Wholesome History Reads Group discussion
War Books
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Second World War Books
Mod
BTW, I really enjoyed [book..."
Glad you enjoyed "Dam Busters" as much as I did. I have seen "The Women who flew for Hitler" about but haven't purchased a copy yet, that might change depending on your views on the book :)
Jill wrote: "Just got the book cited below and am anxious to start it, although I have a couple in line before it. I have seen the older British film starring Sir Michael Redgrave and Richard Todd and thoroughl..."Jill, I know you’re a fan of the film. From today’s Times newspaper:
”Barnes Wallis tried to shoot down ‘too handsome’ Dam Busters star Michael Redgrave
Michael Redgrave’s depiction of the bouncing bomb’s inventor Barnes Wallis in The Dam Busters was lauded by critics and immortalised the scientist’s crucial role in the Second World War.
However, the award-winning actor nearly missed out on the role in the classic 1955 war film after Wallis complained that Redgrave was far too young and attractive to play him. The scientist’s objections are revealed in the unpublished memoirs of the film’s director, Michael Anderson, who died this week aged 98.”
Mod
To Live and Die A Wasp by William M. Miller. The Army's lady pilots in WWII. They flew military aircraft, made deliveries for Lend-Lease. Beautiful, brave, tough. I had no idea.
Jill, thanks for highlighting Women Who Flew for Hitler - it's on my list to read when I've put my current book to bed.I looked through the past few of pages of this thread and saw a couple of interesting issues. As ex-RAF myself, I'm very familiar with the Dambusters story, but if I've read the book it must have been years ago. I'll add that to my list too. I've certainly marched to the Dambusters March more times than I care to remember.
I loved Gary Oldman's performance in the Darkest Hour film, but I wasn't as impressed by the book, which has of course done very well on the back of the film. I thought a lot of it was a treatise on the art of rhetoric packaged to accompany the film.
I also noticed a comment on use of drugs in WW2. This came up peripherally in research for my book on the Intelligence Corps link with the Special Operations Executive, and I found that it was more complex than just 'uppers'. This is the relevant extract:
'On deployment, agents were given a range of tablets of different colours for different purposes: A, B, K and L. A was for airsickness, B was Benzedrine to keep an agent awake for long periods, K was a morphia pill that would put an average-sized man to sleep for about four hours; it was only recommended for offensive purposes. Finally, they were offered the ‘L’- (for Lethal) tablet, which would cause death within seconds if sucked. Not all accepted the offer, and its use, by those who did take it into the field, is almost unknown.'
The BBC has a reality TV series at the moment that puts modern men and women through selection and training for SOE, with brief snippets of history thrown in. It's well done and quite popular. I think someone (Rod Bailey?) has written a companion book, and my own book seems quite timely, although I didn't know about the programme while I was writing.
Peter
To Live and Die A Wasp.by William Miller. Strong, brave women have been with us for a long time, and Mr Miller tells us about an important group of those. Who knew?
In 1942 America's leaders panicked. The Aleutians offered the Japanese a direct shot at North America. No way could they get men and supplies to Alaska to defend the continent. Hail Mary pass time. Launch the Corps of Engineers into Northern Canada and Alaska to build a land route to Fairbanks. Four white regiments not enough? Send three segregated black regiments; hide them in the woods.
We Fought the Road tells the story.
Read it. Love it. Please review it.
Hello again. I looked through this thread to find out whether it would be legitimate to let you know about my own new book, which I think fits the group's criteria. I haven't found anything to the contrary, so here goes. Ethan, you can delete if this is inappropriate.I've been researching and writing
for a year or so and we are on track for publication on 25 June. If you like history brought to life, you may wish to check it out. The book is open for Kindle pre-orders at https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07CVKHF2B at an introductory price of $1.98, which will stand for just a few days after publication. However, you can sign up at https://dl.bookfunnel.com/ef68xwyjz3 to receive a free pdf sample chapter and occasional updates on the publication process. You can of course unsubscribe at any time.
Following a positive experience and some knowledge gained in publishing my wife Ingrid’s book I am again publishing through the ‘micro-publisher’ she and I formed. So we need lots of help! I'd love to receive comments, and any reviews would be very welcome.
Here’s the ‘blurb’:
In July 1940, a desperately weakened Britain licks her wounds after the humiliating retreat from Dunkirk. How can the fight be taken to the enemy? New Prime Minister Winston Churchill orders the creation of the Special Operations Executive, to 'set Europe ablaze' through subversion and sabotage. But this most secret of agencies must be kept secure.
Guardians of Churchill's Secret Army tells the mostly unknown human stories of the men who were brought into SOE, straight from Intelligence Corps training, to do just that. They were junior in rank, but far from ordinary people. They were Australian, Anglo-French, Canadian, Scandinavian, East European and British. They had been schoolteachers, journalists, artists, ship brokers, racehorse trainers and international businessmen. Each spoke several languages.
These men stood alongside courageous agents in training: encouraged them, assessed their character, and tried to teach them the caution and suspicion that might just keep them alive, deep in enemy territory. But they did much more. Many became agents themselves and displayed great bravery.
All played a crucial role in the global effort to undermine the enemy. We find them not only in the Baker Street Headquarters of SOE, but also in night parachute drops, in paramilitary training in the remotest depths of Scotland and in undercover agent training in isolated English country houses. We follow them to occupied France, to Malaya and Thailand under threat of Japanese invasion, to Italy and Germany as they play their part in the collapse of the Axis regimes. As we do so, we find a world of heroism and commitment so different from our own experience that it is scarcely believable.
Thank you!
Peter
I've read a few books since I've updated the group and I am finally getting around to typing up my thoughts. The first is Anthony McCarten's look at the roughly the first four weeks of Churchill's term as Prime Minister - May/June 1940The recent movie is based on this book.
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
I've rattled through James Holland's
Big Week: The Biggest Air Battle of World War Twowhile on holiday - my review's here:
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Interesting look at an important turning point in the war; the way he lays bare the Luftwaffe's failings were of particular interest.
Thanks, Johnny! You all keep my reading list ridiculously impossible to keep up with!
Mod
Cindy wrote: "Thanks, Johnny! You all keep my reading list ridiculously impossible to keep up with!"No harm in being like the rest of us Cindy! Pleased I could be of help..😁
I'd like to recommend 
Spitfire: A Very British Love Story by John Nichol. It's an excellent book spanning across everywhere that Spitfire's served in the war covering some technical aspects of the plane as well stories of wives back home waiting for their husbands to come back etc... A very moving, excellent book and beautifully published.
Making a start on JN's book now... since the eldest "wants a go" once I'm done.. no rush then. He's not do keen on me locating Leo McKinstry's
Hurricane: Victor Of The Battle Of BritainSometimes you just can't teach them the right thing...
I FINALLY typed up my thoughts on World War II at Sea: A Global History.Really good overview of the Naval war and how operations in one theater affected operations in another. Some minor factual errors that only a WWII nerd would spot marked it down 1/2 star for me, so I rated it 4 stars rather than five
My thoughts
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Mod
I've finished
Blood in the Forest: The End of the Second World War in the Courland PocketHopefully I've understood what the author was trying to get at; it's certainly a very different Second World War book.
My thoughts:
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Mod
I'm currently enjoying
Between Silk and Cyanide: A Codemaker's War, 1941-1945 by Leo Marks. It is both humorous and highly informative.
I loved Marks' book, one of several I used while researching SOE. Often deliciously irreverent.There are plenty of books about agents' adventures, but three other personal memoirs of working in SOE HQ are Baker Street Irregular by Bickham Sweet-Escott, 1965), Setting Europe Ablaze: some account of ungentlemanly warfare by Douglas Dodds-Parker, 1983, and SOE: recollections and reflections 1940-1945 by John Beevor, 1981. I cointed over 300 books about SOE while I was researching for my own.
Peter Dixon
I've just finished the audio book of
by Robert Harris. I have no problem putting it forward as wholesome, but it doesn't quite qualify as WW2, as it's set in 1938. I love Harris' ability to set a great fictional story in the context of real events. In this case a German and a British diplomat who were friends at Oxford become embroiled behind the scenes during the Munich conference.Peter Dixon
For Christmas, I recommend The Shepherd by Frederick Forsyth. Though the initial action takes place in 1957, there is a WWII story as well
Finished up on a book reviewing the legacy of the British Army in the European campaign; I found it a fascinating read and it had more than a few interesting things to say about the conduct of the campaign and comparisons with the Germans; my thoughts have ended up here:https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Monty's Men: The British Army and the Liberation of Europe
Going Solo by Roald Dahl was enjoyable. I had no idea what to expect, merely realizing Dahl was an author of whom I had heard much but never read.https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Jonny wrote: "Finished up on a book reviewing the legacy of the British Army in the European campaign; I found it a fascinating read and it had more than a few interesting things to say about the conduct of the ..."Nice review Jonny.
Mod
That's a great review Jonny, I will try very hard to read my copy as soon as I can squeeze it into my reading schedule!
I've just finished a second read of
by Ian Kershaw. I don't plan to add to the 200+ reviews, but it reminded me of the inadequacy of single-issue answers. In any research I've ever done, there have been multiple reasons for any given phenomenon. In this case, Kershaw is asking why the Germans kept fighting until the bitter end in 1945. Allied errors like Arnhem, the failure to secure the approaches to Antwerp and general slow progress in the (British) northern sector played their part. There was the Allied demand for unconditional surrender too, of course, but most reasons were internal. The public support for Hitler was long gone, but there were still some Nazi fanatics, especially at the top, passive obedience of the population in an increasingly terroristic regime, military honour, severe and brutal military discipline, fear of the Russians etc etc.
Well worth reading.
Peter Dixon
Mod
by Ian Kershaw. I don't plan to add to the 200+ reviews, but it reminded m..."Its a book that I am yet to read but it sounds like it will be well worth the effort. Thanks for sharing your thoughts on the book with the rest of the group Peter.
Thanks, Rick..I should have added in the text the lack of an alternative future for those who were implicated in atrocities, plus genuine patriotism in some cases.
Peter
Thanks, Happy, for introducing me to Hampton Sides. I read Ghost Soldiers this past weekend and could not put it down - it was a good intro to the Pacific side of WW2 for me since most of my reading has been on the European side. Excellent book - well-researched and very well-written. I’ve been wading through a book on the Culper Spy Ring and it couldn’t hold a candle to Sides’ writing.
Mod
D-Day: The Soldiers' Story by Giles Milton
Hi everyoneI am reading D-Day: The Battle for Normandy by Anthony Beevor (again). I have read it several times and it just keeps getting better. I visited the Nomandy beaches a few years ago - a very stunning and thought provoking place.
Colm
D-Day: The Battle for Normandy
I've just wrapped up James Holland's
Normandy ‘44: D-Day and the Battle for Francewhich was, I have to say, an excellent read. He combines a good chunk of analysis of the operational level of the campaign with his narrative and first person accounts, and includes enough myth busting to make it a very satisfying book - unless you're going to get annoyed that the Germans aren't portrayed as 6'11" supermen...
Hi Jonny, I agree that Holland is a very fine historian. Heres one … not a book as such but an interesting account of the D-Day landings as written by Ernest Hemingway who landed on the Normandy beaches as a reporter.
https://www.billdownscbs.com/2014/12/...
Mod
Sand & Steel: The D-Day Invasions and the Liberation of France by Peter Caddick-Adams
Hunting round the loft recently (what do you mean, I was meant to be looking for clothes for the little 'un?) I turned up my old copy of
The Peenemünde Raid: The Night of 17-18 August 1943which I'm making a start on. Middlebrook is one of my favourite authors on Bomber Command, so I'm really looking forward to this.
To help with some research I'm doing, I just bought a second-hand hardback of the volume of Harold Macmillan's autobiography that covers WW2.
Macmillan was sent by Churchill as 'Resident Minister' to Eisenhower's HQ in North Africa, working alongside President Roosevelt's envoy Robert Murphy. Macmillan is very good on the politics behind the military operations about which we usually read: US/UK relations locally (much better) compared with relations between the capitals; the French political schism and transition to a more-or-less unified French government-in-exile under de Gaulle (with Roosevelt and Churchill pulling in different directions); and the politics of the Italian capitulation and the subsequent Allied campaign against the Germans in Italy and the rump Italian fascists. Fascinating.
Mod
Not sure I would want to read the whole set Geevee, but I'm enjoying the WW2 volume. Macmillan is very positive about Churchill, Eisenhower, Alexander and Murphy, but frustrated by the bureaucrats and politicians back in London, who had little sense of the realities in the field. He also felt that Roosevelt's anti-de Gaulle prejudice and anti-colonial principles got in the way of pragmatic politics when dealing with the French in North Africa.Enjoy it!
Peter
Another second-hand hardback I've just picked up is 
.This is the story of the British organisation (MI9) set up to recover PoWs - through pre-operational advice, clandestine communications during incarceration and secret 'lines' to facilitate escape - and its American equivalent. It was one of the few areas where US-UK cooperation was almost exclusively positive.
As the Foreword says, the authors have 'steadfastly refused to seek sensation at the expense of truth'. The book is written in a very matter-of-fact manner, designed to inform rather than entertain, but the vignette narratives of escapes are all the more engrossing for it. Much of the book recounts failed and successful escape attempts, some of which have become famous.
The two authors know what they are talking about: Langley was an escaped PoW who later headed MI9; Foot fought with the French Resistance in Brittany and after the war became the foremost historian of the Special Operations Executive.
Hi guysDelighted to be able to share with you the first review of my book The Hidden Nazi from Pulitzer Prize Finalist, author and historian Arthur Herman:
It’s strange that no one has yet written a biography of SS General Hans Kammler, one of the brutal masterminds of the German military-industrial complex and the Holocaust. But when you read ‘The Hidden Nazi’ you will realize that until now no one had the knowledge, persistence, and sheer nerve that the authors brought to the job of unlocking the multiple mysteries surrounding this evil genius of the Third Reich.
It’s a story where Schindler’s List meets Doctor Strangelove. Read it, be amazed and shocked by what Kammler did, and outraged by how he escaped final justice; but above all read ‘The Hidden Nazi.’
Arthur Herman, Pulitzer Prize Finalist, historian and author of:
Gandhi & Churchill: The Epic Rivalry that Destroyed an Empire and Forged Our Age.
1917: Lenin, Wilson, and the Birth of the New World Disorder.
Freedom's Forge: How American Business Produced Victory in World War II.
To Rule the Waves: How the British Navy Shaped the Modern World
Douglas MacArthur: American Warrior
Many thanks
Colm
I've been on a James Holland binge this year. I've read 4 of his WW II booksFor anyone interested, I've typed up my thoughts a posted them after each book
Mr. Holland writes a very readable history, they are well researched and as balanced as he can make them. The Burma book is probably the least balanced, but he states there is dearth of Japanese sorces for the Burma Campaign.
I didn't type up my thoughts on this one, but it is excellent
My thoughts
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
My thoughts
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
and most recently
My thoughts
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Mod
Found this is in the Tesco bargain bucket and been my poolside whilst on holidays ---- The Ninth Man by John Lee (Doubleday; 1st edition (1 Jan. 1976) — A World War II book, based on fact and set in the U.S. In 1942, the Germans landed eight saboteurs by submarine, four in New York and four in Florida. Within two weeks all eight were caught. This is the story of the ninth man, the one who got away. Based on the real life Operation Pastorious - the failed German intelligence plan for sabotage inside the United States. A terrific historically accurate read from a great author.
Wholesome History Reads Group
Books mentioned in this topic
Kriegies: The Australian Airmen of Stalag Luft III (other topics)Return to Vienna: The Special Operations Executive and the Rebirth of Austria (other topics)
They Have Their Exits: The Best-Selling Escape Memoir of World War Two (other topics)
Saturday at M.I.9: The Classic Account of the WW2 Allied Escape Organisation (other topics)
The Real Cruel Sea: The Merchant Navy in the Battle of the Atlantic, 1939–1943 (other topics)
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Authors mentioned in this topic
Kristen Alexander (other topics)James M. Scott (other topics)
James M. Scott (other topics)
James M. Scott (other topics)
James M. Scott (other topics)
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BTW, I really enjoyed Dam Busters: The True Story of the Legendary Raid on the Ruhr.