In 1933, it has been speculated that von Krauss joined Hitler’s regiment of body guards, the SS Leibstandarte. From the subject matter of many of his novels, it is also thought that von Krauss served throughout the war initially as an armoured car commander and later as a Tiger tank commander, either in the Waffen SS or the Heer (possibly both). The Gross Deutschland division has also been suggested.
In 1945 von Krauss is understood to have escaped capture by the Russians and also slipped out of a British POW camp. As a result, he was never officially de-Nazified, and, lacking the appropriate papers, he was unable to work in Germany, and so began a game of cat and mouse with the German authorities which saw him serve briefly in the ranks of the French Foreign Legion, from which he was invalided out, suffering from malaria, an illness from which he never fully recovered.
It is never an easy task to render the thoughts of a writer from his native language into a secondary language and one has to be careful to guard against creating a new work. I have therefore resisted the temptation to provide a complete translation of every word of the original manuscript as I feel it was important to preserve the essence of the German roots of the novel. I have preserved a larger than usual number of German words which are hopefully sufficient to make it clear at all times that we are in a foreign army. This is especially true of the ranks of the political soldiers of the Waffen SS. I’d like to think the balance is about right, but please accept my apologies if you have to reach for the German dictionary more than you would like. I’ve taken out a number of phrases such as “cleaned his clock”, meaning to kill a tank, as there is no real English equivalent. Unfortunately, a large number of the jokes told by Otto Wohl have been lost in the re-writing process, as they did not survive the act of translation with any semblance of humour still intact. Other German references have lost some of their charm. If you don’t know, for example, that the German word for farmer is Bauer and Müller translates as miller, then you won’t get the reference made by the Blocklieter.
Other German phrases have survived. “To bite into grass” is recognisable as our own “Pushing up the daisies.” As it is a German setting, I have used the German phrase in preference to the English.
Tiger tank drills were especially difficult to render into English. The mnemonic rhyme Mo-Fu-Fa-La-Ba called by the crew is the first word of the checks which were run through to ensure that the hatches were closed, the lamps removed and the track clear before firing; the German words were Motor, Funker, Farher, Lampen, Bahn. The Tigerfibel is a genuine war time publication and the German original can be found on the web. Really curious readers can also acquire the new translation which sets the original German alongside a complete English translation.
I’m pleased to report that Die Wundertüte is a real war time publication. I understand that extracts from this charming little publication will soon be available for viewing on the forthcoming Ritter von Krauss site.
Panzertruppenschule Kama, or KAMA for short, was a top-secret research and training facility, located near Kazan in the USSR. It was jointly operated by the Soviets and Germans between 1926 and 1933. Oberstleutnant Malbrandt was the Reichswehr officer who selected the location for the training and testing of military technology. The site was chosen to be as far away as possible from the prying eyes of League of Nations inspectors. It was a school for the study and development of armoured warfare. KAMA was the short form codename created by the fusion of words Kazan and Malbrandt. KAMA came out of the brief period of Russo-German cooperation that was agreed upon as a part of the Treaty of Rapallo of 1922, and the Berlin Friendship Treaty of 1924.
Between 1926 and 1929, at least 146 German officers are known to have completed training at the Panzertruppenschule Kama. A great many more NCOs and perspective officers received clandestine assistance. The most famous “graduate” of KAMA was Ewald von Kleist, future Generalfeldmarschall Reichswehr.
Generaloberst Lutz and NKVD Kommissar Josef Unshlicht were jointly responsible for conducting the training. Security for the facility was provided by troops of the NKVD. Several armoured fighting vehicles were developed at Kama, developed under the alias of agricultural tractors. The German companies Rheinmetall-Borsig, Krupp and Daimler Benz were responsible for most of the development. The preliminary work at Kama resulted in the designs for the Panzer I, II, III and IV. The training and development which took place at Kama made the Panzerwaffe a reality.
For more information about Tiger Tanks and Ritter von Krauss, visit www.tiger-command.com
Also by Bob Carruthers:
The Wehrmacht in Russia
Servants of Evil
The Panther V◦– Guderian’s Problem Child
The Tiger I in Combat
Poland 1939◦– The Blitzkrieg Unleashed
Wolf Pack◦– The U-boats at War
Hitler’s Mein Kampf◦– The Roots of Evil
Panzers at War 1939–1942
Panzers at War 1943–1945
The English Civil Wars
The Normandy Battles
Copyright
This edition published in 2013 by Claymore Press
An imprint of Pen & Sword Books Ltd
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First published in Great Britain in 2011 in digital format by Coda Books Ltd.
Copyright © Coda Books Ltd, 2011
Published under licence by Pen & Sword Books Ltd.
9781783830725
The rights of Bob Carruthers and Sinclair McLay to be identified as the Authors of this work have been asserted by them in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
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