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

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

Sweetwilliam wrote: "I sure wish that that the producers and directors would have read Joseph Perisco’s Eleventh Hour, Eleventh Day, Eleventh Month before they concocted that stupid ending."

Good point about Joseph Perisco’s book!

Dimitri wrote: "Ordered & opened at once:
On the Knife Edge: How Germany Lost the First World War by [author:Holger Affl..."

Damn you Dimitri, now I have to try and read my copy of this book as soon as I can :)

From BA:

Welcome, Randy! What aspects of WWII history do you like to read about the most? Or do you read everything you can find on WWII?

From Boudewijn:

Hi Randy, welcome to this group.

From MR9:

Welcome, Randy. Nice to have more representation from the Heartland. I retired from the U.S. Navy in 1995.

I've moved these posts to this thread:

Hi, my name is Randy Reigstad, I live on a farm near Miltona Mn. I'm 83 years old, my wife passed away in February 2022, we had been married 60 years. Now I live alone on my farm, I don't run the farm anymore. I did run the farm 20 years before I retired in 2014, before that I worked in electrical engineering for 40 years. I spent 10 years in the Navy, 1959 to 1969, that's where I received my electrical education. Now day's I read and study, I read mostly WW2 history and I study the Bible. I started studying in 2017. I'm not a radical religious person but I enjoy the history of the Bible. I'm always open to new friendships, it sometimes gets a little lonesome around here.

Randy Reigstad
Miltona Minnesota

This new release arrived in the mail today and looks pretty good; "To Save An Army: The Stalingrad Airlift" by Robert Forsyth.

To Save An Army: The Stalingrad Airlift by Robert Forsyth

Jonny wrote: "I'm rounding out many maritime theme for this year (probably) with Angus Konstam's analysis of 'Der Tag', Jutland 1916: Twelve Hours That Decided The Great War. There's some heavywe..."

I hope you enjoy the book as much as I did!

Randolph wrote: "I’m reading A Bridge Too Far by Cornelius Ryan, excellent reading I highly recommend it."

An excellent book, glad to hear you are enjoying his account of Market Garden.

Jonny wrote: "Currently being sold at the astronomical price of £0.00 on Kindle at Amazoon:

War in Italy: 1943-1945, A Brutal Story"

Nice one Jonny!

Thomas wrote: "Thanks for the welcomes!

I would love a recommendation for a book on the war in China--not just American support or the Rape of Nanjing, but an overview. It was one of the longest-running theaters..."

Tom, here are a few more books of interest:

Shanghai 1937: Stalingrad on the Yangtze by Peter Harmsen

Eight Hundred Heroes: China's Lost Battalion and the Fall of Shanghai by Stephen Robinson

My pleasure BA :)

I've not heard or seen that documentary before but I will be keen to check it out, thanks BA!

Me too :)

I received James Holland's e-mail detailing his new book; "Cassino 44". Here is what he has to say on his forthcoming new release (Sept. 2023):

"It's been a while since I sent a newsletter. I have been working on some exciting things that I can now share with you all.

I’ve been gadding about these past couple of months and it’s odd to have begun my travels while it was still summer and to have now returned to find the days noticeably drawing in and the leaves turning dramatically. It’s a reminder - not that it’s much needed - that I’ve got the winter ahead getting my head down and writing the new book, Cassino 44.

Everyone has different approaches to putting a book together, but I have three pretty distinct phases. The first is ‘Hunter Gatherer’ in which I go out and research and hoover up all the info I need. Then comes the ‘Ducks in a Row’ stage, in which I go through all I’ve got and work out how I’m going to write the thing. Finally, and perhaps most obviously, comes ‘Writing.’ Once I start that I’m usually going hell for leather: at my desk by 6.30am and often not finishing until late in the evening. In between, there is time to record podcasts with Al, answer emails and take the dog for a walk, but most of the day is spent writing.

So, I’m now transitioning from Hunter Gatherer to Ducks in a Row. The research has been brilliant – in recent weeks I’ve been knee-deep in archives in the USA and Germany and have been travelling all around southern Italy looking at the terrain, pouring over the battlefields and furiously making notes and taking reminder videos. I also finally got to pay my respects at Hedley Verity’s grave, which was a very moving experience. No-one else was there so I had the place to myself. It felt like it was a long way from Yorkshire, that’s for sure.

Writing Brothers in Arms persuaded me of the value of looking primarily at contemporary sources – especially when it comes to the cast list of people I follow in a book. It’s really interesting to think that when a diary entry or letter home was written that the writer had no idea what is going to happen the next week let alone how the war would end. I was looking at one diary the other day and the young writer’s character poured off every page – and a very likeable fellow he was too. Then suddenly the diary ended, and beneath the folder was the telegram to his parents telling them he’d been killed. No trace was ever found – he’d been obliterated by a shell. It was quite an upsetting moment especially as right at the bottom was a studio portrait of him looking young, fresh and very much alive.

I’m planning to really get to grips with the extraordinary landscape of Italy. My big take away from my recent visit there was twofold. First, that writers tend to focus solely on the Cassino battles themselves when, actually, there was a ton of other fighting going both before and further along the front. I want to make sure that wider story is told. Second, that it was a bloody terrible place to fight. One day, I found myself in a tiny village in Molise, in the central southern part of Italy, 700 metres above sea level. The views were incredible, but this was a place and a fight that never features in any books. You have to wonder what the heck was going on. Why were some Canadians fighting some Germans in this tiny and remote corner of Italy? It was fascinating, though.

I’m also really keen to tell the civilian story too. Unlike the Western Desert in North Africa, Italy was pretty densely populated – there was some 44 million in the country at the time and I want to share the experience of just some of these people and the communities in which they lived. All too many suffered horrendously. Many villages and even towns were wiped from the face of the earth during that brutal period between the Allied invasion of September 1943 and the fall of Rome in June 1944."

Hi Tom and welcome to the group. I am keen to read James M. Scott's book; "Black Snow" soon as I really enjoyed two of his earlier WW2 books.

Mike wrote: "Read the book, the flying looks good, gonna see it soon:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NCDEG..."

It should be a good movie by the looks of it!

KOMET wrote: "I'm currently reading the new book, "Half American: The Epic Story of African Americans Fighting World War II at Home and Abroad" by Matthew F. Delmont.

[bookcover..."

Sounds like a very interesting book Komet!

I have my eye on that book Darya, thanks for posting the details.

Jerome wrote: "Another:

by Leo McKinstry
Description:
In early 1943 Britain was engaged in an epi..."

This sounds like a pretty interesting book!