'Aussie Rick'’s Comments (group member since Jun 12, 2009)

'Aussie Rick'’s comments from the THE WORLD WAR TWO GROUP group.

Excellent purchase Marc, a nice set a books for your digital library!

I've watched Wolf Totem a few times, I quite enjoy it, it's got a great film clip!

Very funny Nick! :)

Dimitri wrote: "WW2 in '23 so far:

Mussolini's War: Fascist Italy from Triumph to Collapse, 1935-1943 by [au..."

Excellent purchases Dimitri. I am yet to read my copies of the first two books :)

Hi Owen and welcome to the group, glad you managed to find us. In regard to some reading recommendations for books covering the ETO, I would highly recommend the recent trilogy by Peter Caddick-Adams:

"Sand & Steel: The D-Day Invasions and the Liberation of France"
"Snow and Steel: The Battle of the Bulge, 1944-45"
"Fire and Steel: The End of World War Two in the West"

Also, James Holland has completed two books in his trilogy "The War in the West:

https://www.goodreads.com/series/2027...

Plus of course the final book by Rick Atkison in his World War II Liberation Trilogy; " The Guns at Last Light: The War in Western Europe, 1944-1945".

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

Dj wrote: "What to do if your kid says they want a tank for their Birthday

https://www.facebook.com/watch?v=1423..."

That's great! :)

Two great books by Martin Middlebrook!

Nice pick-ups Dipanjan!

Mike wrote: "Not sure how long and how many ebook sites have these on sale at $2.99. Available on Amazon US right now:

[boo..."

Thanks for the notification, Mike, I am sure a few group members will be keen to check these books out!

Thanks for that summary on the style of those two books. I read Richard Overy's book "The Bombing War" and found it quite interesting. I will be interested to hear your final view on both books and which one you would recommend.

Sherwin wrote: "Hi all! It's been awhile, but I've spent the last four years completing my latest book entitled, Pappus - The Saga of A Jewish Family. It's the complete, translated personal corresp..."

Best of luck on the launch of your book.

Darya Silman wrote: "Aussie, do you know any other books on Baltics during WW2? I read only one, Timothy Snyder's. Estonia is my homeland, so I wanted to find more about it"

Jonny has beaten me to the punch and recommended the two books that I have on the subject. I will see if I can come up with some other titles.

More great books there Mike and excellent prices!

This forthcoming release (April 2023) may be of interest to some group members; "The Road to Slaughter : The Latvian 15th SS Division in Pomerania, January-March 1945" by Vincent Hunt.

The Road to Slaughter: The Latvian 15th SS Division in Pomerania, January-March 1945 by Vince Hunt
Description:
With chilling echoes of the 2022 war in Ukraine, 40,000 Latvian soldiers of the 15th SS Division - some Russian Front veterans, most raw teenage conscripts - faced the Red Army in Pomerania in Arctic blizzards between January and March 1945. One in three died: the majority never returned home. They became the lost Legion.

The author interviews the last remaining Latvian Legionnaires who came to the UK after the war, then follows their footsteps across modern Poland, adding many stories from Latvian archives in English for the first time. Thrown in to strengthen Nazi defenses as the German forces collapsed, the Latvians are constantly encircled and outgunned, outrunning the merciless T-34 tanks. It's kill or be killed: even the priests have Panzerfausts.

After battles at Nakel, Immenheim, Vandsburg, Dorotheenhof and Flatow the Latvians retreat to Jastrow, trying to hold a vital bridge across the river Gwda [Kuddow]. Then comes a four-day period known to the Latvians as 'the 15th Division's Golgotha' - the road of slaughter in the Polish countryside between Jastrow and Landeck.

At Podgaje-Flederborn their column is trapped with refugees and the wounded on a single road, sitting ducks for Red Army gunners. Thousands of Latvians are killed here but no-one is sure of the exact figure even now. What is certain, from these eyewitness accounts, is that it was appalling.

From Danzig to the Oder, this is an exhausting seven-week retreat from certain death along roads choked with refugees, with danger lurking around every bend. Through new interviews, translated personal diaries and extracts from the 15th Division war diary - only found in 2006 and never before published - the harrowing stories of the Latvians in Pomerania can now be told.

English translations of the memoirs of Colonel Vilis Janums, Major Jūlijs Ķīlītis, chaplain Kazimirs Ručs (later Monsignor) and many others bring vivid and often-shocking eyewitness testimony to events at Podgaje-Flederborn and Landeck-Ledyczek. The original orders from the 'Road of Slaughter' are reproduced from the War Diary in the National Archives in Riga revealing a catalogue of chaos, confusion and carnage. The casualty lists make for sombre reading, as do accounts of disturbing incidents that warrant further investigation.

This is an exhausting, blood-soaked seven-week journey across Pomerania to the Baltic Coast, culminating in a dramatic escape across the river Oder into Germany. Memoirs and autobiographies from Latvians who subsequently settled in Australia, Canada and the USA add new detail to this horrifying chapter.

The story of what happened once the Latvians crossed into Germany continues in a forthcoming companion volume, The Lost Legion.

"The Coal Black Sea: Winston Churchill and the Worst Naval Catastrophe of the First World War" - The Sailors of HMS Aboukir, HMS Hogue, HMS Cressy:

https://thedockyard.co.uk/the-collect...

"The Coal Black Sea: Winston Churchill and the Worst Naval Catastrophe of the First World War" - For those interested here is some information on the sinking of HMS Cressy, Hogue and Aboukir:

https://www.submerged.co.uk/cressy/

https://www.firstworldwar.com/source/...

"The Coal Black Sea: Winston Churchill and the Worst Naval Catastrophe of the First World War" - From the final chapter of the book:

"In 1954, in an astonishing act of insensitivity, the British Government sold off the salvage rights to the wrecks of the three cruisers to a German scrap metal contractor. Ironically, the rights were granted by the government of Prime Minister Winston Churchill (1951-55). It is inconceivable that he would not have known about it.

In 2017, the three wrecks were finally added to the list of designated protected places under the 1986 Protection of Military Remains Act."

The wrecks of the cruisers:
https://www.royalnavy.mod.uk/news-and...

"The Coal Black Sea: Winston Churchill and the Worst Naval Catastrophe of the First World War" - A number of changes occurred as a result of this tragic incident:

"The loss of the three cruisers on 22 September 1914 and, more specifically, the 1,459 men who died in them, also helped thrust the issue of naval family welfare into the public domain. Newspapers led the calls for greater pensions provision, while the armed forces charity SSAFA extended its reach into naval territory in earnest for the first time."

And;

"Other more fundamental changes were adopted by the Navy triggered by the loss of the three cruisers. One of the key recommendations of the Court of Inquiry was the provision of lifejackets to warship crews and the issue of identity discs for rapid casualty identification so that, where possible, the next of kin would be informed promptly of their relative's status. By 18 November 1914, this measure was already in hand."

The SSAFA during WW1:
https://odiham-society.org/ww1/medica...

"The Coal Black Sea: Winston Churchill and the Worst Naval Catastrophe of the First World War" - One of the issues raised by the author is that Churchill, as First Lord of the Admiralty, seemed to have his fingers in multiple pies, some not at all relevant to his duties as First Lord of the Admiralty. The author believes this diverted his attention from numerous critical issues within the Admiralty, one such instance is the Royal Naval Division:

"Despite their obvious lack of readiness, training or suitable equipment, Antwerp presented Churchill with the opportunity to deploy his own land forces, and the 'maritime Marlborough' could not resist.

'The First Lord is sending his army there. I don't mind his tu'penny untrainable rabble going but I do strongly object to 2000 invaluable Royal Marines being sent to be locked-up in a fortress and becoming prisoners of war if the place is taken,' wrote Captain Richmond, Assistant Director of Operations at the Admiralty.

Despite the arrival of the Royal Naval Division beginning on 3 October 1914, German forces penetrated the outer ring of Antwerp's forts and on 9 October the garrison surrendered. Some 57 British combatants lost their lives in Churchill's Antwerp operation, 1,480 escaped to the neutral Netherlands to be interned for the rest of the war and 900 were captured by the enemy. It was a shambles bordering on farce and represented another public humiliation for Churchill, who was again rounded on in the press."

The Defence of Antwerp, 1914:
https://www.longlongtrail.co.uk/battl...

Some good books to keep an eye out for!