Devil's Guard - Overview

Overview

The constant justification of SS measures, compared to those perpetrated by the Soviets --as well as the almost-unbelievable fighting ability of the characters--has led some critics to denounce Devil's Guard as Neo-Nazi propaganda. The book's tone offers a direct and straightforward explanation for the state of affairs along the eastern front with the narrator using the threat of Communism to justify security measures during the war. The story is told in the words of "Hans Josef Wagemueller," who fights as an officer in the Waffen-SS during the Second World War. The story begins with the capitulation of Germany in 1945, while Wagemueller is fighting the Red Army and partisans near Czechoslovakia. Wagemueller escapes the Allied powers in post-war Europe by fighting his way west and using underground connections to reach France, where he joins the Foreign Legion. Wagemueller reunites with two former sergeants from his former German unit, Bernard Eisner and Erich Schulze, and is sent to French Indochina. In Indochina, Wagemueller and his comrades are incorporated into mixed Legion units that included many French territorial troops. However, under the command of French Colonel Simon Houssong, Wagmueller is put in command of an all-German battalion (around 900 troops) composed of former Nazi troops who, like Wagemueller, fled to the Legion. Their mission is to disrupt the Viet Minh in their rear supply areas, far from cities and French-controlled zones. For more than three years, the battalion runs a highly successful and brutal guerilla war against the insurgent Viet Minh across northern Indochina, Laos and southern China. In one such case, "the battalion of the Damned" escorts a supply column north through enemy-held territory by forcing Viet Minh prisoners and family members to ride in the column's trucks, tanks and jeeps to ensure safe passage. In other situations, poison, torture and natural resources are used.