As noted in the title, this is not about Operation CRUSADER, but I thought it fair to circulate the announcement by Christer Bergström that a fully revised version of his seminal Black Cross Red Star Vol. 1 is going to come out soon. You can read the announcement at this link, and it is posted below.

I was very pleased to be able to help Christer overcome pandemic challenges in accessing the National Archives for HW5 material, intercepted communications of the Wehrmacht, which provide riveting reading about the progress of the campaign in the east in 1941.

I also thought that the story, of wanting to retain editorial control and printing quality resonated quite highly with me. I hope he has a successful sales campaign for this work, which I expect to be of high quality. 

Cover of Vol. 1

Christer’s post below:

I have just (actually today) finished writing the appendices of the new and updated Black Cross Red Star Vol. 1. So the whole manuscript is completed (way over 200,000 words in the word count – more than twice that of the old 1999 edition).

All the profiles by Jim Laurier are finished, and the maps by Samiel Svärd (the same guy who made the maps for Vols 4 & 5) are almost finished.

All that remains to be done now is the selection of photos and to write photo captions. I am doing that one chapter after another, and when one chapter is finished, I send it to the graphic designer. You can rest assured that the new and updated Black Cross Red Star Vol. 1 will be published next month (August 2021).

There is so much new material in this edition that it more or less is a completely new book.

I don’t want to compromise on printing quality or the amount of information in the book, so I publish this myself. With only limited marketing possibilities, this of course means that each new book in the Black Cross Red Star series is a considerable financial risk, and each volume is dependent on the success of the previous volume. That is why I am asking people to crowdfund the book, or to preorder it directly from me at vaktelforlag@gmail.com

Any help to spread the word about this will be greatly appreciated!

Anyone interested in learning more about this book or to preorder or crowdfund it, is more than welcome to email me at vaktelforlag@gmail.com with the header “Want more info on Black Cross Red Star”.

Black Cross Red Star Vol. 1 Update

The very much updated edition of Volume 2 will be published early next year. See:

Black Cross Red Star Vol. 2 Update

About ten months later, the similarly updated edition of Volume 3 will follow.

Then, Volume 6 and so on will be published.

I have so much interesting material that has to come to public awareness!

Cover of Vol. 2