Books on Sturmgruppen

[leonventer]

Originally Posted by FalkeEins

... I will concede that when looking at, say, ' JG 300 ' there were a number of instances of vulgar language 'toned' down and one crude incident slightly 're-written' ...

Notwithstanding your other points about non-literal translation, I found this statement rather puzzling and disappointing.

Puzzling, because I don't believe there will be any readers of this book who are unable to deal with the original profanity and crudeness. In our specialized field, I have yet to come across any people or books whose excessive vulgarity would warrant bowdlerization.

Disappointing, because direct quotes are one of the few means by which we can relate to the circumstances and emotions of those times. I hope that the contents of JG300, Volume 2 won't be similarly diluted.

BTW, I appreciate the work of good translators, such as David Johnston and yourself, because the material becomes more accessible, but whenever possible, I buy both the original and English versions of all Luftwaffe biographies and unit histories. ("JG300" is an exception because I'm French-impaired.)

My .02,
Leon Venter

p.s. I'm assuming the "one crude incident" mentioned above occurs in JG300, Volume 1. Could you please provide a reference, so that I won't always have to wonder which part was abridged?

[Nick Beale]

Originally Posted by FalkeEins

getting away from the point of this thread a little ..but anyway..

... when looking at, say, ' JG 300 ' there were a number of instances of vulgar language 'toned' down and one crude incident slightly 're-written' but these don't detract from the overall feel at all...

Well, when I've used personal accounts (often derived from conversations with veterans or personal letters) I have tried to find English equivalents to the German expressions and for that wartime RAF slang often came in very useful. I didn't want to make formal what was not formal in the first place.

I see the main function of quotation as telling how things felt at the time (with the main text providing the historian's perspective) so I wouldn't want to mess with what the people who were there said.