Unternehmen Ilse: 5. SS-Panzer Division "Wiking" Eastern Front 27 April 1944

When I saw that Douglas Nash was involved RLM’s publishing of “UNTERNEHMEN ILSE (Operation Ilse)”, I was immediately interested. Douglas Nash is one of my go-to historians, having written one of my favorite books on a World War Two Eastern Front battle, “Hell’s Gate”. The events here take place not too long after the battle depicted in “Hell’ Gate”. The purpose of Operation Ilse was to destroy all Red Army forces west of the Turiya River and free up the north-south rail line connecting Army Group Center with Army Group North Ukraine. There were three German photojournalists available to document the battle.This battle showed that the Germans were still capable of fighting and winning in the Soviet Union. This is a phenomenal book, albeit a bit pricy. You just can’t find this level of detail about an obscure battle easily. I have two minor dings. First, I would have like to seen more writing by Mr. Nash about the battle, but as this was more advertised as a “visual account”, this isn’t a major ding. Second, the quality of some of the pictures was a tiny bit on the grainy side. Publishing this book in a large format made the problem slightly worse. However, for two of the photographers, the pictures are not from the original negatives, but from contact sheets. This is explained in the beginning of the book, and RLM went to great measures to “clean” the pictures up. Photos taken by the other photographer was from the negatives and are of great quality.Overall, an excellent account of a little-known, late war German victory for the armchair historian, with lots of period photographs showing German soldiers and equipment that modelers can use. Five stars.

This is another title in RZM's fascinating catalog. It covers the 5 SS Panzer Division's ("Wiking," but pronounced, "Viking") counter attack operations on April 27, 1944 against the Red Army in eastern Poland. Some of the photos have been seen before but a great many have never been published. Yes, this was done for propaganda purposes. You don't really want to document your setbacks and defeats and with the war against Russia getting progressively worse, you want to show German strength and resolve, not disaster. Hence the pictures.This book is solid and well made and readers will spend hours pouring over the illustrations. Modelers and historians will enjoy the wealth of detail and the clarity of the photos. This is an expensive item, but a must have for enthusiasts of the war in Russia or the Waffen SS. Get it while you can. These will become scarce very quickly.

I bought this thinking from some of the reviews that the pics would be crappy but they are actually pretty good. some are a bit grainy but not bad. it is expensive but if you are serious about your WW2 books, its a must have. really nice. RZM does some really good work.

Unternehmen Ilse is another super publication by RZM Publishing. I am an avid World War Two photo enthusiast, and there has only been one book not to miss this year - Unternehmen Ilse. As with the other superb RZM offerings, images are finally put in their proper order, sites identified, and veterans honored.For those of us who have seen some of these images misidentified and reproduced in poor quality, the photography in this book goes beyond writing the wrongs –it surpasses them. One might be tempted to consider some of the images early in the book to be a bit lower-quality, but consider the source images… very small 35mm contact sheets from NARA. I have a scan of a contact sheet, and compared those images to those edited and refined in this book – night and day. It’s a pain-staking process to take some very small, fuzzy image and pull off full-size reproduction for print.But the majority of the images come from a unique source - original 35mm negative film. Almost all the historical books on this period contain images copied from archive prints, or veteran period photo prints. Modern digital negative scanning, coupled with detailed image cleanup and high-quality paper/printing, equal a visual treat for enthusiasts. Add to this the immense size of the reproduction on the pages means you can see all the details in the photo. And, keep in mind these images are over 70 years old.This book tells a story with pictures. It’s a true ‘moment by moment’ timeline of action. So very rare to see this sequence of event coverage – and a treat!This is a book not to be missed for those with even a passing interest of the Eastern Front. It will stand in an honored place in my bookshelf.

As someone who loves to get absorbed in rare snapshots of well documented military history this book was simply fascinating. I love that we have here entire rolls of film not just selected shots. Absolutely recommended!

Great looking book. You will have seen many of these photos before, but not with this quality of reproduction. The book is very expensive, but I feel that 5 stars are still justified.

The pictures, as mentioned, are grainy. Not worth the money they are charging for this book. On top of the graininess from enlargement of the original thumbnails, they printed on satin paper which only compounds the problem. Book should be smaller (there is no benefit to supersized grainy photos), half the price, and put out in electronic format. As for subject theme, there's a few pictures of Panthers, some infantry, no unique setting that would inspire a diorama or further understanding of the German war machine of this time period. You have all seen better pics of German infantry and Panthers. Strikes me as an 'ego' book for the authors to beef up their bibliography.

Ein wirklich wuchtiges Buch. Allein schon die Größe und Gewicht machen Eindruck!Die Bilder sind auch wirklich sehr interessant. Die Qualität der Fotos ist Ok. Klar, es wird erklärt, dass diese Fotos im Archiv nur verkleinert verfügbar sind und von daher durch die Vergrößerung schon Abstriche in der Auflösung gemacht werden müssen.Für Wiking interessierte sicherlich ein Muss.Wer nur an guten Bildern interessiert ist, findet sicherlich eine günstigere Alternative.Meiner Meinung nach fehlt für den Preis einfach noch das gewisse Etwas.....Meine persönliche Meinung

Wonderful book. Beautiful and clear descriptions with even more beautiful photos. They are impressive large photos. Sometimes you just see the fears and uncertainty of the soldiers. I like this kind of book. It is an expensive book, but it is more than worth it. It retains its value, unlike many other books. Unique photos, penetrating and valuable.

Der Preis hat sich in jeder Hinsicht gelohnt. Tolle Bilder, Aufnahmen über die komplette Seite , so daß ein sehr realistischer Eindruck entsteht !!!Viele Detailfotos.

Impressive production ....collection of photographs of a day in the life of SS Wiking .....a large number of mostly well known images put into context...informative captions and supporting text...However the price definitely eye watering ...otherwise 5 stars

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