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Legion of the Damned #11

Curtea marțială

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Nimic nu e mai înspăimântător decât ea. Nimic nu e mai rău decât ea. Nimic nu e mai performant decât ea… Nici artileria sovietică, nici vânătorii siberieni, nici giganticele tancuri T-34. Ea este Curtea Marțială.
„Tragedia soldatului german constă în credința sa că există o motivație rațională pentru a continua rezistența și pentru a-și pierde viața. Zile și nopți în șir persistă să facă sacrificii inumane pentru o cauză de mult pierdută“.

336 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1978

21 people are currently reading
373 people want to read

About the author

Sven Hassel

137 books336 followers
Hassel served in the Danish merchant navy till 1937, when he moved to Germany to join the army. He served with the second Panzer Division stationed at Eisenach and in 1939 was a tank driver during the invasion of Poland. A year later he attempted to escape because of being mentally exhausted. He was transferred to a Sonderabteilung, a penal unit manned by criminals and dissidents. He served with the 2nd Cavalry Regiment and later the 11th and 27th Panzer Regiments (6th Panzer Division) on all fronts except North Africa and was wounded several times. Eventually he reached the rank of lieutenant and received an Iron Cross 1st and 2nd class. He surrendered to Soviet troops in Berlin in 1945 and spent the following years in various POW camps. He began to write his first book Legion of the Damned while he was interned. He was released in 1949, and was planning to join the French Foreign Legion when he met Dorthe Jensen. They got married in 1951. He went to work in a car factory. In 1957 Sven Hassel suffered from an attack of a sickness caught during the war and was paralyzed for almost two years. After recovery, he began to write more books.

See also Sven Hazel

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5 stars
301 (32%)
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325 (35%)
3 stars
243 (26%)
2 stars
49 (5%)
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 30 reviews
Profile Image for Razvan Banciu.
1,885 reviews156 followers
April 22, 2025
I like this series and many of the characters involved, Porta and Tiny being (of course...) my favorites.
The books are almost the same, the only difference being their degree of sadness. And this one is quite sorrowful, as it shows the brutal face of the Third Reich, directed against their own people...
Profile Image for Mati.
1,033 reviews1 follower
March 20, 2010
I fell in love with this author and his books. They are what I imagine in military fiction. There is everything but not pathos. The storytelling drags reader in to thick action and put clear sign that this book is the most anti-war and anti-oppression thing I have ever read. Sven, Porta, Tiny, Alte and others were in the middle of war at the Finnish borders, where the winter was as bad as Russians and even own side. There is episode with very unfair court martial, which put insight in nazi way how to deal with everybody and how criminal regime could be even to its own people.
Lot of blood and gore but with meaning, which goes well with plot.
Profile Image for Hedda von Herzfeld.
56 reviews
May 8, 2020
Azt kaptam, amit vártam. A háború borzalmai, Porta és Pici kétes üzletei, nagy hideg és hó…ezekbe volt ágyazva, amiről valójában szólt a könyv. Hihetetlen, hogy a sok borzalom közepette még történhettek olyan dolgok, amin hangosan felröhögtem…mint például, amikor megpróbáltág Emil-t kinyírni és végső megoldásként egy vadmacskát választottak. :D Már csak két kötet van hátra a sorozatból és őszintén sajnálni fogom, ha a végére érek…

Profile Image for Shanna Luciani.
Author 4 books30 followers
October 8, 2021
Grazie Sven per la nostra dose sana di trash e qualche sprazzo di denuncia sociale qua e là. Amen 🙏❤️ (Prendete con le pinze ciò che dico a riguardo).
Profile Image for Alice von Tannenberg.
Author 2 books40 followers
March 31, 2022
Sven Hassel è così: sboccato, eccessivo, tragicomico. Si può ridere delle smargiassate dei suoi compagni, ma tra le righe si coglie una profonda disillusione, una rassegnazione quasi fatalista all'insensatezza del caos e della violenza. La narrazione è un'apoteosi del trash e del grottesco (certe scene fanno sbellicare da quanto sono assurde - e mi verrebbe da dire, volutamente esagerate, sia in crudezza che in volgarità) dove però prevale una visione che prende la retorica dei buoni e dei cattivi e la butta (finalmente) fuori dalla finestra: le differenze tra gli uomini vengono abbattute per far riemergere il loro lato crudele e animalesco, tutti hanno colpe più o meno gravi, tutti commettono atti disumani. Nessuno, dopo aver guardato l'orrore in faccia, dopo averci sguazzato ed essersi macchiato le mani di sangue, può dire di avere l'anima pulita. Anzi, abituarsi all'orrore comporta la perdita di ogni innocenza: il risultato è assuefazione all'eccesso e mancanza di rimorsi. Una volta toccato il fondo dell'abisso, non si torna più indietro.

Note addizionali: non è un libro per stomaci e cuoricini deboli. È un libro crudele, che più volte farà storcere il naso e fissare le righe con occhi strabuzzati. Non è da leggersi come un'opera di realismo (la parte tecnica militare è una miniera di dettagli che fanno il solluchero degli appassionati, ma molte situazioni sono esagerate per accentuare l'effetto scenico), ma a) se si ama la letteratura di questo genere, con sangue, esplosioni, Galgenhumour e volgarità a mani basse, perché effettivamente si ride, e tanto, b) per la "filosofia" che ci sta dietro.
45 reviews1 follower
April 5, 2021
Haos
Asta e cuvantul ce sumarizeaza cel mai bine razboiul.
Ne este aratata dezordinea generala de pe linia de front dar si cea dinafara bataliei prin ochii unor soldati obisnuiti.
Recomand
Profile Image for Andreas Schmidt.
810 reviews11 followers
August 15, 2017
La storia della Seconda sezione ( che diventa a mio avviso sempre più leggendaria ) tra le bianche nevi della Finlandia. Già da diversi libri lo stile di Hassel per il Vecchio Unno sembra mutato: ha perso la sua proverbiale calma. Nel frattempo il libro descrive le avventure della Seconda sezione divenuta un gruppo di commandos sabotatori dietro alle linee nemiche. Come sempre, il libro sembra più che altro una raccolta di vicende, che seguono il filo logico di alcune altre che descrivono l'intera storia. Il romanzo non manca di nulla, in quanto comicità-ironia-tragicità. Anche in questo libro l'autore non manca di dimostrare che ogni situazione può capovolgersi completamente, trasformandosi da una allegra festa ad un orribile massacro ( come l'episodio di fraternizzazione tra russi e tedeschi, a fine libro ), dove la morte è ogni dove. "Vieni, dolce morte, vieni" ... direbbe il Legionario.
Profile Image for Edwin.
1,078 reviews33 followers
June 22, 2022
Wederom het rauwe verhaal van Kleine, Legionair, de Oude, Porta en anderen. Ditmaal bevind de troep zich aan het Russische-Finse front. Verder niet veel bijzonders. Mooi verhaal, dat, volgens eigen zeggen, de auteur zelf heeft meegemaakt. Sven vertelt over de wreedheid en absurditeit van oorlog vanuit een Duits perspectief.

Profile Image for Anna.
3,522 reviews193 followers
October 6, 2009
Group of war comrades in the middle of World War II, when no one, even a general, in German army can't be sure of his fate and the battlefield with Soviet troops attacking isn't the worst place on Earth. War is hell.
Profile Image for Donnacha.
141 reviews2 followers
August 20, 2019
Very Very Good. I enjoyed this book. It brings the reader deep into WW2. It's realistic and doesn't hold punches, it really shows the horrors of War.
484 reviews
Read
April 23, 2018
Sven Hassel  nos sitúa en esta ocasión en el frente de Finlandia. Los ya famosos personajes de las obras de este autor han de afrontar una situación difícil, ya que las tropas alemanas se han de retirar tras un fortísimo ataque de los rusos.

El coronel Frick se ve obligado a tomar una decisión crucial: dejar atrás a los heridos que no pueden caminar, al cuidado de algunos voluntarios, para salvar al resto de las fuerzas en retirada. Convoca una reunión de oficiales, en la que algunos demuestran su disconformidad, mientras que otros se limitan a inhibirse. Solo el teniente Wisling apoya incondicionalmente al coronel.

Una vez alcanzan las líneas propias, el teniente Schulz, un nazi convencido, denuncia al coronel y al teniente que estuvo de acuerdo con él. Es impresionante la escena del fusilamiento de tres altos oficiales, entre ellos, el coronel Frick, acción que da origen al titulo del libro. Como siempre, el autor contrapesa la crudeza y verismo de los hechos relatados, con algunas escenas realmente jocosas, a cargo de los inevitables personajes, llenos de humanidad y simpatía
118 reviews
September 10, 2024
In my early teens I was mildly obsessed with the novels of Sven Hassel, haunting second-hand shops in search of dog-eared copies.
That the books stretched credibility to its limit, his cast of anti-heroes managed to fight in every major European campaign of the Second World War, meaning they would have had to be in at least two places at once, barely registered. The flatness of his writing style passed me by too, I was hooked on a depiction of warfare far removed from the polite heroics of the films and comics I had encountered previously.
How would I feel reading one of books now that I am, allegedly, older and wiser with literary sensibilities to match?
The first thing to say is that the flaws noted above are present and if anything, more noticeable. Hassel, like any writer with a successful series to manage seems to have struggled with balancing maintaining quality and feeding popular demand. There is also the fact that his characters speak and act in ways that act on fragile modern sensitivities like fingernails scraping down a blackboard.
Despite this I found myself enjoying this novel dating from 1979 more than can be accounted for on the grounds of nostalgia alone.
He may have been no prose stylist, but Sven Hassel wrote about the experience of war at the sharp end with horrifying clarity. His battle scenes are small epics of macabre surrealism. War as Hassel describes it is a world away from the depictions of it as an exercise in noble sacrifice or a thrilling adventure dominant in popular culture at the time.
If his characters are brutes, and they are to a man, then they are the products of a system that made them so. A dictatorship slowly collapsing under the assault of its enemies and its own paranoia. In such an environment the merest hint of suspicion is enough to land thoughtless or the unlucky in a prison camp and being realistic about imminent defeat invites hard justice and swift execution.
If you’re looking for an answer to what war is good for, making monsters of ordinary men mostly, then Sven Hassel gives it to his readers in plain language and shocking imagery.
Profile Image for Socrate.
6,745 reviews268 followers
December 4, 2021
Porta nechează de plăcere şi îi oferă fetei un loc pe banca putredă pe care o ocupăm.

Ea râde, sunetul reverberând departe în pădure. Stă în picioare, cu soarele în spate şi îi putem vedea silueta. Fusta cenuşie de uniformă de vară este confecţionată dintr-un material subţire, transparent. Ne-am dori ca ea să stea acolo veşnic. Are părul lung şi auriu, ca un lan copt de grâu. Nu ştie germana şi trebuie să ne facem înţeleşi într-un gen ciudat de lingua-franca. Porta vorbeşte ceva, despre care el spune că e finlandeză, dar fata nu-l înţelege.

În râu sar stropi de apă. Sunt ca nişte picături mari de ploaie.

— Ăia trag într-una, spune Gregor laconic. Pierdere de vreme!

— Pierdere de pulbere la distanţa asta. Replică Bătrânul, aprinzându-şi pipa cu capac de argint.

— Ţâşniturile de apă par să se alerge între ele pe suprafaţa râului.

— Nu vă e frică? întreabă fata-soldat, netezindu-şi fusta.

— Nu, râde Porta fără să-i pese. Sunt jalnici pistolarii ăştia fanatici!

— Nu i-am văzut niciodată trăgând până acum, spune ea întinzându-şi gâtul să vadă mai bine.

— Ne putem apropia puţin, îi sugerează Porta, ajutând-o pe fată să se ridice. Râdem de ei de-aici!

— Poţi să-mi faci o fotografie? îl întrebă ea, dându-i un aparat Leica lui Heide. Apoi se instalează în vârful dâmbului.

Heide îi face o fotografie, având grijă să includă şi toate împroşcăturile de apă provocate de gloanţe în lac.

— Hai să facem una cu tine între mine şi Micuţul, strigă Porta, cu un zâmbet larg.

Ea râde şi îi ia pe după umeri.

Heide se ghemuieşte ca un veritabil fotograf profesionist.

Glonţul exploziv îi sfâşie fetei jumătate de faţă. Carne, sânge şi aşchii de oase îl împroaşcă pe Porta. O ureche smulsă i se bălăbăne pe piept Micuţului, ca o medalie.

— Un trăgător de elită, un franctiror blestemat! strigă Micuţul, plângând la pământ alături de Porta.

Împing împreună trupul neînsufleţit al fetei în faţa lor, să-i protejeze de gloanţe.
Profile Image for Virginia.
1,419 reviews19 followers
July 25, 2021
Fue el primer libro de Sven Hassel que me leí y, aunque no suelo leer libros de temática bélica, este me encantó. Los personajes son hilarantes y saben sacar provecho de todo tipo de situaciones en aras de su supervivencia. Claro está, que también hay escenas en las que la guerra muestra toda su crudeza, pero los miembros de ese batallón, cuidan los unos de los otros como si fueran hermanos.
Hay que dar mención especial a dos personajes, Porta y Hermanito, jugadores empedernidos y unos timadores excepcionales, que son los que más situaciones cómicas generan a lo largo de la obra. Particularmente, son mis personajes preferidos junto con El Viejo y Barcelona.
A pesar de que el libro me agradó y estremeció a partes iguales, sólo se lo recomendaría a gente con el estómago en su sitio.
548 reviews5 followers
September 6, 2021
I might be biased but Sven Hassel was the finest fiction writer of World War Two. Unlike other books, 'Court Martial' was split into separate sections - the main part covered the Penal Battalion fighting against the Soviets in an Finland while the author included the Court Martial of senior office for retreating and his subsequent doomed escape. There was also section covering a small Russian village on the Finish boarder before everything was tied together for the climax. As with Hassel's other books he simply picks up without needing any explanation and takes the reader on a journey that is unpleasant vicious but it leaving you glad you weren't there with them. Excellent stuff.
Profile Image for Mihaela Abrudan.
598 reviews70 followers
June 27, 2024
" Tragedia soldatului german constă în credință sa că există o motivație rațională pentru continuarea rezistenței și pentru a-și pierde viața. Zile și nopți în șir persistă să facă sacrificii inumane pentru o cauză de mult pierdută." Atât de mare era teamă de repercusiuni și atât de absurde motivele pentru care cineva ajungea în fața Curții Marțiale încât au ajuns să creadă că așa este firesc.
Profile Image for Luis Arturo Mantilla Lopez.
Author 11 books
August 21, 2025
This novel is part of a beloved series that places Sven Hassel alongside Erich Maria Remarque. Through unforgettable characters like Porta, Heide, Hermanito, and Colonel Hinka, Hassel shows us war not as glory, but as something irresponsible, irrational, and deeply human.
23 reviews4 followers
December 19, 2019
Again another excellent book from Sven Hassel. It’s a great example of humanity in inhuman conditions!
Profile Image for Elvia Monzon Gutierrez.
27 reviews
October 5, 2021
El mejor libro de guerra que he leído. Soldados alemanes que odian a Hitler pero no saben vivir de otra manera que matando rusos. Muy recomendable y con un humor muy negro.
Profile Image for Nataly V..
3 reviews
January 2, 2023
Nu-mi place acest gen de carte și m-a plictisit.
Am terminat-o foarte greu.
Profile Image for Mircea Petrean.
16 reviews
February 17, 2019
It didn't leave an impression on me as other books in the series have; maybe it's because I am somehow bored by now, but it left me the impression that nothing new happens, event if no other stories from the Finnish front are illustrated in other books so far; it's not a bad book, but nothing more than average
Profile Image for Procyon Lotor.
650 reviews111 followers
January 27, 2014
12th Court Martial chapter by chapter: -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1. The Bridge Fighting in Finland. Mission behind enemy lines to blow up railway bridge. 2. The Battle Group Front line fighting in Arctic winter. Gregor's nose comes off in the cold. Tiny and Porta take off on a food raid. Retreat and fight with T34s. 3. Court Martial Torgau prison. Long description of the courts martial system. 4. The Execution More about Chief Mechanic Wolf. Porta fights with Staff Quartermaster Sieg. Firing squad duty. Description of various executions. Description of the new CO's wife (and several other ladies!) 5. Flight Description of prisoners sent to the Dirlewanger Brigade. Story of escaping prisoners. 6. The Spurious German Wolf and Porta involved in identity swap scam. Long, involved tale of the Jew who has taken the identity of a dead German soldier. Story of the cat named Dynamite. 7. Nova Petrovsk Trip behind the lines to attack a secret Russian base at Nova Petrovsk using secret rockets. Another of Porta's stories. 8. The Red Angel Russian bar/brothel. Description of characters and events while waiting for the Germans to arrive. 9. The War Dogs Sven's section arrives at the village and takes over The Red Angel. Fraternising with the locals. Ancient Russian patriarch talks about old wars. Old cannon gets fired again. NKVD attack in motorised sledges. Retreat back towards German lines. Climb down cliff to the White Sea. Running fight with Russians. Porta's reindeer. Section attacked by war dogs (Tiny catches one and calls it Frankenstein).
Profile Image for Ruth.
4,711 reviews
July 23, 2011
c1979. One of the last of the series which is about a German platoon (Porta, Tiny, Old Man, the Legionnaire, Heide, Barcelona-Blom, Sven, etc.) on different fronts during WWII and narrates the atrocity and absurdity of war from a German perspective. Bio courtesy of authors website - "Hassel was born in 1917 in Fredensborg, a small village of Denmark. He was raised in the traditional scenario of a Danish working-class family. At the age of 14 Sven embarked in the merchant navy as a shipboy. In 1936 he did his military service, and the following year, due to the great unemplyment in Denmark, he joined the German army as a volunteer. Initially he served in the 2nd Cavalry Regiment and furthermore in the 11th and 27th "Panzerregiment". He fought in all the frontlines except in the North of Africa. Consequentialy Sven was wounded eight times. From 1945 to 1949 he was a POW and was subject to Russian, American, French and Danish prisoner camps. only Tiny, the Legionnaire, Heide, Gregor Martin and Sven survived the war." Dramatic and effective style of writing - suited to the story being told.
Profile Image for Michał Szczepaniak.
9 reviews
May 9, 2013
W 50% fantazja, w 30% pokretna reinterpretacja i w 20% nagi, calkowicie szczery opis surowej, barbarzynskiej codziennosci w szeregach armii niemieckiej. Autor, piszac swoja autogiografie, tworzy z wlasnych wspomnien i z wlasnej, pelnej sprzecznosci natury kilku bohaterow, ktorzy - realni lub nie - przezywaja wraz z nim dziesiec lat sluzby na wszystkich frontach europejskiej II wojny swiatowej. Jedna uwaga - Hassel nie byl w SS i nie byl nazista, nie rozumiem wiec, jaki idiota na okladce jego ksiazki wrysowal mu w nazwisko te dwie blyskawice...

Ksiazki Hassela czytam zawsze z przyjemnoscia, ale tylko psychopata wytrzyma wiecej, niz jedna na kwartal.

Na marginesie, ciekawym przypadkiem, akurat dzisiaj mamy rocznice zakonczenia II wojny swiatowej...
40 reviews1 follower
Read
August 5, 2011
"När straffkompaniet återvänder till Torgau sent på kvällen tas det emot av "Järn-Gustav" som står och väntar, iförd en skinande vit vapenrock. Den har han på sig antingen det är sommar eller vinter. En soldat har det varken för varmt eller för kallt, säger han. Vädret intresserar honom över huvud taget inte. Det påstås att han inte ens lägger märke till om det är vinter eller sommar.

Straffkompanierna måste alltid avsluta dagens tjänst med att marschera runt "Järn-Gustav" sjungande: "Es ist so schön soldat zu sein!"

Det är den enda sång "Järn-Gustav" tycker om."
Profile Image for Matthew Taylor.
383 reviews5 followers
January 19, 2016
Everything I expected from Hassel, a continuous series of dimly-connected hyper-violent and almost unremittingly grim vignettes that provide a surprisingly strong antidote to the usual style of war fiction, which contrasts the violence with some humanity. In this entire story, a dying reindeer is the only recipient of even basic humanity.

One thing I was not ready for, however, was the way the grim and dark storyline means that even the most implausibly silly-but-nasty plan, like assassinating someone with an enraged wildcat, seems totally reasonable.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
Profile Image for Sebastian Sandino.
57 reviews
September 22, 2019
El autor fue un ex soldado de la Wehrmatcht, con una gran cantidad de libros de género histórico-Guerra que cuenta las andanzas de una división alemana con soldados bastante peculiares y característicos. La historia cuenta con unos capítulos que vale la pena recalcar como espectaculares por su descripción histórica de la época de guerra sobre todo la Batalla de Finlandia y un capítulo que habla sobre los bombardeos en Berlín y sus desertores militares que buscan donde esconderse.
Profile Image for Andrew.
Author 21 books15 followers
May 2, 2014
Non stop intense crazy bad taste gore splattered war. Well written and funny... if that's your bag!
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