THE WORLD WAR TWO GROUP discussion
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New Release Books on WW2
A March 2021 release:
by James P. Duffy Description:
It had been two and a half difficult years since General Douglas MacArthur had reluctantly obeyed a presidential order to abandon his American and Filipino forces on the Bataan Peninsula and slip away to Australia to organize the Allied resistance. From Australia, he had famously vowed to return to liberate the Philippines. And the people had believed his vow, their faith in him almost spiritual. Believers snuck out at night to paint his words on city walls; resisters secretly printed them on matchbook covers and gum wrappers and carried the oath in their pockets.
The Philippine Islands were among the most important strongholds for the preservation of the Japanese Empire. As consequential as New Guinea had been, the Empire faced inevitable defeat if the Philippines were lost. The more than 7,000 islands of the archipelago dominated the shipping lanes that brought much needed oil to the home islands from the resource rich East Indies. The Commander-in-Chief of the Japanese Combined Fleet said he was willing to sacrifice every ship in his fleet to prevent MacArthur from regaining control of the Philippines. The fleet would be useless, he said, without the East Indies fuel.
Return to Victory is the story of MacArthur's liberation of the Philippines as told from the perspectives of the three major combatants: the Americans, the Japanese, and the Filipinos themselves. It will examine the strategic and tactical aspects of the campaign through the participation of the soldiers, sailors, and airmen, as well as the experiences of leaders such as General MacArthur, Admiral Halsey, General Walter Krueger, General George Kenney, Admiral Kinkaid, Colonel Ruberto Kangleon, and General Yamashita.
Jerome wrote: "A March 2021 release: by James P. Duffy Description:
It had been two and a half difficult yea..."
This might be one worth keeping an eye out for.
A December release:
by Eric RatcliffeDescription:
On Thursday, 28 September 1944, a force of 283 Consolidated B-24 Liberator bombers from the USAAF's 2nd Combat Bombardment Wing, took off from their bases in Britain and headed out across the North Sea escorted by 198 P-51 Mustang fighters. The bombers' target was the industrial city of Kassel in northern Germany.
Among the bombers assigned to the raid were the aircraft of the 445th Heavy Bombardment Group. Thirty-five of the 445th's Liberators, along with the 336 men who made up their crews, took off from their base near the village of Tibenham in Norfolk. Their specific target that day was the engineering works of Henschel & Sohn which built Tiger and Panther tanks.
Kassel had been bombed by the Allied air forces in the past, most notably in October 1943 when more than 500 bombers had dropped 1,800 tons of bombs creating a firestorm that had ravaged the city. The raid on 28 September 1944, however, would have a far different result.
Due to a navigational error, the lead Liberator of the 445th Heavy Bombardment Group turned due east instead of east-south-east and the following thirty-five bombers missed Kassel altogether, attacking an alternative target. But the worst was to come. The change of direction meant that the bombers lost their escorting Mustangs and on the return flight they were pounced on by 150 enemy fighters - and massacred.
Within just six minutes, the 445th experienced the greatest single-day losses suffered by any group from one airfield in the history of aviation warfare. Twenty-five of the Liberators were shot down inside Germany itself; three crashed en route to the coast (two in France and one in Belgium); two made forced landings at an emergency airfield in England; and the last came to grief within sight of home. Just four of the original thirty-five B-24s landed safely back at Tibenham. The human cost was equally high. In the course of just a few minutes, 117 airmen lost their lives, including eleven who were murdered after parachuting safely to the ground. A further 121 men were taken prisoner; only ninety-eight returned to duty.
In this highly moving account of the Kassel raid, the author, who lives close to the Tibenham airfield, uncovers the painful details of those terrible moments in September 1944 through the stories of those who survived one of the Second World War's most disastrous operations in the USAAF's battle against the Luftwaffe.
Another:
by Michela CocolinDescription:
Seen as an agricultural utopia within Hitler's Germany, it is often the view that both East and West Prussia had remained relatively untouched during the Second World War. Yet the violence, prejudice and murder associated with the National Socialist regime that brought most of Europe to ruin were widespread throughout Prussia during its brief existence.
When the MV Wilhelm Gustloff was sunk by a Russian submarine just after 9pm on 30 January 1945, 9,343 passengers - 5,000 of them children - would perish. It was the worst loss of life in maritime history, six times greater than the one of the RMS Titanic.
Launched by Adolf Hitler on 5 May 1937 and the KdF (Kraft durch Freude = Strength through Joy) as a recreational and propaganda tool, the MV Wilhelm Gustloff would suffer the same fate as the nation it once represented. Yet 75 years later, her tragic story is still unknown to many.
Combining existing material and new findings, this book tells the story of Prussia's rise and fall as a military power, the attempts by brave civilians as well as military personnel determined to overturn the evil regime they had made an oath to serve and the desperate evacuation of refugees to the West in one of the greatest exodus ever seen, told by those who were there.
Two interesting looking books, thanks for the notification Jerome.
A June 2021 release:
byMax HastingsDescription:
In 1940, Hitler had two choices when it came to the Mediterranean region: stay out, or commit sufficient forces to expel the British from the Middle East. Against his generals’ advice, the Fuhrer committed a major strategic blunder. He ordered the Wehrmacht to seize Crete, allowing the longtime British bastion of Malta to remain in Allied hands. Over the fall of 1941, the Royal Navy and RAF, aided by British intelligence, used the island to launch a punishing campaign against the Germans, sinking more than 75 percent of their supply ships destined for North Africa.
But by spring 1942, the British lost their advantage. In April and May, the Luftwaffe dropped more bombs on Malta than London received in the blitz. A succession of British attempts to supply and reinforce the island by convoy during the spring and summer of 1942 failed. British submarines and surface warships were withdrawn, and the remaining forces were on the brink of starvation.
Operation Pedestal chronicles the ensuing British mission to save those troops. Over twelve days in August, German and Italian forces faced off against British air and naval fleets in one of the fiercest battles of the war, while ships packed with supplies were painstakingly divided and dispersed. In the end only a handful of the Allied ships made it, most important among them the SS Ohio, carrying the much-needed fuel to the men on Malta.
As Hastings makes clear, while the Germans claimed victory, it was the British who ultimately prevailed, for Malta remained a crucial asset that helped lead to the Nazis’ eventual defeat. While the Royal Navy never again attempted an operation on such scale, Hasting argues that without that August convoy the British on Malta would not have survived. In the cruel accountancy of war, the price was worth paying.
Hard to pass up on a Max Hastings book :)
This might well be worth while checking out although it appears to be a bit pricey:
Last Panzer Battles in Hungary: Spring 1945 by Norbert SzámvéberDescription:
In the last phase of the Second World War the Sixth Panzer Army was the last army available to the German military leadership which was more or less intact and was capable of launching a major offensive. After it had been withdrawn from the Western front in the aftermath of the failed Ardennes counter offensive, it was replenished with men and gears as fully as was possible in the given circumstances, and as a result it almost regained its 1944 autumn strength. It would not have been a surprise if it had been deployed on German territory against the Allied troops advancing to Rhine, or in Silesia or in the Baltics or even if it had been sent as a reinforcement to the Army Group Vistula to defend the distant approaches to Berlin against the advancing Soviet army - reinforcement and fresh troops capable of launching counter offensives were desperately needed everywhere. But it happened otherwise: the Sixth Army was deployed in Hungary and participated in the Operation Spring Awakening, launched in the western part of the country on 6th of March, 1945. This was the last German "big offensive" in the course of the Second World War.Several questions come to mind about the operation. What were the goals originally set to be achieved by this seemingly pointless attack? What role was assigned to the once formidable German Panzer Corps? Is it true that the Soviet command used the same defense directives as had been used during the battle of Kursk in 1943 because they had proved to be viable then? What types of tanks and armored vehicles fight in West Hungary and in what numbers? How did the American made M4A2 tanks manned by Soviet crews fare against the much heavier German Panther and Tiger B tanks on the Hungarian soil? What were the losses on both sides in tanks and armored vehicles? To what extent can be the prompt and powerful response of the Soviet side - the offensive towards Vienna - evaluated as being successful? How did the Germans, the Soviets, the Hungarians and the Bulgarians use their tanks and armored vehicles in this operation?Besides giving a detailed chronological description of the events, the book tries to find answers to these questions. The facts extracted from the operational documents of the fighting sides have been supplemented with excerpts from diaries and memoirs, and even the maps have been drawn on the basis of the original ones. The author has explored some new archival sources kept in Russian archives and also incorporated some published Russian materials into his research that was neglected up until now by other researchers, along with some newly published German memoirs - all this has made possible to create a narrative of the events related to us by the author in hitherto unprecedented detail.
A bit expensive but looks interesting.
'Aussie Rick' wrote: "Hard to pass up on a Max Hastings book :)"I hear you!
A few great looking books mentioned...Operation Pedeastal and Hitlers Last State will be going on my wish list!
A December release:
by Charles StephensonDescription:
The story of the British Eastern Fleet, which operated in the Indian Ocean against Japan, has rarely been told. Although it was the largest fleet deployed by the Royal Navy prior to 1945 and played a vital part in the theatre it was sent to protect, it has no place in the popular consciousness of the naval history of the Second World War. So Charles Stephenson's deeply researched and absorbing narrative gives this forgotten fleet the recognition it deserves.
British pre-war naval planning for the Far East is part of the story, as is the disastrous loss of the battleship Prince of Wales and battlecruiser Repulse in 1941, but the body of the book focuses on the new fleet, commanded by Admiral Sir James Somerville, and its operations against the Japanese navy and aircraft as well as Japanese and German submarines. Later in the war, once the fleet had been reinforced with an American aircraft carrier, it was strong enough to take more aggressive actions against the Japanese, and these are described in vivid detail.
Charles Stephenson's authoritative study should appeal to readers who have a special interest in the war with Japan, in naval history more generally and Royal Navy in particular.
Thanks for posting, Jerome. That last one on the British Eastern Fleet is now on my list.
'Aussie Rick' wrote: "This might well be worth while checking out although it appears to be a bit pricey:[book:Last Panzer Battles in Hungary: Spring 194..."uh, books on Hungary 44-45 are almost always either overpriced or untranslated ... 2018 Budapest bookshops had some academic tomes , Panzer-studded like sirens on the Danube.
That can be quite true Dimitri! However I did enjoy this book on Budapest though:
The Siege of Budapest: One Hundred Days in World War II by Krisztián Ungváry
An April 2021 release:
by Bastiaan WillemsDescription:
In the final year of the Second World War, as bitter defensive fighting moved to German soil, a wave of intra-ethnic violence engulfed the country. Bastiaan Willems offers the first study into the impact and behaviour of the Wehrmacht on its own territory, focusing on the German units fighting in East Prussia and its capital Königsberg. He shows that the Wehrmacht's retreat into Germany, after three years of brutal fighting on the Eastern Front, contributed significantly to the spike of violence which occurred throughout the country immediately prior to defeat. Soldiers arriving with an ingrained barbarised mindset, developed on the Eastern Front, shaped the immediate environment of the area of operations, and of Nazi Germany as a whole. Willems establishes how the norms of the Wehrmacht as a retreating army impacted behavioural patterns on the home front, arguing that its presence increased the propensity to carry out violence in Germany.
Jerome wrote: "An April 2021 release: by Bastiaan WillemsDescription:
In the final year of the Second World War..."
Sounds pretty interesting Jerome.
Thanks to all of you for the wonderful suggestions! You guys rock! So glad I joined this group!
Glad to hear you are enjoying yourself Doreen :)
A May 2021 release:
by Steven CaseyDescription:
After almost two years slogging with infantrymen through North Africa, Italy, and France, Ernie Pyle immediately realized he was ill-prepared for covering the Pacific War. As Pyle and other war correspondents discovered, the climate, the logistics, and the sheer scope of the Pacific theater had no parallel in the war America was fighting in Europe.
From Pearl Harbor to Hiroshima and Nagasaki, The War Beat, Pacific provides the first comprehensive account of how a group of highly courageous correspondents covered America's war against Japan, what they witnessed, what they were allowed to publish, and how their reports shaped the home front's perception of some of the most pivotal battles in American military history. In a dramatic and fast-paced narrative based on a wealth of previously untapped primary sources, Casey takes us from MacArthur's doomed defense on the Philippines and the navy's overly strict censorship policy at the time of Midway, through the bloody battles on Guadalcanal, New Guinea, Tarawa, Saipan, Leyte and Luzon, Iwo Jima and Okinawa, detailing the cooperation, as well as conflict, between the media and the military, as they grappled with the enduring problem of limiting a free press during a period of extreme crisis.
The War Beat, Pacific shows how foreign correspondents ran up against practical challenges and risked their lives to get stories in a theater that was far more challenging than the war against Nazi Germany, while the US government blocked news of the war against Japan and tried to focus the home front on Hitler and his atrocities.
South Pacific Air War Volume 4: Buna & Milne Bay, September 1942 by Michael Claringbould
Slated for a January 8, 2021 release.
Summary
Volume Four chronicles aerial warfare in the South Pacific in the critical period between 19 June and 8 September 1942. It can be read alone or as a continuation of the first three volumes that spanned the first six months of the Pacific War, culminating in the Battle of the Coral Sea.
Unlike the previous three volumes, no aircraft carriers appeared in New Guinea waters. Instead, the air war was fought solely by land-based air units. This was in the face of an increasingly complex strategic situation that saw the Japanese land at both Buna and Milne Bay. For the first time, airpower in the theater was tasked to support the land forces of both sides which became engaged in a bloody struggle in the mountains of Papua and then the narrow muddy quagmire of Milne Bay.
Two veteran Japanese air groups, the Tainan and No. 4 Kokutai, continued their Herculean struggle against mounting Allied opposition. In the face of continued attrition, Japanese pilots had many notable successes including several coveted aerial victories against B-17s. Then, from August a plethora of fresh Japanese units arrived in theater including the No. 2, No. 6, Chitose, Misawa and Kisarazu Kokutai.
USAAF P-39s and RAAF P-40Es responded with low level close support missions and B-25s, B-26s and B-17s ramped up an unrelenting bombing campaign. Towards the end of the period A-20A strafers made their combat debut, portending a radical blueprint for future attack tactics in the theater.
Never before has this campaign been chronicled in such detail, with Allied accounts matched against Japanese records for a truly factual account of the conflict.
Table of Contents
Introduction
Chapter 1 Overview
Chapter 2 Night Raids: Regional Operations 19-30 June
Chapter 3 Independence Day: Regional Operations 1-7 July
Chapter 4 The Lull Before the Storm: Regional Operations 8-20 July
Chapter 5 Buna Landing: New Guinea 21-31 July
Chapter 6 Target Townsville: Solomons & North Queensland 21 July–1 August
Chapter 7 150 Bombers Destroyed! New Guinea 1-8 August
Chapter 8 D-Day: The Solomons 1–8 August
Chapter 9 Prelude: Milne Bay 4-22 August
Chapter 10 Buna Resupplied: New Guinea 9-22 August
Chapter 11 Emergency: Milne Bay 23 August - 8 September
Chapter 12 Tainan Ku Annihilated! New Guinea 23 August – 8 September
Chapter 13 Conclusion
Appendix 1 Allied Aircraft Losses & Fatalities
Appendix 2 Japanese Aircraft Losses & Fatalities
Appendix 3 Cumulative Losses
Sources
Index
Some great books on the way!
An April 2022 release:
by Bruce FrazerDescription:
This is a story about hundreds of very young, very brave men who overcame their self-preservation instincts to fight in one of the most costly and fiercely fought aerial engagements in history.
It was Mission 115 flown by the 8th U.S. Air Force October 14, 1943 (this was the second raid on Schweinfurt). The objective was to cripple Germany’s ball-bearing manufacturing capability, 50 percent of which was believed to be in Schweinfurt. A daytime raid, it included 291 B-17's based in England. Sixty aircraft with 10-man crews were shot down, an additional 5 crashed in England, 12 others were so severely damaged they were scrapped, and 121 were battle damaged. Hundreds of Americans were killed, wounded or imprisoned for the remainder of the war. There were few winners, mostly losers – in the air or on the ground.
The Mission Commander, Col. Budd Peaslee, and Lead Pilot Captain J. Kemp McLaughlin (now a retired Brigadier General [BG]) sat side-by-side as they led the 291 plane, 30 mile-long, “bomber stream.” The book includes BG McLaughlin’s first- hand descriptions of the mission as only the lead pilot could recount.
None of the American crew members would forget the rat-tat-tat sound of their machine guns or the sight of airplanes flown by friends disintegrating or simply blowing up as they flew toward their Schweinfurt target or back to their bases in England.
Personal narratives from the men who flew this mission and after-action reports say much about these gut-wrenching experiences, but where, when and how did it all start? Equally important, how did it end; how did once bitter enemies become lifelong friends who do all they can to prevent such carnage in the future?
Jerome wrote: "An April 2022 release: by Bruce FrazerDescr..."
This looks like a great and fastacting read Jerome! I'm defintely adding it on my tbd list. Thanks every so much for the heads up!
A March 2021 release:
by Richard CarrierDescription:
This book analyses why the Italian army failed to defeat its Greek opponent between October 1940 and April 1941. It thoroughly examines the multiple forms of ineffectiveness that plagued the political leadership as well as the military organization.
Mussolini’s aggression of Greece ranks among the most neglected campaigns of the Second World War. Initiated on 28 October 1940, the offensive came to a halt less than ten days later; by mid-November, the Greek counter-offensive put the Italian armies on the defensive, and back in Albania. From then on, the fatal interaction between failing command structures, inadequate weapons and equipment, unprepared and unmotivated combatants, and terrible logistics lowered to a dangerous level the fighting power of Italian combatants. This essay proposes that compared to the North African and Russian campaigns where the Regio Esercito achieved a decent level of military effectiveness, the operation against Greece was a military fiasco. Only the courage of its soldiers and the German intervention saved the dictator’s army from complete disaster.
This book would appeal to anyone interested in the history of the world war, and to those involved in the study of military effectiveness and intrigued by why armies fail.
Jerome wrote: "A March 2021 release: by Richard CarrierDescription:
This book analyses why the Italian army failed..."
Thanks Jerome, this one is bound to find my shelf at some point. An area of the war that is little covered.
Thomas Ricks wrote in the NY Times on James Holland's recently published --
Sicily '43: The First Assault on Fortress Europe."Academic histories are all very well, but at times it is a pleasure to sit back and wallow in an old-school military tale of flinty-eyed men doing battle. That is what James Holland, a seasoned craftsman, offers in Sicily '43: The First Assault on Fortress Europe. He doesn’t wade into gender issues, “periodization,” patriarchism or other currently fashionable matters. Rather, he simply gives us a history of Anglo-Saxon males slaughtering one another while Italians mainly try to get out of the way. Academic historians like to call a certain optimistic type of approach “Whig history.” By contrast, I’d call Holland’s book “Tory history” — and mean it mainly as a compliment.
Holland fortifies his style with dollops of British slang. George Patton is depicted “still chuntering on” about an alleged lack of sufficient air cover for his invasion forces. (Holland summarizes Patton as “a strange beast” with “obvious shortcomings,” which strikes me as harsh but fair.) Any historian who views British commanders of the campaign as treating American forces unfairly “really does need knocking on the head.”
As that last line indicates, Holland is comfortable with delving into the historiography of the Sicily campaign. He refutes the notion that the Allies made a huge mistake by allowing 29,000 German soldiers to escape the island to the Italian mainland, noting that it was impossible for Allied aircraft or ships to operate in the Strait of Messina. He does pay attention to errors of the Allies — the lethal mess the British made trying to land troops in gliders, and the fact that two American soldiers murdered 82 prisoners of war. But over all, he concludes that the Allied achievement in taking Sicily in the summer of 1943 was greater than has been appreciated by most historians. In one memorable passage he portrays a German general gazing down at the huge American invasion fleet and concluding that Sicily was lost — and probably the entire global war as well."
'Aussie Rick' wrote: "Here are two books on my wish list once they are released:Great review. But I'm not sure the coalition between Germany and Finland was so odd - Stalin had invaded Finland in 1939, and Finland's position so close to Leningrad made it very strategic. In addition, Hitler co-opted the other Baltic states to his war against the USSR.
by [author:Henrik L..."
Manray9 wrote: "Thomas Ricks wrote in the NY Times on James Holland's recently published --[book:Sicily '43: The First Assault on Fortress Eur..."Great review, the book sounds like it will be an excellent account. Thanks for posting those details MR9.
Manray9 wrote: "Thomas Ricks wrote in the NY Times on James Holland's recently published --Sicily '43: The First Assault on Fortress Eur..."</i>Sounds like got JH down to a tee. I'm planning on starting this once I've finished [book:The Third Reich at War: How the Nazis Led Germany from Conquest to Disaster so hopefully I'll be able to confirm his accuracy soon..
Thanks for posting, Manray9. Interesting. I look forward to what some of you think about the book after you read it.
I'm still pondering about "chuntering on."
Manray9 wrote: "I'm still pondering about "chuntering on.""Hmmm... I'm having difficulty seeing George S. chuntering... can't imagine him keeping the volume down... I do see JH's point though.
Anyone have any "inside" information when Cambridge's Armies of World War 2 is going to have it's next book published? My 2019 edition of The Red Army and the second World War lists 2 books in the series that there exist so far no information in the Internet:The French Army and ... by Douglas Porch
The Germany Army and ... by Jeff Rutherford
A September 2021 release:
by Stephen A. HartDescription:
Weserübung, the invasion of Denmark and then Norway in 1940, the first joint air-sea-land campaign in the history of warfare.
Even more striking an achievement was the swift and conclusive defeat of France in 1940. Refusing to let its forces dash themselves against the fortifications of the Maginot Line, Germany instead sent its divisions through neutral Belgium and northern France, destroying Allied resistance and pursuing the remnant of the British and French forces to Dunkirk in an audacious and devastatingly effective assault.
Though the dominance of the Blitzkrieg method was to be challenged in the latter part of the war, as Allied forces found methods of disrupting the attacks and dominating the battlefields, its unparalleled success in the early years of the conflict brought Europe to its knees.
Illustrated throughout with detailed maps and contemporary photographs, Blitzkrieg: The Invasion of Poland to the Fall of France tells the story of these first breakneck attacks, analyzing the technology, planning, and execution as well as the challenges faced by the Germans in the pursuit of this new and deadly form of warfare.
Jerome wrote: "A September 2021 release: by Stephen A. HartDescription:
Weserübung, the invasion of Denmark and t..."
Looks interesting, Jerome. Added to Mount TBR.
Perato wrote: "Anyone have any "inside" information when Cambridge's Armies of World War 2 is going to have it's next book published? My 2019 edition of The Red Army and the second World War lists 2 books in the ..."None at all, waiting for a series to be completed is very frustrating.
Another September 2021 release:
by Mark EdeleDescription:
Stalinism at War tells the epic story of the Soviet Union in World War Two.
Starting with Soviet involvement in the war in Asia and ending with a bloody counter-insurgency in the borderlands of Ukraine, Belarus and the Baltics, the Soviet Union's war was both considerably longer and more all-encompassing than is sometimes appreciated. Here, acclaimed scholar Mark Edele explores the complex experiences of both ordinary and extraordinary citizens – Russians and Koreans, Ukrainians and Jews, Lithuanians and Georgians, men and women, loyal Stalinists and critics of his regime – to reveal how the Soviet Union and leadership of a ruthless dictator propelled Allied victory over Germany and Japan.
In doing so, Edele weaves together material on the society and culture of the wartime years with high-level politics and unites the military, economic and political history of the Soviet Union with broader popular histories from below. The result is an engaging, intelligent and authoritative account of the Soviet Union from 1937 to 1949.
Jerome wrote: "A March 2021 release: by Richard CarrierDescription:
This book analyses why the Italian army failed..."
Just checked this one out on Amazon since it fits in with a theme read for next year. Someone is smoking something funny as the list price is $160.00 for a book which is less than 300 pages in length.
An April 2021 release:
by Stewart BinnsDescription:
Sunday June 22nd 1941: 6 million Nazi troops marched on Moscow, with a brutal scorched-earth tactic that saw millions of Soviet citizens massacred. A level of brutality only paralleled after the Soviet's triumphed at Stalingrad, and took mindless revenge as they marched back into Berlin.
Beginning with Operation Barbarossa, the German invasion of the Soviet Union in June 1941, to the appalling circumstances of the Fall of Berlin in April 1945 and told from the perspective of the people of Russia and Eastern Europe, Barbarossa is a heartrending story of tragedy, suffering and heroism.
Stewart Binns draws on Russian archives to paint a uniquely intimate picture of the war from the Soviet side of this terrible conflict - presenting this dark moment in history in panoramic detail, matching sweeping accounts of tactical manoeuvres with harrowing personal stories of civilian hardship and bravery.
Jerome wrote: "An April 2021 release: by Stewart BinnsDescription:
Sunday June 22nd 1941: 6 million Nazi troops marched on Moscow, with a brutal scorched-earth ta..."
You had me going there for a minute Jerome, as it shares a cover with Frank McDonough's recent The Hitler Years: Disaster 1940-1945
Jonny wrote: "Jerome wrote: "An April 2021 release:
If one reads them fast enough, it's like a motion picture.
A June release:
by Jonathan DimblebyDescription:
Author of an acclaimed history of the Battle of the Atlantic during World War Two (OUP 2016), Jonathan Dimbleby now offers a compelling account of the largest military operation not only of World War Two but of all time--the invasion of Russia by Nazi Germany in 1941. Often seen as the turning point of the war in Europe, Operation Barbarossa turned allies into mortal enemies, triggering the atrocities that would characterize the Holocaust.
Historians have spent generations puzzling over Barbarossa. For Hitler and the other Nazi leaders, who began planning the invasion even as the pact with the Soviets was in full force, the invasion would annihilate communism, eradicate inferior races, and provide the German people (and military) with resources that would guarantee not just survival but global domination. What followed was catastrophe. Between June, when the invasion began, and December 1941, when it stalled, some six million men were killed, wounded, or registered as missing in action. Soldiers on both sides committed atrocities on a scale that few events in the history of warfare can rival. When German commanders were forced to retreat, it was clear to the world clear that the German war machine was not only not infallible but fatally weakened. Once the invasion began to falter, it all but guaranteed the Germans would eventually lose the war.
Operation Barbarossa has been much written about in histories of World War Two. However, no single general-audience book focused purely on the operation dominates the field, either covering only aspects of what was a massive undertaking or simply outdated. Moreover, Dimbleby's book makes ample use of memoirs, diaries, and letters, along with unpublished and untranslated correspondence from newly opened Russian archives. It promises to become the standard general history of Operation Barbarossa.
Jerome wrote: "A June release: by Jonathan DimblebyDescription:
Author of an acclaimed history of the Battle of the Atlantic..."
Already have a copy on order :)
This new release is due out in March 2021 and may interest some group members:
The Reaper's Harvesting Summer The 12-SS Panzer Division 'Hitlerjugend' in Normandy by Angelos N. MansolasDescription:
'I know every single one of these grenadiers. The oldest is barely eighteen. These boys have not yet learned how to live, but by God they know how to die!' These were the words of the division's commanding officer, SS Oberfuhrer Kurt Meyer for his own men - men admired even by their very opponents. Established in 1943, the 12th SS Panzer Division was designed to become an elite unit, consisting of 17 year-old youths, '... a generation of future soldiers, tough as leather and hard as Krupp steel', commanded by a nucleus of hardened SS officers and NCOs. This is a detailed history of the division from its formation, all through the Normandy campaign where it received its baptism of fire. Although employed in the field for the first time, those young Waffen SS soldiers fought with a tenacity and ferocity unexcelled by any other unit Allied or German deployed in the invasion front, defending doggedly every single yard of ground from Caen to Falaise - a distance of just 25 miles, for which the Canadian and British forces fought hard to capture, paying a high price in human lives.
Could be interesting Rick, especially given the units reputation in Normandy?
THE WORLD WAR TWO GROUP
Books mentioned in this topic
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)
1942: Hitler's Gamble for Victory (other topics)
Greyhounds of the Pacific: U.S. Destroyers in the War Against Japan (other topics)
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Authors mentioned in this topic
James M. Scott (other topics)James M. Scott (other topics)
Richard Hargreaves (other topics)
Richard Hargreaves (other topics)
Andrew Faltum (other topics)
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Description:
After Hitler's invasion of the Soviet Union in 1941, German troops conquered the heartland of Soviet industry and agriculture and turned the occupied territories into mass killing fields. The country's survival hung in the balance.
In Fortress Dark and Stern, Wendy Z. Goldman and Donald Filtzer tell the epic tale of the Soviet home front during World War II. Against the backdrop of the Red Army's early retreats and regained offensive after Stalingrad, civilians contended with draconian state directives, teeming black markets, petty thievery, and official corruption, displaying spirited defense efforts and selfless heroism.
n one of the greatest wartime feats in history, Soviet workers rapidly evacuated factories, food, and people thousands of miles to the east. After long and dangerous journeys in unheated boxcars, they built a new industrial base beyond the reach of German bombers. As the Soviet state reached the height of its power, imposing military discipline and sending millions of people to work thousands of miles from home, ordinary people withstood starvation, epidemics, and horrific living conditions to supply the front and make the Allied victory possible This book examines the dark and painful war years from a new perspective, telling the stories of evacuees, refugees, teenaged and women workers, runaways from work, prisoners, and deportees.
Based on a vast trove of new archival materials, Fortress Dark and Stern reveals a history of suffering, sacrifice, and ultimate triumph largely unknown to Western readers.