Hitler's Gauls: The History of the 33rd Waffen Division Charlemagne

by Jonathan Trigg, Spellmount Publishers

Hitler's Gauls, the first in the Hitler's Legions series on foreign volunteers and their units, is an in-depth examination of one of the least well-known of these divisions, the Charlemagne, recruited entirely from conquered France. Founded late on in the war in the autumn of 1944, the Charlemagne fought hard on the Eastern Front, often motivated by an extreme anti-communist zeal. Hitler's Gauls explores the background to the unit's formation, the men it recruited, the key figures involved in the division, and its organization. It also looks at the formation and training of the Waffen-SS in general and the Charlemagne in particular, and also the uniforms and insignia that members of the Charlemagne division wore.
Hitler's Gauls also provides a full combat record of the division during its existence. The book describes the unit's service on the Eastern Front including battles of near annihilation in the snows of Pomerania and the final stand in the ruins of Berlin. Illustrated with rare photographs, and featuring an authoritative text, Hitler's Gauls is a definitive history of one of Hitler's lesser known foreign units of World War II.

Genres: Military History

208 pages, Hardcover

First published May 1, 2010

Reviews

[Nick Ueber · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a very deeply researched and written history of Frenchmen who served in the Waffen SS and distinguished themselves in doing so. I have read many books about WWll and never knew the extent to which other countries participated on behalf of Nazi Germany, this was an eye opener. He does a great job analyzing so many aspects militarily and politically of the war and particularly the background, ethos and history of the SS as both a fighting force and political force. It was a page turner in many area but could get bogged down with minutia as to individuals and battle staffing but it is easy to pass over those pages without losing the importance of the chapter. Recommend if you want a deep dive into a relatively little know history of WWll.

[C.MOSLEY · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent Book read in 2 days

Excellent Book gripping from start to finish,about a little know regiment of the Waffen SS (to me ) fighting in the streets of Berlin you could almost be there.

[Andrew · Rating 3 out of 5]

The quality of this book is like the make-up of it's subject, considerably varied. Large portions of the text, mostly the background information segments are lacking in cohesion and poorly written. The prose is pretty amateurish. There are a lot of unnecessary exclamations. The author's use of German and French terms, and their English translations is inconsistent. Trigg also occasionally throws in a bit of modern military jargon that he seems to expect the reader to be familiar with. He also makes a lot of seemingly unsubstantiated claims, and barely uses any citation at all in the narrative.

While Hitler's Gauls has some significant flaws, where Trigg's writing shines is in the combat narrative of the 33rd Waffen Division. This part of the narrative is the most complete and cohesive, and even the author's prose is a little better. There are also a decent set of maps to help follow the Charlemagne Division's campaigns.

If you're particularly interested in the subject matter of foreign volunteers in the World War II German military, this book is worth a read. It's brief, and reads easily, and there aren't a lot of books on the particular subject of Frenchmen in the German Army/Waffen SS. If you're not particularly interested in that specific subject, I'd give this book a pass, it's pretty mediocre.