The Face of Courage by Florian Berger

[Mark C. Yerger]

I enjoyed the original German edition of this book published in 2004 and 2 days ago got the new English edition. Covering the 98 Knight's Cross holders who won the Close Combat Clasp in Gold, its even better in this new edition. The author covers each man in detail with biographical insight of their careers and information related to the primary awards being discussed. With 600 pages and nearly as many illustrations, the book is an obvious labor of love and the overall amount of material presented refelects that. I've always had a major interest in award holders under General rank and the vast majority of these men are in that catagory. The photos range from field shots, to portraits, to postwar images, many of the men studied (or their families) contributing material. I was close friends with several of them while they were alive and wrote with a number of others so enjoyed reading about old friends as well as seeing many previously unknown photos. I enjoyed the portraits the most. An explanation and data on the 2 awards is also given as well as a number of unconfirmed awards. I highly recommend the book with the hope the author continues his writing in a similar style, perhaps a book of Knight's Cross holders who also won the Roll of Honor Clasp.

Mark C. Yerger

[ibrahim ahmad]

This is the cover of the book which im going to buy soon




Cheers,
Ibrahim,
Singapore.

[RaymondG]

Hi Mark

Thanks for the heads up on this one.

I am certainly going to find myself a copy

cheers

Raymond

[fknorr]

I received this book yesterday via Jack Hatter/Volume Control @ the Allentown, Pa show. I am only 6-8 biographies into this but it is something!

Tons of photos (for all you non-readers), biographies are several pages long or longer (book is 600 pages), great foot/end notes, well written, good translation thus far, etc.

This seems to be a great book!

[fknorr]

I really do not know why this book/thread is not getting more attention!

This is a 600 page book, zillions of photos - most evey one a Knights Cross pic, every biography is about a KC winner, all of which won the CCC in Gold, most have DK's, a lot have Wound Badges in Gold and a lot of the photos show the recipient with most or all of the awards. Fantastic shots, the photos are great.

The book reminds me of your DK series Mark, very well researched and written. Everything is well resourced and footnoted. Each biography is like a mini unit history of where the recipient was, what battles he took part in, etc. There are a lot of little companion bios about other people in the KC winners unit - mostly other KC winners. You really get your money's worth with this one. Great stuff.

I used to get agrivated when I saw threads about good books (i.e. non "picture" books) not getting a lot of attention, but now p!ss on you guys...you are really missing out w/this one.

[Anthony N]

Sounds interesting, but i have what may sound like a silly question?
When you say it has a short biography on each recipient, does it go into detail of how he won the RK?
I have been looking for a book in English along the lines of "Bravest of the brave" with the stories of the actions that led to the award of the KC
Thanks, Ant.

[fknorr]

Sounds interesting, but i have what may sound like a silly question?
When you say it has a short biography on each recipient, does it go into detail of how he won the RK?
I have been looking for a book in English along the lines of "Bravest of the brave" with the stories of the actions that led to the award of the KC
Thanks, Ant.

They do not necessarily transcribe the the actual recomendation documents for KC, but they do say Mr "X" got the KC for actions x, z, y, when with when his division was at a certain location.

It's close but not the same.

[Anthony N]

They do not necessarily transcribe the the actual recomendation documents for KC, but they do say Mr "X" got the KC for actions x, z, y, when with when his division was at a certain location.

It's close but not the same.

Thanks, the search continues then!
Still might buy this one though, looks awesome.
Ant.

[AndyC]

The Face of Courage by Florian Berger

Hi

I have had this book for a month now and i have going thrue the whole book.
If you look at every soldiers medals most of the soldiers have Wound bagde in gold.
So they have been in some action all the time.

Its a nice book but it could be even better if there were some good pictures and more informations of this Golden award.

Andy

[Mark C. Yerger]

There are good bios and I thought one of the better book released this year. Can't image more photos and award documents being found for the men examined.

Mark

[fknorr]

These bios are 3-10ish pages in length, there are 98 biographies in total. The book covers those 98 men who won both the KC as well as the CCC in Gold. That should amaze a person enough. As Mark stated, the photos are amazing and there are a ton of documents shown, from KVK2 to KC or CCC in Gold. There is a lot of stuff here.

If you read the bios, there is about as much information as you can get packed into a 600 page book. Some of these guys (like Degrelle) you could write entire volumes on. The author goes into as much detail as he can w/the space allowed.

All men won the KC and CCC in Gold. Most won the DKiG as well as the wound badge in Gold. There is a ton of information in this volume, on men, units, battles, dates of awards, reasons behind the awards, etc. I also agree with Mark on this, it may be the best book of the year or one of them that is for sure.

[Robert T.]

After reading all those nice reviews, I just ordered the book .

Thanks,
____________
Robert

[DavidB]

This book sounds very interesting!
Think I will have to pick it up. I checked amazon for it, but couldnt find it.
Do you guys know a good source to buy it from?

David

[fknorr]

The best price by far and great packing and shipping is Jack Hatter at Volume Control http://ww2bks.com/

[Robert T.]

This book sounds very interesting!
Think I will have to pick it up. I checked amazon for it, but couldnt find it.
Do you guys know a good source to buy it from?

David

This is where I got my copy from;
http://www.jjfpub.mb.ca/pre-pub_offer.htm

______________

Robert