Schirmer’s Head Hunters by Leo Kessler
Leo Kessler was a pseudonym for British Author Charles Whiting.
The published over 300 novels in his lifetime, under various names. At one point his publisher asked him to slow down as they couldn’t keep up with his output! He was one of the best-selling authors of the British paperback industry in the 1970s and 80s with the massive boom in novels drenched in sex and violence. He also wrote several well-regarded non-fiction books.
His most infamous books were written under the moniker Leo Kessler about the SS Wotan Assault Regiment and helped launch the Futura Book publishers. Whiting was a fascinating character. For an author who sold so many books, he is a name, not many people recognize these days. Although, admittedly, some of the descriptions and subject matters may offend today’s modern cultural sensibilities and seem very dated, it has to be remembered he was writing books to entertain the masses at a very different time. No internet, no you tube, no tik tok, no Netflix. Publishing was THE main form of entertainment for most people at this time. Also, you’re not meant to like or support most of these characters. They are awful, terrible people.
You can read more about Whiting and his novels on his website.
Schirmer’s Headhunters is the 16th novel in the Wotan series and the second features Schirmer as the leader of the regiment.
The book starts with Kessler interviewing Schirmer in an old people’s home and then flashes back straight into the story. This is a book written without any concerns about political correctness, so be warned. You are not meant to like any of these guys. They are horrible. A team of dreadful misfits. They each have their awful characteristics ( torture, rape, violence, child murder) and there is no escaping that everyone in this book, including Schirmer, is a shower of evil bastards.
I had not realized this novel was set during the first Indo-China war, or the French Indochina war. Schirmer and his colleagues have escaped capture in Germany and are now mercenaries for the French Union. Hired to help as the French Colonial power collapses ( opening the gates for the Vietnam War and the USA troops) The team is sent to discover the secrets of Massacre Valley. Then they also have to deal with Ho Chi Min’s elite kamikaze squad The Death Volunteers. The situation goes badly wrong. The squad are abandoned by the French Authorities. They have to make it back to safety on their own.
What ensues is a brutal, hot, bullet-ripped, skull-crushing, limb-ripping, gut-spilling, gore-drenched battles interspersed with the French authorities discussing how and why they need to abandon the country. Kessler had a knack for doing this Officer talk, which is always quite dry but does give you a breather before the carnage continues.
It follows Kessler’s usual Military tropes. The clueless, cowardly Hierarchy, willing to sacrifice as many men as possible, and the brutal horrors of the men in battle. Whiting was an expert on how to write a gripping battle scene. You become completely absorbed in these horrific scenes. They are nail-biting and unnervingly tense. He manages to perfectly depict the sweltering heat of the humid jungle action, dripping with sweat, blood, and rain. The leader of the Death Volunteers is something out of a horror movie with a melted, featureless face. He thinks nothing of killing women children and, oh the horror, dogs!! The carnage mounts as he sends seemingly hundreds of men at Schirmer’s gang to be slaughtered. A gripping game of cat and mouse ensues as Schirmer’s men realize they have become the hunted and not the hunters. It all spirals to a violent bloody climax.
If you like fast-paced action, edge-of-the-seat, violent war action, then this book, and Whiting’s others, will be perfect for you. Not, however, if you are easily offended. Even I have to say some of the gory death scenes had me wincing.
Whiting/ Kessler was a master of his craft and I recommend this one.
