@ABWorsham4 probably still scared the starving civilians , carrying rifles and 2 bullets each, half to death at the time though .
What are you reading
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D-Day by Antony Beevor - probably one of the more well known books by one of the more well known writers out there. All of Antony’s books are great in my opinion. He manages to show what was happening in great detail while keeping it engaging. I would recommend it greatly.
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Reading through all the Flashman novels again.
Also just started Starship Troopers with a view to inspiration for my Space game.
On Hess, a former doctor in Spandau has claimed a false Hess was inserted.
Mind you, he also claims that Hitler was stangled by his valet.
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To anyone thinking of buying William Shirer’s Rise and Fall of the Third Reich, I recommend the paper version over the eBook. If you own a wood burning stove, the paper version can be used to heat your home.
Shirer strongly opposed the American anti-communist movement, and had little patience with, or tolerance for, those who wished to reduce the (considerable) influence communists had on the American government and American media. Shirer denied that he himself was a communist.
Whether one believes the denial or not, Shirer’s book contains as many lies, half truths, fabrications, misinterpretations, and selective omissions as one would expect from a communist. The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich is a work of fiction.
If you do choose to read this book, it will also be necessary to read a number of other books to correct the lies and distortions Shirer spreads.
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I started reading The Russo- Germany War 1941-1945. I first read the book in 1999.
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In order to get an accurate account of the war, I’m reading William Shirer’s Rise and Fall of the Third Reich because of so many well written and researched passages…
No wonder why this book has stood the test of time and remains an excellent reference book. I think it won some awards for debunking that bogus account of Churchill and FDR being more evil than Hitler and making excuses for what Hitler did as if he was forced into Genocide by “Germany being starved” ( except for Hermann Goering-He still ate Fried Chicken).
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Back when I was in high school, I devoted a considerable amount of time to reading Shirer’s 1400 page time. More than once, I might add. The book was worth the time, I’d felt, because I was getting the real scoop on WWII. The New York Times book review said so!
But then I saw some assertion–I don’t remember which one–debunked. I felt a little surprised, but did not question the veracity of the book as a whole. Then I learned of some key datum which Shirer had omitted from his book. Shirer can’t use the space constraint excuse, because the book is 1400 pages long and contains plenty of content of relatively minor importance.
I also began wondering why Shirer had omitted any reference to the crimes against humanity committed by the Soviet Union before, during, and after the war. On the other hand, the New York Times (which had given him that favorable book review) had also denied the Ukrainian famine, while doing its best to get the U.S. to fight on the same side as the Soviet Union. Neither Shirer nor the New York Times gave a fig’s leaf for absolute truth. That much is clear. They both had the same (very specific) political agenda. There is a reason why Shirer had been blacklisted as a communist in the 1950s, and that reason does not involve any honesty or good character on Shirer’s part. If there are those here who want to be lied to, so that they can more effectively spread lies to others, Shirer’s book will give them everything they want and more. I personally have grown tired of being lied to, manipulated, and used by America’s narcissistic, immoral, self-centered ruling class. But if there are others here who enjoy that experience, who am I to judge?
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Well not WWII books, but if you love history:
Just finished Conquerors by Roger Crowley. Excellent. The story of Portugal’s fifteenth and sixteenth century forays into the Indian Ocean. A tiny country which deployed avaricious ferocity to carve out the first European global empire. I found it particularly interesting as I knew so little on this subject.
Now reading The War of Wars by Robert Harvey. A single volume (well - 900 pages) history of the British / French Revolutionary and Napoleonic War. Apparently proportionately more people died in this war than in either WWI or WWII.
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Currently reading The First World War by Hew Strachan.
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Reading a 1928 circular published by the Republican Party. It claims if Hoover was elected, he would provide a Chicken in every pot and even has a few recipes provided by Hoover on how to prepare it. Never realized what a smart man he was. Should have imparted his thoughts in History books.
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@ABWorsham:
Currently reading The First World War by Hew Strachan.
If you enjoy the book (which I’ve never read), you might want to pick up the DVD of the documentary television series into which it was made. I’ve seen it and it’s pretty good.
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I tend to get stuck on either a subject of interest or an author and read my way through a list until I’m sick of it.
I finished Clay Blair’s two volumes on U-boats (The Hunters, The Hunted) which essentially covered every recorded sortie during the war, including personal information of both sides. Fascinating and exhausting.
That peaked my interest in British X-craft, so I grabbed a copy of Target Tirpitz, which peaked my interest on both the Bismarck, Nazairre Raid as well as manned torpedoes, so I have a few books either on hold at the library or on the way in the post while I finish Tirpitz.
I’ve been reading about WWII for about 20 years now and every book opens a whole new interest or bit of the war I haven’t heard of before.
My wife wonders why I don’t read fiction, but this stuff is wilder than anything any author could invent.
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Hirohito’s War: The Pacific War 1941-1945 by Francis Pike.
Then, moving back to the war in Europe with The Guns at Last Light by Rick Atkinson.
The final book in The Liberation Trilogy. -
Eastern inferno - the journals of a german panzerjager on the Eastern front 1941-43. Edited by Alexander Christine and Mason Kunze.
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The Eastern Front is a good one, ill look for the version/author is interested. Also, I love the Uniforms/Ranks of WWII.
Im not currently reading it, as I already have, but “A Bridge too far” is great, read it in Jr High, unfortunately for me that was 25+ years ago lool.
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Looks like some good ones I hadn’t heard of on here.
Just finished David Glantz’s updated “When Titans Clashed”. Never did read the '95 version although I saw it quoted a lot. Seems as if it has a little too much Russian love in it, but was still pretty interesting.
Read “The Taste of War:World War ll and the Battle for Food” a while back. Thought it was very good. I knew the Japanese had poor logistics but didn’t realize they neglected it to the extent they did.
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Only 50 pages into The Secret War by Max Hastings, but it already looks really excellent. As always his willingness to draw big strategic conclusions from the evidence makes his books well worth reading.
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I have just started A Beevor’s: Ardennes. Had it since last Christmas!
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Double Standards
Based around Rudolph Hess’s flight to Scotland in an attempt to broker a peace deal.
Examines the theory that Hess had contacts with a group in Britain hostile to the war and that included the Royal Family, hence the subsequent murder of the Duke of Kent disguised, like all royal murders, as an “accident”.
Also discusses the theory that Churchill had Hess shot and replaced with a Doppleganger. The real Hess knew too much, hence he (or the double) was never released despite having no part in war crimes, and was probably murdered in Spandau by the British secret services when the Russians finally agreed to his release.
Personally I cannot buy the idea that Hess was not Hess, but the fact that he refused to see his family for 24 years is highly suspicious.
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Hmm. Does “the Royal Family” mean the Royal Family as a whole – which is a pretty large group, and presumably would even include King George VI – or does it refer to a few statistical outliers like the Duke of Windsor (formerly Edward VIII, until he abdicated), who was a little too cozy with Nazi Germany for comfort and who was shipped off to the Bahamas in mid-1940 as a precaution?
The part about Hess being “murdered in Spandau by the British secret services when the Russians finally agreed to his release” sounds a little bizarre to me. As far as I know, it was the Russians who were always adamant that Hess would never be released and who insisted that Spandau prison would keep operating – with him as its sole prisonner of need be – for the rest of his natural life.
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King George and wife were against the war - remember the hero’s welcome at Buckingham palace for Chamberlain after Munich. Of course this has been airbrushed from history. The Duke of Windsor effectively deserted his command in France and should have been shot, unthinkable for royalty, hence the exile in the Caribbean.
The body Duke of Kent was found with a stash of Swedish bank notes, suggesting he was on the way to Sweden to negotiate a peace deal when his plane “crashed into a hillside”.
http://spartacus-educational.com/2WWkentD.htm
Kent was also offered the throne of Poland by his pal General Sikorski - another “accident” victim.
Did a bit deeper into Hess’s imprisonment and you’ll find it was the British who blocked his release; they didn’t want him spilling the beans. Certainly the Russians treated him more harshly in Spandau, but they thawed towards the end of Communism and would have given in, hence the Brits had him finished off.
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