THE WORLD WAR TWO GROUP discussion
Introduction to the WW2 Site - Please Say Hi
Glad to have you join the group Gentian and I look forward to your comments and insight. "The Dambusters" is one of my favorite WWII films and am looking forward to the Peter Jackson remake due out this year.
Welcome to the group Allan. Will look forward to hearing any tales passed on by your dad and uncles of the R.C.A.F. in WWII. My dad served in the 8th USAAF during WWII.
Hi Allan and Gentian, welcome to the group and I hope you both have a fun time here finding and discussing great books and moments in history.
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Geevee, Assisting Moderator British & Commonwealth Forces
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Welcome Alan, Fran, Allan and Gentian and I hope you all join in and find more books to enjoy.
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Geevee, Assisting Moderator British & Commonwealth Forces
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Mark wrote: "Hello group. I am a serving member of the British Armed Forces. In particular I am a Combat Medical Technician.
I enjoy reading a variety of books ranging from Military- autobiographical or fi..."
Welcome Mark - good to have you here. I'm British and served in the Army a few years ago and value your trade and skills. I hope you find many books to interest you.
Gentian&Allan..Welcome...ww2?..you will find it here!
Welcome Alan and MarkMark - thanks for your service
Greetings, avid fan of WWII period and read everything I can get my hands on in that regard. Have written a few books myself, afew of which span that period, but I am NOT promoting anything I have penned. Have enjoyed seeing what GoodReads reveals as far as books I have missed along the way.By way of service, I initially entered USMC and later transferred to USN to fly the F-14 Tomcat retiring after amassing 2000+ hours and participation in El Dorado Canyon and Desrt Shield/Storm.
Cheers, HJ
Welcome to the group Dave and thank you for your service.
Hey Everyone,My name is Brad and I'm glad to have found this group. I'm a banker/football coach/amateur D-Day historian. I enjoy both non-fiction and fiction books about World War II. I have visited Normandy twice and have a third trip planned. I'm currently reading Rangers in World War II by Robert W. Black and would like to join the buddy read for Masters of the Air. I have lurked the group for a couple of months and thanks to you all for your book recommendations and comments.
Regards
Brad
Welcome to the group Brad. Glad you are going to join us for the
group read. I can't wait for the miniseries from Tom Hanks and Steven Spielberg to come out!
Hi Dave & Brad, welcome to you both and I hope you both find a few things here of interest.Dave, in regards to your books you can provide details at this link so members can check them out if you wish:
http://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/8...
Brad, sounds like you really enjoy Normandy! I will look forward to discussing Masters of the Air when we start that group read in February.
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Geevee, Assisting Moderator British & Commonwealth Forces
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Welcome Brad and Dave and please feel free to join in, offer opinions and suggest recommendations as we all need more books on our TBRs (!).
I just finished . Great book! I couldn't wait for the group read ( library book ). I'm not sure I could have waited anyway once I started reading that one. Welcome, Gentian, Allan, Brad and Dave.
Good to hear that it's a great read, jump in when we start discussing it anyhow if you like :)
Let me extend my welcome to Brad and Dave and Dave thanks for your service.
Hi everyone! My name is Courtney and I'm new to the Goodreads groups - I've been using the cataloging feature for about 6 months now, and I thought I'd finally give some of the groups a try. :)It feels like I have always been interested in history, especially military history. At a very early age, the first date I learned was December 7th, 1941. My dad was in the US Navy and he passed along his passion for history to me. I ended up focusing on that passion and majored in college in it and became a librarian/archivist. If I had my chance a dream job, it would be working in the West Point Archives in West Point, NY.
I tend to gravitate towards "modern" history - pretty much anything after (and including) the American Civil War. I got hooked on WW2 history during my undergrad at college and ended up writing my thesis paper on Medics in the European Theater during WW2 - the image these medics had of themselves, how their peers saw them, their commanding offices and the army in general, and those on the home front.
I haven't read any history books in a few years, but now I'm itching to start learning more about the war again. Looking forward to talking with all of you!
- Courtney
Welcome to the group Courtney! Your thesis topic sounds really fascinating and thanks for sharing some of your history with us. I look forward to your input on many of the great topics here.
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Geevee, Assisting Moderator British & Commonwealth Forces
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Hi Courtney and welcome to the group. Feel free to contribute and share recommendations. It sounds to me as if your job as an archivist/librarian is already a perfect job :)
Hi Christie and Geevee! Thanks for the welcome! I'm looking forward to checking out Masters of the Air - it looks fascinating. Haha Geevee, I do have the perfect job already (I work in a government archive). I just wish I got to work more with military records instead of civilian ones. :) Legal records just aren't as captivating as the military ones are (there is only so much you can get out of naturalization records and estate inventories).
I was going to say the WW2 Readers class of January 2013 looked exceptional, though now looks like the February enrollment will continue the trend.
Hi, I'm new to goodreads and this group. Looking forward to the Masters of the Air reading group.My grandfather fought on the German side on the Eastern front. He was present and survived the Dresden bombings.
Interested in all periods of history but WW2 stands out as an event that was truly global.
Considering the nature of today's weapons, I don't think we'll see a worldwide conflict on this scale again without widespread annihilation.
Hi Damien, Welcome to the group. You're grandfather must have been very lucky to survive both the Eastern Front and Dresden! Will look forward to chatting with you during the read & discussion of The Masters of the Air.
'Aussie Rick' wrote: "Hi Damien, Welcome to the group. You're grandfather must have been very lucky to survive both the Eastern Front and Dresden! Will look forward to chatting with you during the read & discussion of..."
Thanks happy and rick. Yes he was! Dresden was a tragedy for the rest of his family though. Only he and his brother survived that night, ironically because they could not make it to a bunker in time.
Hi, I'm Tytti from Finland and new in Goodreads. (Hi Courtney, a fellow librarian/archivist student here. I'd love to visit West Point, too.) I have always been interested in history, starting with Egypt, Greece and Rome and also, after reading Gone with the Wind (at age 11), American Civil War.
Of course probably my main interests are the three Finnish wars during the WWII and also the political side of it all, before, during and after, including the Civil War in 1918. I think the Finnish side of the conflict as a tiny nation between Germany and Soviet Union is pretty unique and our leaders did some excellent maneuvering during it.
Like the president who was convicted after the wars and served time in jail but was then voted as the second greatest Finn (after Mannerheim). That alone was enough for me as a young girl to start reading about the subject. Just before that I remember watching Hollywood movies about good Allies and bad Nazis and at the same time learning at home that the Finland fought for her survival against the Soviet Union (my father grew up during the wars). Imagine my surprise when I realized that Allies and Stalin were on the same side and without "evil" Germans' help we would have been occupied and a part of Soviet Union. (Remember that I was probably under 10 years old at the time.)
Also not many people know that the Finnish Jews served in the army alongside Germans but then again there was a memorial erected in 1994 for the Detachment Kuhlmey of Luftwaffe for their participation in the battle of Tali-Ihantala.
Kurt Kuhlmey was a friend of mine, and the history of Finaland in the 29th century is facinating. He was interviewed, and his comments are in my new book The Star of Africa.
He is probably one of the best known German soldiers(/pilots) in Finland so those comments might be interesting to read. Their Stukas were also important for the morale of the men fighting on the ground. Soldiers had started cheering when they saw the black crosses on planes. The battle itself was probably the most important and largest ever fought in the Nordic Countries.The memorial: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia...
My friend Kurt Schulze flew with JG-5 Eismeer as a Me-109 pilot out of Petsamo, he is alive still.
Hi Damien & Tytti. You all certainly bring additional historical perspectives to the group.
Hi, Tytti! Welcome!! Always fun to meet fellow librarian/archvists! :) I actually had a professor in grad school whose specialty was Scandinavia (specifically Finland) during WW1 and WW2 - he had some really interesting perspectives on the wars (the class was on Global Diplomacy during the first and second WW) and although we didn't focus on Scandinavia in the class, it was really interesting to learn a different side to the war.
Hi Damien! Welcome :) This group keeps growing and growing! Awesome.
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Geevee, Assisting Moderator British & Commonwealth Forces
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Welcome Damien and Tytti and feel free to post and suggest books for fellow members.
Oh yes, the other Nordic countries didn't really take part in WWI, but I think Finland made up for it by having soldiers on both sides (Jaegers in Germany and officers in the Russian army). That made things interesting when they all ended up on the White side in the Civil War and the rift continued until WWII because the core of the officers were former Jaegers (the word jääkäri is still used in the military) but Mannerheim was a Czar's general.As you can may notice, you also touched another subject: Scandinavia vs. Nordic countries. I, like many Finns, (and also some Scandinavians) don't consider Finland as being a part of Scandinavia. In the strictest definition it means only the Scandinavian Peninsula, i.e. Norway and Sweden. I'm not really sure how Danes feel about it, but they along with Icelanders do speak Scandinavian languages, Finns don't. Of course we have a similar society, but still it always feel weird when we are called that. For me I guess it's because the word itself is clearly not Finnish. In my mind Scandinavians are former Vikings, again something Finns were not. :-)
By the way, for various reason I "only" had one uncle and a couple of great-uncles fighting in the wars (even my grandfather managed to stay out of the Civil War, I do have an "old" family) but my great-uncle was in a reconnaissance unit and did some missions behind enemy lines. He is mentioned in some books about the subject. One can only imagine what it was like to spend maybe weeks in the wilderness, also during the winter, and of course they had to stay unnoticed. For example this might be an interesting book but of course it is only in Finnish (the problem with most books I know). But if you Google-translate the description it actually does a pretty good job. :-P
Oh thanks for the welcome wishes!
Thanks for all that information Tytti, very interesting reading! There is a new book due out in a few months that may interest you since it covers Finland:
by Gordon F. Sander
The Finnish cover looks familiar, I don't think I've read it, but skimmed through maybe, it's sort of old news to me by now. I prefer to read about more specific and controversial subjects. But it seems that Finns have "approved" it, which is more than I can probably say about this one Finland's War Of Choice: The Troubled German-Finnish Coalition in World War II, judging by the reviews, anyway. It maybe a good book to give you a general idea of what happened but the issues mentioned in the reviews don't really "ring true" to me. Not saying we did everything right but it just feels the author doesn't really "understand" us. "War of Choice?" Maybe not surprising if he can't read Finnish. (Hmm.. it seems it hasn't even been published here...)The author of this book, on the other hand, should know his stuff, being a professor emeritus of history in Finland.
And finally one last (maybe) remembrance from me, one that my father told me a long time ago (he was a teacher and interested in history, also an intelligence officer in reserve. We still have a conscription army): Have you ever heard of a song saving a town from destruction? Well this one did http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gZx1zl... (I hope YouTube links are ok?) And you can read the explanation from Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/S%C3%A4k...
Welcome to all our new members! This group is great and I'm so glad you've joined!Tytti, I'm curious if you've read
. It left me with a huge admiration for the Finns, but I'd love to hear what a Finn thinks about it.
I think I loaned it years ago, so my memories are not really fresh. I was mainly interested in "how they see us" aspect because I already had most of the information. But I recall it was pretty good, maybe minor things I might have said differently but then again, Finns can't even agree of the name of our Civil War (there are a half dozen choices) so there are many viewpoints. Of course for me the whole "admiration" thing is sort of... well I guess I don't really see it that way because we still lost and 26,000 died (out of 3.6 million people) in 3.5 months, my grandfather had to leave his home, the situation was so serious. (I still get emotional when I think about it.)If you are interested in how Finns felt at the time (and later too), I'd suggest watching the movie Talvisota (The Winter War, longer version) http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0098437/ (or the book it's based on The Winter War, I haven't read it, though). I think it captures the "spirit" of the war quite well. Of course there is also Tuntematon sotilas The Unknown Soldier that tells a story of a group of men in the Continuation War (most characters are based on real people) but I've heard the English translation is terrible. (But I think I read that they are translating it again..? It's a difficult job because the characters speak different dialects and their personalities are so tied to them.) There are also two movies made from it, the first one from 1955 is a classic, shown in TV every independence day.
Also if you happen to find anything about the Lotta Svärd organization, I'd suggest you take a look. I think it was the largest voluntary auxiliary organisation in the world, with some 240,000 women and girls working for it.
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Geevee, Assisting Moderator British & Commonwealth Forces
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Tytti wrote: "I think I loaned it years ago, so my memories are not really fresh. I was mainly interested in "how they see us" aspect because I already had most of the information. But I recall it was pretty goo..."Thanks for the recommendations!
Damien wrote: "'Aussie Rick' wrote: "Hi Damien, Welcome to the group. You're grandfather must have been very lucky to survive both the Eastern Front and Dresden! Will look forward to chatting with you during th..."
Welcome to the group Damien. What a tragic story about your Grandfather's family. Thank you for sharing. I look forward to your insight in the group.
Tytti wrote: "Hi, I'm Tytti from Finland and new in Goodreads. (Hi Courtney, a fellow librarian/archivist student here. I'd love to visit West Point, too.) I have always been interested in history, starting wi..."
Welcome to the group Tytti. Thanks so much for sharing your fascinating family history and revelations. I've read a couple of books on Finland during WWII and look forward to your insight and contributions to the group.
Ahh!! I'm on book-overload!! So many books I need to check out!! I have been out of the history book loop for way too long now and I've missed so much (it's probably been um..a few years or so since I've read WW2 books). Thank you so much everyone for so many great suggestions and resources in this group! I'm looking forward to the Masters of the Air: America's Bomber Boys Who Fought the Air War Against Nazi Germany discussion - I'm starting it this weekend. :)
Hi Courtney,Glad to hear you have a founds few good books of interest. The thread for Masters of the Air will be open for comment/discussion in a week or two, so just mark those pages in the book you want to mention :)
Hi everyone, I am Veeral from India. I love reading history, especially about World War-II. Be it fiction or non-fiction, if it is a WW2 book, I am up for it. Although I prefer WW2 non-fiction over WW2 fiction.
Right now I am reading We Die Alone: A WWII Epic of Escape and Endurance by David Howarth and it is an amazing story of survival and resilience in Nazi occupied Norway.
THE WORLD WAR TWO GROUP
Books mentioned in this topic
The Battle of Britain: Five Months That Changed History, May-October 1940 (other topics)Afterbursts: Reliving World War II (other topics)
MacArthur's WWII Seaborne Communications: CP Fleet reports, brochures, memos from the scrapbooks of a Signal Corps Commanding Officer (other topics)
Last Citadel: A Novel of the Battle of Kursk (other topics)
The Ghost Tattoo (other topics)
More...
Authors mentioned in this topic
Stephen Harding (other topics)Alex Kershaw (other topics)
James M. Fenelon (other topics)
Günter K. Koschorrek (other topics)
Rick Atkinson (other topics)
More...
20th Century History, particularly the emergence of the New Russia and the European Dynamic of the first 50 years has always fascinated me. As a child I loved films like the Dambusters and the Cruel Sea and wanted to read about the real stories behind the films. Likewise the wonderful series The World at War and the People's Century targeted a lot of my reading interests.
After leaving School my leisure reading became targeted in different areas but I am hoping now to find a little more time for this fascinating and extremely rich area of history.