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Stalin's Commandos: Ukrainian Partisan Forces on the Eastern Front by Alexander Gogun
Description
At the height of World War II, a number of Soviet partisan organisations fought a guerrilla war against the Axis occupation of the Soviet Union. Coordinated and controlled by the Soviet government and modelled on the Red Army, the primary objective of these 'Red Partisans' was the disruption of the Eastern Front's German rear, especially road and railroad communications.
Alexander Gogun here looks at the partisan forces operating in Ukraine. Along with Belarus, Ukraine was the first and most devastated Soviet republic, following the German invasion of 1941. The consequences of the occupation for the Ukrainian population were dire. As a result, the partisan movement spread rapidly over the occupied territory. The fighter groups, supported by the Ukrainian Partisan Movement Headquarters in Moscow, operated throughout occupied Ukraine and numbered over 150,000 combatants. Based on original Ukrainian, Russian and German sources, this book will be essential reading for anyone interested in the military history of the Eastern Front in World War II.


Description:
Much of what we think we know about World War II is steeped in myth rather than fact. For seven decades, we have looked at this cataclysmic conflict in much the same way, particularly when it comes to the war in the western theater. In this sweeping narrative history, the first of three volumes, British historian and contrarian James Holland deploys deep research, incisive analysis, and a profound sense of humanity to revise and enhance our understanding of one of the most significant events in history.
It is commonly held that at the outset of war, Germany had the best army in the world, and that Britain barely managed to hold out against it until the Americans declared war and overwhelmed Nazi military prowess with economic might. But the picture looked much different in 1939: In advance of its Polish offensive, Germany was short on resources, tanks, and trained soldiers. Meanwhile, Britain and France had more men in uniform than Germany and considerably greater naval power, and Britain was the richest country in Europe with a massive empire at its disposal. Hitler was bluffing when he called for the wholesale destruction of Poland, but his bet that Western Europe wouldn’t get involved turned out to be fatally wrong.
Beginning with the lead-up to the outbreak of war in 1939 and ending in the middle of 1941 on the eve of the Nazi invasion of Russia, The War in the West, Volume I covers the war on several levels, from fascinating tactical revelations—blitzkrieg, Holland argues, is a myth—to the personal stories of a German U-boat captain, a French reserve officer, a son-in-law of Mussolini, an American construction tycoon, and civilians across the war zone. This is a major history, destined to generate significant scholarly debate and reader interest.


Description:
Celebrated historian Winston Groom tells the intertwined and uniquely American tales of George Patton, Douglas MacArthur, and George Marshall - from the World War I battle that shaped them to their greatest victory: leading the allies to victory in World War II. These three remarkable men-of-arms who rose from the gruesome hell of the First World War to become the finest generals of their generation during World War II redefined America's ideas of military leadership and brought forth a new generation of American soldier. Their efforts revealed to the world the grit and determination that would become synonymous with America in the post-war years.
Filled with novel-worthy twists and turns, and set against the backdrop of the most dramatic moments of the twentieth century, The Generals is a powerful, action-packed book filled with marvelous surprises and insights into the lives of America's most celebrated warriors.


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SUMMARY
"When World War II erupted in 1939, Brazil seemed a world away. Lush, remote, and underdeveloped, the country and its capital of Rio de Janeiro lured international travelers seeking a respite from the drums of the war. 'Rio: at the end of civilization, as we know it,' claimed Orson Welles as he set out for the city in 1942. But Brazil’s bucolic reputation as a distant land of palm trees and pristine beaches masked a more complex reality — one that the country’s leaders were busily exploiting in a desperate gambit to secure Brazil’s place in the modern world.
"In 'Brazil - The Fortunes of War', acclaimed historian Neill Lochery reveals the secret history of the country’s involvement in World War II, showing how the cunning statecraft and economic opportunism of Brazil’s leaders transformed it into a regional superpower over the course of the war. Brazil’s natural resources and proximity to the United States made it strategically invaluable to both the Allies and the Axis, a fact that the country’s dictator, Getúlio Dornelles Vargas, keenly understood. In the war’s early years, Vargas and a handful of his close advisors dexterously played both sides against each other, generating enormous wealth for Brazil and fundamentally transforming its economy and infrastructure.
"But Brazil’s cozy neutrality was not to last. Forced to choose sides, Vargas declared war on the Axis powers [August 1942] and sent 25,000 troops to the European theater [Summer 1944]. This Brazilian expeditionary force arrived too late — and was called home too early — to secure a significant role for Brazil in the postwar order. But within Brazil, at least, Vargas had made his mark, ensuring Rio’s emergence as a major international city and effectively remaking Brazil as a modern nation.
"A fast-paced tale of war and diplomatic intrigue, 'Brazil - The Fortunes of War' reveals a long-buried chapter of World War II and the little-known origins of one of the world’s emerging economic powerhouses."


I knew Murphy had a tumultuous post-war life, but according to Smith much of that may have been attributable to PTSD.
http://www.realclearhistory.com/artic...



Description:
In early April 1942, a little-known episode of World War II took place, said by Sir Winston Churchill to be “the most dangerous moment of the war,” when the Japanese made their only major offensive westwards into the Indian Ocean. Historian Sir Arthur Bryant said, “A Japanese naval victory in April 1942 would have given Japan total control of the Indian Ocean, isolated the Middle East and brought down the Churchill government.”
War in the Far East had erupted with the attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, followed in succession by Japanese drives on the Philippines, Indochina, the Java Sea and Singapore. Seemingly unstoppable, the Japanese now had a vast new empire, and having crippled the American fleet at Pearl Harbor, turned their sights on the British Eastern Fleet based at Ceylon. Occupation of Ceylon (now Sri Lanka) would not only provide the Japanese a springboard into India but control of the essential convoy routes to Europe and the Western Desert. And aside from the British Eastern Fleet, the Indian Ocean lay undefended.
So far the Japanese had suffered no significant losses and the question on everyone’s lips was how soon the enemy would appear off India. In April 1942 a Japanese fleet led by six aircraft carriers, four battleships and 30 other ships sailed into the Bay of Bengal. After the war Churchill said that potential disaster was averted by the actions of one pilot, Squadron Leader L.J. Birchall, who in his Catalina flying boat spotted the Japanese warships massing some 350 miles from Ceylon. He was shot down by a Japanese Zero but not before sending a brief radio message back to his base. This gave the island’s defense forces time to prepare.
In the ferocious battles that followed, the British lost a carrier, two heavy cruisers and many other ships; however, the Japanese eventually turned back, never to sail against India again. John Clancy, whose father survived the sinking of HMS Cornwall during the battle, tells the story of this dramatic but little known campaign in which a major Allied catastrophe was only narrowly averted.


Description:
During the fall of 1944, once the Western Allies had gained military advantage over the Nazis, the crown jewel of Allied strategy became the liberation of Paris—the capital of France so long held in captivity.This event, however, was steeped in more complexity when the Allies returned than in 1940 when Hitler’s legions first marched in. In 1944 the city was beset by cross-currents about who was to reclaim it. Was it to be the French Resistance, largely ephemeral throughout the war and largely Communist? Or was it to be the long-suffering Parisians themselves, many of them meantime collaborators? Or the Anglo-American armies which had indeed won the victory?
Then there were the Free French forces led by Charles de Gaulle, and his second, General Leclerc, who now led a full (albeit American-supplied) armored division. The Germans, too, still retained a hand, with the option to either destroy the city, per Hitler’s wishes, or honorably cede it. This book punctures the myth parlayed by Is Paris Burning? and other works that describe the city's liberation as mostly the result of the insurrection by the Resistance in the capital. In fact, de Gaulle gave Leclerc his orders for the liberation of the city as early as December 1943, and the General’s great march down the Champs Élysées the day after the liberation was the culmination of a carefully laid plan to re-establish the French state.
Amidst the swirling streams of self-interest and intrigue that beset the capital on the eve of its liberation, this book makes clear that Leclerc and his 2nd Armoured Division were the real heroes of the liberation and that marching on their capital city was their raison d'etre. At issue was the reconstitution of France itself, after its dark night of the soul under the Germans, and despite the demands of the Anglo-Americans and France’s own insurrectionists. That a great power was restored is now manifest, with this book explaining how it was ensured.


Description:
Erwin Rommel was a complex man: a born leader, brilliant soldier, a devoted husband and proud father; intelligent, instinctive, brave, compassionate, vain, egotistical, and arrogant. In France in 1940, then for two years in North Africa, then finally back in France again, at Normandy in 1944, he proved himself a master of armored warfare, running rings around a succession of Allied generals who never got his measure and could only resort to overwhelming numbers to bring about his defeat.
And yet for all his military genius, Rommel was also naive, a man who could admire Adolf Hitler at the same time that he despised the Nazis, dazzled by a Führer whose successes blinded him to the true nature of the Third Reich. Above all, he was the quintessential German patriot, who ultimately would refuse to abandon his moral compass, so that on one pivotal day in June 1944 he came to understand that he had mistakenly served an evil man and evil cause. He would still fight for Germany even as he abandoned his oath of allegiance to the Führer, when he came to realize that Hitler had morphed into nothing more than an agent of death and destruction. In the end Erwin Rommel was forced to die by his own hand, not because, as some would claim, he had dabbled in a tyrannicidal conspiracy, but because he had committed a far greater crime – he dared to tell Adolf Hitler the truth.
In Field Marshal historian Daniel Allen Butler not only describes the swirling, innovative campaigns in which Rommel won his military reputation, but assesses the temper of the man who finally fought only for his country, and no dark depths beyond.


Description:
In May 1945, with victory in Europe established, the war was all but over. But on the other side of the world, the Allies were still engaged in a bitter struggle to control the Pacific. And it was then that the Japanese unleashed a terrible new form of warfare: the suicide pilots, or Kamikaze. Drawing on meticulous research and unique personal access to the remaining survivors, Will Iredale follows a group of young men from the moment they joined up through their initial training to the terrifying reality of fighting against pilots who, in the cruel last summer of the war, chose death rather than risk their country's dishonourable defeat and deliberately flew their planes into Allied aircraft carriers. A story of courage, valour and dogged determination, The Kamikaze Hunters is a gripping account of how a few brave young men helped to ensure lasting peace


Description:
Based on forty years of detailed research, the Phoenix Project is a unique history of the wartime German Luftwaffe. Going far beyond a simple description of famous air battles and operations the overall work draws extensively on original documents, secondary sources and contemporary accounts to place the Luftwaffe within its proper historical context, gather together its many disparate components and provide a hitherto unpublished balance to its diverse activities.
In addition to the lead role of the combat air forces the history provides a proper emphasis to the largely unsung work of the Anti-Aircraft Artillery, Luftwaffe ground forces, Signals Service and the Medical Services. It also examines in detail the vital work of the huge training organization and the organization and role of a continent-wide ground organization.
All theaters are covered thus placing a much needed emphasis on the Luftwaffe’s momentous struggle in the East, a theater of operations that was always more urgent and more vital to the Wehrmacht. Throughout this work Luftwaffe activities are set within the wider role of overall military operations and Luftwaffe activity is therefore placed back within its proper context in the overall European conflict.
.
Volume 1: The Phoenix Reborn covers a particularly neglected area, specifically the postwar Reichswehr and the years of secrecy leading up to the unveiling of the Luftwaffe in 1935. Much of the key developmental work was completed at this time and the first volume examines the evolution of the uniquely German concept of operativer Luftkrieg, the work of the clandestine air staff and the key roles played by the German Transport Ministry and the Flight Center Lipetsk in the technical development of military aircraft and the training of military aviators. It shows how Goring and Hitler essentially inherited an air arm in waiting – a product of covert military professional endeavor over a period of fifteen years.
The structure of the Phoenix Project is totally unique. Five major themes run throughout the history’s constituent volumes – (A) Strategy and Command, (B) Ministerial Activity, (C) Technology and Production, (D) Infrastructure and Training, and (E) Operations. These divisions enable the reader to pursue particular areas of interest throughout the overall work or to look at the interrelationships between the various aspects of Luftwaffe activity.


SUMMARY
"The dramatic account of one of America’s most celebrated― and controversial―military campaigns: the Doolittle Raid.
"In December 1941, as American forces tallied the dead at Pearl Harbor, President Franklin Roosevelt gathered with his senior military counselors to plan an ambitious counterstrike against the heart of the Japanese Empire: Tokyo.
"Four months later, on April 18, 1942, sixteen U.S. Army bombers under the command of daredevil pilot Jimmy Doolittle lifted off from the deck of the USS Hornet on a one-way mission to pummel the enemy’s factories, refineries, and dockyards and then escape to Free China. For Roosevelt, the raid was a propaganda victory, a potent salve to heal a wounded nation. In Japan, outraged over the deaths of innocent civilians―including children ― military leaders launched an ill-fated attempt to seize Midway that would turn the tide of the war. But it was the Chinese who suffered the worst, victims of a retaliatory campaign by the Japanese Army that claimed an estimated 250,000 lives and saw families drowned in wells, entire towns burned, and communities devastated by bacteriological warfare.
"At the center of this incredible story is Doolittle, the son of an Alaskan gold prospector, a former boxer, and brilliant engineer who earned his doctorate [in aeronautical engineering] from MIT [the Massachusetts Institute of Technology]. Other fascinating characters populate this gripping narrative, including Chiang Kai-shek, Lieutenant General Joseph “Vinegar Joe” Stilwell, and the feisty Vice Admiral William “Bull” Halsey Jr. Here, too, are indelible portraits of the young pilots, navigators, and bombardiers, many of them little more than teenagers, who raised their hands to volunteer for a mission from which few expected to return. Most of the bombers ran out of fuel and crashed. Captured raiders suffered torture and starvation in Japan’s notorious POW camps. Others faced a harrowing escape across China―via boat, rickshaw, and foot―with the Japanese Army in pursuit.
"Based on scores of never-before-published records drawn from archives across four continents as well as new interviews with survivors, 'Target Tokyo' is World War II history of the highest order: a harrowing adventure story that also serves as a pivotal reexamination of one of America’s most daring military operations. (16 pages of illustrations included)"

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[bookcover:Target Tokyo: Jimmy Doolittle and the Raid That Avenged Pearl Harb..."
Colin wrote: "We are writing another "Aces Speak" type book, from interviews, but this time with Americans. Included are Curtis Lemay, Doolittle, Robert S. Johnson, Francis S. Gabreski, etcand others. Look for a..."
Colin, the description of the book KOMET posted in #1316 makes it sound like the Tokyo raid was FDR's idea, but I always thought that Doolittle proposed the idea (thought to be insane at the time) of having the B-25s take off from the carriers, and that he proposed the mission. What have you found on that subject?
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Geevee, Assisting Moderator British & Commonwealth Forces
(last edited May 01, 2015 01:39PM)
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The Private Life of General Omar N by Jeffrey D Lavoie
Description
The life and achievements of General Omar Nelson Bradley are legendary. During World War II, the five-star general was instrumental in the D-Day invasion and the Battle of the Bulge. But his private life has always lain just outside the reach of the media. Bradley has long been portrayed as a soft-spoken gentleman.
This media-driven stereotype has pushed him aside in America's collective memory, which more readily recalls flamboyant leaders such as Patton, Eisenhower or George C. Marshall.
This book re-examines the prevailing view of Bradley through a reading of unpublished sources and letters, paying special attention to his relationship with his second wife Kitty Buhler and his later years (1951-1981), a period largely ignored by previous research. Bradley's life was far from boring.
Behind closed doors were trysts with Hollywood starlets, a penchant for gambling at the horse track and hobnobbing with high-profile stars, writers and political leaders.
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Description
Creating a guerrilla movement to fight the Japanese occupation of the Philippines (1942-1945) presented Colonel Wendell Fertig with some formidable challenges. Unlike the other islands in the archipelago, Mindanao had a large Moslem (Moro) population. By using Moro and American leadership he was able to bring the Moro people into the movement. Fertig lacked adequate communication with MacArthur's headquarters in Australia. With ingenuity and talented technical personnel he was able to solve this problem, an effort that brought growing logistical support for the guerrillas, provided by submarines from Australia. As the force expanded, Fertig was fortunate to recruit leadership from 187 Americans--military and civilian--who had not surrendered to the Japanese. The resulting force, with its intelligence from coastal watch stations, added six guerrilla divisions to U.S. military strength for the 1945 liberation of Mindanao, a contribution unique in the history of unconventional warfare.


Description:
In May 1945, with victory in Europe established, the war was all but over. But on the other side of the world, the Allies were still engaged in a bitter struggle to control the Pacific. And it was then that the Japanese unleashed a terrible new form of warfare: the suicide pilots, or Kamikaze.
Drawing on meticulous research and unique personal access to the remaining survivors, Will Iredale follows a group of young men from the moment they joined up through their initial training to the terrifying reality of fighting against pilots who, in the cruel last summer of the war, chose death rather than risk their country's dishonourable defeat and deliberately flew their planes into Allied aircraft carriers. A story of courage, valour and dogged determination, The Kamikaze Hunters is a gripping account of how a few brave young men helped to ensure lasting peace.


Ravensbruck: Life and Death in Hitler's Concentration Camp for Women by Sarah Helm
A masterly and moving account of the most horrific hidden atrocity of World War II: Ravensbrück, the only Nazi concentration camp built for women
On a sunny morning in May 1939 a phalanx of 867 women—housewives, doctors, opera singers, politicians, prostitutes—was marched through the woods fifty miles north of Berlin, driven on past a shining lake, then herded in through giant gates. Whipping and kicking them were scores of German women guards.
Their destination was Ravensbrück, a concentration camp designed specifically for women by Heinrich Himmler, prime architect of the Holocaust. By the end of the war 130,000 women from more than twenty different European countries had been imprisoned there; among the prominent names were Geneviève de Gaulle, General de Gaulle’s niece, and Gemma La Guardia Gluck, sister of the wartime mayor of New York.
Only a small number of these women were Jewish; Ravensbrück was largely a place for the Nazis to eliminate other inferior beings — social outcasts, Gypsies, political enemies, foreign resisters, the sick, the disabled, and the “mad.”
Over six years the prisoners endured beatings, torture, slave labor, starvation, and random execution. In the final months of the war, Ravensbrück became an extermination camp. Estimates of the final death toll by April 1945 have ranged from 30,000 to 90,000.
For decades the story of Ravensbrück was hidden behind the Iron Curtain, and today it is still little known. Using testimony unearthed since the end of the Cold War and interviews with survivors who have never talked before, Sarah Helm has ventured into the heart of the camp, demonstrating for the reader in riveting detail how easily and quickly the unthinkable horror evolved.
Far more than a catalog of atrocities, however, Ravensbrück is also a compelling account of what one survivor called “the heroism, superhuman tenacity, and exceptional willpower to survive.” For every prisoner whose strength failed, another found the will to resist through acts of self-sacrifice and friendship, as well as sabotage, protest, and escape.
While the core of this book is told from inside the camp, the story also sheds new light on the evolution of the wider genocide, the impotence of the world to respond, and Himmler’s final attempt to seek a separate peace with the Allies using the women of Ravensbrück as a bargaining chip.
Chilling, inspiring, and deeply unsettling, Ravensbrück is a groundbreaking work of historical investigation. With rare clarity, it reminds us of the capacity of humankind both for bestial cruelty and for courage against all odds.




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In early April 1942, a little-known episode of World War II took place, said by Sir Winston Churchill to be “the most dangerous moment of the war,” when the Japanese made their only major offensive westwards into the Indian Ocean. Historian Sir Arthur Bryant said, “A Japanese naval victory in April 1942 would have given Japan total control of the Indian Ocean, isolated the Middle East and brought down the Churchill government.”
War in the Far East had erupted with the attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, followed in succession by Japanese drives on the Philippines, Indochina, the Java Sea and Singapore. Seemingly unstoppable, the Japanese now had a vast new empire, and having crippled the American fleet at Pearl Harbor, turned their sights on the British Eastern Fleet based at Ceylon. Occupation of Ceylon (now Sri Lanka) would not only provide the Japanese a springboard into India but control of the essential convoy routes to Europe and the Western Desert. And aside from the British Eastern Fleet, the Indian Ocean lay undefended.
So far the Japanese had suffered no significant losses and the question on everyone’s lips was how soon the enemy would appear off India. In April 1942 a Japanese fleet led by six aircraft carriers, four battleships and 30 other ships sailed into the Bay of Bengal. After the war Churchill said that potential disaster was averted by the actions of one pilot, Squadron Leader L.J. Birchall, who in his Catalina flying boat spotted the Japanese warships massing some 350 miles from Ceylon. He was shot down by a Japanese Zero but not before sending a brief radio message back to his base. This gave the island’s defense forces time to prepare.
In the ferocious battles that followed, the British lost a carrier, two heavy cruisers and many other ships; however, the Japanese eventually turned back, never to sail against India again. John Clancy, whose father survived the sinking of HMS Cornwall during the battle, tells the story of this dramatic but little known campaign in which a major Allied catastrophe was only narrowly averted.

[bookcover:Target Tokyo: Jimmy Doolittle and the Raid That Aven..."
Doolittle told me personally, that he offered a plan to FDR, and the president said "let me see it". Doolittle personally chose the aircraft, the method and even recruited the pilots and crews. My wife Anne and I knew all of them, and we have the stories first hand. Doolittle was given the authority, but how he did it was up to him and the Navy.


got a copy of KL too. TBR...don't know yet, somewhere in summer.


He got short shrift from Mac. I would really like to see that one.


Description:
A new book from this bestselling author covering the events at sea in the early years of World War II, in which he has compiled comprehensive research and insight into a highly readable and detailed account of British and Allied submarine warfare in north European waters at the beginning of the war. The early chapters describe prewar submarine development, including technical advances and limitations, weapons, tactical use and life onboard, and examine the men who crewed them and explore their understanding of the warfare that they would become involved in. The core of the book is an account of the events as they unfolded in 'home waters' from the outset of war to the end of 1940, by which time the majority of the Allied submarines were operating in the Mediterranean. It is a story of success, triumph, failure and tragedy, and it tells of the tremendous courage and endurance shown by a small group of men learning how to fight a new kind of war in claustrophobic, sub-sea vessels with limited information about the enemy, or what they would meet off the alien coasts to which they were heading. Extensive primary sources are used to document the many aspects of this war, some of which remain controversial to this day. Max Horton, Vice Admiral Submarines 1940, said: 'There is no room for mistakes in submarines. You are either alive or dead.' This book makes plain how right he was.


Description:
Bronx-born top turret-gunner Arthur Meyerowitz was on his second mission when he was shot down in 1943. He was one of only two men on the B-24 Liberator known as “Harmful Lil Armful” who escaped death or immediate capture on the ground.
After fleeing the wreck, Arthur knocked on the door of an isolated farmhouse, whose owners hastily took him in. Fortunately, his hosts not only despised the Nazis but had a tight connection to the French resistance group Morhange and its founder, Marcel Taillandier. Arthur and Taillandier formed an improbable bond as the resistance leader arranged for Arthur’s transfers among safe houses in southern France, shielding him from the Gestapo.
Based on recently declassified material, exclusive personal interviews, and extensive research into the French Resistance, The Lost Airman tells the tense and riveting story of Arthur’s trying months in Toulouse—masquerading as a deaf mute and working with a downed British pilot to evade the Nazis—and of his hair-raising journey to freedom involving a perilous trek over the Pyrenees and a voyage aboard a fishing boat with U-boats lurking below and Luftwaffe fighters looming above. With photographs and maps included, this is a never-before-told true story of endurance, perseverance, and escape during World War II.


Description:
World War II had many superlatives, but none like Operation Torch--a series of simultaneous amphibious landings, audacious commando and paratroop assaults, and the Atlantic's biggest naval battle, fought across a two thousand mile span of coastline in French North Africa. The risk was enormous, the scale breathtaking, the preparations rushed, the training inadequate, and the ramifications profound.
Torch was the first combined Allied offensive and key to how the Second World War unfolded politically and militarily. Nonetheless, historians have treated the subject lightly, perhaps because of its many ambiguities. As a surprise invasion of a neutral nation, it recalled German attacks against countries like Belgium, Norway, and Yugoslavia. The operation's rationale was to aid Russia but did not do this. It was supposed to get Americans troops into the fight against Germany but did so only because it failed to achieve its short-term military goals. There is still debate whether Torch advanced the fight against the Axis, or was a wasteful dispersion of Allied strength and actually prolonged the war.
Torch: North Africa and the Allied Path to Victory is a fresh look at this complex and controversial operation. The book covers the fierce Anglo-American dispute about the operation and charts how it fits into the evolution of amphibious warfare. It recounts the story of the fighting, focusing on the five landings--Port Lyautey, Fédala, and Safi in Morocco, and Oran and Algiers in Algeria--and includes air and ground actions from the initial assault to the repulse of Allied forces on the outskirts of Tunis. Torch also considers the operation's context within the larger war and it incorporates the French perspective better than any English-language work on the subject. It shows how Torch brought France, as a power, back into the Allied camp; how it forced the English and the Americans to work together as true coalitions partners and forge a coherent amphibious doctrine. These skills were then applied to subsequent operations in the Mediterranean, in the English Channel, and in the Pacific. The story of how this was accomplished is the story of how the Allies brought their power to bear on the enemy's continental base and won World War II.
message 1336:
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Geevee, Assisting Moderator British & Commonwealth Forces
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Series: Joanne Goodman Lectures
Paperback: 406 pages
Publisher: University of Toronto Press, Scholarly Publishing Division; 2nd edition (April 24, 2014)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1442626550
ISBN-13: 978-1442626553
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SUMMARY
"With 'Fields of Fire,' Terry Copp challenges the conventional view that the Canadian contribution to the Battle of Normandy was a 'failure' – that the Allies won only through the use of brute force, and that the Canadian soldiers and commanding officers were essentially incompetent. His detailed and impeccably researched analysis of what actually happened on the battlefield portrays a flexible, innovative army that made a major, and successful, contribution to the defeat of the German forces in just seventy-six days.
"Challenging both existing interpretations of the campaign and current approaches to military history, Copp examines the Battle of Normandy, tracking the soldiers over the battlefield terrain and providing an account of each operation carried out by the Canadian army. In so doing, he illustrates the valour, skill, and commitment of the Allied citizen-soldier in the face of a well-entrenched and well-equipped enemy army.
"This new edition of Copp’s best-selling, award-winning history includes a new introduction that examines the strategic background of the Battle of Normandy."

[bookcover:Target Tokyo: Jimmy Doolittle and the R..."
Thanks for clarifying that for us, Colin!


Series: Joan..."
This is interesting to me because I don't recall reading
...that the Canadian contribution to the Battle of Normandy was a 'failure' – that the Allies won only through the use of brute force, and that the Canadian soldiers and commanding officers were essentially incompetent.
I recall only positive accounts -- with legitimate criticisms similar to those directed at other armies -- of the Canadian contributions, especially in the Low Countries.
Please give me some recommendations on books on the Canadian "failure" on the Western Front.

This is interesting to me because I don't recall reading
...that the Canadian contribution to the Battle of Normandy was a 'failure' – that the Allies won only through the use of brute force, and that the Canadian soldiers and commanding officers were essentially incompetent.
I recall only positive accounts -- with legitimate criticisms similar to those directed at other armies --of the Canadian contributions, especially in the Low Countries.
Please give me some recommendations on books on the Canadian "failure" on the Western Front

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Personally speaking, I do not regard the contributions of the Canadian Army in the Battle of Normandy and the subsequent WWII battles in Northwest Europe as a 'failure.' Indeed, in both World Wars, Canadian soldiers, sailors, and airmen fought courageously and earned a well-deserved reputation for bravery in combat.
Here are 2 new books that highlight the Canadian contribution during the Second World War.
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Fight to the Finish: Canadians in the Second World War, 1944-1945 by Tim Cook
SUMMARY
"Historian Tim Cook displays his trademark storytelling ability in the second volume of his masterful account of Canadians in World War II. Cook combines an extraordinary grasp of military strategy with a deep empathy for the soldiers on the ground, at sea and in the air. Whether it's a minute-by-minute account of a gruelling artillery battle, vicious infighting among generals, the scene inside a medical unit, or the small details of a soldier's daily life, Cook creates a compelling narrative. He recounts in mesmerizing detail how the Canadian forces figured in the Allied bombing of Germany, the D-Day landing at Juno beach, the taking of Caen, and the drive south.
"Featuring dozens of black-and-white photographs and moving excerpts from letters and diaries of servicemen, 'Fight to the Finish' is a memorable account of Canadians who fought abroad and of the home front that was changed forever."

+++++++++++++++++++
Forgotten Victory: First Canadian Army and the Cruel Winter of 1944-45 by Mark Zuehlke
SUMMARY
"During the winter of 1944–45, the Western Allies desperately sought a strategy that would lead to Germany’s quick defeat. After much rancorous debate, the Allied high command decided that First Canadian Army would launch the pivotal offensive to win the war—an attack against the Rhineland, an area of Germany on the west bank of the Rhine. Winning this land would give them a launching point for crossing the river and driving into Germany’s heartland. This was considered the road to victory. For those who fought, the names of battlegrounds such as Moyland Wood and the Hochwald Gap would forever call up memories of uncommon heroism, endurance and tragic sacrifice. Their story is one largely lost to the common national history of World War II."


Part of that may be that Montgomery had a low opinion of Canadian Gen. Crerar, and so did others around him.
Part may also be that it was the Canadian division on D-Day that was assigned the central drive to Caen, which didn't make it, despite German opposition described as weak. Also, the Canadian armored brigade botched its landings that day. IIRC, the DD tanks that were to land before the first wave were quite late to the beach, which affected everyone else's timetable. After that, it was a long time to recover their reputation.
When the Falaise-Argentan gap was supposed to be closed, it was the Canadian II Corps of the Canadian Second Army that couldn't fight through the desperate German defenses, and the Americans were left waiting on the other side. The spearhead for them was the 1st Polish Armored Division. I'm not sure any force could have covered that distance any faster, but it was the Canadians & Poles that again looked like laggards.

Furthermore, Montgomery had a reputation for being an overly cautious field commander. This was in marked contrast to the Americans, who, once they were able to get beyond the hedgerows with the launching of Operation Cobra on July 18th, 1944, moved boldly and decisively in capitalizing upon their gains on the battlefield. General George S. Patton Jr.'s Third Army was a prime example of this "blitzkrieg a la Americain."


Nope, can't do it, don't recall anything ever saying that the Canadian contribution was a failure. Although as far as the Commanding Officer, Monty did have him drug over the coals, but I think that was more as an excuse for having the Canadians trying to do more than their manpower allowed ie: taking the channel ports and clearing the Scheldt.

This is interesting to me because I don't recall reading
...that the Canadian contr..."
Rassa Frassa, added both of this to my TBR. Pretty soon it is going to be larger than the Library of Congress.


Slated for release: November 3, 2015
++++++++++++++++++++++++++
SUMMARY
November 1942: Japanese and American forces have been fighting for control of Guadalcanal, a small but pivotal island in Japan’s expansion through the South Pacific. Both sides have endured months of grueling battle under the worst circumstances: hellish jungles, meager rations, and tropical diseases, which have taken a severe mental and physical toll on the combatants. The Japanese call Guadalcanal 'Jigoku no Jima'— Hell's Island.
Amid a seeming stalemate, a small group of U.S. Navy dive bombers are called upon to help determine the island's fate. The men have until recently been serving in their respective squadrons aboard the USS Lexington and the USS Yorktown, fighting in the thick of the Pacific War's aerial battles. Their skills have been honed to a fine edge, even as injury and death inexorably have depleted their ranks. When their carriers are lost, many of the men end up on the USS Enterprise. Battle damage to that carrier then forces them from their home at sea to operating from Henderson Field, a small dirt-and-gravel airstrip on Guadalcanal.
With some Marine and Army Air Force planes, they help form the Cactus Air Force, a motley assemblage of fliers tasked with holding the line while making dangerous flights from their jungle airfield. Pounded by daily Japanese air assaults, nightly warship bombardments, and sniper attacks from the jungle, pilots and gunners rarely last more than a few weeks before succumbing to tropical ailments, injury, exhaustion, and death. But when the Japanese launch a final offensive to take the island once and for all, these dive-bomber jocks answer the call of duty—and try to perform miracles in turning back an enemy warship armada, a host of fighter planes, and a convoy of troop transports.
A remarkable story of grit, guts, and heroism, The Battle for Hell's Island reveals how command of the South Pacific, and the outcome of the Pacific War, depended on control of a single dirt airstrip—and the small group of battle-weary aviators sent to protect it with their lives.


Description:
During the winter of 1944–45, the western Allies desperately sought a strategy that would lead to Germany’s quick defeat. After much rancorous debate, the Allied high command decided that First Canadian Army would launch the pivotal offensive to win the war—an attack against the Rhineland, an area of Germany on the west bank of the Rhine. Winning this land would give them a launching point for crossing the river and driving into Germany’s heartland. This was considered the road to victory. For those who fought, the names of battlegrounds such as Moyland Wood and the Hochwald Gap would forever call up memories of uncommon heroism, endurance and tragic sacrifice. Their story is one largely lost to the common national history of World War II. Forgotten Victory gives this important legacy back to Canadians.


http://www.nytimes.com/2015/05/17/boo...
Books mentioned in this topic
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Authors mentioned in this topic
James M. Scott (other topics)James M. Scott (other topics)
Richard Hargreaves (other topics)
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Andrew Faltum (other topics)
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Mettle and Pasture: The History of the Second Battalion the Lincolnshire Regiment During World War II by Gary J Weight
Description
Mettle and Pasture - the story of the part played during the Second World War in Europe by the 2nd Battalion The Lincolnshire Regiment. Entering France in September 1939 as part of the British Expeditionary Force (BEF) they witnessed from the front line the blistering attack on Belgium at Louvain and first-hand the German Blitzkrieg beginning on May 10th 1940.
Fighting a fierce rearguard action as part of the British 3rd Infantry Division under command of General Montgomery, the Battalion covered the frenzied withdrawal of the British Army through the carnage of Dunkirk, arriving back to the shores of England with less than 25% of their original force.
On 6th June 1944, almost four years to the day after the demoralizing evacuation at Dunkirk, the Battalion landed on the coast of Normandy on D-Day.
Told in their own words, eyewitness accounts and memoirs are expertly weaved together with official war diaries to recall the experiences of the infantrymen at the front - from the days in France and Belgium in 1939 to the assault on Normandy, spearheading such a great invasion, to resisting and attacking the enemy at Caen and blunting the formidable Panzer counter-attacks in the dangerous Normandy Bocage. From 'out of the frying pan and into the fire', come the bitter battles in Belgium and Holland, the attrition of holding the Maas River during the coldest winter in living memory, and finally on into Germany, fighting the SS around Bremen just hours before hostilities ended on the 8th May 1945.
Vivid accounts tell tales of courage and fear, individual sacrifice and how soldiers faced up to the enemy under fire, sharing danger and surviving the savage conditions but also of the pride and honour of belonging to such a famous and historic regiment - The Lincolnshire Regiment. With an abundance of previously unpublished photographs and clear, concise maps of the battlefields, this is the story of the war the way it really was for an infantryman - told by the men who were there.