THE WORLD WAR TWO GROUP discussion
GENERAL DISCUSSION AREA
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Pre-WW2 Conflicts
Great review Happy, I'm keen to read my copy in April.
That was the first of two famines Stalin imposed upon the Ukraine, and these events were the great catalysts for the rise of Stepan Bandera and the anti-Communist movement. Hitler jumped on this, and Himmler allowed the creation of two Ukrainian Waffen SS regiments and a third division, along with two Free Russian SS divisions who were primarily from Belorus and Bessarabia. Remember Lt Gen Andrei Vlasov and his ROA. I wrote about this in a couple of my books.
Between Warlords and Japan, China could never catch a break:
The Bitter Peace: Conflict in China 1928-37 by Philip S Jowetthttps://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Dimitri wrote: "Between Warlords and Japan, China could never catch a break:The Bitter Peace: Conflict in China 1928-37 by [author:..."Another very helpful review Dimitri, thanks for sharing with the group.
I'm currently reading; "Defending the Rock" which covers Gibraltar during WW2 but the author starts the book with a few introductory chapters on how Britain came to be on Gibraltar plus events leading up to WW2. At the moment I reading about Gibraltar and the Spanish Civil War. This is from chapter six; "Death From the Air":"When a town or village was taken, the Moorish soldiers were given two hours' licence to do whatever they wanted. The Army of Africa massacred hundreds after Badajoz resisted on 14 August. 'The blood was supposed to be palm deep on the far side of the lane,' Jay Allen reported ten days later. His story of what happened in the bullring - 'It was a hot night. There was a smell. I can't describe and won't describe it' - was so horrific the Chicago Daily Tribune would not print it; they later sacked him for being too left wing."
The Massacre of Badajoz:
https://carolineangusbaker.com/2016/0...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Massacr...
Defending the Rock: Gibraltar at War 1935-1945 by Nicholas Rankin
That's a push to bump Beev's Spanish Civil War into the 2019 pile Rick. Badajoz doesn't seem to be a very lucky town, does it?
Ironically the French let loose their Moroccans also, especially in Italy with terrific effect. De Gaulle and the Free French allowed the deeds to take place, and squashed any attempt at punishment. Gen Mark Clark's request for tribunals against the Moroccans and thei white French officers fell on deaf ears, as the alliance was deemed more important than the lives and virtue of Italian civilians.
A March 2019 release:
by E.R. HootonDescription:
Spain in Arms is a new military history of the Spanish Civil War. It examines how the Spanish Civil War conflict developed on the battlefield through the prism of eight campaigns between 1937-1939 and shows how many accounts of military operations during this conflict are based upon half-truths and propaganda.
The book is based upon nearly 60 years of extensive research into the Spanish Civil War, augmented by information from specialised German, Italian and Russian works. The Italian campaign against the Basques on the Northern Front in 1937 was one of the most spectacular Nationalist successes of the Civil War, with 60,000 prisoners taken. This is also the first book to quote secret data about Italian air operations intercepted by the British. The figures intercepted by the British show the Italians flew 1,215 sorties and dropped 231 tons of bombs during the campaign, whilst also suffering the heaviest losses.
It also demonstrates how the Nationalists won not simply by benefitting from a cornucopia of modern arms from the Fascist powers but by using its limited resources to maximum effect. Spain in Arms reveals the Nationalist battlefield superiority in terms of training and overall command, and the Republic's corresponding weaknesses in the same fields. The Republican Brunete and Belchite offensives of 1937 are described in detail, from the weapons they carried and the tactics they employed to the dynamic Nationalist response and reaction of the generals. This book also explores how the extent of foreign intervention on both sides has been greatly exaggerated throughout history and provides the first accurate information on this military intervention, using British and French archives to produce a radically different but more accurate account of the battles and the factors and men who shaped them.
Hooton finally gives the historical context and operational implications of the battlefield events to provide a link between the First and Second World Wars.
60 years ? how'd he find the time to write on the Balkan Wars of 1912-13 ?
Jerome wrote: "A March 2019 release: by E.R. HootonDescription:
Spain in Arms is a new military history ..."
I read Hooton's Stalin's Claws: From the Purges to the Winter War: Red Army Operations Before Barbarossa 1937-1941. I was unimpressed. Barely Three Stars.
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
A recent release:
by Charles EsdaileDescription:
The Spanish Civil War: A Military History takes a new, military approach to the conflict that tore Spain apart from 1936 to 1939.
In many histories, the war has been treated as a primarily political event with the military narrative subsumed into a much broader picture of the Spain of 1936-39 in which the chief themes are revolution and counter-revolution. While remaining conscious of the politics of the struggle, this book looks at the war as above all a military event, and as one in whose outbreak specifically military issues - particularly the split in the armed forces produced by the long struggle in Morocco (1909-1927) - were fundamental. Across nine chapters that consider the war from beginning to endgame, Charles J. Esdaile revisits traditional themes from a new perspective, deconstructs many epics and puts received ideas to the test, as well as introducing readers to foreign-language historiography that has previously been largely inaccessible to an anglophone audience.
In taking this new approach, The Spanish Civil War: A Military History is essential reading for all students of twentieth-century Spain.
Ridiculous prices for that book at Amazon: $134.00 and £110.00 in the UK!
'Aussie Rick' wrote: "Ridiculous prices for that book at Amazon: $134.00 and £110.00 in the UK!"Right? It's like doctors prescribing prescription drugs they'll never have to pay for.
A January 2020 release:
by Federica Saini FasanottiDescription:
Based on ten years of study in the Italian archives and on the ground, "Vincere!" examines a little-known topic: the counterinsurgency operations carried out by the Italian Royal Army in Libya and Ethiopia from 1922 to 1941.
Italian forces faced local populations while conducting counterinsurgency (COIN) operations in what was, for them, a new theater of war. In Libya, the rebellion was quelled in the space of ten years, at an admittedly high price for the regional forces. In Ethiopia, where COIN operations were interrupted by World War II, the available data suggests that military actions, accompanied by a more responsible policy toward the population, would have eventually defeated the insurgency. The use of air power in Ethiopia made a huge difference, and its lessons were learned long before the French experience in Algeria. The Italians waged counterinsurgency operations over 20 years in two geographically separate theaters, and in two very different operational environments. Much can be learned from these different experiences.
Defenitley, straight into my to read list! thanx Jerome.
Tonight I started --
They Shall Not Pass: The British Battalion at Jarama - The Spanish Civil War by Ben Hughes.
MR9 - I just finished reading a short section on the Battle of Jarama in my book on the Spanish Civil War. I think your book would be a good follow up to read for a more in-depth account.
The Passionate War: The Narrative History of the Spanish Civil War by Peter Wyden
Today I started this book covering the Battle for Nanking during the Second Sino-Japanese War:
Nanjing 1937: Battle for a Doomed City by Peter HarmsenThis book follows on from his book on the Battle for Shanghai in 1937:
Shanghai 1937: Stalingrad on the Yangtze by Peter Harmsen
When I wrote Four War Boer (it took 25 years), this book was one of many secondary sources, but it was the Bible on the subject. I made this required reading as a textbook when I taught the subject at the university.
Joseph wrote: "I just received the book 
The Boer War by Thomas Pakenham"I have a copy that I am yet to read, hopefully one day soon :)
'Aussie Rick' wrote:I have a copy that I am yet to read, hopefully one day soon :)"
As do I. Its size is a little daunting.
Strangely, being at home all week is slowing my reading progress: I keep finding things to do. On the nonfiction side, I have plucked from deep in my to-read pile:
on the Freikorps that formed in the aftermath of WW1, a period that has fascinated me since the mid-80s.On the fiction side, I went deeper into the to-read pile, to a book I purchased in the mid-80s,
. I have a paperback that I'm pretty sure I picked up at a used book sale the spring of my freshman year in college: college bookstore? town library? I was still studying Russian that year, so at 65 cents for a translated classic of that culture seemed a bargain.
Lee wrote: "Strangely, being at home all week is slowing my reading progress: I keep finding things to do. On the nonfiction side, I have plucked from deep in my to-read pile: [bookcover:The Birth of the Nazis..."Two very interesting books Lee, you will have to set aside some dedicated reading time now!
Just finished Naval Policy Between the Wars: The Period of Reluctant Rearmament, 1930-1939 - Volume 2 of Roskill's exhaustive (and sometimes exhausting) history. Overwhelming impression from the two books is that the western democracies threw away peace by not preparing for war (though you have to allow for the catastrophic financial situation many of them faced). Spin forward to 1945 (and finishing the book on the eve of VE Day was especially poignant) I am reminded of the Zec cartoon published that day. It depicted a wounded, exhausted Tommy staggering from the ruins of a shattered Europe, clutching a piece of paper bearing the words, 'Victory and peace in Europe'. The caption was, 'Here you are, don't lose it again.'More on the book itself when I get to it.
A July 2021 release:
by Giles TremlettDescription:
The Spanish Civil War was the first armed battle in the fight against fascism, and a rallying cry for a generation. Over 35,000 volunteers from fifty-two countries around the world came to defend democracy against the troops of Franco, Hitler, and Mussolini.
Ill-equipped and disorderly, yet fueled by a shared sense of purpose and potential glory, disparate groups of idealistic young men and women banded together to form a volunteer army of a size and kind unseen since the Crusades, known as the International Brigades. These passionate liberal fighters-from across Europe, China, Africa and the Americas-would join the Republican cause, fighting for over two years on the bloody battlegrounds of Madrid, Jarama and Ebro. Were they heroes or fools? Saints or bloodthirsty adventurers? And what exactly did they achieve?
In this magisterial history, award-winning historian Giles Tremlett tells-for the first time-the story of the Spanish Civil War through all the human drama of an historic mission to halt fascist expansion in Europe. The International Brigades shows just how far ordinary people will go to save democracy against overwhelming odds.
I've started reading Giles Tremlett's latest book; "The International Brigades" and I'm really enjoying it so far. Lots of personal accounts from Brigaders from all around the world.
The International Brigades: Fascism, Freedom and the Spanish Civil War by Giles Tremlett
"The International Brigades" - The outbreak of violence in Madrid after the failed coup and the backlash against the Falangists:"Virgilio Fernandez, a seventeen-year-old medical orderly, waved his Communist Party card in the face of anarchist gunmen who wanted to shoot some of the wounded at his hospital. 'I told them they had to be healed first. Then they could be put on trial and shot,' he said. Most of the Falangists and officers were killed. Many of those who survived would be executed within days or murdered by militias at Paracuellos de Jarama, just outside of Madrid, several months later."
Paracuellos de Jarama:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paracue...
'Aussie Rick' wrote: ""The International Brigades" - The outbreak of violence in Madrid after the failed coup and the backlash against the Falangists:"Virgilio Fernandez, a seventeen-year-old medical orderly, waved hi..."
Virgilio was certainly brave at a young age, or thought he was invincible.
"The International Brigades" - The violence and murder isn't one-sided:"Amongst the first troops to arrives were those of the Spanish Legion. A reputation for ruthlessness preceded them. Arturo Barea, while serving as a sergeant in the engineers, had accompanied the Legion as it razed villages in the Beni Aros region in 1921. 'There was no limit to its lust for revenge. When it left a village, all that remained were burning buildings and the corpses of men, women and children,' he wrote. Most soldiers in the Army of Africa, however, were Moroccan mercenaries, gathered into colonial regiments, commanded by Spanish officers. The infamous cruelty of the Army of Africa's officer class was, perhaps, most obviously displayed by Lieutenant Colonel Juan Yague Blanco. He had been Franco's right-hand man during the miner's rising in Asturias in 1934, operating with such sadistic glee that the officer in overall command, General Eduardo Lopez Ochoa, withdrew his men after discovering that they were caving up captive miners with knives. 'They cut off their feet, their hands, their ears, their tongues, even their genitals! A few days later, one of my most trusted officers told me that there were legionarios wearing wire necklaces from which dangled human ears from the victims,' he reported. 'I also had to deal with the deeds of the regulares of the tabor [a battalion of Moroccan troops] from Ceuta: rapes, murders, looting. I ordered the execution of six Moors'."
The Spanish Legion:
https://warfarehistorynetwork.com/201...
'Aussie Rick' wrote: ""The International Brigades" - The outbreak of violence in Madrid after the failed coup and the backlash against the Falangists:"Virgilio Fernandez, a seventeen-year-old medical orderly, waved hi..."
Young and foolish. Often the same thing.
"The International Brigades" - The early stages of training and arming members of the International Brigades:"In theory, the volunteers were meant to do three hours of military training each morning and two more hours in the afternoon. But that rarely happened. Units were still being formed, instructors were few and guns mostly ancient. The first batch of three to four hundred rifles, donated from across Europe, included at least a dozen models, often without the right calibre ammunition, and contained Chinese, Japanese, Turkish and Russian guns. It was, Gayman said, 'like a collection from a weapons museum'. Even the arms being sent by Stalin were, initially, antique weapons that the Red Army was keen to offload."
The International Brigades: Fascism, Freedom and the Spanish Civil War by Giles Tremlett
"The International Brigades" - Franco's forces have started their aerial campaign against Madrid which according to the author; "Madrid had become the first European city ever to sustain prolonged aerial bombardment.""After one night-time bombardment some days later, the France-Soir correspondent Louis Delapree tripped over a dying young woman amid the rubble on the corner of Gran Via and Alcala, while 'under a pile of glass, her small, flattened child' lay. He accused his newspaper of not showing nearly enough of the suffering in Madrid because, adding bitterly: 'the massacre of a hundred Spanish children is less interesting than a sigh from a royal tart, Mrs [Wallis] Simpson [whom Edward VIII would soon marry]'. Within a few years, many European newspaper readers would learn from personal experience that this terrifying new threat from the skies was the future of warfare."
'Aussie Rick' wrote: ""The International Brigades" - Franco's forces have started their aerial campaign against Madrid which according to the author; "Madrid had become the first European city ever to sustain prolonged ..."Some things don't change. The most egregious public outrages now are dismissed in favor of the latest flatulence emitting from an empty-headed Kardashian. I admire the "royal tart" dig.
Totally agree with you MR9!
"The International Brigades" - Madrid, the early fighting at the University City, November 1936, - fellow bibliophiles prepared to be shocked:"The fourth-floor library of the Philosophy Faculty was new and, as yet, the tomes that lined its shelves remained unused - at least in this building, where nobody has ever attended a lecture. Jan Kurzke and his band of intellectual machine-gunners searched for sandbags to protect their positions, but failed to find them. Instead, they found a new use for the thick, learned volumes on the library shelves.
The large glass windows of the building had long been knocked out and the south-facing windows were in sight of the snipers. So now the thickest volumes in the library were taken out and stacked along the windowsills. 'They were better than sand-bags. We packed them tight against each other in double rows. The maxim [machine gun] was put on the table in front of the first window with books on both sides to protect the men who were feeding the gun ...,' Kurzke recalled. 'Quantity came before quality. The small volumes were found to be too light. A prolific writer was preferred because he filled a large, heavy volume which did not crumple before a bullet.' Indian metaphysics and early nineteenth-century German philosophy proved the densest of all. 'They protected us well; those old, wise men, with their long beards and busy pens,' he added. After studying the impacts of snipers' bullets on the books, they discovered that these rarely got past page 350 and began to believe the old stories about soldiers' lives being saved by Bibles in shirt pockets."
Threat to International Brigade memorial in Madrid’s University City:
https://richardbaxell.info/university...
"The International Brigades" - The author covers the Battle of the Mists - Boadilla, December 1936:ttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second_Battle_o...
"The International Brigades" - The Nationalist assault on Malaga - which according to the author led to 'the first European refugee column ever to be systematically strafed and bombarded.'"The bombardment and strafing left families scared and traumatised: under terrifying assault from both sea and sky, and nowhere to run, they threw themselves into ditches, scrabbled in the dirt, fled into the sugar-cane fields or simply panicked - losing children and other family members. One group tried to hide beneath a carob tree, but found it already occupied by the corpses of another family. 'One child had turned black, another was also coloured ... and a small boy had neatly combed hair ... the parents were dead too,' a survivor recalled. Elsewhere, a dead young woman was found propped upright against a roadside tree, a child still trying to suckle at her breast; a desperate father was seen to shoot his two children and wife before turning the gun on himself; and a young man riding on a donkey carried his sister's corpse in front of him, determined to bury her properly when he reached Almería. The road was so littered with corpses that, at night, it was difficult not to step on them."
The Málaga–Almería road massacre:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M%C3%A1...
https://carolineangusbaker.com/2017/0...
https://theseasofmintaka.com/2015/02/...
"The International Brigades" - Some of the International Brigade commanders could be a bit harsh:"Above Wintringham, as commander of the new XV Brigade was the ambitious 'Mexican' János Gálicz, known simply as General Gal. He was yet another Austro-Hungarian who had joined the Red Army. Gal quickly earned a reputation as one of the toughest, most ruthless officers in the International Brigades. 'For him, anyone who committed a mistake deserved the firing squad, so that they could not repeat the mistake again,' recalled one volunteer."
The International Brigades: Fascism, Freedom and the Spanish Civil War by Giles Tremlett
'Aussie Rick' wrote: "'For him, anyone who committed a mistake deserved the firing squad, so that they could not repeat the mistake again,' recalled one volunteer."..."That would reduce the ranks pretty quickly.
"The International Brigades" - The author provided a good account of the International Brigades during the Battle of Jarama, 1937:https://richardbaxell.info/jarama/
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/wo...
"The International Brigades" - Good account of the Battle of Guadalajara which saw Italian units in the International Brigades defeat Italian fascist forces sent by Mussolini who was expecting a resounding victory for his soldiers:https://www.warhistoryonline.com/hist...
https://weaponsandwarfare.com/2016/02...
I found this account quite interesting, from the book; "The International Brigades":" ... 'The cause of Spain aroused intense enthusiasm throughout Russia,' explained Louis Fischer, the well-connected American journalist who served as the International Brigades' quartermaster and knew Russia well. 'Many communists and non-communists hoped that the events in Spain might lend new life to the dying flame of the Russian revolution. Not Stalin. He had consented to sell the Spanish Republic arms. But not to make a revolution'."
Here is a funny account from the book; "The International Brigades":"In the meantime, a laconic but respected English company commander, known only as Captain Smith, was replaced by a German determined to impose vigorous and rigid discipline on what he viewed as the unruly Scandinavians. 'Tell him that ... while Germans train endlessly to win at war and still lose, the English don't train more than necessary, but still win,' one angry Danish volunteer, referring to the Great War, told the translator, who refused to pass the comment on."
News from Denmark: After 73 years a flag finds a home:
http://www.international-brigades.org...
'Aussie Rick' wrote: "Here is a funny account from the book; "The International Brigades":"In the meantime, a laconic but respected English company commander, known only as Captain Smith, was replaced by a German dete..."
How true!
THE WORLD WAR TWO GROUP
Books mentioned in this topic
The Fleet that Fought Itself: The Spanish Navy and the Civil War 1936–39 (other topics)Spain Betrayed: The Soviet Union in the Spanish Civil War (other topics)
Spain Betrayed: The Soviet Union in the Spanish Civil War (other topics)
Mac-Pap: Memoir of a Canadian in the Spanish Civil War (other topics)
Mac-Pap: Memoir of a Canadian in the Spanish Civil War (other topics)
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Authors mentioned in this topic
Leonard R. Heinz (other topics)Jonathan Whitehead (other topics)
Charles Stephenson (other topics)
Harald Jähner (other topics)
Greg Growden (other topics)
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It's a good read, solid 4 stars. The first half is a little dry and textbookish. Once the author starts discussing the famine, I found in fascinating. A bit hard to read it a Bloodlands: Europe Between Hitler and Stalin sort of way.
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...