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New Release Books on WW2
Here is a book that I will be keen to get a copy of once its published:
Panzer Commander Hermann Balck: Germany's Master Tactician by Stephen RobinsonDescription:
During World War II, Balck commanded panzer troops from the front line and led by example, putting himself in extreme danger when rallying his soldiers to surge forward. He fought battles that were masterpieces of tactical operations, utilizing speed, surprise and a remarkable ability to motivate his men to achieve what they considered to be impossible. We follow his exciting journey through the fields of France, mountains of Greece and steppes of Russia. In Greece, through flair and innovative leadership, his soldiers overcame every obstacle to defeat determined Australian and New Zealand soldiers defending the narrow mountain passes. Balck personally led his men to victory in battles at Platamon Ridge on the Aegean coast and in the Vale of Tempe, before entering Athens.
This is also the story of a cultured and complex man with a great love of antiquity and classical literature, who nevertheless willingly fought for Hitler's Third Reich while remaining strangely detached from the horrors around him. The book is the result of extensive research of primary and secondary sources, including Balck's battle reports and first-hand accounts written by Allied soldiers who opposed him, panzer division war diaries and campaign assessments, and declassified Pentagon documents.
An August release:
by James Ellman Description:
On June 22, 1941, Hitler invaded the Soviet Union, a country with which he had signed a nonaggression pact two years earlier but which always was a target in his ideological and racial plans. This invasion, Operation Barbarossa, opened the Eastern Front and fundamentally changed World War II. Within six months - in early December 1941 - the German invasion had bogged down at the gates of Moscow, and within four years, the Eastern Front proved to be the decisive theater in the war against the Third Reich. The outcome has always colored analysis of Hitler's decision to launch Barbarossa, and most historians have agreed that this was one of Hitler's great mistakes. In Hitler's Great Gamble, James Ellman argues that Barbarossa was a gamble, but that it was not doomed from the start: that it was a reasonable gamble spoiled not by strategic shortsightedness, but diplomatic setbacks and tactical execution.
In Ellman's recounting, the invasion of the Soviet Union was not a doomed act of madness or hubris, but a logical gamble that maximized the Third Reich's attempts at achieving its war aims, however perverted, of "living space" and subjugating the Slavs. Had Finland and Japan made good on their alliance with Germany - had Hitler been more committed to diplomacy and not military invasion - Germany might well have succeeded in defeating the Soviet Union and, perhaps, winning World War II. Drawing on a wealth of primary and secondary sources (including many recently released), Hitler's Great Gamble is a provocative work that will appeal to a wide cross-section of World War II buffs, enthusiasts, and historians.
Sounds like either briliant or overhyped...points on Finland though, if they'd cut the Murmansk railway...
In one of my books, i argued that had Hitler abandoned the racist/ideological policies that made many Soviet citizens see the Germans as liberators from Stalin, he would have won that theater of the war. Remember that over 1 million Soviet citizens joined the German military, mostly Ukrainians. Point of fact, of the 940,000 Waffen SS troops during the war, only 240,000 were ethnic German. The rest were European volunteers, mostly anti-Communists. Lt Gen Andrei Vlasov and Leon Degrelle (another interview) were a prime examples.
I have to hand it to Degrelle to survive Russia & Berlin, but still a good thing that his chickens came home to roast.
An October release:
by Robert ForczykDescription:
The German invasion of Poland on 1 September, 1939, designated as Fall Weiss (Case White), was the event that sparked the outbreak of World War II in Europe. The campaign has widely been described as a textbook example of Blitzkrieg, but it was actually a fairly conventional campaign as the Wehrmacht was still learning how to use its new Panzers and dive-bombers.
The Polish military is often misrepresented as hopelessly obsolete and outclassed by the Wehrmacht, yet in fact it was well-equipped with modern weapons and armor. Indeed, the Polish possessed more tanks than the British and had cracked the German Enigma machine cipher. Though the combined assault from Germany and the Soviet Union defeated Poland, it could not crush the Polish fighting spirit and thousands of soldiers and airmen escaped to fight on other fronts. The result of Case White was a brutal occupation, as Polish Slavs found themselves marginalized and later eliminated, paving the way for Hitler's vision of Lebensraum (living space) and his later betrayal and invasion of the Soviet Union in 1941.
Using a wide array of sources, Robert Forczyk challenges the myths of Case White to tell the full story of the invasion that sparked history's greatest conflict.
His book "Case Red" was quite good so I dare say this will be a future purchase.
Sounds very interesting, thanks for sharing, Jerome.
David Stahel's new book due out towards the end of the year.https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/4...
Tim wrote: "David Stahel's new book due out towards the end of the year.https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/4..."
And its one that I will be definitely ordering! :)
Looks like the wallet will get lighter cone September; Mighty Max Hastings has a new release,The Dambusters
Here's the Amazoon blurb:
A brand new history of the Dambusters raid from best-selling and critically acclaimed military historian, Max Hastings.
Operation Chastise, the RAF’s 1943 assault on Germany’s dams, has passed into legend as one of the RAF’s greatest feats of arms. ‘The Dambusters’ 1955 movie made Barnes Wallis, inventor of the ‘bouncing bomb’ which breached the Mohne and Eder dams, one of Britain’s most celebrated ‘boffins’.
Max Hastings’s new book, however, also highlights the grim reality that 617 Squadron’s achievement was not victimless. Drawing on harrowing survivors’ narratives, he describes the stupendous floods that swept the Mohne and Eder valleys in the early darkness of 17 May, drowning around 1,400 people, almost half of them French prisoners or East European women forced labourers.
Few modern writers are better qualified to offer a fresh telling of this amazing story. In 1977, for his classic history BOMBER COMMAND, the author interviewed Barnes Wallis, Air Marshal Sir Arthur Harris, 5 Group’s commander Sir Ralph Cochrane, together with dambuster ‘Micky’ Martin and many other aircrew veterans.
Like all Hastings’s books, his DAMBUSTERS is above all a human story, portraying the mostly doomed young heroes of 617 Squadron in unprecedented detail. While millions have watched the movie, few know how this saga fits into the ‘big picture’ of World War II. Hastings describes the raid as ‘a supreme piece of military theatre, of priceless value to Churchill and Britain at a time when the country’s prestige had fallen low, especially in American eyes’.
Though Chastise’s impact on German industry was less than its architects hoped, it lifted the hearts of the battered British people. This is a timelessly moving tale, of very young men who achieved the almost impossible- yet also, unthinking, unleashed a Biblical catastrophe. This is a book destined to grip yet also surprise all who love the Dambusters legend, together with a new generation of readers to whom it is unknown.
I always wondered why they didn't use a torpedo, however modified?
Jonny wrote: "Looks like the wallet will get lighter cone September; Mighty Max Hastings has a new release,The Dambusters
Here's the Amazoon blurb:
A brand new history of the Dambusters raid fro..."
Its already in my wish list Jonny :)
carl wrote: "I always wondered why they didn't use a torpedo, however modified?"There was talk in the movie of torpedo nets - can't remember if I've read of them too...plus the torpedo required might be a bit of a monster?
Jonny I swear I am not going to be buried under 6' of our best topsoil. It will be under my TBR!Book added....😜
Tim wrote: "Jonny I swear I am not going to be buried under 6' of our best topsoil. It will be under my TBR!Book added....😜"
With a headstone saying "it was Hastings & Beevor". TBR too.
gee he is prolific - I still have his recent book "Vietnam" to read
Alex wrote: "gee he is prolific - I still have his recent book "Vietnam" to read"Me too!
Dimitri wrote: "Tim wrote: "Jonny I swear I am not going to be buried under 6' of our best topsoil. It will be under my TBR!Book added....😜"
With a headstone saying "it was Hastings & Beevor". TBR too."
My final words were going to be "My boss did it" - lets see her wriggle out of that! - can't see any point in getting some of my favourite authors in bother too (and you forgot Holland)
Reading Love and Fate by Grossman at the moment - that is going to take a few days
Alex wrote: "Reading Love and Fate by Grossman at the moment - that is going to take a few days"Masterpiece.
A July release:
by Philip Cracknell (no photo)Description:
On the same day as the Pearl Harbor attack, forces of the Japanese Empire attacked the British Crown Colony of Hong Kong without warning. Philip Cracknell provides a research-driven narrative about the Battle for Hong Kong in 1941, which commenced on 8 December and lasted for three weeks until the surrender on Christmas Day 1941. Hong Kong had become a strategic liability, an isolated outpost. It would be sacrificed but not without a fight. The main priorities for the British in Asia were Malaya and Singapore. The Crown colony was gallantly defended but it was a battle against overwhelming odds.
Crucially, as a resident of Hong Kong for thirty years, the author knows every inch of the ground. He challenges some assumptions, for example the whereabouts of 'A' Coy, Winnipeg Grenadiers on 19 December, when the company was destroyed during a fighting retreat. What exactly happened and where were the actions fought? One can still see so much evidence, in the form of pillboxes, gun batteries and weapons pits. Bullets and other relics can still be picked up lying on the ground. The defending troops mainly consisted of British, Canadian, Indian and Hong Kong Chinese. Dozens were massacred, including over fifty St John's Ambulance personnel - a grim pointer to the hell of the Pacific war that followed. Over the following nearly four years of occupation, an estimated 10,000 Hong Kong civilians were executed. The battle for Hong Kong is a story that deserves to be better known.
And a November release:
by Kaushik RoyDescription:
The defeat of 90,000 Commonwealth soldiers by 50,000 Japanese soldiers made the Battle for Malaya during World War II an important encounter for both political and military reasons. British military prestige was shattered, fanning the fires of nationalism in Asia, especially in India. Japan's successful tactics in Malaya--rapid marches, wide outflanking movement along difficult terrain, nocturnal attacks, and roadblocks--would be repeated in Burma in 1942-43. Until the Allied command evolved adequate countermeasures, Japanese soldiers remained supreme in the field.
Focusing on tactics of the ground battle that unfolded in Malaya between December 1941 and February 1942, rather than the failures of command, Kaushik Roy analyzes the organization of the imperial armies, looking primarily at the Indian Army, which comprised the largest portion of Commonwealth troops, and compares that army with those of Britain and Australia, which fought side by side with Indian soldiers. Utilizing both official war office records and unofficial memoirs, autobiographies, and oral histories, Roy presents a synthesis of history from the top with history from below and provides a thick narrative of operations interwoven with tactical analysis of the Battle for Malaya from both sides.
Two pretty interesting books, thanks for posting the details Jerome.
A September release:
by David BraddockDescription:
The desert war in Libya and Egypt between 1940 and 1942 has deservedly attracted the attention of many historians. Fought in an unforgiving yet strategically important landscape, the fortunes of the implacable opponents swung wildly. While best remembered for the duel between Montgomery's Eighth Army and Rommel's Afrika Korps and the iconic battle of El Alamein, this fine account describes that there was much more to the story than that.
In addition to the role of Imperial and Italian troops, the cast of characters included the controversial Auchinleck, the long-suffering Alexander and many other gifted commanders. Gazala, Bir Hakeim, Alam Halfa and Tobruk battles were among the many fiercely fought battles.
The two sides employed weapons that have passed into immortality; Germany's Tiger and Panther tanks and lethal 88mm anti-tank gun. The Messerschmitt BF109 fighter locked horns with desert-modified Spitfires and Hurricanes.
The author highlights the vital roles of the Royal Navy, disrupting enemy supplies, and the Royal Air Force, which eventually gained command of the air.
For a concise account of this decisive campaign, David Braddock's authoritative yet highly readable history is unlikely to be surpassed.
A December release:
by Evan McGilvrayDescription:
The invasion of Poland by German forces (quickly joined by their then-allies the Soviets) ignited the Second World War. Despite determined resistance, Poland was quickly conquered but Poles continued the struggle to the very last day of the war against Germany, resisting the occupier within their homeland and fighting in exile with the Allied forces.
Evan McGilvray, drawing on intensive research in Polish sources, gives a comprehensive account of Poland's war. He reveals the complexities of Poland's relationship with the Allies (forced to accept their Soviet enemies as allies after 1941, then betrayed to Soviet occupation in the post-war settlement), as well as the divisions between Polish factions that led to civil war even before the defeat of Germany.
The author narrates all the fighting involving Polish forces, including such famous actions as the Battle of Britain, Tobruk, Normandy, Arnhem and the Warsaw Rising, but also lesser known aspects such as Kopinski's Carpathian Brigade in Italy, Polish troops under Soviet command and the capture of Wilhelmshaven on the last day of the war.
Game if it is as good as his work on the eastern front.
A November release:
by Maurice IssermanDescription:
At the start of World War II, the US Army had two cavalry divisions—and no mountain troops. The German Wehrmacht, in contrast, had many well-trained and battle-hardened mountain divisions, some of whom by 1943 blocked the Allied advance in the Italian campaign. Starting from scratch, the US Army developed a unique military fighting force, the 10th Mountain Division, drawn from the ranks of civilian skiers, mountaineers, and others with outdoor experience. The resulting mix of Ivy League students, park rangers, Olympic skiers, and European refugees formed the first specialized alpine fighting force in US history. By the time it deployed to Italy at the beginning of 1945, this ragtag group had coalesced into a tight-knit unit. In the months that followed, at a terrible cost, they spearheaded the Allied drive in Italy to final victory.
Ranging from the ski slopes of Colorado to the towering cliffs of the Italian Alps, The Winter Army is a saga of an unlikely band of soldiers forged in the heat of combat into a brotherhood whose legacy lives on in US mountain fighters to this day.
Jerome, you're forcefeeding my 2019 again... luckily after D-Day
Dimitri wrote: "Jerome, you're forcefeeding my 2019 again... luckily after D-Day"I'm not sorry, Dimitri :)
Jerome wrote: "A November release: by Maurice IssermanDescription:
At..."
A must-have, I drive past Camp Hale several times a year on the way to/from the ski hills. Always looking for a good history of the 10th Mountain Division.
Sent by the Iron Sky: The Legacy of an American Parachute Battalion in World War II– November 19, 2019by Ian Gardner
Let's not forget that in WWII some 55,000 air crew perished in the R.A.F.
Both RAF especially Bomber Command and the US Army Air Corps (mostly bombers) had the highest loss rates percentage wise of any Allied groups in WW II. The Luftwaffe was in the same boat, only surpassed in losses by the U-Boat service.
An October release:
by Prit ButtarDescription:
Making use of the extensive memoirs of German and Russian soldiers to bring their story to life, the narrative follows on from On A Knife’s Edge, which described the encirclement and destruction of the German Sixth Army at Stalingrad and the offensives and counter-offensives that followed throughout the winter of 1942--43. Beginning towards the end of the Battle of Kursk, Retribution explores the massive Soviet offensive that followed the end of Operation Zitadelle, which saw depleted and desperate German troops forced out of Western Ukraine. In this title, Buttar describes in detail the little-known series of near-constant battles that saw a weakened German army confronted by a tactically sophisticated force of over six million Soviet troops. As a result, the Wehrmacht was driven back to the Dnepr and German forces remaining in the Kuban Peninsula south of Rostov were forced back into the Crimea, a retreat which would become one of many in the months that followed.
Already on my wish list Jerome :)
Here is a September 2019 release that may be of interest to some group members;
Hitler's Great Gamble: A New Look at German Strategy, Operation Barbarossa, and the Axis Defeat in World War II by James EllmanDescription:
On June 22, 1941, Hitler invaded the Soviet Union in Operation Barbarossa, one of the turning points of World War II. Within six months, the invasion bogged down at the gates of Moscow, and the Eastern Front proved to be the decisive theater in the defeat of the Third Reich. Ever since, most historians have agreed that this was one of Hitler's great mistakes. In Hitler's Great Gamble, James Ellman argues that Barbarossa was a gamble, but that it was not doomed from the start: that it was a reasonable gamble spoiled not by strategic shortsightedness, but by diplomatic setbacks and poor execution. In Ellman's recounting, the invasion of the Soviet Union was not a doomed act of madness or hubris, but a logical gamble that maximized the Third Reich's attempts at achieving its war aims, however perverted, of "living space" and subjugating the Slavs. Had Finland and Japan made good on their alliance with Germany--had Hitler been more committed to diplomacy and not military invasion--Germany might well have succeeded in defeating the Soviet Union and, perhaps, winning World War II. Drawing on a wealth of primary and secondary sources (including many recently released), Hitler's Great Gamble is a provocative work that will appeal to a wide cross-section of World War II buffs, enthusiasts, and historians.
Another September release:
by Alan C. CareyDescription:
Sighted Sub, Sank Same examines the United States Naval air campaign against German U-boats prowling for allied merchant shipping traversing the waters of the Atlantic, Caribbean, and Mediterranean; an economic war waged to cut the lifeline of food and armaments sailing across the Atlantic from North America.
This battle of the Atlantic evolved into a far-ranging conflict beyond the North Atlantic and the eastern seaboard of the United States. It covered the frigid waters off Iceland down to the warm waters of Florida, through the Caribbean Sea, across the ocean to the Bay of Biscay, the Mediterranean Sea, down to Africa, and across the South Atlantic to Brazil’s southern tip. Nazi Germany’s efforts to deny supplies from reaching Europe came at a high price, losing 783 U-boats and approximately 30,000 men between 1939 and 1945 with land and carrier-based naval air units sinking 83 German submarines of the 159 sunk by American aircraft. German allies saw their submarines targeted as well in the Atlantic with Imperial Japanese submarine I-52 and the Italian Archimede falling victim to American naval aircraft armed with depth bombs or acoustic homing torpedoes.
This story of the United States Navy’s use of air power to hunt down and destroy German submarines unfolds in dramatic detail in Sighted Sub, Sank Same. The book contains over 200 color and black and white photographs allowing for a visual imagery of the campaign while personal interviews, interrogation reports, personal correspondence, and after action reports weave a fascinating history about the naval air campaign in the Atlantic, Caribbean, and Mediterranean Theaters during World War II.
A December release:
by Ron MackayDescription:
Royal Air Force Fighter Command’s brief was to provide an effective aerial barrier to any attempt at domination of British skies. The aircraft and technical resources on hand between 1936 and WWII’s initiation were thankfully improved to a level that was barely sufficient to withstand the hitherto unchallengeable Luftwaffe’s advance across Western Europe. Between 1940 and 1942 the Command generally found itself on the back-foot in terms of overall success. The introduction of aircraft designs that would change the situation, however costly, in its ultimate favour, featured prominently from the mid-point of WWII. The Luftwaffe found itself being challenged and regularly bested ‘round the clock’; by the advent of D-Day the Command’s efforts had materially contributed to the Allied on-surge that had placed its adversary on a permanent downward spiral towards total extinction.
dont know if it was discussed before but does someone have an idea when Volker Ulrich Hitler vol 2 will be published in english?
Thiago wrote: "dont know if it was discussed before but does someone have an idea when Volker Ulrich Hitler vol 2 will be published in english?"I haven't seen anything, but the English-language one for Volume 1 came out two years after the German one. Maybe late this year, but I don't know.
A September release:
by Evan MawdsleyDescription:
Command of the oceans was crucial to winning World War II. By the start of 1942 Nazi Germany had conquered mainland Europe and Imperial Japan had overrun Southeast Asia and much of the Pacific. How could Britain and distant America prevail in what had become a "war of continents"?
In this definitive account, Evan Mawdsley traces events at sea from the first U-boat operations in 1939 through to the surrender of Japan. He argues that the Allied counter-attack involved not just decisive sea battles, but a long struggle to control shipping arteries and move armies across the sea. Covering all the major actions in the Atlantic and Pacific oceans, as well as those in the narrow seas, this book interweaves for the first time the endeavors of the maritime forces of the British Empire, the United States, Germany, and Japan, as well as those of France, Italy, and Russia.
In this definitive account... didn't they say that about World War II at Sea: A Global HistorybyCraig L. Symonds last year ? :p anyway, TBR.
Due in June
Blurb
By the beginning of May 1942, five months after the Pearl Harbor attack, the US Navy was ready to challenge the Japanese moves in the South Pacific. When the Japanese sent troops to New Guinea and the Solomon Islands, the Americans sent the carriers Lexington and Yorktown to counter the move, setting the stage for the Battle of the Coral Sea.
In Scratch One Flattop: The First Carrier Air Campaign and the Battle of the Coral Sea, historian Robert C. Stern analyzes the Battle of the Coral Sea, the first major fleet engagement where the warships were never in sight of each other. Unlike the Battle of Midway, the Battle of the Coral Sea has received remarkably little study. Stern covers not only the action of the ships and their air groups but also describes the impact of this pivotal engagement. His analysis looks at the short-term impact as well as the long-term implications, including the installation of inert gas fuel-system purging on all American aircraft carriers and the push to integrate sensor systems with fighter direction to better protect against enemy aircraft.
This essential text on the first carrier air campaign, Scratch One Flattop is a landmark study on an overlooked battle in the first months of the United States’ engagement in World War II.
A December release:
by Ben KiteDescription:
Through Adversity is a unique book that provides a comprehensive account of Britain and the Commonwealth’s war in the air during the Second World War. It combines detailed studies into the tactics, techniques and technology,together with the personal accounts of the aircrew themselves as they executed some of the most hazardous operations of the war.
Through Adversity is exceptional in the breadth of the war it covers. Twenty-five separate chapters explain all aspects of the air war ranging from subjects such as the air defence of Britain to anti-shipping strikes in the Mediterranean or close air support missions in Burma. Even some of the rarer elements of British air power are given an appropriate place in this book.
Through Adversity has a global and cosmopolitan feel to it. It includes exciting and thought-provoking accounts from not only RAF personnel, but also those of the RAAF, RNZAF, RCAF, SAAF, The Fleet Air Arm, as well as Poles, Frenchmen and other personnel from occupied countries.
It is exceptionally well Illustrated with over 150 photographs and diagrams, many never published before, as well as over 15 maps and diagrams. The book will undoubtedly appeal not only to aficionados, who will find considerable new information and insights, but also the more general reader who will appreciate it as the most comprehensive book written on Britain’s war in the air to date.
Sounds like a book well worth checking out, thanks for posting the details Jerome.
THE WORLD WAR TWO GROUP
Books mentioned in this topic
Into the Firestorm: The Allied Heroes Who Flew World War II's Most Daring Missions (other topics)Into the Firestorm: The Allied Heroes Who Flew World War II's Most Daring Missions (other topics)
Empire of Ashes: Truman, Hirohito, and the Descent into Total War (other topics)
Empire of Ashes: Truman, Hirohito, and the Descent into Total War (other topics)
1942: Hitler's Gamble for Victory (other topics)
More...
Authors mentioned in this topic
Scott McGaugh (other topics)Scott McGaugh (other topics)
James M. Scott (other topics)
James M. Scott (other topics)
Richard Hargreaves (other topics)
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I read, and gave copies of, Veronico's Hidden Warbirds: The Epic Stories of Finding, Recovering, and Rebuilding WWII's Lost Aircraft to a number of friends.
ADDENDUM: Nick Veronico informed me that the review of his book appears in Air Classics (March 2019), although the edition reviewed is 2016. He has no idea why there is such a lagtime. Nonetheless, before adding this post originally, I searched without finding reference to Bloody Skies, so perhaps some of you will wish to check it out.