Leon Degrelle

Gary Grigsby’s War in the East: The German-Soviet War 1941-1945 is a turn-based World War II strategy game stretching across the entire Eastern Front. Gamers can engage in an epic campaign, including division-sized battles with realistic and historical terrain, weather, orders of battle, logistics and combat results.

The critically and fan-acclaimed Eastern Front mega-game Gary Grigsby’s War in the East just got bigger and better with Gary Grigsby’s War in the East: Don to the Danube! This expansion to the award-winning War in the East comes with a wide array of later war scenarios ranging from short but intense 6 turn bouts like the Battle for Kharkov (1942) to immense 37-turn engagements taking place across multiple nations like Drama on the Danube (Summer 1944 – Spring 1945).

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barkman44
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Leon Degrelle

Post by barkman44 »

Has anyone read his book about the eastern front?I know he was an unrepentant nazi but like Rudel you can't discount his bravery and fighting elan.
My favorite excerpt is his story of when they had been in position for a fairly long length of time and the bucket of the well they were using came loose and fell into the well.
So the got a hook and instead of pulling up the bucket the pulled up a rotting russian corpse,his matter of fact statement"We'd been drinking him for weeks"brings into stark contrast what life was like back then.A good read have read it 3 times.
Interestingly Hitler stated that if he was to have a son he would like him to be like Degrelle!
barkman44
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RE: Leon Degrelle

Post by barkman44 »

I have to ask,do's anyone know who he was???
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Bamilus
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RE: Leon Degrelle

Post by Bamilus »

Yes, he was a Walloon SS Officer and the founder of Rexism.

But why are you posting this....?
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barkman44
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RE: Leon Degrelle

Post by barkman44 »

Because he fought on the ef and have read of other comments about books written about combat on the ef on this forum so i mention one that i consider out of the mainstream apparently so "EXCUSE MEEEEEEEE" have you read his book that's what I asked??
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Bamilus
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RE: Leon Degrelle

Post by Bamilus »

No because his bias prevents it from approaching fact.
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bdtj1815
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RE: Leon Degrelle

Post by bdtj1815 »

I do know about him. A particularly nasty piece of work. I would not read his book if you paid me.
barkman44
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RE: Leon Degrelle

Post by barkman44 »

So his acounts are nasty an to be ignored and neither of you have read his book INTERESTING I like a disscussuion with an ignorant person sorry but since you havt'nt read the aformentioned volume your lacking in source material.
and responce puzzlies me .
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Lrfss
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RE: Leon Degrelle

Post by Lrfss »

I have the book, read about only 50% but what I have read I found interesting. I know a few who read all of the book who thought it was worth reading just not a great book on the subject overall...
barkman44
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RE: Leon Degrelle

Post by barkman44 »

I just find it interestinglly that some someone can critic it and not have'nt read it ?it puzzles me .
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Lrfss
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RE: Leon Degrelle

Post by Lrfss »

ORIGINAL: barkorn45

I just find it interestinglly that some someone can critic it and not have'nt read it ?it puzzles me .

I have found that due to the subject matter some can't seem to view it all in a historical perspective and get all caught up in the PC of it all... So sad...

Some of the best books I've ever read some would likely find the content offensive, however who cares as long as you enjoy it!

Some really good historical accounts on the various branch's of the SS out there, one was called IIRC "SS Intelligence" or something like that about the whole spy, counter spy stuff, was a great book and well documented.

Read on!

Lrfss
bdtj1815
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RE: Leon Degrelle

Post by bdtj1815 »

ORIGINAL: barkorn45

I just find it interestinglly that some someone can critic it and not have'nt read it ?it puzzles me .

I am not criticising the book because I would not want to buy it in case by doing so I might enrich the estate of his family, or worse that of a dubious publisher enriching themselves by publishing books written by such dreadful people as Degrelle . I am criticising the man, which you can do by reading about him, not what he wrote.
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Bamilus
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RE: Leon Degrelle

Post by Bamilus »

I don't need to read Hitler's terrible prose in Mein Kampf to know what he believed. The same goes for Degrelle. I think their actions were sufficient.

@ LRFSS

I don't have problems with the book because it might contain "offensive" content (whatever that means). I question the actual truthfulness of the writing because it is apparent that Degrelle was a fanatical fascist and spent the rest of his post war life trying to deny the Holocaust and legitimize the Third Reich. Anyone who tries to deny the Holocaust loses instant credibility in my book and therefore I put his memoirs in the category of fiction, the fanciful stuff of legend.

Many officers and soldiers who fought for the Axis have written legitimate memoirs of their experiences. Leon Degrelle is not one of them.
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RE: Leon Degrelle

Post by Aurelian »

ORIGINAL: barkorn45


Interestingly Hitler stated that if he was to have a son he would like him to be like Degrelle!

So Degrelle claimed he said.

Anyone who tells the Pope that Auschwitz's use as an extermination camp was a fraud, and;

Repeated negationist statements on the Holocaust.

His only regret about the war was that they lost.

Can't possibly write anything that could be considered unbiased or, to me, worth reading.

It's a shame Belgium never got to carry out the death sentence they imposed.
Watched a documentary on beavers. Best dam documentary I've ever seen.
Aditia
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RE: Leon Degrelle

Post by Aditia »

yeah.... How about we talk about gaming again
molchomor
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RE: Leon Degrelle

Post by molchomor »

Regarding the Rudel book, if you are into the airwar, I really recommend the excellent books by Pierre Clostermann and Heinz Knoke.

And nope, none of them were nazis ;)
Mehring
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RE: Leon Degrelle

Post by Mehring »

Problem is, there's not a single history book that isn't biased. Every book is written from one perspective or another and, irrespective of any outright invention, gives weight to some information at the expense of other information. History books are replete with "received wisdom" which goes unchallenged by authors because they find no reason to question it. Misinformation and lies are repeated until often they become the bedrock of society's understanding of history. "But everybody knows that's what happened," we are told. Our society differs from others by degree, and the degree changes with time.

Personally I'm heartened that people find Degrelle repugnant and agree it's a shame he wasn't executed. But that doesn't invalidate his book. Even if its primarily fiction- I don't know- it is an historical record of a way of thinking which was produced by historical interests and circumstances. Like Mein Kampf, Churchill's memoirs and every other book for that matter, it needs to be read critically.
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warspite1
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RE: Leon Degrelle

Post by warspite1 »

Always good to see Hitler's Mein Kampf and Churchill's memoirs in the same sentence - good grief [8|]
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Mehring
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RE: Leon Degrelle

Post by Mehring »

There's not so much between them, really. One led an empire trying in vain to fight off challenges to its global hegemony, the other led an aspiring economy making its second challenge. Both were ruthless representatives of their respective nation's ruling class.

In the mid 1930s Churchill really couldn't tell whether Hitler was good for "Germany" or not. Doubtless, what this really meant, was he couldn't see whether Hitler's pursuit of German industry's interests would greatly cut across those of Britain's industries. He had doubtless read Mein Kampf, in which Hitler expressly ruled out building a navy and challenging Britain's colonial empire.

Written in November 1935, and published in "Great Contemporaries" he said "[History] is replete with examples of men who have risen to power by employing stern, grim, and even frightful methods but who, nevertheless, when their life is revealed as a whole, have been regarded as great figures whose lives have enriched the story of mankind. So may it be with Hitler."

Only someone who recognised a kindred spirit and who shared the same social aims, albeit for the benefit of a rival nation- the repression of the working class- could have written this of Hitler at the time. Compare Leon Trotsky's analysis of Hitler and National Socialism in "What is National Socialism", written exactly two years previously

"The more impotent the police regime of the Nazi is in the field of national economy, the more it is forced to transfer its efforts to the field of foreign policy. This corresponds fully to the inner dynamics of German capitalism, aggressive through and through. The sudden turn of the Nazi leaders to peaceful declarations could deceive only utter simpletons. What other method remains at Hitler’s disposal to transfer the responsibility for internal distresses to external enemies and to accumulate under the press of the dictatorship the explosive force of nationalism? This part of the program, outlined openly even prior to the Nazis” assumption of power, is now being fulfilled with iron logic before the eyes of the world. The date of the new European catastrophe will be determined by the time necessary for the arming of Germany. It is not a question of months, but neither is it a question of decades. It will be but a few years before Europe is again plunged into a war, unless Hitler is forestalled in time by the inner forces of Germany."
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sillyflower
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RE: Leon Degrelle

Post by sillyflower »

ORIGINAL: Mehring

There's not so much between them, really. One led an empire trying in vain to fight off challenges to its global hegemony, the other led an aspiring economy making its second challenge. Both were ruthless representatives of their respective nation's ruling class.
I don't wish to fall out with my new opponent but this is bizarre and absurdly insulting to the man who, more than any other, means we can play this game in peace, and to the previous generation to mine.

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warspite1
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RE: Leon Degrelle

Post by warspite1 »

ORIGINAL: Mehring

There's not so much between them, really.
Warspite1

How mind numbingly stupid, and spectacularly ungrateful too. Just to be clear you are saying there is not much difference between Adolf Hitler and Winston S Churchill?

Thanks to Churchill you are free to spout such nonsense, but I am also free to ignore. Green button for you.
Now Maitland, now's your time!

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