Is it easy to kill? It seems that in war we can only ask this question at the beginning of our “adventure”. But are you sure? It is easy to kill from a distance, mowing enemies with a dense device weapon or artillery. But what must be done to stab another man with bayonet in cold blood? That's the question the hero asks. The Devil's defender And not at the beginning of the book and not being a rookie in the war trade...
Hans Josef Wagenmüller describes a complex intellectual process that leads to a soldier – being inactive man – is able to pierce others with a blade at the end of the firearm – not once, not ten, but hundreds of times. And not always in battle, but frequently “dry”, erstwhile he has enemies captured before him. C’est la guerre! – this is war, as the narrator1 repeats.
When we start reading The Devil's GuardWe keep our distance. We know who's who. They're Germans! erstwhile they say that “no communist should stay alive”, we want to snore with laughter, saying: after all, it was national socialism here!
The way of our German heroes through the Vietnamese jungle is the way of redemption from the sins of Nazism, which, in all respect for their homeland and for themselves, they are aware of.
Who hasn't heard of the German double life in Nazi troops? In the war a criminal – at home a tender husband and father. In a communicative written by George Robert Elford based on conversations with Wagenmüller we meet the another side. but the heroes are people who ended the war on the Czechoslovakian Front and had no reason to go home. In Germany, the erstwhile SS were hunted by Americans. So they leave for the Far East in uniforms of the French abroad Legion.
W The Devil's Guard blood pours profusely, and acts of cruelty are not masked by the narrator as in the Greek tragedy. The massacres are described in detail, there is an unimaginable sadism of the savage Vietnamese communists, the savagery indescribable – but described by the author so that we read with baking on his face, consuming the page behind the page...
Finally, there is simply a retaliation of “our” German branch, who had to adapt to inhuman conditions in order not to end a career (and with it life) after 2 months... There is simply a law of war— eye for eye, death for death, fire for fire – not in an act of senseless savagery, as Hans Wagenmüller emphasizes, but to send a clear and clear signal to the enemy: you don't mess with us.
The hard, terrible, brutal law of war in its crumpled core of fire, suffering and blood – however, is not the only subject of the book, which first reaches the hands of the Polish reader.
Throughout the clock of the story, what erstwhile and for all is the question of conscience, morality, what is human and what should stay decent in this hell “a 100 miles behind God’s back.” This voice of conscience gives a eloquent evidence to humanity in the cruel modes of inhuman warfare.
Whether there will be romanticist themes – including the touching wedding scene in the mediate of the jungle – or dramatic in its political sense of helplessness, the interview Wagenmüller gives global journalists, on each side there is an inexorable sincerity of a man who must tread hard on the ground, due to the fact that any careless step could, literally, end up entering a mine.
W The Devil's Guard We see how much in the First Indochina War (whose sequel was later the American-Vietnam War) was the actual conflict in the field, and how much... politics and confusion sown by the press, especially the 1 that yielded to russian and Communist propaganda.
The drama of the situation perfectly reflects the short letter our hero received from a beautiful Vietnamese female named Lin, whom he saved from the warfire:
I hope you're not putting yourself in besides much danger. The Indochina news is beautiful scary. delight don't hazard your life for the temporary benefits that will be lost anyway. The newspapers here say that no substance what you do (or what British Tommies will accomplish in British dependent territories), the future of the colony will be decided here, in Europe or possibly in America. Don't hazard your life chasing a shadow of triumph that won't be yours, Hans.
The devil's giggling of past has not spared and – what is severe to this day! – inactive does not spare the heroes of our book. erstwhile we read popular articles about so-called. dirty war (during 1946-1954), the old lies about the conflict of the mediocre Vietnamese, although half of them were maoist Chinese, and the constant support came from the russian Union and China, which were notoriously breaking the peace agreement with France, while the only thing that the "uncle Ho" had to propose were looting, rape and panic like Bolsheviks.
Due to political decisions and submission to communist press propaganda, France has "let go" the war for the release of Indochin from the spectrum of commune, its dying in glory to the soldiers in fact leaving only The shadow of victory...
Our “headhunters” communicative is almost silent. Similarly, as with the main character whose name – Wagenmüller – was invented for the purposes of the book. His household remained in Germany, where he was definitely accounted for by everyone who served in the SS ranks, regardless of whether he fought with the Soviets (like our hero) or murdered Jews in Poland, specified as these pigsHe mocked Wagenmüller's squad, pointing out that it's easier to execution innocents in an extermination camp than risking their lives on the real front...
Perhaps 1 day we will learn the actual name of the commander of the German branch of the abroad Legion in Vietnam, while we present to the readers a evidence of its colorful and sometimes frozen veins of adventure in the Far East!
Filip Obara
Introduction to the Polish edition
George Robert Elford; The Devil's Guard
De Reggio p.496
