Line #6 Literature/GerfautWar


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3	French publisher Gerfaut published a collection of [[MilitaryAndWarfareLiterature war]] ''[[AirportNovel romans de gare]]'' from the 1960s to the 1980s. All of them were written by French and Spanish writers who used German-sounding (sometimes Russian-sounding) [[PenName pseudonyms]]. Enrique Sánchez Pascual is one of the best known, using the alias "Karl von Vereiter", and he is also known for writing {{nazisploitation}} fiction.
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6	The largest number of these novels, by far, take place during UsefulNotes/WorldWarII, on the [[WorldWarII/WarInEuropeAndAfrica Eastern Front]] more specifically, from Operation Barbarossa (the German invasion of the [[UsefulNotes/SovietRussiaUkraineAndSoOn Soviet Union]] in June 1941) to the fall of UsefulNotes/NaziGermany in May 1945, although other settings of the war such as [[WorldWarII/WarInEuropeAndAfrica North Africa]] and [[WorldWarII/WarInAsiaAndThePacific Asia and the Pacific]] are also used, as well as the [[UsefulNotes/TheVietnamWar 1950s Indochina War]]. UsefulNotes/TheHolocaust also shows up here and there.
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8	{{Pulp\|Magazine}} influences are noticeable, and ArtisticLicenseHistory and ArtisticLicenseMilitary range from believable to plain ludicrous, very much in the same vein as the likes of Creator/SvenHassel. There are about ''[[ArchivePanic six hundred books]]'' in total.
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10	!!The Gerfaut War collection provides examples of:
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12	* AnyoneCanDie: The stories often feature a [[TheSquad squad]] of soldiers as protagonists. By the end, one or several of them will be dead.
13	* ArmchairMilitary: German or Soviet soldiers alike often talk about their superiors sending them in foolish and pointless offensives as CannonFodder.
14	* HopelessWar: The closer the novels get to May 1945, the more hopeless the war is for German soldiers.
15	* MsFanservice: Whenever there are female protagonists or at least women who play important parts in the novels, expect them to be featured on the cover this way. [[https://pmcdn.priceminister.com/photo/la-barriere-de-feu-de-anton-sedoff-1086468601_L.jpg Here's a perfect example]].
16	* RapeAsDrama: A great many female protagonists (mostly German war auxiliaries, Eastern European civilians and secret agents of both sides) end up victims of rape. [[RapeAndRevenge And some of them take revenge]].
17	* RapePillageAndBurn: Practiced on both German and Soviet sides.
18	* RecruitersAlwaysLie: When new German recruits arrive on the front, they realize the huge gap between what propaganda told them and the grim reality they are now facing.
19	* LaResistance: Some novels concern groups of partisans who resist against Germans (or [[CivilWar fight each other]]) from UsefulNotes/{{central Europe}} and UsefulNotes/{{Yugoslavia}} to UsefulNotes/{{Belarus}}. They can be shown as heroic in some novels, and [[BlackAndGrayMorality just a little better than the worst Nazis]] in others.
20	* StupidJetpackHitler: The novel ''La Barrière de Feu'' (''Barrage of Fire'') features a German subterranean base that can launch multiple V2 rockets simultaneously, on the Eastern front. No such thing existed in RealLife. Most V2 rockets were used on the Western front, and they were launched individually on dedicated mobile outdoor launching pads (in order to avoid Allied air raids) and not from subterranean bases (that would be the V3).
21	* TankGoodness: The firepower and armor thickness of mid-to-late war German and Soviet battle tanks is often brought up.
22	* ThematicSeries: The novels are not part of a single common narrative arc, they only share the war setting and military tropes.
23	* WarIsHell: The collection's CentralTheme, what with the prime example that was the Eastern Front of World War II.

Context Literature / GerfautWar