{"id":1062,"date":"2026-07-24T14:08:34","date_gmt":"2026-07-24T14:08:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/propertytransitionmedia.com\/?p=1062"},"modified":"2026-07-24T14:08:34","modified_gmt":"2026-07-24T14:08:34","slug":"krugers-korps-is-an-old-fashioned-swashbuckling-adventure-tale","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/propertytransitionmedia.com\/?p=1062","title":{"rendered":"Kruger\u2019s Korps Is An Old-Fashioned, Swashbuckling Adventure Tale"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Surely one of the most amazing aspects of American fascination with the Second World War is the sheer amount of popular content we have created about it. There are at least 700, if not over 1,000 Hollywood films about the war, depending on what you count (and probably more than 1,300 globally). There are somewhere between 5,000-10,000 English-language novels about it. One might then wonder: Is there still anything interesting to say about World War II?<\/p>\n

Read more The Problem With Nolan\u2019s Odyssey Is That It\u2019s Not Homer\u2019s Odyssey<\/a><\/p>\n

If the new novel Kruger\u2019s Korps<\/em> by best-selling author H.W. Crocker III is any indication, the answer is absolutely yes. A spy thriller with elements of an Agatha Christie mystery and an H. Rider Haggard lost-world quest, Kruger\u2019s Korps is an old-fashioned, page-turning adventure with a timeless religious sensibility.<\/p>\n

The titular character of Crocker\u2019s cloak-and-dagger novel is US Navy ensign Rolf Kruger, the son of working-class Bavarian immigrants who fled Hitler\u2019s increasingly anti-Catholic fascist regime for sunny California. The strong and handsome twenty-something Kruger, a UCLA grad, cut his teeth in Hollywood, doing stunt-work and offering fencing lessons to actors when he wasn\u2019t riding waves in the Pacific. Driven by an infectious patriotism, Kruger joined the Naval Reserve Officers Training Corps program, though his proficiency in German attracts the attention of naval intelligence, and he is sent to Washington, D.C., where our story begins.<\/p>\n

In the nation\u2019s capital, Kruger is recruited by Colonel William \u201cWild Bill\u201d Donovan, head of the newly created Office of Strategic Services, or OSS, the predecessor of the Central Intelligence Agency. Relegated to a boring desk job, Kruger spends his days maintaining his admirable peak physical condition and flirting with secretaries. That is, until one day he is beckoned into Donovan\u2019s office and introduced to a cast of characters \u2014 officers from Army intelligence, the US Marine Corps and British Army Special Air Services, an expert aircraft engineer, and, somewhat curiously, a Catholic priest \u2014 specially designed for a top-secret operation.<\/p>\n

Though the most junior man among the outfit, Kruger\u2019s role in the proposed operation is the linchpin. He is to impersonate a German officer assigned to a secretive Afrika Korps unit, discover the unit\u2019s raison d\u2019\u00eatre, and thwart it. The Americans and Brit, skeptical of Kruger\u2019s youth and lack of experience, question his capacity for the task, which may be critical to the success of Operation Torch, the impending Allied invasion of northwest Africa. Yet Donovan silences these concerns, and thus are we off to a rip-roaring adventure across the deserts and jungles of Africa, one with enough twists and turns to surprise even the most careful of readers.<\/p>\n

One of the aspects of World War II which makes its stories so compelling to us is the clear juxtaposition of \u201cgood guys\u201d and \u201cbad guys.\u201d The Germans, Italians, and Japanese were the obvious immediate aggressors of the conflict (and the Soviets, frankly, given what they did to the Poles), and were responsible for committing atrocities that dwarf the sins committed by the Allies. It\u2019s all well and good to thus singularly and unequivocally indict the Axis Powers for their evils, but there\u2019s also something boring and superficial in villainizing the enemy to such a degree that he no longer even seems to be human. Moreover, there were plenty of Germans who participated in the war less out of an allegiance to Hitler and his bizarre blend of pseudo-science, paganism, and ultranationalism than out of a naive or misguided patriotism (evidenced, for example, in such men as Claus von Stauffenberg and Henning von Tresckow who conspired to assassinate Hitler).<\/p>\n

Read more America Must Confront China\u2019s Hostage Diplomacy In The Nuclear Age<\/a><\/p>\n

Crocker\u2019s novel commendably avoids banal stereotypes, instead presenting a fascinating (and entirely believable) espionage story of Germans within the Reich who possess varying degrees of skepticism, if not downright animus towards the Nazi creed. In this, Kruger\u2019s Korps<\/em> reminds us of that unforgettable maxim of Soviet World War II veteran Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn: \u201cThe line separating good and evil passes not through states, nor between classes, nor between political parties either \u2014 but right through every human heart \u2014 and through all human hearts.\u201d Like so many Germans against whom he fought, Solzhenitsyn was himself a casualty of the brutal, dehumanizing tendencies of totalitarianism, arrested and imprisoned for years by the Soviet regime for daring to criticize Soviet leadership, all in spite of his own commendatory service.<\/p>\n

This hints at another reason for why Kruger\u2019s Korps<\/em> is such a great read \u2014 its reflections on how authoritarian regimes vitiate individuality and true human flourishing are perceptively relevant to the same threats America (and the broader West) still face today, whether from militant Islam, revanchist Russia, or the repressive, one-party People\u2019s Republic of China. Just as in World War II, what is required today are brave men and women of sound mind willing to suffer and sacrifice for the sake of protecting and preserving what is good in America (and the broader West). To do that, one must of course singularly love his or her own nation, and understand in a deep and abiding way why it is good and worth dying for.<\/p>\n

Ultimately, Crocker\u2019s thriller is a Christian, even Catholic story about those who, by God\u2019s grace, possess those qualities necessary to combat evil, and those who, by His mercy, are given an opportunity for forgiveness and redemption, even when they have been party to evil. In an age in which we are so tempted to cancel and condemn our opponents, that\u2019s a nobly germane narrative we sorely need.<\/p>\n

Sometimes we face an enemy that must be defeated not only in the marketplace of ideas but bloodily, on the battlefield. But even if things come to blows, that doesn\u2019t mean we ever stop praying for our enemies. As our religious traditions teach us, there\u2019s always a chance for repentance and redemption. Quite often, it makes for the best and most inspiring stories, too.<\/p>\n

Read more Cornyn, Tillis Drag Their Feet On Blanche Nomination After Voting For Obama, Biden Appointees<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Harry Crocker’s latest novel proves that there’s still plenty of great World War II stories left to tell.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1061,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[99],"tags":[100,3234,3235,3236,1234],"class_list":["post-1062","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-books","tag-adventure","tag-h-w-crocker-iii","tag-krugers-korps","tag-novel","tag-world-war-ii"],"yoast_head":"\nKruger\u2019s Korps Is An Old-Fashioned, Swashbuckling Adventure Tale - Property Transition Media<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/propertytransitionmedia.com\/?p=1062\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Kruger\u2019s Korps Is An Old-Fashioned, Swashbuckling Adventure Tale - Property Transition Media\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Harry Crocker's latest novel proves that there's still plenty of great World War II stories left to tell.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/propertytransitionmedia.com\/?p=1062\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Property Transition Media\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-07-24T14:08:34+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"5 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/propertytransitionmedia.com\\\/?p=1062#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/propertytransitionmedia.com\\\/?p=1062\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"admin\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/propertytransitionmedia.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/318e38080556664c79a2d76a6b0894b2\"},\"headline\":\"Kruger\u2019s Korps Is An Old-Fashioned, Swashbuckling Adventure Tale\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-07-24T14:08:34+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/propertytransitionmedia.com\\\/?p=1062\"},\"wordCount\":1041,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/propertytransitionmedia.com\\\/?p=1062#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/propertytransitionmedia.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/07\\\/9812d464e8e8a4da04c6831c79408317.webp\",\"keywords\":[\"adventure\",\"H.W. 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