A fascinatingly detailed biography of one of the most terrifying men of the Second World War—German Panzer commander and convicted war criminal Jochen Peiper. Perfect for fans of Danny S. Parker, Michael Reynolds, Patrick Agte, and David G. Williams. In January 1935, twenty-year-old Jochen Peiper took an oath of allegiance, pledging himself to the new Führer and becoming a member of his elite bodyguard, the SS Leibstandarte Adolf Hitler. The young cadet quickly stood out among his contemporaries for his arrogance and high intelligence. He was ambitious and possessed a strong will of his own—qualities valued at the SS cadet school, which promoted independence and flexibility in its officers to lead men from the front. These qualities would make Peiper one of the most prominent young commanders of the Second World War. After beginning his service in Hitler’s bodyguard, Peiper was selected to become the personal adjutant to Heinrich Himmler. As predicted, on returning to active combat, he rose quickly through the ranks, becoming a tank commander in the 1st SS Panzer Division. He served on both the Eastern and Western fronts, first as a battalion commander and later as a regimental commander. He was featured on the covers of Nazi Party magazines, mentioned in Wehrmacht war reports, and awarded the Knight’s Cross. At the age of 27, he became the youngest regimental colonel in the Waffen SS. However, no matter how enigmatic his personality or how glittering his early career, Peiper is remembered by history as a convicted war criminal, sentenced to death for the actions of Kampfgruppe Peiper in the massacre of unarmed American soldiers at Malmédy, France, in 1944, and civilians in Boves, Italy, in 1943. Charles Whiting draws on his extensive personal knowledge of the period and exhaustive research to present the facts about the events and the individual. Correspondence and interviews with people who knew Peiper and witnessed the events described enable Whiting to write a vivid and authoritative account. The true facts behind the events that led to Peiper’s conviction and subsequent imprisonment may never be fully known. What is certain is that, despite serving his sentence, he was brutally murdered in his home in France in 1976 by those who believed he still had a debt to pay. This book is a must-read for anyone with an interest in the controversial military leaders of the Second World War and the events that followed in its immediate aftermath.
Author
Charles Whiting was a British writer and military historian and with some 350 books of fiction and non-fiction to his credit, under his own name and a variety of pseudonyms including Ian Harding, Duncan Harding, K.N. Kostov, John Kerrigan, Klaus Konrad, and Leo Kessler. Born in the Bootham area of York, England, he was a pupil at the prestigious Nunthorpe Grammar School, leaving at the age of 16 to join the British Army by lying about his age. Keen to be in on the wartime action, Whiting was attached to the 52nd Reconnaissance Regiment and by the age of 18 saw duty as a sergeant in France, Holland, Belgium and Germany in the latter stages of World War II. While still a soldier, he observed conflicts between the highest-ranking British and American generals which he would write about extensively in later years. After the war, he stayed on in Germany completing his A-levels via correspondence course and teaching English before being enrolled at Leeds University reading History and German Language. As an undergraduate he was afforded opportunities for study at several European universities and, after gaining his degree, would go on to become an assistant professor of history. Elsewhere, Whiting held a variety of jobs which included working as a translator for a German chemical factory and spells as a publicist, a correspondent for The Times and feature writer for such diverse magazines as International Review of Linguistics, Soldier and Playboy. His first novel was written while still an undergraduate, was published in 1954 and by 1958 had been followed by three wartime thrillers. Between 1960 and 2007 Charles went on to write over 350 titles, including 70 non-fiction titles covering varied topics from the Nazi intelligence service to British Regiments during World War II. One of his publishers, Easingwold-based Rupert Smith of GH Smith & Son said he was a quiet man and prolific writer. "He's one of a band of forgotten authors because he sold millions of copies and still, up to his death was doing publishing deals.He was the kind of man who was very self-effacing, one of Britain's forgotten authors, still working at 80 years of age, with his nose down and kicking out books." Charles Henry Whiting, author and military historian died on July 24 2007, leaving his wife and son.
