Customer Reviews

In Nazi Uniform

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Mr. Born remembers his small part of the war in detail, mainly serving in non-combat roles during the occupation forces in Norway. Unfortunately he does remember some verifiable facts about the war incorrectly -- which casts doubt on what he writes.

E.g.:
1) He gets the name of a famous German pilot wrong. Just sloppy writing? But is it indicative of how accurate the rest of his story is?
2) For a 1943 trip to Berlin, he writes about seeing news of V-2 rockets striking England. Neither the V-1 or V-2 were used until earliest mid 1944. Was he plain making it up, or did memories fade and he just assumed he read about rockets in 1943?
3) For a short time he apparently served in a flak battery protecting the Tirpitz near Tromso in northern Norway. His tales of many days of -40 or below temperatures seem suspect. For the time of year he specifically mentioned (late April), weather records available online show the low temps overnight normally only -10 C, and basically never below -20. [For a 10 year span in the 1970s. I didn't find 1940's data.] So I can't prove he was wrong, but it seems like a tall tale.
4) He mentions meeting the Lapplander people (a.k.a. Sami), and that they built igloos. My igloo knowledge is poor, but a quick search suggests that only North American northern aboriginals had acquired that particular skill.
5) He has a story involving him and others hanging out with a famous U-boat captain while on a train trip. Perhaps he did meet some U-boat officer. But for the "famous" captain he mentioned, Kretschmer, he spelled the name wrong. Also, at the time mentioned, Kretschmer was already in a POW camp in Ontario Canada! And an online list of all U-boat captains there ever were, fails to list any with a similar name.


My guess is that the basics of his war are true, but the occasional more adventurous episode is made up. When he makes mistakes with even mundane facts, though, it casts some doubt on the rest of his detailed memories. He seemed a sympathetic fellow and perceptive observer, so it is too bad that I just can't believe what he writes. Editors & publishers should have caught this too!

Give it a miss. There are plenty of other interesting wartime recollections available.

Amazing story told by the man that lived it. I cannot remember what happened to me last month. Mr. Born gives us a very detailed account of his duties during the war. He was not a very good politician but managed to survive the hazards of war. A good read. I highly recommend it.

Gordan Van Alstine