Colin’s Comments (group member since Dec 16, 2012)

Colin’s comments from the THE WORLD WAR TWO GROUP group.

Frank Luke was to WW I what Hans -Joachim Marseille (see my book The Star of Africa) was to WW II, drinker, womanizer, irreverent, rebel, nonconformist, born killer with a great sense of humor.

As far as availability I am not sure, but Amazon keeps good inventory numbers on the website.

Ambrose was a lazy historian, stealing works from others, using subterfuge to sink other historians, interfering and often being virtually criminal in his actions. I know this first hand. He also never bothered to interview Germans from the war, I have over 400 interviews with them, and half as many Allied pilots, soldiers and seamen.

Great sidebar to the Tirpiz story, two of my friends were fighter pilots assigned to JG-5 at that time in Norway; Kurt Schulze and Walter Schuck (206 kills). They both flew with Heinrich Erhler (206 kills), who was the Gruppenkommanduer at that time providing security air cover, and he was blamed for the loss of the Tirpitz. He was to be court-martialed on Goering's orders and possibly executed as the scapegoat, but too many high ranking officers (Milch, Galland, et al) came to his aid. He finished the war, like Schuck, flying the Me-262 jet where he died. All of this is in my book on the subject, from my interviews with the participants. Kurt Schulze contributed an interview for a BBC TV production covering this event as well.

I wrote about the Hiwis in an old book of mine, and there were several hundred thousand of them, from laborers to uniformed soldiers and anti-partisan specialists. Andrei Vlasov defected with Gen. Bunyachenko and eventually brought over 30,000 defectors. Part of this force was called ROA, and constituted an entire fighter wing of former Russian and Ukrainian pilots who flew with the Luftwaffe. One of these was Leonidas Damianov Maximciuc, born in Bassarabia, and was my good friend. Pannwitz' Cossacks were part of this large group as well.

'Aussie Rick' wrote: "From the book; "Forgotten Fifteenth":

"Yet even the heroes with Knight's Crosses at their throats sustained losses. Lieutenant Franz Stigler, who finished the war in jets, said that he was shot do..."

I knew Franz Stigler and Georg-Peter Eder, interviewed both. Franz is mentioned in two of my books, The Star of Africa and The Me-262 Stormnird, interviews. Franz was the subject of my friend Adam Makos' book A Higher Call, and Barrett Tillman is a good friend, we also did History Channel shows together.

Georg-Peter Eder was a great interview, see his story in great detail in my book The Me-262 Stormbird, especially his last months of the war with Kommando Nowotny and JG-7 flying the jet. Georg had 78 kills, 36 confirmed four engine bombers.

My interviews with many German pilots featured in my books also reveal the exhaustion.

You may like my book series, The German Aces Speak, with high profile German aces, some of whom became NATO generals after the war, and had close contact with Hitler, Goering and many others. Their perspectives on the war and aftermath are revealing.

Jaundice was a common side effect along with stomach cramps and diarrhea. With 50 different strains of malaria, and three being potentially fata (Plasmodium Vivax, Plasmodium Ovalae, and Plasmodium Falciparum), a one fits all treatment does not work, same for yellow fever.

'Aussie Rick' wrote: "One of our members is looking for a book:

"I recently came across the Edelweiss Pirates novels after reading the White Rose non-fiction novel. Does anyone know of more books like this about rebell..."

Sophie Scholl and her brother, as well as their friends were executed by guillotine, although their network was much wider. In my friend Adam Makos' book A Higher Call, as well as my book, The German Aces Speak II, we both illustrate just how far the investigation went long after the executions. Franz Stigler was visited by the Gestapo in Sicily, as his brother (deceased at that time) was a member, and they thought Franz, a former student priest may have also been involved.

happy wrote: "I finished Rogue Heroes: The History of the SAS, Britain's Secret Special Forces Unit That Sabotaged the Nazis and Changed the Nature of War

good book!! some very interesting accou..."

Other stellar members were Fitzroy MacClean and author Evelyn Waugh (Brideshead Revisted, etc)

Quinine was the only treatment/preventative until late in the war, when chloraquin and later primaquin were introduced. Later we had fancidar, etc. I know, I had malaria.

I interviewed a Russian tanker, Gregor Koronov and many Germans, similar stories from them all.

Dimitri wrote: "Picked up a nice piece of library porn: Folio Society edition of The Boer War and in the afterbrowsing pulled this from a musky pile of $3 paperbacks :

[bookcover:Panzer Commander: ..."

See my website for a few featured interviews, which are the basis for all of my books. www.heatonlewisbooks.com

Karl wrote: "Dimitri wrote: "Picked up a nice piece of library porn: Folio Society edition of The Boer War and in the afterbrowsing pulled this from a musky pile of $3 paperbacks :

[bookcover:Pa..."
You may then find my book "Four War Boer" of interest.

Lauren, welcome to the group. I knew Ambrose, and we did not like each other, I will be up front about that. I also knew most of the men from easy Company, as I had been in 101st Airborne, and went to a few of the reunions in the 1980s, and one in the 1990s.
Ambrose was a known plagiarist, he took material from people, often his graduate student researchers and other authors, and seldom gave them any credit in the books. We both had a book signing event with other authors during the opening celebrations for the Pacific Wing of the National WW II Museum. I was there as not only an author, but an invited VIP guest for the MOH Society, such as Ron Drez, etc, and he really did not like anyone taking his limelight. Ambrose had the volunteer firefighters delivering my crates of books thrown into a trash dumpster. They were later found and the NOLA police investigated, proven what had happened. Luckily my later book signing event at Barnes & Noble in downtown did not have his fingerprints on them.

I knew Hans von Luck, he was a very good man.

Fegelein admired Komowroski, and the general and Franz von Papen had been friends, Papen was an equestrian Olypmpian.

I knew Boyington, and all the Black Sheep, my wife and I are hnorary menbers of the Association, among others. My interview (short Version) was published in Aviation History many years ago.

Jay is a good historian, worked with him briefly info sharing. Should be good.