Panzer Aces

[FalkeEins]

Originally Posted by Leo Etgen

. I have seen this author's work cited here and there but have never read any of his books

Franz Kurowski wrote the biography of Marseille and titles such as 'Luftwaffe Aces' and 'Panzer Aces' published by Schiffer/Stackpole/Fedorowicz etc etc, all of which feature a large amount of 'invented' dialogue IIRC. So hardly an 'historian'. But I don't think he's committed any worse literary 'crimes' than, say, Toliver/Constable, aside perhaps from writing some 500 titles like these! Hagiographic 'faction', whatever you want to call it, possibly to serve an agenda. Has anyone ever written about Wittmann or Peiper for example, without being accused of being a 'far-right' apologist? I was reading Hans Schaufler's 'Panzer an der Weichsel' and his Pz. Rgt. 35 compendium a while back and thought that some of the personal accounts were a little familiar; I found them uncredited by Kurowski in the Panzer Aces titles - so not all the dialogue is his invention. His work has been published in the "Landser" booklets - Altmann is one of his psuedos. Kurowski also wrote under the pen name of Volkmar Kühn. His combat history of the Tiger (.. Geschichte einer legendären Waffe 42-45..) was reprinted in hardback by Flechsig a number of years ago. The photo selection was completely re-worked and a friend of mine, Bernd Burmeister, contributed a large portion of his archive. Bernd's uncle had been a Tiger commander in s.Pz Abt. 503, Knispel's unit. Not proof of anything I know, but ...

As Mark Rikmenspoel explained back in 2002 on the Feldgrau forum;

"..JJF told me Kurowski was a signaller in WW2, and that he saw little or no frontline action. His essential quality was that he decided very early on to write about the war, so from the mid-1950's (at the latest) he began to collect material and to interview important veterans. So of course his Aces books are fictionalized, and even his "straight" history works contain errors which have been corrected by subsequent research (since he might use information he collected in 1965 in a book written in 1995, for example), but I think all of us who have read his works understand that you can't rely on him for literal accuracy.

So what is the point to reading Kurowski (aka Volkmar Kühn and several other pen names)? He gives the reader a feel for conditions, for what German soldiers experienced in the various theaters of war. So no, Hermann Bix did not actually have every thought or statement attributed to him, but he did share his experiences and impressions with Kurowski, as did veterans of the sSS-PA 101/501 who knew Michael Wittman (who was of course unavailable for comment). The value in reading Kurowski is to better understand what life is like inside a tank, or trying to live in the swamps of the Volkhov. In this sense, I have taken a lot from his books, even as I know they can't be considered as reliable sources of secondary information..."