Well, between my parents, who lived through WWII and made me watch every documentary available on French TV and attend occasional lectures, and our three sons, who are fascinated by that period of history, the oldest even wrote his Masters thesis on the topic, I really thought I was "World-War-Two-ed out"! After all, it is not my favorite period of history, the 19th century is.
And yet, here I am, embarked on a three-part novella, whose second part centers around a Soviet tank commander. I find myself immersed to the hilt in WWII, this time looking into the eastern front (of which, I realized with shock, I knew little, despite my thorough upbringing) and even getting technical, comparing tank power between German panther and tiger tanks versus Soviet T-34 85, trying to figure out how things actually worked in a tank battle and what happened when the Germans surrendered, like did the Soviets have trucks ready at the back to transport pows from the battlefield to camps etc.
Because of the fear, within the Soviet ranks, of denunciation, with Stalin's paranoia about traitors and enemies of the revolution, it is also extremely difficult to have a clear grasp of what took place and of individual reaction from first-hand accounts, so I am still researching. I am also interested in the post war for those Soviet officers and soldiers who were not career officers but joined to fight for their homeland. My hero in this part of the novel is a history professor.
So, I would welcome any info you might have and as soon as you can send it to me, because my deadline for this part II of the novella is August 24th!
And yet, here I am, embarked on a three-part novella, whose second part centers around a Soviet tank commander. I find myself immersed to the hilt in WWII, this time looking into the eastern front (of which, I realized with shock, I knew little, despite my thorough upbringing) and even getting technical, comparing tank power between German panther and tiger tanks versus Soviet T-34 85, trying to figure out how things actually worked in a tank battle and what happened when the Germans surrendered, like did the Soviets have trucks ready at the back to transport pows from the battlefield to camps etc.
Because of the fear, within the Soviet ranks, of denunciation, with Stalin's paranoia about traitors and enemies of the revolution, it is also extremely difficult to have a clear grasp of what took place and of individual reaction from first-hand accounts, so I am still researching. I am also interested in the post war for those Soviet officers and soldiers who were not career officers but joined to fight for their homeland. My hero in this part of the novel is a history professor.
So, I would welcome any info you might have and as soon as you can send it to me, because my deadline for this part II of the novella is August 24th!