h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I am glad to see that there is both a BBC entry and websites (linked in earlier posts) about the great Sven Hassel.
The novels bring a great sense of realism and you can almost imagine yourself present as soldiers experience the horrors, joys, laughs, crying, pain and pleasures associated with prolonged conventional conflict.
People may be put off by the fact the books are from the prospect of the Nazi run German side, but a read of any of the books quickly shows that it is not pro-Nazi - in fact in isn't really pro anyone, getting across the fatc that all sides in war will carry out equally horrific and inhuman acts to varing degrees.
The one thing that does come across is that you do not want to be involved in a war, neither as military or civilian as it is a horrible situation.
Although most of the novels are fictionalised dramas (no doubt culled from real anecdotes and experiences of a wide range of troops) there is always interesting factual contents throughout. By stringing these experiences down to one section ,the Old Man's group, you become compelled with the characters and it draws you in to read the stories and is an effective means of getting the message across whilst being entertaining.
I think that Legion of the Damned ceratinly is the most autobiographical and is seperate from the more dramatised (Porta dies in it despite being alive later in the war in the others, reinforcing this theory).
It took several web-trips to Zardoz and tours of the second hand shops in Blackpool, but I have the full 14 novels and am glad I have them.
Filming them would be difficult as they far exceed "Private Ryan" for realism in language and barbarism - heavy censorship would be likely - but the nearest thing to it I've seen is "Cross of Iron" (James Coburn, Max Schell, James Mason, David Warner)I orginally thought it was based on Sven Hassel's novels as there was the central platoon had characters very similar to some of Hassel's, but in fact it is a screenplay of the Willi Henrich novel, although in a very similar vein.
The similar works by Willi Henrich & H.H.Kurst (the "Gunner Asch" books and others)are good, but to me Hassel reigns supreme.
Anyone with a rose tinted view of war from the recent conflicts should be forced to read a Sven Hassel novel.