A collaborationist who fought for Germany during WWII and later for the French in Vietnam tells his eventful life story in this military memoir.

This is the riveting true story of Paul Martelli who fought on the Eastern Front in 1945 as a fifteen-year-old member of the 33rd Waffen-Grenadier-Division of the SS Charlemagne, and later, as a soldier with French forces in the Tonkin area of Vietnam.

Paul recounts his time at the Sennheim military training base; his experience of the German invasion of France when he was still a boy in Lorraine; and his motivations for enlisting with the Waffen SS a few years later. He reveals his escapades at Greifenberg, his first love with a German girl helping refugees, and his experiences of combat. After the German defeat, Martelli ends up delivering a group of female camp prisoners to a Russian officer, then living in disguise among enemy soldiers until he escapes and surrenders to the Americans.

After a prison sentence and military service in Morocco, Paul is sent to fight in defense of French bases north of Hanoi, Vietnam. Though he survives three years of fierce combat, he compares his service in the Waffen SS with the inefficiency of the French Expeditionary Force and comes out deeply frustrated.

At almost twenty-six, Martelli has fought and lost in two wars, both against the communists. Unemployed, and with the ideals of a 'Nouvelle Europe' in pieces, he briefly joins the French Foreign Legion before choosing another path



Autorentext

On the Devil's Tail is Paul Martelli's first book.James Anderson Foster, an Earphones Award-winning narrator, has narrated audiobooks for a variety of publishers, across nearly all genres, both fiction and nonfiction. In 2015, he was a finalist in three categories for the Society of Voice Arts and Sciences Voice Arts Awards--mystery, science fiction, and fantasy.

Titel
On the Devil's Tail
Untertitel
In Combat with the Waffen-SS on the Eastern Front 1945, and with the French in Indochina 1951-54
EAN
9781910777527
ISBN
978-1-910777-52-7
Format
E-Book (epub)
Veröffentlichung
20.05.2022
Digitaler Kopierschutz
Wasserzeichen
Dateigrösse
34.33 MB
Anzahl Seiten
328
Jahr
2015
Untertitel
Englisch