{"title":"Kenneth Estes","description":null,"products":[{"product_id":"a-european-anabasis-book-kenneth-estes-9781909384521","title":"A A European Anabasis","description":"Kenneth Estes studies the 100,000 West Europeans who fought against Russia as volunteers for the Wehrmacht and Waffen-S. A retired Marine Corps lieutenant colonel, Estes shows tremendous knowledge of combat and writes gripping battlefield prose. Two-thirds of the West European volunteers came from Spain and the Netherlands, yet Estes demonstrates wide range and covers Flemish, Walloon, French, Danish, and Norwegian combat units. Avoiding over-generalization, the author distinguishes carefully among the Danes and Flemings who fought competently with the S-Wiking Division and later with Nordland, the courageous but poorly-armed Spanish, the ill-trained Dutch and French in Landstorm Nederland and S-Charlemagne, and the Norwegians who after a first wave of enthusiasm held back altogether. Estes pulverizes the Nazi propaganda notion of a multinational European army defending 'Western civilization' against 'Bolshevism'. He shows that West Europeans, mainly of the urban working classes, volunteered from a mix of motives -adventure-seeking, ideology, hopes of personal advantage or material gain, a desire for better food, or a wish to escape a criminal record at home. He demonstrates that the best-performing foreign legions were trained and led by German officers and formed parts of larger S units, and also that the Wehrmacht placed little value on foreign formations until its other manpower reserves ran out in 1944-45. This is a landmark work on a subject, which has been much written about, but rarely understood or described as perceptively as in the pages of this book.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ GARDNERS","offer_id":49735821951249,"sku":"NGR9781909384521","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/1909384526.jpg?v=1751632646"},{"product_id":"marine-officer-s-guide-book-gerald-c-thomas-9781557505675","title":"Marine Officer's Guide","description":null,"brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":50282288185617,"sku":"CIN1557505675G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"US \/ VERY_GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":50424874565905,"sku":"CIN1557505675VG","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/1557505675.jpg?v=1751309137"}],"url":"https:\/\/www.worldofbooks.com\/collections\/author-books-by-kenneth-estes.oembed","provider":"World of Books ","version":"1.0","type":"link"}