Book Review - Curse of the Death's Head by Rupert Butler

 Curse of the Death's Head: the story of the SS Totenkopf Division by Rupert Butler

London: Hamlyn Paperbacks, 1985                  ISBN 0099427605

Well I've been taken on a wild ride with this book - I've been entertained in a somewhat gruesome way, but I'm not sure I'm any the wiser as to the activities of the Totenkopf Division in World War Two. This breathlessly written tome is military history written as airport fiction, with a focus on whatever interesting story might be found within the activities of this division, rather than a considered volume that contains useful reference material.

And that's a bit of a shame really, as it wouldn't have taken much to turn this book into something much weightier, while still being an entertaining read. As it is, this is a mish-mash of a potted biography of the first leader of the Division, Theodor Eicke, a run-through of Himmler's obsessions, a couple of side-tracks into Hitler's bunkers and Skorzeny's kidnapping of Horthy's son and subsequent takeover of Hungarian leadership, before a fairly fragmented description of the end for Totenkopf.

The book is hamstrung by its lack of maps and apparatus, and by the choice of language and tone. Butler lurches between the melodramatic, the "Boy's Own" adventure, and breathless excitement, as he variously describes Eicke's bluster, the invasion of France, and Himmler's obsessions.

As you can guess, I didn't enjoy this book. It was a page turner, but I ended it really none the wiser about much of anything at all.

Cheers for now, from

A View Over the Bell