I was given a book: Invasion: They’re Coming! by Paul Carell. While reading it, I came across some story points which were interesting to me. I went online to get more information, but when I looked around online, I didn't find much to corroborate these moments.
For example, there's one instance where American paratroopers are captured in a swamp. (From the 502nd parachute regiment.) The Americans were using "tin snappers" to sound like frogs. Lieutenant Grieg and his men captured 20 of the men, by walking around using a signal from a captured paratrooper, "until there were no frogs left to croak." (p. 37) Afterward, the Germans brought their American prisoners back to Ohmsen at the Crisbecq Battery. This is all supposed to have occurred in the Saint-Marcouf area. *Here's an excerpt for purposes of clarity:
The first hour of June 6, 1944, that historic and bloody Tuesday, had begun also at Saint-Marcouf. Cautiously the men picked their way through the darkness. Silence. Only here and there came the croaking of a frog from the marshes. A short distance away two other frogs answered. Yet another was croaking quite vigorously next to Lance-Corporeal Albert Müller. Strange, Lieutenant Grieg reflected, he had never known so many frogs there before.
The patrol fanned out. At the same instant things began happening on the right wing. "Halt," came the voice of the end man of the line. Then a crash and a groan. Grieg rushed over. "What's going on here?" he whispered. "An American," a lowered voice replied. And there he lay on the ground. Herrmann and Müller had got him. He had used a kind of toy snapper to croak like a frog -- evidently the recognition signal for his comrades. On hearing the German challenge he had tried to escape, but Müller had hit him over his tin helmet with his sub-machine-gun. He was now kneeling by him. He picked up the tin snapper and pressed it. Croak, it went. Müller pressed it again. Croak. The signal was answered from the swamp. That was when their ruse was conceived. They went on pressing the snapper, silently stalking the answering frogs and picking up one American after another from the swamp -- until there were no frogs left to croak.
Towards 0130 hours the patrol returned to base without losses. Each man had brought a frog with him: they had taken twenty prisoners. A truly impressive bag. "Croak, croak," Lieutenant Grieg said, chuckling. Then they locked up the twenty Americans in an empty bunker. The prisoners belonged to five transport units of the 502nd U.S. Parachute Regiment." (p. 37)
Yet, when I looked up the Crisbecq Battery and the 502nd parachute regiment, I didn't find many mentions about this moment. The only book source I can find – besides this one published by Paul Carell – was written in 2014 ( The D-Day Companion by Jane Penrose. ) However, Invasion: They're Coming says on its info page that it was originally published in 1960 as Sie Komen! by Gerhard Stalling Verlag (Publishing House.) Subsequently, this copy was first published by Bantam books in 1964. So, for all I know, the 2014 book by Penrose is citing either Verlag or Carell himself.
Then, while researching the book online, I discovered something else. The author – Paul Carell – was an extremely influential propagandist for the Nazi side. He was in the SS during WWII. According to Wikipedia, he suggested doing things like claiming there were explosives in synagogues and then, during his later trial, he "disingenuously portrayed himself as a fighter for democratic freedom of the press."
Yet, despite this find, I do know that Wikipedia isn't a perfect source. I kept looking. When I tried to look up Wikipedia's source – Nürnberger Dokument Dokument NG-242 – I couldn’t find it online. I tried Harvard's site but got no hits. (EDIT: Link from Astrogator, his English translation's in the comments. )
So, to sum up, the book's preface claims that he's focused on "how things really were." His Wiki page notes that he was caught out on suggesting ways to justify the Holocaust via propaganda. Searches for both his tales and Wikipedia's claims aren't giving me more information on which to judge things. I know that he was in the SS and did propaganda, but I don't know if this book is part of a further attempt at propaganda, or if it's got any truth to it at all. I also don't know what his record is -- if Wikipedia's right or not.
My resulting questions are:
Is the book reliable in its accounts, or is it full of fiction?
Was the book written to be intentional propaganda?
* What kind of person was Paul Carell? Is his Wikipedia page accurate? (Answered by Astrogator)
(Answered by Astrogator), information on this book's veracity (like critical, historically-minded reviews), and/or any info on whether even the swamp capture happened the way he said it did?* Can anyone link me to sources which Verlag (the original author for the German version) used, which would help either corroborate or contradict what's written?
EDIT: Got some answers (thanks!), hoping for more! I also put the excerpt about the swamp into the post.
Gerhard Stalling Verlag means "Gerhard Stalling Publishing House", Carell is the original author of the book, Gerhard Stalling is the original publisher. Incidentally a lot of the people working there had also been in the SS.
The 1970s Ullstein edition lists the following sources:
Bekker, Cajus: Radar - Duell im Dunkel. Oldenburg/Hamburg [o.J.].
Collier, Basil: The Defence of the United Kingdom, London 1957.
Ehrman, John: Grand Strategy. Vol. V. London 1956.
Eisenhower, Dwight D.: Kreuzzug in Europa. Amsterdam [o.J.].
Görlitz, Walter: Der Zweite Weltkrieg, Band II. Stuttgart [o.J.].
Guderian, Heinz: Erinnerungen eines Soldaten. Heidelberg [o.J.].
Harrison, Gordon A.: Cross-Channel Attack - The European Theater of Operations. Washington, D.C. 1951.
Hayn, Friedrich: Die Invasion - Von Cotentin bis Falaise. Heidelberg [o.J.]
Howarth, David: Dawn of D-Day. London [o.J.].
Lusar, Rudolf: Die deutschen Waffen und Geheimwaffen des 2. Weltkrieges und ihre Weiterentwicklung. München.
Meyer, Kurt: Grenadiere. München-Lochhausen [o.J.]. [Meyer is listed as "Panzer-Meyer" in the bibliography, which is telling on its own]
Montgomery, Bernard: Memoiren. München, [o.J.].
Montgomery, Bernard: Omaha-Beachhead. [o.O.; o.J.].
Ruge, Friedrich: Rommel und die Invasion. Stuttgart [o.J.].
Ryan, Cornelius: The Longest Day. New York [o.J.].
Speidel, Hans: Invasion 1944. Tübingen & Stuttgart [o.J.].
Stacey, Colonel C.P.: The Canadian Army 1939-1945. Ottawa 1948.
Stjernfeldt, Bertil: Alarm i Atlantvallen. Stockholm [o.J.].
Verney, Major-General G.L.: The Desert Rats. The History of the 7. Armoured Division. London [o.J.].
Wilmot, Chester: Der Kampf um Europa. Frankfurt, Berlin [o.J.].
He also lists Vol. 9, No. 6, June 1959 of the 'Wehr-Wissenschaftliche Rundschau' and "unreleased manuscripts, war diaries and war-historical studies from private hands and from German and foreign archives", my translation.
The characterisation of Carell as a leading propagandists and post-war apologist is not far off. He managed to write a huge two-volume work about Operation Barbarossa without once using the word 'Jew', which is quite the accomplishment if you ask me. In my opinion, his style of writing in the original German belies his background as a propagandist, and after the war he tried to continue in this role. He is factually mostly correct and uses generally good sources (such as were available at the time), though I cannot speak on the veracity of the swamp-episode you mentioned. We do have other experts on here who probably can, though.
His work has to be seen in the context of the white-washing of the Wehrmacht, the exculpation of the 'honourable and clean German soldiers', with blame largely being shifted towards the SS and a few fanatical Nazis, which was propagated by a large mass of German media post WWII up until the 1990s. He portrays German soldiers as loyal, hardy, honourable and excellent at their duties, who are usually friendly and respectful towards the local population (if it appears). He also likes to portray how they had to suffer in the war, something which very much appealed to the German reader of the 50s-70s. It's not propaganda, but it's history written by someone with an agenda. And that means leaving out most of the dirty bits and portraying it all as a heroic narrative, echoing the sentiment of the final Wehrmachtsbericht from May 1945 - to have finally and honourably succumbed to a massive allied superiority.
Regarding his work as an SS-propagandist, I found an online edition and discussion of Document NG 2424 and Carells role in the propagandistic complex by historian Wolfgang Benz here, but it's all in German I fear; though I tried translating the document below.
Staatsarchiv Nürnberg, Dokument NG 2424
Der Leiter der Nachrichten- und Presseabteilung Geheime Reichssache! Stempel: Auswärtiges Amt, Inl II 308 gRs, eing. 1.Juni 1944
Notiz für Herrn Staatssekretär:
(Durchschlag für Herrn Botschafter von Rintelen)
Aus einer recht guten Übersicht über die laufenden und geplanten Judenaktionen in Ungarn entnehme ich, dass im Juni eine Großaktion auf die Budapester Juden geplant ist. Die geplante Aktion wird in ihrem Ausmaß im Auslande große Beachtung finden und sicher Anlaß zu einer heftigen Reaktion bilden. Die Gegner werden schreien und von Menschenjagd usw. sprechen und unter Verwendung von Greuelberichten die eigene Stimmung und auch die Stimmung bei den Neutralen aufzuputschen versuchen. Ich möchte deshalb anregen, ob man diesen Dingen nicht vorbeugen sollte dadurch, daß man äußere Anlässe und Begründungen für die Aktion schafft, z.B. Sprengstoffunde in jüdischen Vereinshäusern und Synagogen, Sabotageorganisation, Umsturzpläne, Überfälle auf Polizisten, Devisenschiebungen großen Stils mit dem Ziele der Untergrabung des ungarischen Währungsgefüges. Der Schlußstein unter eine solche Aktion müsste ein besonders krasser Fall sein, an dem man dann die Großrazzia aufhängt. Berlin, den 27.Mai 1944 gez. Dr. Schmidt Hat St. S. vorgelegen (Init. unl.) 30/5. (handschriftl.: ) Über Leiter Presse an Inl. II. Der Herr St. S. bittet, vorstehende Anregungen des Gesandten Schmidt an Ges. Veesenmayer mitzuteilen und seine Stellungnahme anzufordern. Gez. (Unterschr. Unl.) 27/5.
This reads (only the main body):
Note for the State Secretary:
I deduce from a rather good overview over the current and planned jew-actions (Judenaktionen, actions against the Jews) in Hungary, that a large action against the Budapest Jews is planned for June. The planned action will, due to its size, find great attention in foreign countries and will surely be cause for a strong reaction. The enemies will scream and speak of man hunt et c. and use horror-stories to try to incite public opinion at home and among the neutrals. I want to suggest if we shouldn't prevent these things, by creating external reasons and causes for this action, e.g. explosive-sniffing dogs in jewish community houses and synagogues, organisation of sabotage, coup plans, attacks on policemen, foreign-currency smuggling on a grand scale to undermine the structure of the Hungarian currency. The closer for such an action should be an especially crass case, as a plug for the Grand Razzia.
Berlin, May 27th 1944
signed Dr. Schmidt [i.e. Paul Karl Schmidt/Paul Carell]
Benz (who edited the documents in the link above) interprets this as follows: Not only as a propagandistic measure to launch a PR-campaign that would flank the Holocaust in Budapest, but, had his suggestions been realized, as an important step in a process that might have led to the murder of the Jews in Budapest (which, thankfully, did not happen). Carell was acting of his own accord, trying to create favourable conditions for a "Grand action" against the Jews of Budapest. He was not, as he would try to portray himself later, just a subaltern clerk (or even a secret dissenter), but actively involved in the regimes propaganda, and of his own accord motivated to further its aims.
P.S.: I realized after looking at the title that I tried answering all of your questions except the main one. I hope this helped anyway :) Oh, and "o.O." and "o.J." mean 'no place specified' and 'no year specified', respectively.