Books on Sturmgruppen

[kb]

Originally Posted by WEISNER

Well, there you have it, too bad about Prien's IV./JG3 work not in the future. this I think would be an excellent unit to read about..... and as far as Luftwaffe books go.... may be a decent seller? are any worthy book publishers reading this?
What a great complimentary book this would be for the JG300 works?
I would pre order it if it were ever to be published.
Kevin

I would highly recommend buying yourself a good German-English dictionary and try reading Herr Prien's work in the original text. I began doing this about ten years ago and while by no means "fluent" in reading German, I have reached the point where I can understand about 70% of what is written without resorting to the dictionary to translate every word. Given the huge amount of fantastic work produced by Herr Prien, it beats relying on the whims of UK/US publishers.

[Ruy Horta]

Although I have an advantage through my native tongue dutch, I actually prefer to read in German when it concerns the German armed forces. Comparing the original with the translations always illustrates that something is lost in the translation.

Sometimes it is just a matter of style or small errors, but more important, almost always the feel is lost, especially when it concerns biographies or (early) unit or campaign histories. These are rich with jargon and military slang, all lost when translated.

Although I have a fair share of English translations, I prefer to collect the original, even if it means that I have to read Fraktur. Again, something that takes a little to get used to, but once you have adjusted it reads (almost) as easily as normal latin script. However reading late 19th century (Moltke, Schlieffen etc) and (post) WW1 literature in Fraktur just adds to the experience.

Some people tend to regard reading the original German to be superfluous, I regard it to be essential.

Now if only I could read Russian and Japanese... now that would leave me with no time to eat, drink, (not to mention "explicit",) sleep and er... work.

[FalkeEins]

Originally Posted by Ruy Horta

Comparing the original with the translations always illustrates that something is lost in the translation.

...you'll forgive me if I say that I completely disagree with you - 'always..' ?? what a crass generalisation ! in many cases the translator will have 'enhanced' the original...see the comments from Peter Spoden on my website with regard to my translation of his foreword for Theo Boiten's forthcoming Nachtjagd War diaries....'superb & cultured English, much better than we pilots talk..'
There are plenty of other examples of good translations, Galland's memoirs (French edition), Steinhoff Straits of Messina (English), Norbert Hannig's memoir (John Weal)...anything by Dave Johnston... perhaps your problem is that you are not a native English speaker..

http://members.aol.com/falkeeins

[O.Menu]

Well, sure i would like to learn German!
But unfortunately i m afraid not to be able to find the time to do that before 15 or 20 years...