotten worse. 

Germans fighting in Viet Nam was a new perspective for me.  This an engaging story, well written.  Recommended.