What are you currently reading?

[Garandomatic]

What do you mean about the good and bad?

[Bluehawk]

"One Step Ahead of Hitler: A Jewish Child's Journey Through France"

By: Fred Gross

 

[willysmb44]

The novel "A different war" by Craig Thomas. It's the final of 4 novels with the character of Mitchell Gant, and I wanted to read the final appearance of the 'Firefox' pilot character.

Kind of meh-inducing right now. More of corporate intrigue and nothing military related at all. Can't get many of the Brit expressions, but I'm slogging through.

[JasonT]

Ivan's War by Catherine Merridale. About the Red Army during WWII. About a quarter of the way through and I find it interesting since not a lot seems to be written or discussed (or was allowed to be written or discussed for many years) about life for average soldier in Russia at the time.

[Bluehawk]

"Gizlelle, Save the Children!"

[Garandomatic]

Finishing "a young man's letters from world war ii" because i have the man's uniform. Next, "the last battle" about the battle for castle itter. After that, "the mortarmen" because i picked up an 87th chemical mortar uniform recently!

[Thor996]

 

The final book of this great series: IMO;

 

The Guns at Last Light: The War in Western Europe, 1944-1945-Rick Atkinson-

[hirsca]

The Fleet the Gods Forgot. The U.S. Asiatic Fleet in WW2. Interesting read about how unprepared, undermanned and outgunned we were leading up to and early in the war.

 

Al

[Bluehawk]

"Inside, Outside" by: Herman Wouk

 

The human travels of a Jewish boy in America, during two world wars.

[Flightpath]

Strong Men Armed by Robert Leckie........ great book!

[Bluehawk]

"Judah P. Benjamin: The Jewish Confederate" by: Eli N. Evans > The Free Press (a Macmillan, Inc. company) 1988

 

Tens, or more, thousands of books have been written about the American War of Rebellion. I've yet found time to read but an infinitesimal, pathetically tiny/meaningless, fraction of those.

 

THIS book, for all who have sincere care about those dark and bloody years, what led up to it, who was involved and how they performed under extreme duress - is humbly suggested, in the light of today and tomorrow.

[M422A1]

What do you mean about the good and bad?

 

Most of the book is a travel log from when he visited the South Pacific in the 80's. In a way, useless information because the islands didn't look like that during the war and they don't look like that now. He visited most of the places where the major battles were fought (most of which he did not participate in) but when he describes the battles, he makes it sound like he was there. For example, he was on Guadalcanal after the island was secured but he writes like he was there for the actual battle. The only combat he actually participated in is in the first and last chapters.

 

He is also overly fixated on sex. He spends too much time talking about his over-sized thing and how it stopped him from losing his virginity. And I really didn't care to read about the Marines booted out of the Corps for being caught in homosexual acts. But the worse thing was him describing masturbating in his foxhole while the gory remains of his buddies were scattered around him.

 

I suggest you go Amazon and read the reviews of his book there. I agree with most of the negative comments there. I really don't see how some people could rate this book up there with "Helmet For My Pillow" or "With The Old Breed"...

 

Mike

 

P.S.

Moderators, if this post is T.M.I., please remove it. But what I wrote is in the book.

 

[M422A1]

I notice that the site automatically substitutes some words. The word I had has been replaced with "thing"!

[Garandomatic]

Yikes...

[Charlie Flick]

By Tank Into Normandy by Stuart Hills.

 

A marvelous story well told by the author. As a young British officer commanding a troop of Sherwood Rangers operating M4 Shermans with 75MM guns the author presents an up front and very personal look at ETO armored combat. The book really takes off once the D-Day Invasion starts. His experience in trying to bring a Sherman Duplex Drive swimming tank ashore, and failing as so many did, was harrowing to read. The loss of many comrades in the Holland and Northern Germany campaigns left the author with feelings that persisted decades later. The ever-present fear of superior German armor and infantry armed with the highly effective Panzerfaust anti-tank rocket permeates the book. His experiences in working with the US 82nd Airborne and 101st Airborne Divisions were favorable and he offered high praise for their professionalism.

 

Had I been the editor I would have sharply reduced the writing spent on descriptions of his school days at a fine, upper crust British boarding school. The accounts of old school ties and cricket matches long ago will likely be tiresome for some USA readers.

 

That minor criticism aside, I found the book to be immensely readable and worthwhile, particularly for those interested in ETO armored combat.

 

Regards,

Charlie

 

 

[Bluehawk]

"Men of Honor: American GIs in the Jewish Holocaust"

By: Jeff Donaldson

Hellgate Press

2005

 

I picked this up in the for sale books at Palm Springs Air Museum library yesterday morning.

 

The author chronicles stories for 23 WWII POW veterans, almost all of whom were Jews.

 

The author wrote:

"More than 500,000 Jewish Americans served in the military during World War II. While it can be said that only a small percentage of those became prisoners of war, the number of soldiers who were affected by Nazis' persecution of Jewish people was much greater..."

 

The stories are somewhat brief, 3-4 pages at most each. A combination of the soldier's quoted words, and his recollections as recorded by the author.

[MPage]

This is an online piece that was written by a veteran's son about his father's short stint in Korea at the very end of the war as part of a top secret unit that was to test battlefield radar (then in its infancy), in combat. Attached to an ROK division, they then were embroiled in a valiant, last-stand apocalyptic fight for Hill 433 during the last Chinese offensive. Interesting story, and I'm inclined to believe it's true.

 

The reality was that a modified TPS-3 type radar tracking system was tested in combat in Korea, and was almost lost to the enemy one full decade before its public appearance by the U.S. Army in 1963.

 

http://www.koreanwar-educator.org/memoirs/carpenter/index.htm#Aftermath

 

[tdogchristy90]

Most recently....

 

History of Andersonville by Ovid Futch (for the fourth time lol)

 

The History of the Rebel Yell by Terryl Elliott (Not what I expected but interesting to say the least)

 

God Is My Co-Pilot by Robert Scott (I really liked this book, very entertaining and an easy read)

 

With the Old Breed by Eugene Sledge (LOVED IT, enough said!)

[No Quarter]

Ardennes 1944 ​by Anthony Beevor

[Bluehawk]

"The Victors" by: Stephen Ambrose

 

An anecdotal history narrative about the D-Day invasion, emphasizing Eisenhower, British forces and commanders, and PIR units. A good informative read, some new facts I'd not known or understood in the past many many many reads about that era, in the typical Ambrose style... I've long enjoyed his work, and was not much impressed, or convinced, by the controversies which attempted to sully his scholarship. For me, Ambrose was the Shelby Foote of WWII historians.

[Bluehawk]

"When General Grant Expelled the Jews" by: Jonathan D. Sarna, Schocken Books/Random House, 2012, 189 pages

 

This is a scholarly study, the first in detail I've yet seen, of General Ulysses S. Grant's infamous General Order No. 11 expelling Jews from a war zone as a class of people, in 1862, during the American Civil War.

 

The Order is referenced in possibly every single book which touches upon Jewish soldiers and Jews during that war, but only in a glancing generalized way, usually unfavorably. The actual circumstances (both cause and effect) were, as often, far more complex than superficial footnoting suggests.

[Lee Ragan]

"Forty Miles a Day on Beans and Hay", by Don Rickey, Jr. The story of U.S. Army enlisted men during the Indian Wars in the last half of the 19th century. Just about the only book dealing with this time period that's not about the officers or from their viewpoint.

[FIGMO]

Follow Me And Die: The Destruction of an American Division in World War II. By Cecil B. Currey. This book is the story of the 28th Infantry Division in the Hurtgen Forest in the last months of 1944.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

;

 

[stratasfan]

Last one about US was "At All Costs", which was about the convoy with the Ohio. Absolutely amazingly fabulous!

 

For good first-hand accounts of WWII, try "Nancy Wake: The White Mouse" by Russell Braddon. AMAZING!

 

Also, a really good one about an American is "Wolves at the Door", about Virginia Hall, and American who actually worked in the SOE. She later worked with the OSS and then worked in the CIA. She was originally rejected for American service because she had lost a leg in a hunting accident. Really amazing story that has you totally concentrating on the book until you've finished!

[Garandomatic]

Just finished "Death Denied" By Keith M. Turnham. I was unbelievable fortunate enough to have bought Turnham's uniform late last year, and was told by the seller that he was a POW and wrote a book. my word. Often, you read about the experiences of 8th AF POWs, and it isn't truly horrible... German soldiers saving them from civilians, relatively benign interrogations, and at least in a few cases, commandants that actually fed the POWs better than the guards... Turnham's experiences were almost always "worst case scenario." He was horribly injured in a mid-air collision and parachute landing, was abused at the Dulag Luft, poorly fed at Stalag IV, and endured an 87 day death march before finally arriving at British lines. Despite it all, he remained positive, and seemed to live a charmed life, from winning a couple thousand dollars gambling at Camp Lucky Strike and the ship home, to meeting the girl he'd marry on the bus when he was returning home to Southern California.

 

It's funny, he mentions his uniform being devoid of correct insignia because he was rushed home. I am sure that it is the uniform that I have and is pictured in the book. Same bullion wings, etc. It isn't named, but I did find a paper crumbled up in the back pocket of the pants. A sort of checklist of what he was and was not responsible for when he was being mustered out. Has his name and service number. Been there since September, 1945.