What do you think?
Rate this book
SS Wotan #7
Forced March
This is the first in the fictional series The Dogs of War, by Leo Kessler. It is 1942, and the Vulture's eyes gleamed as he watched the exhausted men crawling up the slope through the slippery mud, under the knee-high barbed wire. The SS Assault Regiment Wotan was training and recuperating after its gruelling struggle in Russia and they were glad to be out of the fray for a bit, but it would not be for long for what none of those men, straining up the grassy slope under the eyes of their commander, Colonel Horst Geier, knew was that already they had been singled out for a new mission. The German High Command knew that the British would launch an attack on Dieppe and the crucial element was time. There was only one regiment that could be trusted to get there fast enough to defend the vital coastal battery: the Soldiers of Wotan were on the move again.
192 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1976
14 people are currently reading
70 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
October 2, 2019
Don't write off this wartime adventure; it is a decent enough account of how the carnage of Dieppe unfolded albeit with fictional characters. But LK gets the tone about right and certainly keeps those pages turning until you feel the energy just can't get any worse... but you knew the upshot anyway, all those braver than brave Allied troops eager to show their mettle like their forebears in the Great War little did they know how a comparable fate awaited them in the very same country.
I like these books because they are cold-blooded thrillers, compact and to the point, you care about the characters but you know they are not going to make it back to civvy streets because the fates and brass have just one more mission for the men who get things done... if only there were books being written like this these days, sub-200 pages of action and naughty bits! I bought the series as the Futura paperbacks for light relief to and from college on long train rides... you could do worse to pop a couple in your knapsack when on hols or going off to emulate our forebears.
I like these books because they are cold-blooded thrillers, compact and to the point, you care about the characters but you know they are not going to make it back to civvy streets because the fates and brass have just one more mission for the men who get things done... if only there were books being written like this these days, sub-200 pages of action and naughty bits! I bought the series as the Futura paperbacks for light relief to and from college on long train rides... you could do worse to pop a couple in your knapsack when on hols or going off to emulate our forebears.
September 17, 2019
I read these books in my early teens and so when i stumbled upon the author Leo Kessler again I decided to revisit my youth. Firstly I am concerned i actually did read these in my early teens! haha! The books are full of bloody violence and sexual fun and innuendo and really would have an R rating in the movies.
The book was a blast full of jokes and action and very colourful personalities. That's what stuck with me the most from when i read these all those years ago was the vast array of fun, vulgar and sometimes barbaric characters. The reread some 25 years later was the same, I really love the characters the fill the pages, from the Germans to the Brits to the Scots they are all thrust into the violence of war and Kessler brings them to life all with their own unique voices.
An enjoyable read, i will likely tackle the other books in this the Dogs of War series following the SS Wotan.
The book was a blast full of jokes and action and very colourful personalities. That's what stuck with me the most from when i read these all those years ago was the vast array of fun, vulgar and sometimes barbaric characters. The reread some 25 years later was the same, I really love the characters the fill the pages, from the Germans to the Brits to the Scots they are all thrust into the violence of war and Kessler brings them to life all with their own unique voices.
An enjoyable read, i will likely tackle the other books in this the Dogs of War series following the SS Wotan.
April 10, 2017
Interesting & well written
Verified Purchase(What's this?)
This review is from: Forced March: SS Wotan Defends Dieppe (Dogs of War Book 1) (Kindle Edition)
The opening scenes of the two main characters in hospital are so crude, vulgar and expletive ridden that I almost gave up on this book. However, I have been in the military and sometimes things do get pretty crude, though I surely don't remember things being that crude in either my National Guard or law enforcement careers. I think Whiting used more of it than necessary to make his point. However it is not every day that you find a novel who's protagonists are SS. Written by a very capable historian too. I have no sympathy for the Nazis but it is interesting to see things from the other side. Whiting actually relates the fighting at Dieppe from both sides. My favorite character in the book is British Commando Colonel, the Laird Abernockie and Dearth. If the crude and vulgar were softened a bit, I would give 4 stars. In addition to the SS Wotan series, Whiting wrote historical fiction novels featuring, separately, a Soviet punishment battalion, the British SAS, and the British SBS.
Verified Purchase(What's this?)
This review is from: Forced March: SS Wotan Defends Dieppe (Dogs of War Book 1) (Kindle Edition)
The opening scenes of the two main characters in hospital are so crude, vulgar and expletive ridden that I almost gave up on this book. However, I have been in the military and sometimes things do get pretty crude, though I surely don't remember things being that crude in either my National Guard or law enforcement careers. I think Whiting used more of it than necessary to make his point. However it is not every day that you find a novel who's protagonists are SS. Written by a very capable historian too. I have no sympathy for the Nazis but it is interesting to see things from the other side. Whiting actually relates the fighting at Dieppe from both sides. My favorite character in the book is British Commando Colonel, the Laird Abernockie and Dearth. If the crude and vulgar were softened a bit, I would give 4 stars. In addition to the SS Wotan series, Whiting wrote historical fiction novels featuring, separately, a Soviet punishment battalion, the British SAS, and the British SBS.
November 22, 2023
I read this a long time ago. When I was going through one of my avid reading of war stories. This was one of the first Leo Kessler books I read about SS Assault Regiment Wotan. I was gripped as an impressionable 15 year old. Very brutal and, in a way, glorifying war and horror. Knowing all of this, I was still compelled by the pulp element of it all.
February 11, 2018
188 pages
March 4, 2021
Good start to the series, introducing the characters and the horrors of war
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews