Customer Reviews
One of my favourite reads - By: David Addison, 14 Sep 2008 
I was a little nervous when going to read about a German SS officer,going into the French Foreign Legion to fight the Viet Minh,before the Americans entered the fray.It had me hooked from page one!The author,Hans Wegemuller describes his combat experiencesin the final days of World War 2,and he with his comrades-in-arms fighting the new enemyin French Indo China,before it became Vietnam many years later.He's an interesting character.Totally ruthless when so desired,but also a warm,and decent human being too.That took me by suprise,as I've read many accounts of the SSin battle,as being really cruel enemies.I'm pleased that I've got this book.Its a timeless read,and I'm desperately trying to get the second book!
Disturbing and yet compulsive - By: Mr. Tristan Martin, 22 Nov 2007 In The Devil's Guard, author George Robert Elford has compiled the shocking testimony of an unrepentant Nazi mercenary, fighting for the French Foreign Legionin Indochina. The Devil's Guard follows SS Officer Hans Josef Wagemueller, from fighting the Russians on the eastern front at the end of World War II, through a training period with the French Foreign Legion & finally to prolonged & intense combatin the jungles of southeast Asia.
The book isin essence a confessional, though perhaps with the antagonist bearing no guilt, only a desire to reveal man's inhumanity to man,in its rawest & most unexpurgated terms. This ultimately means that the reader is confronted with chapter after chapter of how a Nazi & his platoon of fellow ideologues fought, shot, bayoneted, tortured & poisoned the Viet Minh; these scenes are depictedin their unflinching brutalityin a way seldom captured by purveyors of war-memoirs, whether they be the literati of the late Norman Mailer's The Naked & the Dead, or Andy McNab's tale of dubious authenticity, Bravo Two Zero.
The Devil's Guard does indeed have the whiff of verisimilitude, not to mention sulphur. However, the book is an "as told to" story, whereby Wagemueller met the authorin a barin the capital city of a small, unnamed Asian country - & then dictated this testament into a microphone over the subsequent eighteen days. As such, the book is entirely uncorroborated, as far as I can determine. If it is fiction, it is an exceptional rendering. If, as this reader believes, the story is essentially true, then author George Robert Elford has succeededin capturing a remarkable document. A book such as this is a rare artefact indeed. Bloody, uncompromising, disturbingly vicious, relentlessly compelling, The Devil's Guard is a shocking revelation, unmatchedin its intensity.
A FASCINATING ACCOUNT OF AN UNKNOWN WAR - By: , 11 Apr 2002 I FIRST READ THIS BOOK WHILST SERVING IN THE FALKLAND ISLANDS MANY YEARS AGO. IT HAD BEEN LEFT THERE BY A PREVIOUS OCCUPANT. I READ IT TWICE AND THEN, BECAUSE OF MY ENTHUSIASM, LENT IT TO SOMEONE WHO DID NOT RETURN IT. SINCE THEN I HAVE SEARCHED HIGH AND LOW FOR THIS FANTASTIC, ENGROSSING READ. IT REALLY GIVES YOU AN ACCURATE INSIGHT INTO, WHAT SOME MIGHT SAY IS A FORGOTTEN WAR, A CHAPTER THAT SOME AUTHORITY FIGURES MAY NOT WANT TO BE PUBLIC KNOWLEDGE. AS YOU READ THIS, YOU FEEL AS THOUGH YOU KNOW THE CHARACTERS, YOU FEEL THIER PAIN, SENSE THIER FRUSTRATIONS AND FEEL SORROW AT THIER LOSSES. THE BLACK HUMOUR DISPLAYED BY THE SUBJECTS IS SHARED WITH THE MILITARY FORCES OF TODAY. THIS IS THE STORY OF HANS JOSEF WAGEMULLER AND HIS FELLOW KOPFJAEGER AND I TRULY WISH I HAD A COPY, AND COPYS OF THE SEQUEL WHICH I DID NOT KNOW EXISTED UNTIL COMING ON LINE TONIGHT. CONGRATULATIONS MR ELFORD, I THOUROGHLY ENJOYED EVERY SECOND.
