New Release Books on WW2 Showing 51-100 of 3,296

['Aussie Rick', Moderator]

Hi John, I've got that as well but it's still sitting on my 'to-read' list. I also have his book "Clash of the Carriers" to read!

& by Barrett Tillman

[John]

'Aussie Rick' wrote: "Hi John, I've got that as well but it's still sitting on my 'to-read' list. I also have his book "Clash of the Carriers" to read!

& [bookcover:Whirlwind..."

The Carriers book looks interesting too. We finished setting up the Book Drive today. The sale is on the weekend. The best part is Monday. Anything left over is free to the volunteers!!!!! I'm hoping there will still be some good military books left. So far I have bought 35 books before the sale so I don't really need any more!

['Aussie Rick', Moderator]

Hi John, I hope the book sale goes well, you sound like me, 35 purchases even before the sale, that's what I like to hear. I wonder if your wife is like mine and wonders what we are doing sometimes :)

[carl]

Sdoconnor wrote: "'Carl wrote: my wife works with head trauma patients, which includes stroke patients"

Hi Carl, what do you do with these written statements?"

I do keep them. Lately, they often print a story of their ship (or whatever) off the internet, 'old' folks are computer savvy hehe. you know when i wrote that last note, i thought mmm maybe they'd make a book?

['Aussie Rick', Moderator]

Here is another new release covering the USAAF in its battles over Europe; "Mission to Berlin: The American Airmen Who Took the War to the Heart of Hitler's Reich" by Robert F. Dorr.

by Robert F. Dorr

[John]

The Book Drive happened this past weekend. They made $155,500 gross in two days. Today the leftover books were free to teachers, charities and us volunteers. I picked up a few gems.





- includes Kipling, Orwell, Hemingway, Churchill, right up to Max Hastings from the Falklands and Eric Schmitt in the Gulf.

['Aussie Rick', Moderator]

Hi John, "Enemy at the Gates" is one of my favourite books :)

Good result on the Book Drive, well done.


by William Craig

[carl]

John wrote: "The Book Drive happened this past weekend. They made $155,500 gross in two days. Today the leftover books were free to teachers, charities and us volunteers. I picked up a few gems.
"

quite the haul paul, for the drive & yourself!

[carl]

make that quite the haul john!

[John]

Today was the final clean up day at the Book Drive and as the leftover books were being taken away I snagged

[Paul]

Yes, Carl, I could only look on with envy as John was able to secure a veritable library!

['Aussie Rick', Moderator]

Here is a new release from the UK that covers two very interesting commanders, one from each side of the wire:

by Peter Caddick Adams
Description:
Two men came to personify British and German generalship in the Second World War: Bernard Montgomery and Erwin Rommel. They fought a series of extraordinary duels across several theatres of war which established them as two of the greatest captains of their age. Our understanding of leadership in battle was altered for ever by their electrifying personal qualities. Ever since, historians have assessed their outstanding leadership, personalities and skill.

Born four years apart, their lives were remarkably similar. In this groundbreaking study, Peter Caddick-Adams explores Montgomery and Rommel’s lives from their provincial upbringing, through to the trench fighting of the First World War, where both nearly died in 1914. Obsessed with fitness and training, the future field marshals emerged highly decorated and with a glowing war record. The pair taught in staff colleges, wrote infantry textbooks and fought each other as divisional commanders in 1940.

The careers of both began on the periphery of the military establishment and represent the first time military commanders proactively and systematically used (and were used by) the media as they came to prominence, first in North Africa, then in Normandy. Dynamic and forward-thinking, their lives also represent a study of pride, propaganda and nostalgia. Caddick-Adams tracks and compares their military talents and personalities in battle. Each brought something special to their commands. Rommel’s breathtaking advance in May–June 1940 was nothing less than inspired. Montgomery is a gift for leadership gurus in the way he took over a demoralised Eighth Army in August 1942 and led it to victory just two months later.

This is the first comparative biography written of the two. It explores how each was ‘made’ by their war leaders, Churchill and Hitler, and how the thoughts of both permeate down to today’s armies. Even though Rommel died in 1944, the rivalry between the two carried on after the war through their writings and other memoirs.

This compelling work is both scholarly and entertaining and marks the debut of a major new talent in historical biography.

[Paul]

Thanks, Aussie Rick! That book sounds great.

['Aussie Rick', Moderator]

It does doesn't it :) I've ordered a copy, couldn't help myself!

['Aussie Rick', Moderator]

Here is another book that I just picked up that may interest other readers of WW2:


by HansGeorg Eismann
Description:
'Under Himmler's Comand' addresses two areas of WWII hitherto neglected - Heinrich Himmler as a military commander, and the German staff officer corps during the last months of the war on the Eastern Front. The author, Hans-Georg Eismann, was the Operations Officer for Army Group Vistula, a German formation created in late January 1945 to which Heinrich Himmler was appointed as commander. Eismann's memoir of this period has remained unpublished for over fifty years, and its wider circulation is long overdue. Full of fascinating detail he recounts the disturbing and sometimes bizarre atmosphere that pervaded the German high command in the East during the final months of the war. Much light is thereby thrown on Himmler the military commander, and on the final climactic battles fought on the Eastern Front during 1945.

Review:
"Aside from being a very detailed chronology of the entire, largely unknown history of Army Group Vistula, this stellar work provides unequalled thumbnail portraits of Hitler, Göring, Himmler, Dönitz, Heinrici and many others as well. Once I started to read it, I hated to put it down ... Thus, this book fills in a hole that has existed in our knowledge for years. There may be other books surfacing on this period in coming years, but I doubt they'll be better than this one. In summation, if you read but one book on the era this year, make it this one!" - The Military Advisor

[Paul]

Credit Aussie Rick with another outstanding find!

[carl]

Paul wrote: "Credit Aussie Rick with another outstanding find!"

AR, may i borrow your library for a year, or two?

[Geevee, Assisting Moderator British & Commonwealth Forces]

I've just found this and it looks very interesting. Whilst I've read a fair few books on the USMC in action, I've never seen any indepth studies on its expansion, selection methods, training and importantly administration and management. This looks like it
fills some of that gap. Has anyone read it?

['Aussie Rick', Moderator]

carl wrote: "Paul wrote: "Credit Aussie Rick with another outstanding find!"

AR, may i borrow your library for a year, or two?"

:)

[Steven]

My current book is hot off the press and is a Novel called "Wasted Resource". It is a crime, action, adventure story that I’m using to highlight some of the difficulties that some former soldiers experience after they leave the military; such as homlessness, Alcoholism, PTSD and difficulties making the transition into civvy street. It also highlights the waste of specialist skills that could be better utilized after soldiers demob; potentially using them in the fight against organised crime, drugs and terrorism. However, I merely utilise all these issues as part of the story.
Wasted Resource

I am keen for someone to read and review it.

Steven Preece
Author

[John]

Went downtown today with an old gift certificate. Here are the two military books I picked up, and .

['Aussie Rick', Moderator]

Here is a new Australian release covering a topic that is general forgotten in most Australian histories of the Second World War:

by Peter Monteath
Description:
Australians from every field of conflict in WW2 found themselves as prisoners in Hitler's notorious Stalags, or prisoner of war camps. Whether captured merchant seamen, bomber crews or soldiers taken in North Africa or the disastrous Greek and Cretan campaigns, they were to see out the war in the heart of Hitler's Europe, their fortunes intimately connected to the fortunes of the Reich.

Most were forced to labour in factories, down mines or on the land – often in conditions of enormous privation and hardship. All suffered from shortages, overcrowding and the mental strain of imprisonment. Some tried to escape, a few successfully, a few paying with their lives. The experiences of Australian POWs in Germany has long been overshadowed by the horrors of Japanese imprisonment, yet their stories of courage, stoicism, suffering and endurance deserve to be told.

Peter Monteath's fascinating narrative history is exhaustively researched, and compelling in its detailed evocation.

[carl]

was doing the used book store tour this weekend
and found this one. also like carrell's style and
purchased either because, or in spite of, his
reputation.

['Aussie Rick', Moderator]

A good purchase, I actually like Paul Carell's books and have this one plus his account of D-Day and his books on the Russian Front.

& & & by Paul Carell

[carl]

'Aussie Rick' wrote: "A good purchase, I actually like Paul Carell's books and have this one plus his account of D-Day and his books on the Russian Front.

"

i always thought Moves East has the quintessential cover.

[Paul]

Steven, I'm interested in reviewing your book.

[Geevee, Assisting Moderator British & Commonwealth Forces]

This book, due out around September 2011, has popped up in my "coming soon" list on Amazon, and looks very interesting, especially as the author Ian Kershaw is well respected and known to many for his two volume biography of Hitler.
.

The publisher's description:
From the preeminent Hitler biographer, a fascinating and original exploration of how the Third Reich was willing and able to fight to the bitter end of World War II.

Countless books have been written about why Nazi Germany lost World War II, yet remarkably little attention has been paid to the equally vital question of how and why it was able to hold out as long as it did. The Third Reich did not surrender until Germany had been left in ruins and almost completely occupied. Even in the near-apocalyptic final months, when the war was plainly lost, the Nazis refused to sue for peace. Historically, this is extremely rare.

Drawing on original testimony from ordinary Germans and arch-Nazis alike, award-winning historian Ian Kershaw explores this fascinating question in a gripping and focused narrative that begins with the failed bomb plot in July 1944 and ends with the German capitulation in May 1945. Hitler, desperate to avoid a repeat of the "disgraceful" German surrender in 1918, was of course critical to the Third Reich's fanatical determination, but his power was sustained only because those below him were unable, or unwilling, to challenge it. Even as the military situation grew increasingly hopeless, Wehrmacht generals fought on, their orders largely obeyed, and the regime continued its ruthless persecution of Jews, prisoners, and foreign workers. Beneath the hail of allied bombing, German society maintained some semblance of normalcy in the very last months of the war. The Berlin Philharmonic even performed on April 12, 1945, less than three weeks before Hitler's suicide.

As Kershaw shows, the structure of Hitler's "charismatic rule" created a powerful negative bond between him and the Nazi leadership- they had no future without him, and so their fates were inextricably tied. Terror also helped the Third Reich maintain its grip on power as the regime began to wage war not only on its ideologically defined enemies but also on the German people themselves. Yet even as each month brought fresh horrors for civilians, popular support for the regime remained linked to a patriotic support of Germany and a terrible fear of the enemy closing in.

Based on prodigious new research, Kershaw's The End is a harrowing yet enthralling portrait of the Third Reich in its last desperate gasps.

['Aussie Rick', Moderator]

I've got it marked down as well :)

['Aussie Rick', Moderator]

I picked up a copy of this book today covering the Russo-Finnish War; "War of the White Death" by Bair Irincheev.

by Bair Irincheev
Description:
On 30 November 1939 Stalin's Red Army attacked Finland, expecting to crush the outnumbered, ill-equipped Finnish forces in a matter of days. But, in one of the most astonishing upsets in modern military history, the Finnish defenders broke the Red Army's advance, inflicting devastating casualties and destroying some of the divisions that had been thrown against them.

Eventually, in March 1940, the overhauled Red Army prevailed through the deployment of massive force. The Finns were compelled to cede territory and cities to their overbearing neighbor, but the moral victory was theirs. The courage and skill their army displayed in the face of the Soviet onslaught - and the chaotic and reckless performance of their opponents - had an important influence on the massive struggle that was about to break out between Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union.

For this highly illustrated and original portrayal of this famously unequal struggle, Bair Irincheev has brought together a compelling selection of eyewitness accounts, war diaries, battle reports, and other records from the Finnish and Russian archives to reconstruct the front-line fighting, and he analyses the reasons for the Red Army's poor performance. Never before has the harsh reality of the combat in the depths of the northern winter been conveyed in such authentic detail. The arduous daily experience of the troops on both sides, the brutality of combat and the constant struggle against the elements are recalled in the words of the men who were there.



Other titles covering the same subject include:

by Henrik Lunde

by William R. Trotter

by Eloise Engle

by Robert Edwards

by Allen F. Chew

[Geevee, Assisting Moderator British & Commonwealth Forces]

Has anyone read any of these 3 books by Kamen Nevenkin?

['Aussie Rick', Moderator]

I hope you find a copy Steven as it looks very interesting and covers a subject not covered in many other books.

[carl]

Definitely an arena i find interesting. Be good to know your
take on the author's style and slant. So let us know.


Geevee wrote: "Has anyone read any of these 3 books by Kamen Nevenkin?



[bookcover:ENTRAPMENT: Soviet Operations to Capture Bu..."

[Alex]

just got Robert M. Murphy's "No Better Place to Die"

Has anyone read it?

['Aussie Rick', Moderator]

Alex wrote: "just got Robert M. Murphy's "No Better Place to Die"

Has anyone read it?"

Hi Alex, I haven't got the book but I have heard good things about it:


"outstanding memior...accounts and memoirs from many of his comrades plus supporting documents that give a fuller picture of what the 82nd accomplished on D-Day and the days after." - WWII History, Winter 2009

"...brings readers a precise historical memoir ...Those wanting an up close and personal memoir ...have an opportunity to receive it from an American fighting man who lived to tell the tale." - MILITARY, November 2010

[Alex]

'Aussie Rick' wrote: "Alex wrote: "just got Robert M. Murphy's "No Better Place to Die"

Has anyone read it?"

Hi Alex, I haven't got the book but I have heard good things about it:


"outstanding memior...accoun..."

Thanks

['Aussie Rick', Moderator]

For those who have an interest in the Eastern Front of the Second World War here is a new book due out soon that may interest you:

by Stephen G. Fritz
Description:
On June 22, 1941, Germany launched the greatest land assault in history on the Soviet Union, an attack that Adolf Hitler deemed crucial to ensure German economic and political survival. As the key theater of the war for the Germans, the eastern front consumed enormous levels of resources and accounted for 75 percent of all German casualties. Despite the significance of this campaign to Germany and to the war as a whole, few English-language publications of the last thirty-five years have addressed these pivotal events.

In Ostkrieg: Hitler’s War of Extermination in the East, Stephen G. Fritz bridges the gap in scholarship by incorporating historical research from the last several decades into an accessible, comprehensive, and coherent narrative. His analysis of the Russo-German War from a German perspective covers all aspects of the eastern front, demonstrating the interrelation of military events, economic policy, resource exploitation, and racial policy that first motivated the invasion. This in-depth account challenges accepted notions about World War II and promotes greater understanding of a topic that has been neglected by historians

Reviews:
"Stephen Fritz has made a major statement. There are many books dealing with military operations in the East and many others that highlight the atrocities, the murders, and the Holocaust. Not until now has a single volume attempted to incorporate both, seeking the nexus between military operations and mass murder. The result is as complete a history of the German-Soviet war as one could desire, and it is an achievement that is likely to be unequaled for some time to come." - Robert M. Citino, (author of The Death of the Wehrmacht: The Campaigns of 1942)

“Fritz has written a top-flight strategic/operational level analysis of the Russo-German War. His text is solid and impeccably supported.” - Dennis Showalter, (Colorado College)

['Aussie Rick', Moderator]

Here is another new book due out in a few months covering a significant battle on the Eastern Front during WW2:

by David Stahel
Description:
In just four weeks in the summer of 1941 the German Wehrmacht wrought unprecedented destruction on four Soviet armies, conquering central Ukraine and killing or capturing three quarters of a million men. This was the Battle of Kiev - one of the largest and most decisive battles of World War II and, for Hitler and Stalin, a battle of crucial importance. For the first time, David Stahel charts the battle's dramatic course and aftermath, uncovering the irreplaceable losses suffered by Germany's 'panzer groups' despite their battlefield gains, and the implications of these losses for the German war effort. He illuminates the inner workings of the German army as well as the experiences of ordinary soldiers, showing that with the Russian winter looming and Soviet resistance still unbroken, victory came at huge cost and confirmed the turning point in Germany's war in the East.

['Aussie Rick', Moderator]

Hi Steven,

I have exactly the same problem but some books are too good to pass up eh!

[carl]

Steven wrote: "'OK Rick stop it. I simply don't have the years left in me too read all the good stuff your putting out ."

what steve said! AR can be cruel!

['Aussie Rick', Moderator]

maybe I'm killing you with kindness :)

['Aussie Rick', Moderator]

I picked up a copy of this interesting book today; "Berlin at War" by Roger Moorhouse. It seems to have picked up some good reader reviews so it should be a decent account.

by Roger Moorhouse

[Jack]

Hi Gang!

My novel French Letters: Virgnia's War is now available for 99 cents.
I'm proud to say it was the 2009 Finalist for the Military Writers’ Society of America’s Best Historical Novel of the Year

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B003...

['Aussie Rick', Moderator]

For those who enjoy reading sniper accounts here is a new book covering snipers from WW2:


by Martin Pegler
Description:
For the first time, leading Second World War authors from around the world have collaborated on a definitive anthology of the greatest snipers of the war. Each author supplies full details of their chosen sniper, including illustrations which have never been published before, to construct a complete and varied picture of sniper warfare. The biographies of these exceptional soldiers include remarkable first-hand accounts of wartime service which provide a graphic insight into a sniper s lethal skill and vividly illustrate the backdrop of the war. These gripping narratives will be fascinating reading for any one who is keen to learn about the role and technique of the sniper during the Second World War and go beyond the cursory treatment in existing histories. The contributors include Charles Henderson writing on the myth of Major Koenig, Mark Spicer on Harry Furness, Martin Pegler on Vassili Zaitsev, Charles Strasser on Pavlichenko, Adrian Gilbert on Sepp Allerberger, Leroy Thompson on Captain C Shore, Dan Mills on Private Delvin and Roger Moorhhouse on Simo Haya. Nigel Jones will also contribute.

[Phyllis]

Am rereading for the umpteenth time, my husband Georg Rauch's war memoir, The Jew with The Iron Cross, A Record of Survival in WWII Russia. Just as with his paintings, I keep finding new nuances, details I hadn't caught in prior readings. It's now available as an ebook from Smashwords, and I'm working on the audio version. Based on the 80 plus letters Georg wrote to his mother from the trenches of Russia in the last years of the war, this isn't about battle tactics but a detailed reminiscence of one 1/4 Jew's experience in Hitler's army - of the ways he used his talents as a cook, radio builder etc. to survive situations when all around him others were dying. It was recently produced as a play reading locally and I had goosebumps throughout. I'm so happy that Georg was able to accomplish this in his last year (2006, I hope that others in this group will be inspired to read the book as well.

[Chris]

I just purchased Doorknob Five Two. I'm really looking forward to it since it's one of the only P-38 books out there, and I'm pretty sure he flew with my grandfather (a P-38 pilot himself) who unfortunately passed away before I was born. I think they were both flying P-38s in Algeria at the same time, so I'm eager to see if he was mentioned and to just get a better idea of his life and service

['Aussie Rick', Moderator]

Sounds like a very interesting book Chrissy, I hope your grandfather gets a mention.

[carl]

Hope it's a good find for you, a book is always more interesting when you have some connection to the events; the locale, or especially if you might know someone in it.

Our local CAF chapter spent years restoring a P-38 recon version. it's a huge aircraft, if you haven't seen one in person. upon it's unveiling, i bid at a silent auction for a ride, but didn't get it. a few months later they crashed it just after take off. no one was hurt. i'd heard they hadn't opened the fuel lines all the way. it was totaled.

Chrissy wrote: "I just purchased Doorknob Five Two. I'm really looking forward to it since it's one of the only P-38 books out there, and I'm pretty sure he flew with my grandfather (a P-38 pilot himself) who unfo..."

[Linda]

Can anyone recommend any recent books on George C. Marshall?

['Aussie Rick', Moderator]

Purchased a copy of this book today, looks quite interesting; "Valkyrie: The Story of the Plot to Kill Hitler, by its Last Member" by Philipp Freiherr Von Boeselager.

by Philipp Freiherr Von Boeselager
Description:
When the Second World War broke out, Philipp Freiherr von Boeselager, age twenty-five, fought for his country enthusiastically as a cavalry officer. His rearing on the family estate in the Rhineland had instilled in him a strong Catholic faith, a reverence for the fatherland, and a love of horsemanship and the hunt. And so, like his brother Georg, he accepted a commission when the call came to restore the pride Germany had lost in the humiliating peace of Versailles.

Soon, however, beyond the regimented and honor-bound world of the cavalry, von Boeselager would discover what shocking brutality the SS was perpetrating at the behest of the Third Reich’s highest authorities. When, in the summer of 1942, he heard that five Roma had been killed in cold blood, von Boeselager’s patriotism quickly turned to disgust. Under his commanding officer, Field Marshal von Kluge, Philipp and his brother joined a group of conspirators in a plot to kill Adolf Hitler and Heinrich Himmler.

It was planned that Philipp would shoot both the Führer and Himmler in the officers’ casino during a camp inspection visit, but when that attempt had to be aborted at the last moment, the plotters resolved to use a bomb to assassinate Hitler alone. Once von Boeselager had delivered the explosives to Claus von Stauffenberg, a leader of the plot, he and Georg led an unauthorized retreat of cavalry units from the eastern front, a surreal night maneuver indelibly described here. The mission: to take control of Berlin and effect the coup d’etat.

When the bomb failed to kill Hitler, the SS launched a terrifying purge of senior army officers. The von Boeselager brothers barely managed to return with their units to the eastern front in time to escape detection. One by one their fellow plotters were found out, tortured, and executed, but steadfast in their cause, they never gave up the von Boeselagers’ names. Georg would eventually fall in battle on the Russian front, but Philipp survived the war.

In this elegant but unflinching testimony, Philipp von Boeselager, until his death in 2008 the last surviving member of the plot code-named Valkyrie, gives voice to the spirit of the small but determined band of men whose sense of justice and honor could not be dissolved by the diabolical glamour of the Third Reich. Here is an invaluable new perspective on one of the most fascinating near misses of twentieth-century history.

Reviews:
"The July 20, 1944, plot to kill Hitler has received much historical attention from historians (and lately from Hollywood, in the recent eponymous film starring Tom Cruise), and this slim volume adds a little to that literature. As a rare firsthand memoir by a participant, this narrative gives a personal account of the events and conspirators' motives. The first half of the book is less thriller than an account of von Boeselager's military exploits leading a German cavalry division on the Russian front, and illustrates his growing disillusionment with the Nazi regime. He and his brother Georg, a fellow army leader and co-conspirator, were persuaded to join the plot co-hatched by Col. Henning von Tresckow. Readers already familiar with the history of Valkyrie will gain an insider's perspective, the portrait of a man of honor and independent mind, but readers new to the subject may want to read this along with histories of the plot." - Publishers Weekly

"remarkable book….von Boeselager’s story is far removed from the new and sanitised Hollywood take on the July 20 plot….many insights [and] details abound….[it is] of real significance to Second World War historians….[an] astonishing memoir." - Henry Winter, (Telegraph)

"short, modest memoir….celebrates a long-since-vanished generation of scholar-warriors….von Boeselager, a cavalry officer both intelligent and honourable." - Christopher Hudson, (Daily Mail)

"brisk, illuminating description of how one German solider struggled to reconcile his profound religious and moral sensibility with his cavalryman’s patriotic code of honour and thereby became part of this conspiracy." - Christopher Silvester, (Daily Express)

['Aussie Rick', Moderator]

Linda wrote: "Can anyone recommend any recent books on George C. Marshall?"

Hi Linda,

I haven't read on the subject but I have heard good reviews about this title:

by Ed Cray
Reviews:
"This is the first one-volume portrait of Marshall (1880-1959), FDR's wartime chief of staff, who raised an army of nearly seven million, was the principal architect of Allied victory, and did much to shape the postwar world as secretary of state and secretary of defense under Truman. Cray's stirring narrative traces Marshall's apparently selfless career under 10 presidents, and shows that during the 1940s he was the most powerful figure in government after the president. An austere and forbidding man, he had a tender side as well,, which Cray, history professor at the University of Southern California, brings into focus. In this well-balanced biography Marshall emerges as a person of integrity, nobility and greatness, both of vision and of character." - Publishers Weekly

"General of the Army enhances our ability to perceive both the man and his monumental reputation....Cray's biography commends itself not least because he does not paper over Marshall's errors." - Russell F. Weigley (The New York Times Book Review)

"Cray's biography ...tells you everything you want to know about Marshall....[It] will serve as the standard 'popular' biography and reference." - Clay Blair, Jr. (Chicago Sun-Times)

"The comprehensive, masterful biography that Marshall deserves....Cray gives us insight into the private man as well as an understanding of his crucial role in an extraordinary period in world history." - Digby Diehl (Playboy)

"Impressively researched, delightfully written, and judiciously argued, General of the Army is the best one-volume life of Marshall to date. It deserves to be read by anyone interested in recent American history." - Robert Dallek