Wikipedia:WikiProject Military history/News/January 2015/Book reviews


 * By Jonas Vinther

Lothar Machtan is a professor of modern history at the University of Bremen. In his 2001 book The Hidden Hitler he made a case that Hitler was in fact and secret a homosexual. The publication orchestrated a firestorm of controversy which resulted in immense sales worldwide. The book, and the television documentary based on Machtan's book, cover parts all aspects of Hitler's life, but mainly his youth and rise to power. Emphasis is put on his friendship with early followers like August Kubizek and Rudolf Hess in particular.

Besides the obvious reasons, Machtan has received criticism of his book because it claims that, "Hitler's homosexuality was at the root of his evil". It's also been criticized because of the sources he decided to use—for instance, one of the strongest arguments in the book about Hitler's suspected sexuality, is a quote from Hand Mend, a frontline soldier who served with Hitler on the Western Front during the Great War. The quote is part of larger protocol on Mend known simply as "The Mend Protocol". In this protocol, Mend is quoted saying:

But many historians doesn't buy the reliability of Mend's quotes. One historian, Anton Joachimsthaler, went as far as to dig up Mend's public profile and criminal record from the archives of the Public Persecutor in Ansbach. In a BBC interview about The Hidden Hitler, Joachimsthaler stated that Mend was convicted of some 12 criminal charges, which included theft, fraud and embezzlement. He also pointed out that statements from other war comrades about Hitler gave "no indication whatsoever that Hitler might have been a homosexual".

Brigitte Hamann is another historian who is also septic of Machtan's claims. In the same BBC interview, she said, "there is not a single piece of evidence that Hitler was gay. Nor is there any evidence that he had sexual relations with women. You must understand that there are people who have difficulties with sexuality: they have fears. Fears which were highly obvious in Hitler's case".

The overall response to Machtan's book has been rejections of his beliefs about Hitler's sexuality. When asked about his views on The Hidden Hitler, an American historian said simply, "Hitler sells. And sex sells. And I think that's all there is to it." Besides trying to prove his own point, Machtan also lashes out on the work on highly respected historians, like Ian Kershaw, calling his works, "not even a real biography, but rather a political history in the guise of biography".

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 * A couple minor flaws but still highly recommended.'''
 * By Cliftonian

Rhodesia Regiment, 1899–1981 is the latest in a recent succession of Rhodesian regimental histories written by veterans, backed by the relevant regimental associations and published by 30° South Publishers of Johannesburg. This one differs, however, in that the previous two—Masodja (2007), about the Rhodesian African Rifles, and The Saints (2008), about the Rhodesian Light Infantry—were written by Alexandre Binda, while this history of the Rhodesia Regiment is a collaboration between Peter Baxter, Hugh Bomford and Gerry van Tonder. I seem to remember that Binda was originally attached to this project but went his own way after some kind of disagreement with the backers. Coincidence or not, one of 30° South's Johannesburg rivals, Galago, published an extremely similar book by Binda in 2012 (The Rhodesia Regiment: From Boer War to Bush War, 1899–1980).

I purchased the collector's edition, one of 81 numbered copies (to correspond with the number of years the regiment existed). First impressions: the book is extremely well presented and put together. It is a big green leather-bound tome with the Rhodesia Regiment insignia on the front cover in gold, topped by the royal crown (conspicuous in the Rhodesian context as it means this isn't a republican pattern). The ribbon bookmark is in the regimental colours of black, red and green—a great little touch that adds so much to the overall character of the book.

The book comprises an introduction by Bomford, a glossary, a foreword (by the 4th (Manicaland) Battalion's last CO, Lieutenant-Colonel Peter Browne), a preface (basically outlining the history of Rhodesia up to 1899), 19 proper chapters totalling about 400 A4 pages, seven appendices of about 150 pages all together, and finally references and an index. The chapters follow the history of the regiment from its formation in 1899 to fight in the Anglo-Boer War, through the two World Wars, the Federal period and finally the UDI and Bush War years before ending with the recognised independence of Zimbabwe under Robert Mugabe. The text is well-written and while it is perhaps inevitably a pro-Rhodesian account, transparently so in places, it is still very informative both for the uninitiated and the initiated reader. I was disappointed and somewhat baffled to see a handful of references to Wikipedia in the source notes on pp. 430–431, which I fear will hinder this book's chances of becoming part of serious scholarly canon—an unfortunate development as the references in question are all for ancillary information (on fascism in Europe for example) which could easily have been cited properly.

However most of my impressions on the book have been very positive. There are photographs—hundreds upon hundreds, all meticulously captioned and accompanied by source information, a real treat for Rhodesia buffs. The appendices are also great. Appendix I lists every honour and award ever won by Rhodesia Regiment soldiers; Appendix II covers uniforms, insignia, equipment and so on and is very thorough and well illustrated; Appendix III is a roll of honour for every war the regiment fought in, with information on most individual men; Appendix IV is a chronological leadership roll of all the COs and most of the 2ICs, OCs, RSMs, CSMs and so on, with dates, locations and the like; Appendix V details all the National Service intakes; Appendix VI briefly discusses the regiment's links to the King's Royal Rifle Corps; and Appendix VII outlines Operation Quartz, the Rhodesian military's top-secret (and never-executed) contingency plan for the event of a Mugabe victory in the 1980 election, and reproduces scans of relevant top-secret documents.

Overall, the book is very ambitious and was clearly produced with the intent of being a definitive "final word" on the Rhodesia Regiment. I cannot help but be a little bit disappointed by the aforementioned sourcing issue, which I think really blemishes an otherwise excellent piece of work—as I said before I am somewhat baffled at it as it seems to me that it could easily have been resolved in a few minutes—but I still think the book succeeds for the most part, and I recommend it very highly to anybody interested in Rhodesian military history.

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