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

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

William Massey wrote: "Anybody who is interested in the U.S.S. Enterprise CV-6, this is a good website.
http://cv6.org"

Read the book on the ship by my friend Barrett Tillman

Dj wrote: "Tom wrote: "This is supposed to be a classic , havent read it .. Yet

Eisenhower's Lieutenants: The Campaign..."

This book is a classic, and Weigley was my thesis adviser at Temple University. RIP boss.

read my book Night Fighters, with interviews from both sides. I was hit hard for my assessment of Harris.

I spoke with one of the men on U-47 who served with Prien. He was very detailed in the way that happened. fascinating story, and even my U-boat commander friends such as Cremer, Hardegen, Krestchmer, Topp, who knew Prien, said that it was amazing.

Manray9 wrote: "http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/...

This is a good article linked from RealClearHistory.com on the Channel Dash by the German naval vessels Scharnhorst, Gneisenau, Prinz Eu..."

My book The German Aces Speak has the interview with Adolf Galland, who planned and executed that operation.

I knew Gen Doolittle, he was the man who really started my career, way back when. I am working on a new book, The American Pilots Speak (same format from my interviews as the German Aces Speak booms, vols. 1 and 2), and Doolittle is one of them. My website has a photo of me with Glines and other Doolittle Raiders at a reunion years ago.

Sorry I never met him unfortunately. I do not really have many interviews with American ground soldiers. Most of my US subjects were pilots, and a few Marines.

I interviewed some German paras in Crete, one was my distant cousin. Max Schmelling was also there, the boxer, great interview with him. Crete was nasty. My book, German Anti-Partisan Warfare as Crete as an example of German retribution, while tough reading it was legal.

Carl, I am not clear as to the reference of interview. Speaking of Remagen, my late friend Wolfgang Schenk was the Me-262 jet pilot who dropped a bomb on that bridge.

Lewis wrote: "For me there are several WW2 films I would recommend. Saving Private Ryan, Flags of our Fathers, Das Boot, Enemy at the Gates, Band of Brothers, The Pacific, The Thin Red Line, Windtalkers, Battle ..."

The pilot of the Belle, Col. Robert K. Morgan and his surviving crew of the Belle hated that movie, and they refused to have anything to do with it. Robert told me personally that "I don't like distorting history, and our last mission just to make a buck."

Enemy at the gates was 70% accurate, the rest rubbish, although a good film. I spoke with Zaitzev by phone using my Russian girlfriend as an interpreter in 1984, and I got the story from him.

A Bridge Too Far is one of my top 5 history films, for accuracy and it is in fact 90% accurate. I was pen pals of sorts with Wilhelm Bittrich in high school, and he was a consultant to the director based on Ryan's book. Good film

I watched Das Boot with Reinhard Herdegen, and he along other mutual friends (and interview subjects) who were also U-Boat commanders, Peter-Erich Cremer, Otto Kretschmer, and Erich Topp were consulted by Wolfgang Petersen. They all loved the film for its accuracy.

I spoke with Dick Winters, Shifty Powers and several others on Band of Brothers, and they were determined to make it accurate. They did a great job.

I would suggest again, regarding accuracy, the film Conspiracy. Also look at others, such as The Grey Zone, Defiance, The Bridge at Remagen (50% accurate). I hate to say it, but Patton is about 80% accurate (I oncw spoke with Omar Bradley, played by Karl Mauldin), and The Battle of the Bulge, simply put, makes me cringe.

Red Tails by George Lucas is a great film, but only 50% accurate, quite a few technical errors, cliches, too many to list.

One film I would suggest for accuracy, although it is fiction based upon fact, is Dark Blue World.

Another fiction based on real events, not completely accurate as a result, but good, is The Big Red One.

Stalingrad by Wolfgang Petersen is also worth watching, same genre/result.

Some of my publishers, such as Casemate, Zenith Press, etc run the hardcover simultaneously with ebook offerings. The day of the paperback is numbered indeed.

Read my book, Occupation and Insurgency on the mass murders in the Baltics.

Read any of Prof. Hew Strachan's books on WW I. I used to work for him.

Casemate Publishing releasing next month. See it on Amazom

My next book out in February is Four war Boer, and is a biography. Covers WW I in Africa, from an interview I did with a participant.

My suggestion is watch the film Conspiracy, with Kenneth Brannagh playing Reinhard Heydrich and Stanley Tucci as Adolf Eichmann. The last surviving member of the Wannsee Conference was Gerhard Klopfer. I interviewed him in 1984.

The Wilhelm Gustloff had the greatest loss of life of any maritime disaster in history, 8 times the number on Titanic.

Elinor wrote: "'Aussie Rick' wrote: "One of our group members, Geraldine, has a new book trailer for her historical WWII novel. It's a novel about the WWII German POW camp in Phoenix that held U-boat men and offi..."

She's obviously basing it on the actual escape from the camp by the Germans, led by Kapitaenleutnant Hartenstein. He was found in a movie theater after having a nice dinner in a restaraunt.

That production has been killed, from what I was told by Dale Dye, due to funding issues and other facts.

Manray9 wrote: "'Aussie Rick' wrote: "I think I have mentioned this book in the new release thread some time back but failed to make note of it here. It's a book that I dare say I will order as it covers a campaig..."

Luetze was the chancellor of UNC-Wilmington when I was an undergrad, I knew him.