George Robert Elford

Fantastic book.
Not only is the whole thing a satisfyingly gritty display of heroics in the face of a hopeless struggle, having such a unique viewpoint on an often overlooked bit of history is fascinating - whether it's based on fact or not.

Probably the only thing that bugged me was a line that went something like, "I not once saw him smile", only for the character in question to be described as smiling on at least two occasions later in the book.
Perhaps that sort of grim, fatalistic smirk show more didn't count as a real smile to the protagonist's mind, due to their lack of genuine warmth? I don't know, but I'll let it slide. show less

This is a novel (which pretends to merely be a heavily fictionalized real account) but is an exceptionally good story -- a Waffen SS officer (hunter of partisans, so fairly morally tolerable) who escapes at the end of WW2, along with many of his men, to join the French Foreign Legion and fight in Indochina (Vietnam). Perfectly captures the competent special operations vs. mindless politicians, unconventional warfare in the jungle, etc. This came out around when Vietnam was getting to peak US show more involvement (1971), and a lot of the actions in the book were pretty much MACV-SOG type missions which were then-current.

Probably the most ardently anti-communist story I've ever read. show less

This was a fun read. Since publication the historical veracity of the author has been called into question.