"Himmler’s War " Topic

Himmler's War – by Robert Conroy, Baen Press, ISBN 978-1-4516-3761-8, December 2011

Let me start out by admitting I am a great fan of "alternate history" as "mind candy". Be it Flint, Birmingham, Niles, Harrison, Turtledove or Weber they all find there way to the shelves of my basement. I have picked up all of Robert Conroy's books and have enjoyed them. As with all alternative history there are always "nits to be picked", but for the most part I accept them.

Let me also point I am a reader of the "Journal of Military History", a rather serious work by scholars. Most of the articles in that journal are of limited interest to me – but I can usually find an article or two of interest – and recently there have been a series of articles that in one way or the other look at perceptions of World War II based on evidence coming out of various achieves that were sealed up to this point – including the German Official History of WWII,

One of the issues with perceptions is that many are based on the early histories and memoirs written after the war, which have become accepted "fact". Recent scholarship for example has shown that far from being the "patsy" taken in by "Uncle Joe" Stalin, FDR was more of the hard liner when dealing with the Soviets then Winston Churchill. Case in point when the Soviets took over the Baltic States in 1940, the British government accepted that action and gave de facto approval – while the United States never accepted that action. However in the battle of the memoirs FDR was dead, and Churchill made his case when he penned his memoirs that he was the strong one – and it was accepted. Bradley's damming Patton "with faint praise" is another case of winning the memoir fight.

One great example of this was the various histories and memoirs written by the surviving German officers and leaders after WWII in the 1950's and 60's in which one constant refrain ran true – it was all Hitler's fault. If he had not "micro-managed" things it would have been better. Every wrong decision is put on Hitler's doorstep, and how things would have been better if he had gotten out of the way. Work in the German archives has shown that many of the statements by senior German officers cannot be supported.

In my opinion Robert Conroy's new book – Himmler's War – falls into this trap. Hitler dies in mid 1944, Himmler takes over – the various professionals get to take control – and Germany does much better in their fight against the Allies. The "no retreat rule" is dropped – troops are brought out of areas like Courland and Norway to reinforce the front – and German resistance stiffens so that the allied advance across France becomes a yard-by-yard battle. Women are called up to support industry, and German goes into a total war mode.

This ignores some realities since exposed that the reason for leaving troops in Courland and Norway was at the demand of the German Navy – which needed the Baltic to train their new classes of U-boats – and Norway to operate them from if they wished to continue the battle of the Atlantic. It also assumes that Himmler would have the sense to listen to "experts", a fact that his track record as a commander of the troops in the field in 1944-45 bears out. Likewise the myth of German non use of female manpower has been shown to be wrong – prewar Germany had one of the rates of women working outside the home. Women were called up – but were never needed in the factories due to the use of "slave labor" in that role.

One last point in my opinion is that while tactically and operationally the German War Machine was at its best – in terms of Strategy there always has been a lack of focus – not imposed by Hitler but by the components of the machine itself. There never seems to be unified goal in mind the higher one moves up the chain of command – Divisions function well – Corps somewhat less effective, armies so so – Army groups trend to have little focus.

The book is told from a number of sources as is normal for Conroy, with his two major players – one on each side. Our American hero is part of the 74th Armored Regiment, which appears to be an independent combat command as it has tanks, infantry and artillery all as part of the same formation. Several nits that I will pick – our hero has to scourge a L-5 aircraft – which ignores the fact that every American Artillery Battalion, and Artillery Headquarters gets two such aircraft as part of its TO&E – so the 74th should have had its own to start with – and that the American Artillery needs not to be very responsive. The quality of the Sherman vs German tanks issue comes up as well. On a scale of 1-10 its about a 7.

All in all vintage Conroy – combat and high command tossed in with a bit of sex and some mystery. There are some twists and turns but you can spot the plot as it moves ahead – this figure is introduced here – and you realized he is going to show up there sometime in the future.

If you like alternate history – you will find this one enjoyable and a quick read – if you are a serious student of WWII – you will find lots of nits to pick. If you are not that well read on WWII, be careful what you accept in his story line – it is after all fiction.

Patronising people should check their own spelling, lest some other patronising pedant should come along and point their own errors out to them.

Several nits that I will pick – our hero has to scourge a L-5

I will wait until it's made into a movie before I make up my mind about its histprical accuracy. Or probability.
And, you may rest assured that I will keep a gimlet eye peeled that the tanks are done correctly.
There will be no Jagdpanther made from a T34-85 with a plywood turret for me! And the carronades on the U-boats will be proper 24 pdrs too.

thanks for the review. I'll probably pick it up. I see the first three comments are from the Snark Brigade. They are all grey to me, but I'm sure there comments lend nothing to the discussion. Recommend you grey them out also. Eventually they will only have themselves to play with.

Mikhail, a bit sensitive aren't we? We all play with toy soldiers and you are missing out on some funny comments for the most part. If you are so thin skinned, it may be you that ends up having only yourself :-) Seriously, lighten up… Connard is from the UK and they are noted for their dry humor (no matter how you spell it :-) I long ago stopped taking offense when it was evident to me that the intention harbored no malice… As far as John goes, his grumpiness has mellowed quite a bit. Kind of like an old wine… lol!

The Snark Brigade has ruined many a thread in which a person asked a legitimate, serious question about something they needed information on because they were new to a period or were following up another thread or because they just wanted to know. There are a large number of people (294) who dislike their antics and there are people who have left TMP (I know 2 locally) because of them. Others won't post to a thread that any of the Snark Brigade posts to. Bill made a wise decision to boot OFM, but his backbone weakened and let him back. And he immediately started up his old ways. I do hope they all three have me stifled. I prefer they not "participate" in threads I start.

Just wanted to post my thoughts – and I can't spell worth a damm.

However in response to John the OFM the commonly held belief that the U-Boats were equipped with the 24 pound carronade is incorrect

The subsurface model U Boat carronade was a Mark LXIX and as a result fired a 22.3 pound projectile, unless it was the tungsten cored shot which weighed in at 28.4 pounds. However when viewed in poor light from the left side it does look like a standard 24lb carronade

my .02

There are many who agree with Mikhail Lerementov's assessment.

The problem with stifling someone is that you can't see if they are making a fool of themselves. Sometimes I unstifle to see, but more often than not, it's just too much work.

I ASSUME that someone was getting offended on behalf of someone else who chose not to be. I could be wrong, but like I said, it's often too much trouble.

This story has started to be snippet-ed on line by Baen

link

I have read the book and enjoyed it Like most alternative history you have to give the author a little leeway in setting up his plots so can accept some historical diversions. After all all alternate history is a diversion.