Luftfahrtverlag: Propagandakompanie 666, germ./english

PK 666 - The Propaganda Company 666

The chapter on propaganda in the Third Reich continues to play a major role in today's discussions. Interestingly, no military historian has yet devoted himself to the subject in detail. There are only detailed treatises on the subject of anti-Semitic incitement and propaganda. But what did the propaganda for the troops and the German population look like? What were the guidelines for the war correspondents and what was implemented? Who censored the results and what was the cooperation between the High Command of the Wehrmacht and the Ministry for Popular Enlightenment and Propaganda like? Who were the war correspondents and to what extent were they involved in the final results shown in the cinemas and newspapers? What happened if what was written, filmed or photographed was not what was wanted? Were there any guidelines at all? Were battle scenes re-enacted? How risky was the job of a war correspondent and where did the men get the motivation to continuously risk their lives for pictures and reports? The book addresses all these questions and establishes that many of the claims made by post-war authors about the PK troops do not correspond to the facts at all.

The first part of the book gives an introduction to the PK and addresses many questions about propaganda that have never been asked before. The second part of the book, which comprises about 80% of the volume, uses the example of Propaganda Company 666 to describe the deployment of such a unit in the Western Campaign. The reporters of the company were assigned to the 12th Army and therefore deployed with the infantry divisions of the III Army Corps and the Guderian Armored Corps. The book chronologically describes the battles of the divisions. Photos and reports by PK 666 war correspondents are woven into these events. The reader follows Guderian's advance through the Ardennes, takes part in the battles around Sedan and at the Meuse crossing, encounters Guderian's armored divisions via Stonne, St. Quentin, Peronne, Abbe. Quentin, Peronne, Abbeville and Montreuil to Boulogne and Calais on the English Channel and finally experiences the battles for the hard-defended fortresses in the two port cities.

The tanks then march south and attack with the infantry divisions across the Aisne to the south, towards the Swiss border. The reader witnesses the battles on the Aisne, around Rethel and in Champagne, at Chalons, on the Rhine-Marne Canal, at St. Dizier, Chaumont, Langres and Besancon. The battles of all the divisions involved are described on the basis of original documents and supplemented by the photos and reports of the men of PK 666. There has never been a comparable book before. The book gives the names of all the PK 666 war correspondents and provides brief biographies of the men. A number of them came into the public eye after the war in completely different roles. This is the first time that the history of a propaganda company has been documented in concrete terms.