Recollections of WWII

Flight of Remembrance: A World War II Memoir of Love and Survival

2012-01-27T14:20:00.003Z

Against the backdrop of World War II tragedy and devastation in Latvia, Poland and Germany and three decades of European history, this true narrative provides a window into the of wartime upheaval through the lives of Rolf Dutzmann and Lilo Wassull—two people fatefully positioned “on the other side.” Written by Marina Dutzmann Kirsch, the daughter of the protagonists, the book includes a foreword by veteran author and Professor Emeritus of International Relations at Boston University, Dr. Angelo Codevilla, who personally experienced the postwar years in Italy.

In December of 1939, swept along on a tide of dire necessity and circumstance due to the imminent Soviet takeover of his homeland, Rolf, a young Latvian aeronautical engineering student, flees with his family to Germany, a country fully under Hitler’s thrall and already engaged in a brutal war. While the account chronicles Rolf’s pursuit of his technical dream against daunting wartime odds, it is first and foremost a poignant and enduring love story that plays out against a panorama of worldwide chaos and destruction.

It is also a story of the seen and unseen forces that coalesce to keep Rolf and Lilo alive after they meet in 1940 Berlin, leading them through a chain of cataclysmic events including Rolf’s draft into the Luftwaffe and his father’s assignment as chief inspector of V-2 rocket production; the bombing of Berlin; the destruction of their homes; their numerous desperate, cross-country escapes from the bombing, the advancing Soviet troops from the east, and other Allied forces from the west; the POW camp hardships; and the deprivation of the postwar years.

For more information on the book, including photos and excerpts, visit the author's homepage.

Available from:
Kirchstone Books

Tunisian Tales - The 1st Parachute Brigade in North Africa 1942-43

2012-01-27T14:10:00.003Z

Whilst many books have been written on the history of the Parachute Regiment and Airborne Forces in the Second World War, none of them have concentrated solely on the story of the 1st Parachute Brigade in North Africa between 1942 and 1943.

'Tunisian Tales' covers the raising of the Brigade in 1941 and training in the UK before their transfer to the Mediterranean theatre of operations. It also covers the three airborne operations carried out by the Brigade there - Bone, Souk-el-Arba and Depienne/Oudna - in great detail.

The book is complemented by over 100 photos many never published before, maps (including newly-commissioned colour maps, and one used by Lieutenant Colonel Pearson when in command of the 1st Parachute Battalion) and coverage of the Airborne Medical Services in the area, besides extensive appendices.

This is Niall Cherry's third book following on from his highly successful previous titles - 'Most Unfavourable Ground' and 'Striking Back'. As in his previous works, detailed research has been carried out using official reports, war diaries and veterans' accounts. The book has the full approval of 'Airborne Assault', the Museum of the Parachute Regiment and Airborne Forces at Duxford, and we are delighted that its curator, Jon Baker, has contributed the Foreword. 'Tunisian Tales' represents a notable contribution to new research into the history of Britain's airborne forces.

It is being published in a strictly limited edition hardback run of 1,000 copies, each signed by the author and individually numbered.

Available from:
Helion & Co Ltd
Casemate Publishing

Neither Sharks Nor Wolves - The Men of Nazi Germany's U-boat Arm 1939-1945

2011-12-08T15:48:00.004Z

Although countless books have been written about the U-boat war in the Atlantic, precious few facts have come to light about the men who served in the submarines that wrought such havoc on Allied ships. Eager to get beyond the stereotypes perpetuated in movies and novels and find out who these elusive sailors really were, archivist Timothy Mulligan started searching official records.

Eventually he went straight to the source, conducting a survey of more than a thousand U-boat officers and enlisted men and interviewing a number of them personally. The result is this character study of the German submarine force that challenges traditional and revisionist views of the service.

Mulligan found striking similarities in the men's geographic and social origins, education, and previous occupations, particularly within the specialised engineering and radio branches of the submarine force. The information he gathered establishes quantifiable patterns in age, length of service and experience, as well as the organisation's overall recruitment policies and training standards. The numbers and losses of U-boat personnel are also fully examined.

Beyond these objective characteristics, this study lists such subjective factors as morale, treatment of enemy ship survivors and the relationship of the submariners to the Nazi regime, confirming a serious crisis in morale in late 1943. Mulligan concludes that the U-boat arm quickly evolved from a handpicked elite to a more representative sample of the German navy at large but continued to be treated as an elite force.

Available from:
Casemate (UK)
Naval Institute Press

The Casualties Were Small - Wartime Poetry and Diaries of a Lincolnshire Seaside Villager May Hill

2011-12-06T21:27:00.002Z

May Hill began to keep a Diary not long after the outbreak of the Second World War. The strategically important East Coast area of Lincolnshire around Skegness had been transformed from a bustling holiday centre to an armed encampment. Butlins became ‘HMS Royal Arthur’ a huge Royal Navy training centre, RAF air bases sprang up throughout ‘Bomber County’ and soldiers were billeted in the villages including May’s Chapel St Leonards.

May’s son Ron volunteered for the RAF and May started to express her thoughts and prayers in verse. The poem “The Casualties Were Small” reveals her worst fears as his exposure to danger increased even before being posted abroad.

As the War continued, May maintained her eloquent record of family and village life as well as the events of the War itself – including the sad loss of three nephews and an early hint of victory with the ‘D-Day’ landings.

The selection of Diary entries in this compilation was chosen to include those which reveal the specific experiences and events which inspired over twenty poems. May’s own writing is supported by additional explanatory notes and illustrated by over thirty photographs from the collections of the family and others from her village

Detailed information and diary entries can be read on the May Hill's Diary blog.

Available from:
Ambridge Books

Terror in the Arctic - A True Story from Foreign Occupied Norway in World War II

2011-12-06T21:18:00.003Z

Terror in the Arctic is an autobiography set in World War II in Kirkenes, a small mining town in the north east of Norway, strategically important because of its proximity to the border with Russia. The story follows Bjarnhild Tulloch, who was 5 when the war started, as she tried to make sense of the change to her family life. As the war escalated, conflicts in her family deepened. Her oldest sister fell in love with a German officer and bore his children.

The tale mixes the bleak and horrific with humour and humanity, tragedy with daring and heroism, as well as funny and sometimes hilarious episodes. It covers a part of World War II little known to international readers, perhaps most notably the forcible evacuation of civilians from northern Norway by the retreating German Army.

Through it all, children learned the basics of survival and continued to play outside while listening for air raid warnings. They smuggled food parcels to the Russian prisoners and got little toys in return.

As Kirkenes was bombed to destruction, Bjarnhild and her family fled to the countryside. On her tenth birthday, in the path of the oncoming Russian Army, they escaped across a fjord in a rowing boat with a Russian plan in pursuit. They sat out the final battle, sheltering in a dug-out in a nearby hillside, until they were liberated by the Russian Army.

A tale that will strike resonance with a lot of people today and reveal the bleak conditions imposed on many people during the Second World War, Terror in the Arctic will appeal to fans of autobiography and Second World War history.

Available from:
Troubador Publishing

Rossano - Valley in Flames - An adventure of the Italian Resistance

2011-11-11T13:27:00.003Z

In July 1942, Major Gordon Lett was taken prisoner at the fall of Tobruk. After fourteen months in the notorious prison camps at Bari and Chieti, he escaped at the Armistice of September 1943 from the camp at Veano and took to the mountains above the Cisa Pass. Rather than return to England, he founded and led an entirely non-political band of highly-successful partisans, the Battaglione Internazionale.

The group fought and harassed the Brigate Nere and the Germans along the Magra valley from North of Pontremoli to La Spezia for 18 months. They were so influential to the success of the Allied advance that permanent lines of communication with the Allies were established, supplies dropped by air and, later, SAS troops sent in to assist the Brigade. 500 Allied troops escaped to safety via Rossano.

In the first few months of peace, Lett became a liaison officer of No 1 Special Force, SOE and twice crossed the lines. He was the first Allied officer to enter La Spezia in April 1945, together with the partisans. He was awarded the DSO for his services and received the Medaglia Argento al valor militaire from the Italian government. Today there is still a strong bond between many of those mentioned in the book and the Lett family. This edition of the work includes a foreword by Freya Stark.

Available from:
Pen & Sword Books

Mudville Heights: Memoirs of the US Navy Anti-submarine Squadrons at RAF Dunkeswell, Devon During WW2

2011-11-11T13:09:00.003Z

The Battle for the Atlantic proved to be one of the most important strategies of WW2. U-boats were sinking allied shipping at an alarming rate and with such appalling loss of life. In order to combat those losses RAF Coastal Command began to set up and operate a number of anti-submarine squadrons, and for once the tables began to turn on the German Navy.

Strikes on U-boats out in the North Atlantic and Bay of Biscay continued for nigh on 3 years, but despite the tables being turned, tons of merchant ships still fell prey to U-boats and the RAF seemed destined to battle on alone, then in 1943 the USAAF set up a land based anti-sub unit at St.Eval, Cornwall which was operated for several months with B-24 Liberators, before switching to a new airfield at Dunkeswell in Devon on 6th August.

Despite the success of the USAAF, Dunkeswell was destined for change once again when in September squadrons of the US Navy Fleet Air Wing Seven began to arrive, and would remain here until the end of WW2 flying the Navy version of the B-24 Liberator the PB4Y-1 .

On arrival it was soon realised that conditions on the base were far from adequate, with roads and paths around the living quarters just a sea of `mud` the men had to wear knee high boots just to trek across to the wash rooms, and it was those conditions combined with harsh winter elements that prompted someone to nick-name the base "Mudville Heights" and from then on, as one crew member put it "The name just kinda stuck!".

In this new book, the author tells the fascinating story of Dunkeswell as an airfield in WW2, with first hand accounts from the men who served there. Stories of a dedicated bunch of young Naval Aviators destined to fight it out with the dreaded U-boat menace above the icy depths of the North Atlantic & Bay of Biscay, flying their PB4Y-1 Liberators laden with high octane fuel and high explosives, through appalling weather and hostile conditions, enduring patrols of anything up to 16 hours in order to bring freedom to our nation.

Available from:
Amazon.co.uk

Come Back To Portofino - Through Italy with the 6th South African Armoured Division

2011-11-06T18:46:00.003Z

Using archival sources and private documents recently unearthed, Come Back to Portofino chronicles the journey taken by volunteers in the 6th South African Armoured Division. From training camps in Egypt through to the summer of 1945 the ‘Div’ left its mark on towns and villages across Italy. From Monte Cassino to the outskirts of Venice and the River Po, the
campaign lasted exactly twelve months.

During the advance through Rome up to Florence, it was a case of constant movement and violent contact with the enemy. Experiences which left an enduring impression on returned soldiers included the periods of rest at Siena and Lucca as well as the four miserable winter months in the northern Apennines. Overall, the casualty rate was surprisingly low considering the ideal ambush country and mountain defences which had to be overcome. In the rifle companies however, the rate of attrition was high and replacements were few. Among the South Africans who are buried in Italy, there are those who died in vehicle accidents, from drowning and falling out of windows or from suicide. For the ordinary soldier the most important part of everyday life was contact with home or foraging for food and wine, and even enjoying the company of signorine when operations permitted.

Nevertheless, it was not one long happy camping trip as was often portrayed in the press. The
cast is made up of the famous regiments and ordinary South Africans who participated in these
epic events.

Authored by James Bourhill, this new title adds a rarely heard perspective to the campaign in Italy.

Available from:
Casemate

Aus Meiner Sicht (From My View) - The Memoirs of Werner Mork - A Private's Life in the Wehrmacht during World War II

2011-10-25T13:41:00.006+01:00

This is a very interesting memoir which I came across by chance. It covers Werner Mork's service during WWII in the German Wehrmacht and is available to download free of charge.

Mork served as a driver in North Africa in 1942, in the Tobruk area. Hospitalised for a period in Germany, he was then posted to Corsica and was involved in the battles in Italy - Ortona, Anzio and Monte Cassino. Transferred to the Eastern Front, he later experienced the Russian invasion of Silesia, and was ultimately captured in Czechoslovakia.

I haven't had chance to read the book in detail, but a quick glance through indicates it is worthy of attention. The chapters available are:

Driving Supply Trucks in Africa - 1942
Driving Supply Trucks in Africa - 1942- Part II
Driving Supply Trucks in Africa - 1942- Part III
Recuperation in Halberstadt - 1943
Mork on Corsica - 1943
The Battle of Ortona - 1943
The American Landing at Anzio / Nettuno - 1944
The Battle of Monte Cassino - 1944 - Part I
The Battle of Monte Cassino - 1944 - Part II
The War on the Eastern Front - 1945
The War on the Eastern Front - 1945 - Part II
The War on the Eastern Front - 1945 - Part III
Aftermath: P.O.W.

Available from:
The book can be downloaded free of charge on Daniel Setzer's page (he translated the text).
Other selections from memoirs in the original German text can be found on the website of the German Historical Museum.

A Ship With No Name

2011-10-14T17:58:00.003+01:00

This is the story of rescue operations in the English Channel just before, during, and after the D-Day invasion aboard an ocean-going tug, "a ship with no name."

The memoir, written by the executive officer of ATR-3, tells compelling stories of the invasion, the operations of the ship, and the long trek across the Atlantic back to the US. Perhaps one of the most interesting aspects of the book is the involvement of the author in the attempt to rescue men after the sinking of the troopship SS Leopoldville. In one of the lesser known incidents of the war, the Leopoldville was torpedoed by the U-486 off Cherbourg on Christmas Eve 1944, and over 750 soldiers were lost. The narrative also describes the experience of working under extreme pressure and performing to the utmost to pull blown up LSTs or Destroyers to safety from Utah and Omaha Beaches.

The author, Richard Hersey, began his navy career as an apprentice seaman and retired as Commander. He served on the USS Mizar and ATR-3 during World War II and the USS Okanagan during the Korean War. He's still married to the bride he met in New York City after the ship-with-no-name sailed across the Atlantic Ocean in 1945.

Available from:
Createspace
Amazon.com

You Up There - We Down Here - Luftwaffe Anti-Aircraft Assistants vs. Allied Bomber Crews

2011-10-14T17:38:00.003+01:00

In 1944, entire German school classes were deployed as anti-aircraft gun assistants (Luftwaffenhelfer) to support the heavy Flak defending Germany and Austria. These schoolboys were drilled in the use of the 88mm Flak gun to support the soldiers of the Wehrmacht battling the allied bomber streams. The author, Gerhard Oberleitner, was one of these boys, and was deployed near St. Valentin, Austria, to protect the local tank production works, one of the biggest in the Reich.

Letters, reports, documents and above all, the author’s complete diary and photographs do much to support this detailed and extensive account. He describes how it was in the final two years of World War II, both on the ground and in the air, manning the guns and systems of the 7th German Anti-Aircraft Brigade. The author has also carried out research into the operations of bombers of the 15th US Air Fleet - the foes that his unit were opposing, thus providing an insight into both the lives of the schoolboy troopers “down here” and the bomber crews “up
there”.

Extracts of the book can be read here.

Available from:
Casemate

The Fatal Flag - The Top Brass in Captivity

2011-08-15T16:55:00.003+01:00

This is the true story of English POW Brigadier Claude Richards, which adds a missing dimension to the many accounts of this period in Japanese WWII history. It concentrates on the plight of high-ranking officers whose experiences as a group have largely been ignored.

Made possible by his copious yet covertly written notes, Claude's legacy also presented an opportunity to write a partial biography of his interesting family at a time when the misfortunes of war kept it apart. Deprived of any letters from his wife for the majority of his imprisonment, Claude still generated vital psychological support from the connection he maintained by writing notional letters to her. His conversational narrative also contains frequent appraisals of his fellow officers - not always complimentary!

From the malarious tropics of Formosa to the freezing gales of Manchuria, ageing men endured physical and mental abuse, the torment of starvation and the attrition of disease, but it was a consolation 'to the wretched to have companions in misery' and most survived. A combination of literature, cards, rumour and humour, or the stimulation of latent wanderlust in some cases, helped relieve the ennui and frustration of those wasted years.

Available from:
Troubador Publishing

Sacrifice On The Steppe - The Italian Alpine Corps in the Stalingrad Campaign, 1942-1943

2011-07-11T15:54:00.003+01:00

When Germany’s Sixth Army advanced to Stalingrad in 1942, its long-extended flanks were mainly held by its allied armies—the Romanians, Hungarians, and Italians. But as history tells us, these flanks quickly caved in before the massive Soviet counter-offensive which commenced that November, dooming the Germans to their first catastrophe of the war. However, the historical record also makes clear that one allied unit held out to the very end, fighting to stem the tide—the Italian Alpine Corps.

As a result of Mussolini’s disastrous alliance with Nazi Germany, by the fall of 1942, 227,000 soldiers of the Italian Eighth Army were deployed along a 270km front along the Don River to protect the left flank of German troops intent on capturing Stalingrad. Sixty thousands of these were elite mountain troops incongruously put into combat on the vast steppe. When the Don front collapsed under Soviet hammerblows, it was the Alpine Corps that continued to hold out until it was completely isolated, and which then tried to fight its way out through both Russian encirclement and “General Winter,” to rejoin the rest of the Axis front. One division was all but destroyed, but two others were able to emerge with survivors. In the all-sides battle across the snowy flatlands, thousands were killed and wounded, and even more were captured. By the summer of 1946, ten thousand survivors returned to Italy from Russian POW camps.

The consequences of Mussolini’s decision to send troops to Russia is complex and unsettling, but most of all it is a human story. Raw courage and endurance blend with human suffering, desperation and altruism in the epic saga of this withdrawal from the Don lines, including the demise of thousands and survival of the few.

Available from:
Casemate

The Last Good War: The Faces and Voices of World War II

2011-07-11T15:48:00.002+01:00

World War II remains one of the most galvanizing and defining events in the history of America. Seemingly overnight, the entire nation unified behind a singular cause. By 1945, the size of the U.S. armed forces had grown from two to twelve million men and women of every color, religion, and creed. Young people from every walk of life were inducted and volunteered. America had quickly and fiercely established itself as a global superpower, and an entire generation's identity was forged, in part, by what many still refer to as the "last good war."

Sixty years later, a young photographer named Thomas Sanders began traveling the country photographing hundreds of World War II veterans. The more he shot, the more he listened, and the more captivated he became by their memories of the war. Veronica Kavass, a writer and interviewer with StoryCorps, joined the project and spent countless hours with these men and women, recording their vivid accounts as Tom recorded their storied faces. "They are a living record of an incredibly historic time," Sanders says. "We have so much to learn from their experiences." He became determined to see that the two million living veterans were celebrated and remembered.
The Last Good War: The Faces and Voices of World War II is a chronicle of courage and hardship, sacrifice and determination. The harsh reality of combat is tempered by tender, poignant moments. The overwhelming anguish of lost brothers-in-arms sits alongside stories of enduring friendships. The war brought Americans in touch with people from all over the world – some they fought and some they fought next to, from the beaches of Normandy to the frozen plains of Russia, the North African deserts and the mountains of Japan. They came, these volunteers and draftees, from everywhere and for every reason: from the young woman pulled from her college and covertly trained to break German submarine codes, to the soldier who stormed Hitler’s castle home, these pilots, soldiers, marines, and sailors each provide a unique window into American history.

There are two million veterans still alive today, but with each passing day there are fewer and fewer. The images and memories of these men and woman, collected in these pages, preserve a profound piece of America’s history. Their past offers us a lasting and powerful perspective on today's world, and defines the true price of freedom.

This is the story of World War II through the veterans who lived it.

Visit the Mini-site for The Last Good War for preview pages, author information and more.

Available from:
Welcome Books

Voices of the Bulge - Untold Stories from Veterans of the Battle of the Bulge

2011-07-11T15:39:00.001+01:00

The powerful German counteroffensive operation code-named “Wacht am Rhein” (Watch on the Rhine) launched in the early morning hours of December 16, 1944, would result in the greatest single extended land battle of World War II. To most Americans, the fierce series of battles fought from December 1944 through January 1945 is better known as the “Battle of the Bulge.” Almost one million soldiers would eventually take part in the fighting.

Different from other histories of the Bulge, this book tells the story of this crucial campaign with first-person stories taken from the authors’ interviews of the American soldiers, both officers and enlisted personnel, who faced the massive German onslaught that threatened to turn the tide of battle in Western Europe and successfully repelled the attack with their courage and blood. Also included are stories from German veterans of the battles, including SS soldiers, who were interviewed by the authors.

Available from:
Zenith Press

Hitler's Irishmen

2011-06-27T21:14:00.002+01:00

During the Second World War, two young Irishmen served in the armed forces of Nazi Germany, swearing the oath of the Waffen-SS and wearing the organisation's uniform and even its distinctive blood group tattoo.

Ironically these young men had originally joined an Irish regiment of the British army, and but for a twist of fate would have ended up fighting against the Germans. Instead, the pair were recruited to the German special forces after they were captured on the island of Jersey.Under the command of Otto Skorzeny, the man who rescued Italian dictator Benito Mussolini from a mountain top prison, they were involved in some of the most ferocious fighting of the war in the last days of the Third Reich.This account, which also covers some of the other Irishmen who sided with Nazi Germany, draws heavily on their own accounts and on state papers which have been released in recent years.

Available from:
Mercier Press

Long Hard Road - American POWs during World War II

2011-06-27T21:02:00.002+01:00

Between 1941 and 1945 more than 110,000 American marines, soldiers, airmen, and sailors were taken prisoner by German, Italian, and Japanese forces. Most who fought overseas during World War II weren’t prepared for capture, or for the life-altering experiences of incarceration, torture, and camaraderie bred of hardship that followed. Their harrowing story—often overlooked in Greatest Generation narratives—is told here by the POWs themselves.

Long hours of inactivity followed by moments of sheer terror. Slave labor, death marches, the infamous hell ships. Historian Thomas Saylor pieces together the stories of nearly one hundred World War II POWs to explore what it was like to be the “guest” of the Axis Powers and to reveal how these men managed to survive. Gunner Bob Michelsen bailed out of his wounded B-29 near Tokyo, only to endure days of interrogation and beatings and months as a “special prisoner” in a tiny cell home to seventeen other Americans. Medic Richard Ritchie spent long moments of terror locked with dozens of others in an unmarked boxcar that was repeatedly strafed by Allied forces. In the closing chapter to this moving narrative, the men speak of their difficult transition to life back home, where many sought—not always successfully—to put their experience behind them.

Available from:
Minnesota Historical Society

A Letter from Frank: The Second World War Through the Eyes of a Canadian Soldier & a German Paratrooper

2011-06-24T16:58:00.005+01:00

This is the remarkable tale of a long-forgotten letter. It was written from Germany in the aftermath of the Second World War to a Canadian in a peaceful Southern Ontario town. Both had been soldiers and had met on a German battlefield. The letter lay unseen for years and was found by the Canadian's son long after the old soldier's death. This book tells how that faded letter led to the discovery of the one-time German paratrooper who became his father's friend in the immediate aftermath of the war.

"A Letter from Frank" is part war story and part biography, following the lives of Russ Colombo, the Canadian soldier, and Frank Sikora, the German paratrooper. One grew up during the Depression in Ontario, the other was a German in Nazi-occupied Czechoslovakia. This non-fiction narrative also chronicles Stephen J Colombo's struggle to come to terms with a father haunted by the war. Their recollections provide insights into the events that shaped the generations that forged a modern Canada and rebuilt Germany after its near-total devastation.

More information on "A Letter from Frank" can be found on the author's website, including extracts from the letters and information on how to research your relatives' wartime experiences.

Available from:
Dundurn Books

2011-05-05T13:07:00.003+01:00

Finding Uri
A man's journey to discover the father he never knew

Finding Uri is a memoir written by a man who has only one fleeting memory of his father. Uri Munro, a naval aviator flying off the U.S.S. Enterprise in the Pacific during World War II, was shot down and lost in January 1945.

The author, also a Navy carrier pilot, unexpectedly received a box in the mail following his mother’s death. It contained 190 letters written back and forth between his young parents, Uri and Betsy, while Uri was in the service flying in TBM torpedo bombers.

After almost a year’s consideration, the author began a two-year process of reading the letters and writing about the experience in real time. He includes photographs and often-emotional excerpts, and weaves other family members into the story.

Using thorough research Munro tells the fascinating history of Uri’s Torpedo Squadron 90. But more significantly he gets to know his father — and his mother — during that two-year period in their lives. It’s an intimate, true tale that the reader discovers along with the author.

Available from:
People's Press

Foreign Shores - A True Story

2011-03-09T13:13:00.003Z

Foreign Shores is the true story of Theodor Terhorst, a former German soldier held as a prisoner-of-war in England. Growing up in a small village in Nazi Germany, Theodor, like many other impressionable boys of his age, was a willing participant in the rallies and events organized by the Hitler Youth.

Called up in 1944 at the age of seventeen, he underwent training as a member of a Fallschirmjager (parachute) regiment before being posted to northern France. Wounded in heavy fighting during the allied invasion of Normandy, Theodor was evacuated to Guernsey in the Channel Islands where, after recovering from his wounds, he was subjected to the horror of gradual starvation. Eventually captured when the islands were liberated, he was shipped back to England as a prisoner-of-war. Weak and emaciated after his ordeal, he was hospitalized and given a special diet to gain weight before being sent to a POW camp in Shropshire.

By the end of 1945 with hostilities over, prisoners were allowed to work outside the camps, but many were prevented from returning to Germany in contravention of the Geneva Convention. Theodor was one of those and sent to work as a labourer on a nearby farm where he met and fell in love with the farmer’s eldest daughter.

Some years later Theodor returned to his homeland to try and settle down, but his experience was an unhappy one. Convinced that he is resented by many people for his healthy young family, his prosperity and even for the simple fact that he is still alive, he returns to England where he spends the remainder of his life, developing a sense of belonging and love for the land against which he had once fought.

Available from:
Troubador Publishing

Wartorn: 1861-2010, Exploring Combat and Post-Traumatic Stress - HBO Documentary

2010-11-08T19:03:00.002Z

American Civil War doctors called it hysteria, melancholia and insanity. During the First World War it was known as shell-shock. By World War II, it became combat fatigue. Today, it is clinically known as post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), a crippling anxiety that results from exposure to life-threatening situations such as combat.

The HBO special Wartorn 1861-2010 brings attention to the invisible wounds of war. Drawing on personal stories of American soldiers whose lives and psyches were torn asunder by the horrors of battle and PTSD, the documentary chronicles the lingering effects of combat stress and post-traumatic stress on military personnel and their families throughout American history, from the Civil War through today’s conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan. The HBO Documentary Films presentation debuts on Thursday November 11th, only on HBO in the US.

The documentary shares stories through soldiers’ revealing letters and journals; photographs and combat footage.

“Combat fatigue” was considered a character flaw in World War II. In a famous story, Gen. George S. Patton slapped a soldier hospitalized with nervous exhaustion, ordering “that yellow SOB” back to the front. It took 50 years for WWII vets to be diagnosed with PTSD. Today, in the documentary, a group opens up publicly about their traumas for the first time. Al Maher, who was a Lieutenant in the Army Air Corps, laments the toll his war experience took on his family life – he became abusive and took to drinking. As a result, he has not spoken to his sons in 25 years. Abner Greenberg, a corporal in the Marines who lost two best friends in Iwo Jima, kept his wartime traumas pent up and never shared them with his children until he joined a PTSD group and discovered what was wrong with him. Former Army sergeant Bill Thomas remembers shooting four Germans, and being moved when the sole survivor showed him a family photo. “How do you explain the horrors?” Greenberg asks. “It consumes you.”

For more information visit the HBO site.

Lost Between Worlds - A World War II Journey of Survival

2010-11-07T23:54:00.003Z

Lost Between Worlds is based on a journal written between 1940 and 1945, by Edward H Herzbaum, when he was in his twenties. It is a first-hand account of his horrendous wartime experiences, both physical and psychological, that has just been published for the first time by his daughter: the journal had been lying in a suitcase for 65 years until it was discovered
and translated.

The book spans a period of history from the German invasion of Poland in 1939 to the end of the Italian Campaign in 1945. It recounts how Edward was arrested and interned by the Germans but escaped. He travelled to eastern Poland to avoid being recaptured, but there he was arrested by the Russians and deported to a Gulag, where he suffered starvation, brutality and horrific working and living conditions.

After Germany's attack on Russia, Edward and the other Polish prisoners were amnestied and released to join a newly-formed Polish army, under British command. They travelled through Middle Asia, Iraq, Iran, British Palestine and Egypt, eventually fighting in the Italian Campaign.

Edward writes at times with humour and irony and at other times with desperation, about his arduous journey and the awful psychological after-effects of the experiences which he and the other Poles had endured. The loss of family, friends and country and the feelings of loneliness at finding themselves completely displaced from their 'old world', with no knowledge of what their 'new world' might look like, even if they survived the war.

Edward Herzbaum, born in 1920 to Polish Jewish parents, was educated in Poland. During WWII he was arrested and escaped from both the Germans and Russians and then fought in the Polish Army. In 1946 he settled in the UK and became an architect. He died in 1967.

Available from:
Troubador Publishing

Aterrem em Portugal! - Landed in Portugal

2010-11-07T22:40:00.003Z

“Aterrem em Portugal” was published in November 2008. It contains the history of dozens of landings from Allied and Axis planes that happened in Portugal during World War II. With the country lying between the routes that linked the United Kingdom to the operational theatres in the Mediterranean, Middle East, Africa and others there were over one hundred emergency landings during the six years of conflict.

About a dozen airmen from the Commonwealth and from USA that where in Portugal between 1941 and 1945, were interviewed for the book. From others, already deceased, it was possible to include information from diaries that family members still posses.

Several Portuguese witnesses also recount their versions about what they saw and lived during those years when war surrounded the country. It was also possible to put together documents from Portuguese, British, Americans, Australians and German archives.

Note that the book Aterrem em Portugal is in Portuguese. However, the fascinating website contains a large amount of information in English, including a list of all the planes that crashed in Portugal during the war.

Available from:
The Author - Carlos Guerreiro

Albanian Escape - The True Story of U.S. Army Nurses behind Enemy Lines

2010-10-06T21:01:00.003+01:00

On November 8, 1943, U.S. Army nurse Agnes Jensen stepped out of a cold rain in Catania, Sicily, into a C-53 transport plane. But she and twelve other nurses never arrived in Bari, Italy, where they were to transport wounded soldiers to hospitals farther from the front lines. A violent storm and pursuit by German Messerschmitts led to a crash landing in a remote part of Albania, leaving the nurses, their team of medics, and the flight crew stranded in Nazi-occupied territory.

What followed was a dangerous nine-week game of hide-and-seek with the enemy, a situation President Roosevelt monitored daily. Albanian partisans aided the stranded Americans in the search for a British Intelligence Mission, and the group began a long and hazardous journey to the Adriatic coast. During the following weeks, they crossed Albania's second highest mountain in a blizzard, were strafed by German planes, managed to flee a town moments before it was bombed, and watched helplessly as an attempt to airlift them out was foiled by Nazi forces.

Albanian Escape is the suspense-filled story of the only group of Army flight nurses to have spent any length of time in occupied territory during World War II. The nurses and flight crew endured frigid weather, survived on little food, and literally wore out their shoes trekking across the rugged countryside. Thrust into a perilous situation and determined to survive, these women found courage and strength in each other and in the kindness of Albanians and guerrillas who hid them from the Germans.

Available from:
University Press of Kentucky

The Grey Wolves of Eriboll

2010-10-06T20:45:00.004+01:00

The surrender of the German U-boat fleet at the end of World War II was perhaps the principal event in the war's endgame which signified to the British people that peace really had arrived. It is little known that the majority of the surrenders of U-boats on active west-European sea patrols in May 1945 were supervised in Loch Eriboll, an isolated sea loch on Scotland's far north-westernmost coast

With an estimated 160 U-boats on active patrol at the end of the war, it was imperative that these boats were made aware of the capitulation of German armed forces, that they accepted the surrender arrangements and then proceeded, surfaced, to designated British ports.

Loch Eriboll's attraction as the reception port was its isolation and its safe, deep-water anchorage - ideal for the arrival of armed U-boats that might still be intent on one last show of defiance. News of the momentous event was heavily censored - nothing appeared in the local press. Thirty-three U-boats, their officers and men surrendered between 10th and 22nd May 1945. The boats were arrested, boarded and disarmed; in some cases this vital exercise was completed by the simple expedient of lobbing ammunition, explosives and torpedo pistols overboard.

Each U-boat has been positively identified and detailed information provided including contemporary photographs, boat or flotilla emblem, together with the coordinates of where each boat was eventually destroyed in the north Atlantic. However, not all were destroyed by the Allies, some were retained by the British, American, Russian or French navies as spoils of war but the vast majority were lost accidentally or scrapped with the passage of time.

The Grey Wolves of Eriboll includes a wealth of historical insights including the German Surrender Document; detailed descriptions of the construction, service careers and circumstances of each surrendered U-boat; details of the frigates that supervised the surrenders; Operation Deadlight (a hasty plan to ensure the U-boats could not again be used aggressively) and contemporary newspaper reports.

Available from:
Whittles Publishing

Air Sea Rescue During the Siege of Malta: An eyewitness account of life with HSL107 1941-43

2010-10-06T17:27:00.002+01:00

Air Sea Rescue During the Siege of Malta provides one of few available eyewitness tales about the often overlooked role of the Air / Sea Rescue teams during World War II. Focussing on High Speed Launch HSL107 which rescued close to 100 pilots during the siege of Malta, this tale is a personal account by Bill Jackson, a crew member of HSL 107.

While everyone around them was hell-bent on death and destruction, the crews of the Air / Sea Rescue Units were dedicated to the survival of both friend and foe alike. They carried out their job with little recognition and with great heroism. Battling the elements, often in appalling sea conditions, and under near-constant air attack from a most determined enemy, the units shared the privations endured by the islanders, coming close to starvation as the Axis forces inched toward invasion.

This book shares with the reader the elation of successful rescues, the exhilaration of the High Speed Launch at full throttle, and the determination of the Units to turn out at all hours in all weathers to go to the aid of both Allied and Axis pilots.

Bill Jackson was born and raised in Workington, Cumbria. He attended RAF Cranwell No 1 Electrical and Wireless School and was posted to Malta as a Wireless Operator Mechanic (WOM) with crew of HSL 107, the 'Old Lady' of Malta. Bill was repatriated in Sept 1943. He sadly died in late 2009, before this account was published.

Available from:
Troubador Publishing

Master of None - The Life Enriched Reminiscences of a 20th Century Survivor

2010-09-25T20:52:00.003+01:00

An autobiography of a retired Army officer, Master of None follows the complete life story of Major Douglas Goddard, from his early memoirs of childhood days in south east London and Suffolk farms, then focusing on his service as a regular army officer who fought with the 43rd Wessex Division during World War 2 from the Normandy landings through to Bremen. After the war, he was involved in the repatriation of some 30,000 Russian & Polish displaced people from the area around the Belsen/Bergen Nazi concentration camps (including attending the trial of the camp guards) and saw post-war service in the Middle East during the Suez Canal crisis.

In 1938 he enlisted with the Territorial Army as part of the front line anti-invasion force before regimental duty with the 112th (Wessex) Field Regiment Royal Artillery (RA). During the Second World War he landed on Juno Beach in June 1944 and took part in major campaigns including Hill 112/Maltot, assault crossing of the Seine, Market Garden (Arnhem), breeching the Siegfried Line, the Ardennes offensive, assault crossing of the Rhine and finally through Holland into Germany at Bremen.

In 1946 he was granted a regular commission in the RA serving as an Adjutant (Dortmund), Staff Captain (London), Battery Captain in Egypt during the Suez Canal crisis then Jordan, before returning to Larkhill in the UK as a Gunnery Instructor achieving the rank of Major.

The Author has previously published the 112th Wessex Field Regiment’s wartime history which sold some 600 copies and is a regular speaker on battlefield tours, with an annual engagement mentoring on the Joint Services Command & Staff College Advanced ‘Realities of War’ course.

For more information on Major Goddard's wartime service, see the BBC People's War site.

Available from:
Troubador Publishing

Trautmann's Journey: From Hitler Youth to FA Cup Legend

2010-08-26T16:10:00.002+01:00

Every football fan knows the legend of Bert Trautmann. Fifteen minutes from the end of the 1956 FA Cup Final, Trautmann - the goalkeeper for Manchester City - falls spectacularly mid-tackle. He continues to play on to the end of the game, ensuring Manchester City win the cup. An X-ray later reveals a broken neck.

But there is more to this legend than a plucky goalkeeper. Bert Trautmann was born Bernhardt Trautmann in Germany in 1923. Brought up in a country already in the grip of National Socialism, he joined the Hitler Youth at the age of ten and went to fight for the Fatherland when he was seventeen. Despite enduring inconceivable hardships in the name of war, Trautmann continued to believe wholeheartedly in the cause. Until one day he stumbled into enemy territory to be greeted by the words, 'Fancy a cup of tea, Fritz?'

What follows is an extraordinary story of transformation. Bernhardt - a Nazi living in a POW camp in Cheshire - becomes Bert. From an amateur footballer working on a bomb disposal unit in Liverpool, to celebrated Manchester City goalkeeper adored by thousands, Catrine Clay charts Trautmann's conversion from Hitler Youth star to all-England football hero, mirroring Europe's own journey through the horrors of war to a fragile post-war peace.

Available from:
Amazon

Two Survived: The Timeless WWII Epic of Seventy Days at Sea in an Open Boat

2010-08-26T14:54:00.003+01:00

On August 21, 1940, the German armed merchant raider Widder torpedoed the British merchantman SS Anglo Saxon approximately 800 miles west of the Canary Islands. The survivors were machine-gunned as they tried to escape in their lifeboats.

One little boat escaped with seven men. Five of them perished, but Robert Tapscott and Wilbert Widdicombe endured for seventy full days and 2,300 miles to landfall on the other side of the Atlantic.

This is the incredible account of their ordeal, one of the most thrilling stories of the sea ever written—and one that almost never came to light. “It has seldom happened,” writes William McFee in the introduction, “that a narrative so circumstantial, so entirely stripped of all humbug and false sentiment, has come out of the depths of the sea, to inspire us with admiration for human valor.”

Read more about the SS Anglo Saxon on the Imperial War Museum website.

Available from:
Amazon

Shattered Walls - A World War II Memoir: From Cherbourg to Berlin

2010-07-07T21:09:00.002+01:00

The author of Shattered Walls, G. Richard Morgan, served with the Third Platoon, Company G of the Second Battalion, 407th Infantry Regiment - 102nd Infantry Division.

Landing at Cherbourg, directly from the US, in mid-Sept of 1944, the 407th Infantry Regiment was rapidly sent into combat. They saw major action reaching the Roer River and pushed on to the Elbe, being part of the resistance to the Bulge. At one point, Morgan was captured by the Germans, but luckily escaped.

When they reached Berlin, they waited for the Russians and drank vodka with them on May 3.

At that point there remained only two of the original 40 men in his platoon.

View a preview of Shattered Walls on Lulu.com.

Visit the author's website.

Available from:
Lulu

Spitting on a Soldier’s Grave - Court Martialed after death, the story of the forgotten Irish and British soldiers

2010-07-07T20:46:00.006+01:00

The story of the Irishmen who deserted from the Irish Army to join the Allies in the struggle against fascism and Nazism during the Second World War, has been kept secret for over half a century. These men fought, and sometimes died, in some of the bloodiest battles of the war. And after the war they were all Court Martialed - even the dead.

This meticulously researched book tells the story of the men who fought for freedom but were vilified after death. It tells the story of men like Joseph Mullally who died on D-Day, 6 June 1944, fighting with the British Army on the beaches of Normandy - a year before his court-martial. And Stephen McManus who'd already suffered torture and starvation whilst being worked to death in a Japanese prisoner of war camp. Gerry O'Neill risked his life with the newly formed Irish Navy, rescuing wounded British soldiers from the beaches of Dunkirk. And Nicholas McNamara volunteered to serve with RAF Bomber Command knowing it meant almost certain death.

The freedoms and democratic rights we enjoy today were earned by men like these, who fought, and sometimes died, on the home front and the battlefields of World War II. The stories of the deserters from the Irish Army are now told in Spitting on a Soldier's Grave.

Author's website - Robert Widders
Listen to an interview with the author on BBC Radio 4

Available from:
Matador

Memoirs of WWII – The True stories of a Canadian Fighter Pilot

2010-07-07T20:42:00.003+01:00

An anecdotal account of one man's journey from growing up in New Brunswick to joining the Air Force and becoming a pilot to his time in World War II and accounts of the friends he met and the trouble they got themselves into along the way.

The author is a receiver of the Distinguished Flying Cross which was bestowed upon him by King George VI. Laurie flew alongside Douglas Bader in Westhampnett while he was in 610 Squadron and was later an instructor who taught WWII heroes, like George Beurling, to fly.

Visit the book's blog for extracts.

Available from:
Lulu

WWII in the Pacific - DVD collection

2010-05-08T22:17:00.003+01:00

If your particular interest in the Second World War focuses on the battles in the Pacific, then you are particularly well catered for at the moment.

As well as the mini series The Pacific, and reprinted editions of classic books, Reader Digest have now brought out a 6 DVD collection, containing over 12 hours of footage, including period newsreels.

The 6 DVDs are:

America Taken by Surprise - The story of Japan's attack on Pearl Harbor
Attack & Counter Attack - America's offensive in the Solomon Islands, Guadalcanal and Tarawa
Victory in the Pacific - American forces turn the tide
Crucial Turning Points - A look at the stories behind 15 key battles
Headline Stories of the 20th Century - Authentic Hearst theatrical wartime newsreel footage
Going for Broke - The largely untold story of Japanese-American soldiers in WWII.

Plenty of material to keep you busy if the US experience of the Pacific War is your thing!

Available from:
Amazon (UK) (note: this is a US import so is in Region 1 - NTSC - format)
Amazon (US)

The Best Day Of My Life:: Memoirs of an Italian-American who spent World War II as a prisoner of the English

2010-04-14T22:06:00.004+01:00

The Best Day of My Life is the memoir of Frank Andreani, an Italian-American who was a victim of circumstance during the Second World War.

Born in Pennsylvania in 1919, Frank returned to his parent's home country when he was a youth. There, the family lost their money, and he ended up having to strike out on his own. Frank experienced harsh employers and a non-benevolent priest, but ultimately found a good job in Rome and settled into a comfortable life with his fiance.

This abruptly ended with his conscription into the Italian Army. Sent to North Africa, Frank fought and was captured at Tobruk, which lead to years in British POW camps in Eygpt, India and Australia.

Available from:
Booksurge Publishing

World War II Lost Films - New series on the History Channel

2010-04-11T21:02:00.005+01:00

World War II Lost Films is a new series, starting tomorrow on the History Channel. Mixing restored colour footage with narrated stories, the series tells the stories of 12 individuals who served with the US forces during the war. Some of these involve readings from diaries and letters, but the real interest for me is the personal accounts from the veterans.

The individuals covered in the series include army nurse June Wandrey, who served from the beginning of the war in North Africa to the liberation of the camps in Germany; Shelby Westbrook, a young African American who became a member of the Tuskegee Airmen; Jimmie Kanaya, the son of Japanese immigrants, who served in the U.S. Army and was imprisoned in Europe; and Jack Werner, a Jewish émigré who escaped from Austria before the war and ended up fighting in the Pacific Theater.

From the preview of the first episode, which includes an interview with Jack Werner, the series looks like it will certainly be worth watching. Werner describes his escape from Austria as the hold of the Nazis increased, and his arrival in the US. He goes on to explain his desire to strike back at the regime, but fate sent him to the Pacific. The episode also features an interesting narrative from Richard Tregaskis, describing his experiences on Guadalcanal. Werner's interview is a mixture of his own words, spoken in person and also by a 'younger' actor (Tregaskis' words are spoken by an actor as he passed away in 1973). The actors providing voices in the series include LL Cool J, Steve Zahn, Ron Livingston, James Kyson Lee, Amy Smart and Rob Lowe.

I look forward to viewing the later episodes, as the mixture of some previously unseen film footage and first hand accounts describing little known (in the UK) perspectives of the war will make a refreshing change from the oft-repeated documentaries on television. But don't expect much coverage of non-US participation in the war - enjoy it for what it is, that is a US series similar to Ken Burns' The War, made for a US audience, which still has plenty to offer to anyone interested in WWII.

See previews from the series on the Sky website and a video on the making of WWII Lost Films.

With The Old Breed - Eugene Sledge

2010-04-05T20:49:00.008+01:00

The inspiration for the forthcoming series The Pacific, Eugene B. Sledge's memoir With The Old Breed has been reissued in paperback by Ebury Press.

In 1944 Sledge landed on the beach at Peleliu in 1944 as a twenty-year-old new recruit to the US Marines. Involved in combat both there and at Okinawa, where ‘the world was a nightmare of flashes, explosions, and snapping bullets’, he witnessed first-hand two of the fiercest and filthiest Pacific battles of the Second World War.

Based on notes Sledge secretly kept hidden in a copy of the Bible, With The Old Breed captures with simplicity and honesty the horrendous conditions he, and his fellow marines, endured in this relentless theatre of war. From the heat and incessant rain, to debilitating tropical diseases and the ubiquitous jungle rot that ate away leather, canvas and flesh, Sledge describes the dehumanising horror of living with ever-present death.

Philosophical and dignified, With The Old Breed also reflects candidly on the struggle to remain human in the face of unthinkable depravity. Sledge’s hatred for the brutality of the Japanese never blinds him to their shared horrible fate of being joined together in death on Pacific beaches, nor prevents him from recognising that his fellow marines sometimes committed similar savagery.

Detailing his own journey from patriotic innocence to battle-scarred veteran, Sledge's memoir is a graphic account of war in the Pacific and a moving reflection on the senselessness of war.

E. B. Sledge was born in Mobile, Alabama. In late 1943 he enlisted in the U.S. Marine Corps, and was then sent to the Pacific where he fought at Peleliu and Okinawa. After returning from the war he immediately began working on a book based on the notes he had taken while posted in the Pacific theatre, which became With the Old Breed. Sledge joined the biology faculty of Alabama College, where he taught until his retirement. Sledge died on March 3rd, 2001. See Wikipedia for his full biography.

Available from:
Ebury Press

U-Boat Adventures - Firsthand Accounts from World War II

2010-03-21T07:53:00.002Z

Twenty-two U-boat veterans tell their chilling stories in this collection of their combat experiences in World War II, recorded by the author during several years of travel throughout Germany. It is one of very few books to examine the lives of the enlisted crew in the infamous submarines. Melanie Wiggins interviewed seventeen men and five of their commanders to take readers into the terrifying world of underwater warfare where every man helped determine the fate of his boat.

While tracking down the U-boat veterans, Wiggins came across photographs and secret diaries and gained access to personnel records. A reunion of the U-682 crew and interviews with Admiral Otto Kretschmer two months before his death and the ninety-four-year-old Commander Jürgen Wattenberg netted a wealth of information. Among the individual sagas included are Radioman Hans Bürck's description of his 1942 patrol to Aruba and Herman Wien's description of U-180 transporting an Indian anarchist to Madagascar.

Available from:
Naval Institute Press

Crossing the Zorn The January 1945 Battle at Herrlisheim as Told by the American and German Soldiers Who Fought It

2010-03-21T07:46:00.001Z

Conceived in desperation after the Battle of the Bulge in January 1945, Germany’s Operation Nordwind culminated in the frozen Alsatian fields surrounding the Zorn River. In what was expected to be an easy offensive, the German 10th Waffen SS Panzer Division attacked the American 12th Armored Division near the villages of Herrlisheim and Weyersheim. Neither army foresaw the savage violence that ensued.

Combining the vivid eyewitness accounts of veterans from both sides of the conflict with information gleaned from a variety of long-unavailable print sources, this richly detailed history casts a fascinating light on a little-known but crucial battle in the Second World War. Common stalwart German and American soldiers carried out near-impossible orders.

Available from:
McFarland

A Bristol Soldier in the Second World War

2010-03-21T07:42:00.002Z

Having been lucky to suvive a German air raid on his Bristol home, Herbert Haddrell's personal account of the harrowing experience of being called up and sent to Normandy, where he was seriously wounded after 43 days of battle, is a fascinating and moving story.

Using Herbert's recollections and some valuable letters, diaries and accounts of fellow soldiers, this book reveals the tale of a nineteen-year-old caught up in the midst of one of history's darkest moments. Supplemented with background information about the war and life in Bristol, this volume also includes rare photographs and archive material from the author's personal collection.

Compiled by Herbert's son, this book is a poignant reminder of the terrible ordeal that so many brave young men had to face in order to defend king and country, and perhaps even more importantly, their families and homes.

Available from:
The History Press

On and off the Flight Deck Reflections of a Naval Fighter Pilot in World War 2

2010-03-21T07:33:00.002Z

Hank Adlam began his naval flying career in 1941, his first operational posting was to the newly-formed No. 890 Squadron. The squadron’s first operational role was to protect a convoy sailing from New York and bound for Greenock. Their major task was to protect the ship’s squadron of Fairey Swordfish anti-submarine aircraft and to destroy any long-range Lufwaffe Fw Condor reconnaissance patrols that were transmitting convoy positions to the waiting U-boat wolf-packs. During this first operational voyage he lost his best friend who was shot down. Later, on this same initiation to front-line operational flying, Hank was forced to ditch into gale-torn Atlantic Ocean.

In the autumn of 1942, 890 Squadron joined the fleet carrier HMS Illustrious, again involving convoy protection. During one patrol he helped destroy an enemy Blohm und Voss Bv 138 Seaplane. Illustrious sailed for the Mediterranean arriving in Malta, with the objective of providing air cover for the landings at Salerno. 1944 saw the Squadron pilots despatched aboard HMS London and then they briefly joined HMS Atheling, to provide air cover for a strong fleet attacking Japanese shipping around the Andaman Islands. When 890 was disbanded he joined 1839 Squadron flying the new Grumman Hellcat.

Available from:
Pen & Sword Books

The War Diaries of a Panzer Soldier: Erich Hager with the 17th Panzer Division on the Russian Front • 1941-1945

2010-03-21T07:24:00.002Z

This book is a unique personal account of the war on the Russian Front, written using the diaries and photos of Erich Hager who served in the 39th Panzer Regiment, 17th Panzer Division throughout the war in Russia.

Hager rose to the rank of Unteroffizier and served as a company commander’s tank radio operator. During this time he kept diaries in which he recorded the events he went through every day at the front. His diaries have been translated and are presented with additional notes. Hager also took many personal photographs of comrades, and vehicles – many are included here. The book also includes a chapter on the 17th Panzer Division.

Despite taking part in many in many battles on the Russian Front, including the attempted relief effort at Stalingrad, little information on the 17th Panzer Division has been published. Hager’s material provides a tremendous insight into the war on the Russian Front from a front line soldier’s perspective.

Available from:
Schiffer Books

RIP - Cy Grant & Horace Greasley

2010-02-19T19:45:00.002Z

Sadly, this month two of the authors of memoirs featured by this blog have passed away.

Cy Grant - A Member of the RAF of Indeterminate Race - Obituary (Daily Telegraph 15th February 2010)

Horace Greasley - Do Birds Still Sing in Hell? - Obituary (Daily Telegraph 12th February 2010)

Favourable Winds - free book to download

2010-02-18T13:18:00.005Z

Favourable Winds - A Twentieth Century Odyssey tells the personal story of Gerry O'Neill, who sadly passed away last year.

Gerry was a member of the Merchant Navy during the Second World War, and while this book covers his entire life, the chapters relating to his wartime experience are of particular interest. I have extracted these from the table of contents to indicate a flavour of the content of Favourable Winds.

Growing Up in North Dublin and Going to Sea 1925-41

Canadian Pacific Steamships, 1941-42

R.M.S. Empress of Asia
Escape from Singapore

Irish Shipping Limited, 1942

s.s. Irish Larch (ex Haifa Trader)
The Matriculation Examination

British Merchant Navy, 1942-43

s.s. Lornaston
Air Raid on London Dockland
Invasion of North Africa

Ministry of War Transport, 1943

North Africa – Interpreter, Algiers and Oran
Spared by a German Airman
Danke Schön, Fritz, Für Unserer Leben, und Guten Reisen

Marriage and a Brief Honeymoon, 1943

Another Welcome Respite from the War
Du Bist Mein Ganzen Herz

Special Exercises, 1943

Operations Mincemeat and Cockade
We bury "The Man Who Never Was" at Huelva
An Abortive Invasion Attempt
Liaisons Dangereuses

Canadian Pacific Steamships, 1943-44

R.M.S. "Empress of Australia"
A Passage to India and the East
A Venture into the Carpet Trade

The Loneliest Christmas I Ever Spent, 1943

A Bleak Day in Belfast
No Room at the Inn

Stranded in Cork, 1944-

A Most Opportune Football Match

Farm Labourer, 1944

A Welcome Break from Hostilities
A Few Peaceful Days in Bangor, North Wales

Further Episodes on the R.M.S Empress of Australia, 1944

Encounter with a Hurricane
Momentous First Visit to New York

Russian Convoy, 1944

Repatriation of Soviet Prisoners from French Labour Camps
Inability to Save Lives at Sea
Libera Nos a Malo

Flower Class Corvettes

North Atlantic Convoys

North Atlantic Convoys, 1944-45

The Toss of a Coin and the Loss of a Friend
A Great Personal Tragedy
Non Nobis sed Vobis

Off to War in the Pacific, 1944

A Frightening Passage through the Panama Canal
Russian Roulette in New Guinea

The Battle of Leyte Gulf, 1944

The Most Incisive Battle of the War against Japan
“War is too important to be left to the generals” - Winston Churchill

The Battle of Iwo Jima, 1945

A Hard-Fought Encounter with the Japanese

The Last and Costliest Battle of the War – Okinawa, 1945

Fortunate to Survive a Near Fatality

Sojourn in Honolulu, 1945

Experience of U.S. Care and Attention

Favourable Winds is downloadable free of charge in PDF format, or you can purchase the print edition from Lulu.

A Desert Rats Scrapbook: Cairo to Berlin 1940-1945

2010-02-18T13:13:00.003Z

In 1940 Ted Fogg and Ernest Webster joined The Desert Rats, one of the most famous divisions to fight in the Second World War. They were posted to the Western Desert and fought with the 7th Armoured Division against Mussolini's soldiers and Rommel's Afrika Korps. They were at Beda Fomm, Alamein and Tripoli, finally driving the Axis from Africa at Tunis. Next came Salerno and the Italian Campaign before withdrawal to Britain in readiness for D-Day. Moving through France, Belgium, Holland and on into Germany itself, they were both present at Luneburg Heath when Montgomery took the final surrender of the German Forces in north-west Europe. Eventually they took part in the great Victory Parade in Berlin in 1945.

The Desert Rats Scrapbook is the story of these two young men, told through over 180 photographs, many from the personal collection of the late Trooper Ted Fogg who was attached to TAC HQ, and the recollection of Sergeant Ernest Webster who was a tank driver and later was attached to HQ as a planner. Their friendship continued until Ted Fogg's death in 1986. Ernest Webster, at the age of 92, lives on at his home in Derbyshire. Roger Fogg, who painstakingly collated this unique record, is Ted's son.

Available from:
The History Press

First to Fight: Poland's contribution to the Allied Victory in WWII

2009-11-15T08:30:00.005Z

In recent years, Polish veterans in the UK were shocked to discover young people in Britain asking whether Poland fought with Germany. To ensure that the Polish contribution to Britain's war effort is never forgotten, First to Fight has been published.

First to Fight recounts Poland’s epic six-year struggle—with some historically significant texts being published for the first time, such as the English translation of Stalin’s signed order to execute 14,736 of the Polish officer corps at Katyn Forest in 1940.

The story is brought to life with moving personal stories from Poles who fought in the air, on land and at sea, on many fronts.

For example, the myth of Polish cavalry charging German Panzers is addressed: yes they did charge, but to good effect as recounted by Lieutenant Andrzej Zylinski. Leading the 4th Squadron of the Polish 11th Uhlan Regiment they charged with sabres drawn, breaching the German defences of Kaluszyn. After fierce fighting the town was captured with the almost complete destruction of the German 44th Regiment, whose commander committed suicide.

The book is available on Amazon but at a vastly inflated price - order it directly from the publishers.

Available from:
The Polish Armed Forces Memorial

In the Prison of His Days: The Memoirs of a Captured World War Two Gunner

2009-11-13T12:22:00.002Z

When Gunner George Norman Davison returned to his hometown of Sheffield, England, upon the conclusion of the Second World War, he used the diary he had carried with him to write a vivid first-hand account of his experiences.

These included the former insurance clerk's initial training in the UK and posting to North Africa; his immediate separation from Irene, his newlywed wife; his subsequent capture and imprisonment in the desert camps of Libya; the seemingly endless, lonely and hungry minutes dreaming of food and home; his re-transportation to Italy; the cruelty and kindness of his captors there; and - finally - his escape with the aid of the Italian resistance across the border on Lake Como into Switzerland.

Job done, Davison then put his remarkable story to one side before typing it up in manuscript form shortly before his death in 1986, whereupon it was rediscovered in a dusty attic by his only son, John. Alongside it was a battered old suitcase which contained yet more fascinating items, including each and every letter that Norman and Irene Davison had written to one another in those dark days from 1939 to 1946.

Published by Scratching Shed Publishing.

Available from:
Amazon

Free extract from "Dear Coach: Letters Home from WWII" by Lois Herr

2009-11-11T12:22:00.004Z

Lois Herr has kindly provided an extract from her new book “Dear Coach: Letters Home from WWII”. Lois has also written an introduction to the piece, which I hope you will find of interest:

In “Dear Coach: Letters Home from WWII” I’ve compiled together a variety of the letters mom and I stumbled across in the attic written to dad, with pictures, scrapbook clippings, newspaper articles and a wide variety of historical information from the time to paint a picture of what life must have been like for these small-town college men and women as not only their country went into war, but so did their friends and family. I hope you enjoy the following excerpt from Chapter 5 of “Dear Coach: Letters Home from WWII” entitled “Campus Exodus” and featuring the events that occurred with Coach and his Elizabethtown College athletes during the year 1942.

“Dear Coach: Letters Home from WWII” excerpt from Chapter 5 – Campus Exodus

“In 1942, Coach hears from his athlete soldiers in Maryland, California, Alabama, Arakansas, Virginia, New York, Arizona, Louisiana, and North Carolina. Spread around the country, they still follow the fortunes of Elizabethtown College teams and try to keep playing ball themselves, though Gene Shirk confesses he plays more ping-pong than baseball. Having heard about Coach’s new daughter, he starts his first letter of 1942,

Say, how does it feel to be a Pap? Did you pass out cigars yet? I was asked today when I am going to pass out the cigars because I made PFC December 10. I now have a First and fourth with total $51.00 a month. Not bad only I sure wish I could have made Corporal. Maybe I will by the time the war is over.

Many of the athlete soldiers mark time, waiting while Uncle Sam figures out what to do with all the new recruits. There’s even star entertainment while things get organized, according to Rudy Rudisill, who sees a three-hour show at Hamilton Field – Kay Kyser’s orchestra with Lucille Ball, Marlene Dietrich, Rita Hayworth, Phil Reagan, Desi Arnez, and Linda Darnell. Emory Stouffer and Rudisill hold jobs where they work with troop deployments, and both are getting busy; still they make time to stay in touch and both are stationed close to home. Stouffer writes,

Ft. Belvoir, Va.

January 11, 1942

Dear Kathryn, Ira, and the Daughter,

How is everyone? Haven’t heard from you in a long time…

Since Christmas a lot of activity took place in this Training Center. Troops, troops and more troops in and out, all ready for a new experience. We transferred all of last group during the week of Christmas, and during the past week we got another group of 200 or more. This time we will have all available rooms taken up and in fact maybe we’ll start stacking beds. We expect another hundred men in the morning and 6:00 A.M. Our capacity is supposed to be 250 including cadre [staff] but the way it looks we’ll have over 300. Beds were moved closer together and all vacant rooms are being activated. Rooms that normally have two men will have three, etc, so you know the U.S. means business…

How are the basketball teams Coach? Of course, the girls should be winning as usual and make the boys feel a bit blue.

Well folks, it’s getting late and I still have to write my few lines to the “Round Robin” letter. The Round Robin is the roommates of 212 last year – John, Charlie, Perry, and Bob. Just heard from them so I’ll have to pass it on to the next receiver.

Best wishes to all.

Love,

Emory

The chapter continues on featuring letters from not only Emory but several of his fellow athletes now deployed to various air fields, training centers, etc. Their words to my dad, Coach Ira Herr, paint a picture of what life must have been like for these small-town college men and women as not only their country went into war, but so did their friends and family. I hope you have as enlightening of a time reading “Dear Coach” as I did writing it.

Follow the rest of Lois Herr’s virtual book tour by stopping by her official blog to see where she’s headed next.

Free extract from Dear Coach: Letters Home from WWII

2009-11-06T14:27:00.001Z

On the 11th November I will be posting a free extract from a new book by Lois Herr - Dear Coach: Letters Home from WWII.

Dear Coach features letters that were sent to Lois's father, sports coach Ira Herr, during WWII. The letters were written by various students, friends and family members who once played for the coach at Elizabethtown College in Pennsylvania.

The book gives an inside look at not only the impact of the war on a small college community in the US, but also that of multiple heartfelt player and coach relationships.

The book can be purchased via the author's website.

Master of None

2009-11-06T08:13:00.002Z

Peace, War and Love

2009-11-06T07:39:00.004Z

Peace, War and Love by John Smale is the story of two people who came together and married just after WW2 started.

Jack and Sophie had different childhoods in the years between the Wars. Jack grew up on a Dorset farm as the youngest of seven children. Sophie, as the eldest of seven sisters found herself increasingly having to look after her growing number of siblings.

The couple met and then moved apart. There were lots of `near misses' during the War, but they both, luckily, survived. Jack was a soldier who was stationed in London during the Blitz and was later torpedoed on his way to Algiers with the REME. The book includes an account of the last few hours of the Windsor Castle and how the troops were rescued. There are descriptions of his advance through North Africa and his posting in Italy.

Meanwhile Sophie was stationed at RAF Manstone and only escaped death because she, and a friend, had a bad feeling about going into an air-raid shelter one night. She became pregnant by Jack, now her husband, on their last night together before he was posted the ill fated Windsor Castle.

So, fate appeared to be ganging up on them but it was actually conspiring to keep them together. After the War, they remained a happily married couple until Jack died earlier this year (2009). Sophie is still alive and lives in the village where they met.

Available from:
Amazon

Corvettes Canada: Convoy Veterans of WWII Tell Their True Stories

2009-10-23T16:14:00.003+01:00

In Corvettes Canada, Mac Johnston re-creates life aboard corvettes through the worlds of the veterans themselves. Within a framework of the basic events of the war, this book is essentially the product of the memories of more than 250 men, collected by correspondence in a project that got underway with an initial personalized letter to several hundred corvette veterans in 1990. Hundreds of additional letters followed as more veterans were identified. The letter count rose to 1,400 and then 1,900 to flesh out the corvette story.

From the fall of 1940 until May 1945, Corvettes Canada follows these small warships as they shepherd convoys of merchant ships carrying weapons, food, oil, raw materials and manufactured goods from North America to the United Kingdom. On the return trip, the escorts bring back the empty vessels for reloading.

As told in the worlds of the veterans, the routines of life aboard a corvette are punctuated by sudden burst of fierce action--the life-and-death moments for warships, merchant ships and German submarines. This was but one enemy--the other was the North Atlantic itself, a powerful force that brought severe cold, icy storms and fierce gales.

In addition to the famous Newfie-Derry Run on the North Atlantic, corvettes also saw duty in the Gulf of St. Lawrence, on the triangle run to New York and Boston, in the Caribbean, in the Mediterranean and in the English Channel, as well as the Pacific Ocean.

Published by Wiley. Preview at Google books.

Available from:
Amazon

Naked Heart - A Soldier's Journey to the Front

2009-10-23T15:34:00.002+01:00

Naked Heart: A Soldier’s Journey to the Front is a powerful statement about the dark and vainglorious side of combat as experienced in World War II by a young private, Harold Pagliaro. His true story is a gripping, authentic account of men’s behavior in the face of death on the battlefield.

Pagliaro is sent to the Vosges front in France in 1944, as a solo replacement in a reconnaissance unit, isolated from the men he trained with. Facing death moment to moment, without friends or a sense of belonging, he sees firsthand how the reality of battle distorts men with fear. They look for relief in pathetic shows of false courage or the exercise of arbitrary power. Throughout Naked Heart, Pagliaro’s army life and war experiences connect closely with his personal life: unfulfilled love, friends, family—in particular a younger brother.

Shocked by a lack of truth revealed in letters he sent home from the war, Pagliaro gathered his memories into a book. He committed himself to relate the true story behind the letters’ white-washed surface. His straightforward, informal style blends fact, feeling, and perspective.

There are a number of positive reviews on Amazon.

Available from:
Truman State University Press

Two Soldiers, Two Lost Fronts - German War Diaries of the Stalingrad and North Africa Campaigns

2009-10-23T12:19:00.001+01:00

This book is built around two recently discovered war diaries—one by a member of the 23rd Panzer Division which served under Manstein in Russia, and the other by a member of Rommel’s AfrikaKorps. Together, along with detailed timelines and brief overviews, they comprise a fascinating “ground level” look at the German side of World War II.

The assignment of keeping the first diary was given to a soldier in the 2nd Battalion, 201st Panzer Regiment by a commanding officers and the author never saw fit to include his own name. This diary covers the period from April 1942 to March 1943, the momentous year when the tide of battle turned in the East. It first details the unit’s combat in the great German victory at Charkov, then the advance to the Caucasus, and finally the brutal winter of 1942–43.

The second diary’s author was a soldier named Rolf Krengel. It starts with the beginning of the war and ends shortly after the occupation. Serving primarily in North Africa, Krengel recounts with keen insight and flashes of humour the day-to-day challenges of the AfrikaKorps. During one of the swirling battles in the desert, Krengel found himself sharing a tent with Rommel at a forward outpost. The Field Marshal read parts of the diary with interest and signed it. Evacuated due to illness, Krengel then records service in Berlin beneath the relentless Allied bomber streams and other occurrences on the German homefront.

Neither of the diarists was famous, nor of especially high rank. However, these are the brutally honest accounts written at the time by men of the Wehrmacht who participated in two of history’s most crucial campaigns.

Available from:
Casemate

Soldiers of Misfortune - lvoirien Tirailleurs of World War II

2009-10-18T22:56:00.003+01:00

This is a study of the African veterans of a European war. It is a story of men from the Cote d'Ivoire, many of whom had seldom traveled more than a few miles from their villages, who served France as tirailleurs (riflemen) during World War II.

Thousands of them took part in the doomed attempt to hold back the armies of the Third Relch in 1940; many were to spend the rest of the war as prisoners in Germany or Occupied France.

Others more fortunate came under the authority of Vichy France, and were deployed in the Defense of the “Motherland” and its overseas possessions against the threat posed by the Allies. By 1943, the tirailleur regiments had passed into the service of de Gaulle's free French and under Allied command, played a significant role in the liberation of Europe.

In describing these complex events, Dr. Lawler draws upon archives in both France and the Cote d'Ivoire. She also carried out an extensive series of interviews with Ivoirien veterans principally, but not exclusively, from the Korhogo region. The vividness of their testimony gives this study a special character. They talk freely not only of their wartime exploits, but also of their experiences after repatriation.

Lawler allows them to speak for themselves. They express their hatred of forced labor and military conscription, which were features of the colonial system, yet at the same time reveal a pride in having come to the defense of France. They describe their role in the nationalist struggle, as foot soldiers of Felix Houphouet-Boigny, but also convey their sense of having become a lost generation. They recognize that their experiences as French soldiers had become sadly irrelevant in a new nation in quest of its history.

Available from:
Ohio University Press

Few Returned: Diary of Twenty-eight Days on the Russian Front, Winter, 1942-43

2009-10-18T20:51:00.003+01:00

After World War II more than one hundred books appeared that dealt with the experience of the Italian army in Russia, and particularly the terrible winter retreat of 1942-1943. Few Returned (I piu' non ritornano) is the only one of these that is still regularly reissued in Italy.

Eugenio Corti, who was a twenty-one-year-old second lieutenant at the time, found himself, together with 30,000 Italians and a smaller contingent of Germans, encircled on the banks of the River Don by enemy forces who far outnumbered them. To break out of this encirclement, these men undertook a desperate march across the snow, with constant engagements and in temperatures ranging from -20 to -30 degrees Fahrenheit. Whereas supplies were air-dropped to the Germans, the predicament of the Italians was far more difficult: lacking gasoline, they were compelled to abandon their vehicles and to proceed without heavy arms, equipment, ammunition, or provisions. Even the wounded had to be abandoned, though it was well known that the soldiers of the Red Army"enraged by the brutality of the German invasion"killed all the enemy wounded who fell into their hands. After twenty-eight days of encirclement, only 4,000 of the 30,000 Italians made it out of the pocket.

Eugenio Corti began writing his diary at a military hospital immediately after being repatriated from the Russian front. When in September 1943 Italy found itself cut in two by the Armistice, Corti, loyal to his officer's oath, joined up with what remained of the Italian army in the south and with those few troops participated in driving the Germans off Italian soil, fighting at the side of the British Eighth and the American Fifth Armies.

Published by the University of Missouri Press.

Available from:
Amazon

Diary of a Red Devil - By Glider to Arnhem with the 7th King's Own Scottish Borderers

2009-10-18T20:20:00.004+01:00

Diary of A Red Devil relates the war time experiences of a young man, Albert Blockwell from the north-east of England, who in February 1940 was called up for service with the Army. Initially conscripted into the Royal Army Ordnance Corps and trained as a vehicle mechanic, he was then posted in March 1940 to a pre-war Territorial unit - The 7th Kings Own Scottish Borderers, then a home defence unit based near London. His diary is a most interesting account of a young vehicle mechanic who also had to learn to be a infantry soldier. Albert remained with this unit for all his war-time service, later going to the Shetland Islands when the 7th KOSB were part of OSDEF (Orkney and Shetlands Defence Force).

Then in late 1943 much to their surprise the unit was posted to Lincolnshire to become the third infantry unit in the 1st Airlanding Brigade then in the process of returning from Italy with the rest of the 1st Airborne Division. Swapping their glengarries for red berets Albert and his comrades had to adapt to their new way of getting to war by glider. The diary continues with a down to earth account of the highs and lows of the next few months.

In September 1944 Albert flew to Holland on Operation Market-Garden and his account (written in PoW camp) describes the savage nine days fighting at Arnhem from the slit trench level. Taken prisoner on the last day his account then describes the spartan life in PoW camp without pulling any punches.

Sadly Albert died in 2001 but his diary survived and his daughter Maggie Clifton together with help from two published 'Arnhem' authors have edited a unique account of the fighting at Arnhem from the frontline soldier's perspective.

Available from:
Helion

Forgotten Voices of D-Day

2009-10-18T10:29:00.003+01:00

6 June 1944 is one of the most momentous days in history: the day Allied forces crossed the Channel and began fighting their way into Nazi-occupied Northwest Europe. Preceded by airborne units and covered by air and naval bombardment, the Normandy landings were the most ambitious combined airborne and amphibious assault ever attempted. Their success marked the beginning of the end for Nazi Germany.

Drawing on thousands of hours of eyewitness testimony recorded by the Imperial War Museum, Forgotten Voices of D-Day tells the compelling story of this turning point in the Second World War in the words of those who were there. We hear from paratroopers and commandos, glider pilots and landing craft crewmen, airmen and naval personnel. We learn first-hand of what it was like as men waited to go in, as they neared the beaches and drop zones, as they landed and met the enemy. Accounts range from memories of the daring capture of ‘Pegasus’ bridge by British glider-borne troops to recollections of brutal fighting as the assault forces stormed the beaches. Shedding fresh light too on the American contribution, they include the memories of British personnel caught up in the terrible events at Omaha Beach where United States forces suffered over 2,000 casualties.

Published by Ebury Press.

Available from:
Amazon

Sharpshooter - Memories of Armoured Warfare 1939-45

2009-10-18T10:01:00.003+01:00

J L Cloudsley-Thompson served in an armoured regiment, the 4th County of London Yeomanry (The Sharpshooters) from 1941 to 1944.

He discovered that a battlefield bore little resemblance to the parade grounds and training areas at home; and he pulls no punches in describing the frustrations of fighting against an enemy whose tanks, for the most part, were better armed and armoured than our own. He graphically describes tank battles in the deserts of North Africa and his experiences in Normandy where his Cromwell was knocked-out by a Tiger from a squadron commanded by German ‘ace’ Michael Wittmann near Villers-Bocage.

There follows a gripping account of the escape he and his crew made back to British lines, which included an alarming encounter with a French butcher. He does not shrink from describing the ghastly results from direct hits by anti-tank guns or land mines, nor the fearsome casualties suffered by wildlife, farm animals and domestic pets. On the lighter side, he and his men found and cared for a baby desert fox-cub until, as he puts it, ‘she decamped into the desert during a heavy barrage, having decided that she was now old enough to look after herself in her native environment.’

This book will inevitably become one of that body of war reminiscences distinguished by their uncompromising commitment to telling it as it was, not as the propagandists would have it.

Available from:
Arcturus Press

Your Loyal and Loving Son - The Letters of Tank Gunner Karl Fuchs, 1933–1941

2009-10-18T08:49:00.002+01:00

These are the compelling letters of Karl Fuchs, an ordinary German soldier who was completely convinced of the righteousness of his cause and who wrote them free of the recriminations and hindsight arising from the bitterness of defeat. Combining enthusiastic expressions of loyalty to the Führer and the Fatherland with messages of love for his family and requests for necessities from home, they provide a personal look at a youth typical of his time, one whose fervent and naive nationalism was of the very sort that later fanned the flames of the Holocaust.

Throughout Your Loyal and Loving Son, young Fuchs remains an idealist, confident in his concept of duty. Yet his letters clearly support the general assertion that many Germans who backed the Third Reich did so neither out of opportunistic self-interest nor nihilistic delight in destruction, but instead in the hope for a better future. Killed on the Eastern Front, Fuchs did not live to see his son, the infant to whom he wrote and who as an adult compiled these letters for publication. With an introduction and annotations by eminent historian Dennis Showalter, this collection will help make those early war years more comprehensible to contemporary readers.

Available from:
Potomac Books

Lives of Hitler’s Jewish Soldiers - Untold Tales of Men of Jewish Descent Who Fought for the Third Reich

2009-10-18T08:39:00.002+01:00

They were foot soldiers and officers. They served in the regular army and the Waffen-SS. And, remarkably, they were also Jewish, at least as defined by Hitler’s infamous race laws. Pursuing the thread he first unraveled in Hitler’s Jewish Soldiers, Bryan Rigg takes a closer look at the experiences of Wehrmacht soldiers who were classified as Jewish. In this long-awaited companion volume, he presents interviews with twenty-one of these men, whose stories are both fascinating and disturbing.

As many as 150,000 Jews and partial-Jews (or Mischlinge) served, often with distinction, in the German military during World War II. The men interviewed for this volume portray a wide range of experiences—some came from military families, some had been raised Christian—revealing in vivid detail how they fought for a government that robbed them of their rights and sent their relatives to extermination camps. Yet most continued to serve, since resistance would have cost them their lives and they mistakenly hoped that by their service they could protect themselves and their families. The interviews recount the nature and extent of their dilemma, the divided loyalties under which many toiled during the Nazi years and afterward, and their sobering reflections on religion and the Holocaust, including what they knew about it at the time.

Rigg relates each individual’s experiences following the establishment of Hitler’s race laws, shifting between vivid scenes of combat and the increasingly threatening situation on the home front for these men and their family members. Their stories reveal the constant tension in their lives: how some tried to hide their identities, and how a few were even “Aryanized” as part of Hitler’s effort to retain reliable soldiers—including Field Marshal Erhard Milch, three-star general Helmut Wilberg, and naval commander Bernhard Rogge.

Chilling, compelling, almost beyond belief, these stories depict crises of conscience under the most stressful circumstances. Lives of Hitler’s Jewish Soldiers deepens our understanding of the complex intersection of Nazi race laws and German military service both before and during World War II.

Published by The University Press of Kansas.

Available from:
Amazon

Looking Backwards Over Burma

2009-10-18T08:24:00.003+01:00

In this memoir, Dennis Spencer recalls his experiences as an observer/navigator in the two-man crew of a Bristol Beaufighter ~ the twin-engined, long-range, heavy fighter aircraft that served with such distinction in a variety of roles during World War II ~ in which he clocked up over 200 operational hours whilst on active service with 211 Squadron, of 224 Group, Third Tactical Air Force, South East Asia Air Command.

Alongside his flying partner, pilot Geoff Vardigans, Dennis undertook 52 hazardous sorties over Japanese-occupied territory in Burma and Siam (now Myanmar and Thailand) during 1944.

In Beaufighters armed with under-wing rocket projectiles in addition to their usual cannons, the aircrews of 211 Squadron were given the task of seeking out and attacking enemy road, rail and waterborne transport of all kinds, which required them to fly long distances at low level over hostile territory, often for many hours at a stretch, with little hope of escape or rescue in the event of mechanical failure, pilot fatigue or being shot down – all of which were distinct possibilities.

About the only thing in their favour was the Beaufighter’s remarkably silent approach at a low level, enabling surprise attacks to be achieved and earning the aircraft its macabre nickname "Whispering Death".

Flying long-range missions at low level, over hilly jungle terrain, presented numerous challenges to both pilot and navigator and Dennis does well to describe the mixture of excitement and anxiety he experienced on operations, with much of his time spent facing backwards, in the Beaufighter’s swivelling navigator’s seat, keeping a watchful eye for enemy fighters – hence the doubly apposite title of his memoir.

Available from:
Woodfield Publishing

Scheisshaus Luck: Surviving the Unspeakable in Auschwitz and Dora

2009-09-06T20:36:00.005+01:00

Two months after his 19th birthday, Pierre Berg was still a cocky kid – riding his bicycle around Nice and dreaming of owning a beauty shop to support his future as a gigolo – when he was arrested by the Nazis. His “crime” wasn’t being Jewish. It was bad timing – he visited a friend at the same time the SS was searching for, and found a shortwave radio transmitter. Pierre was frisked, handcuffed, pushed into a car, and then put onto a train. Thus began his 18-month ordeal as a political prisoner and slave laborer. Thanks to what Pierre describes as “shithouse luck,” he narrowly escaped becoming another victim of the Nazi death machine.

In Scheisshaus Luck: Surviving the Unspeakable in Auschwitz and Dora, Pierre Berg tells his incredible Holocaust story – with striking immediacy, raw honesty, and twists of wry humor. This memoir is written from the perspective of a very young man fresh from the experience because, in fact, Berg wrote the first draft in 1948, a year after his arrival in the United States and three years after VE Day. When he couldn’t find any takers for his story after the war, Berg put his manuscript in a drawer and left it there for nearly 50 years. Angered by Holocaust deniers, Pierre wanted to tell his story — A French gentile political prisoner, who witnessed, and barely survived, the systematic murder of 11 million people.

The book has its own website which includes extracts, interviews and videos. It is published by Amacom.

Available from:
Amazon

The Box from Braunau

2009-09-06T20:22:00.005+01:00

As a child, Jan Elvin thought very little about the tin box her father brought home from World War II. What she would soon learn was that the box had been a gift from an inmate at a German slave labor camp. Her discovery would start her on a long journey to uncover some of the fascinating and horrifying history surrounding the War, as well as a search to understand the man still haunted by its memories.

The Box from Braunau is both a daughter's emotional memoir of the unraveling and healing of a father-daughter relationship damaged by the ghosts of war, and a chronicle of a war veteran whose return to civilian life was marred by nightmares of combat and concentration camps. We follow the lives of journalist Bill Elvin and his daughter through excerpts from the riveting diary he kept during the war and private letters and newspaper articles he wrote as a journalist on his return. We follow him from his first days on the battlefield as a lieutenant in Patton's Army to his days at the Ebensee concentration camp, where he witnessed first-hand the prisoners' sufferings brought about by Nazi atrocities. We gain a new understanding of the War and its effects on the men who fought it.

Featuring exclusive interviews with family members and fellow soldiers, as well as with survivors of the camps, The Box from Braunau is an illuminating look at war through the eyes of one family. It is published by AMACOM.

The book has a detailed website which includes an excerpt and the table to contents.

Available from:
Amazon

Do the Birds Still Sing in Hell?

2009-09-06T20:15:00.003+01:00

Horace 'Jim' Greasley was twenty years of age in the spring of 1939 when Adolf Hitler invaded Czechoslovakia and latterly Poland. There had been whispers and murmurs of discontent from certain quarters and the British government began to prepare for the inevitable war.
After seven weeks training with the 2nd / 5th Battalion Leicester’s, he found himself facing the might of the German army in a muddy field south of Cherbourg, in Northern France, with just thirty rounds of ammunition in his weapon pouch.

Horace’s war didn’t last long. He was taken prisoner on 25th May 1940 and forced to endure a ten week march across France and Belgium en-route to Holland. Horace survived… barely… food was scarce, he took nourishment from dandelion leaves, small insects and occasionally a secret food package from a sympathetic villager, and drank rain water from ditches. Many of his fellow comrades were not so fortunate. Falling by the side of the road through sheer exhaustion and malnourishment meant a bullet through the back of the head and the corpse left to rot.
After a three day train journey without food and water, Horace found himself incarcerated in a prison camp in Poland.

It was there he embarked on an incredible love affair with a German girl interpreting for his captors. He experienced the sweet taste of freedom each time he escaped to see her, yet incredibly he made his way back into the camp each time, sometimes two, three times every week. Horace broke out of the camp then crept back in again under the cover of darkness after his natural urges were fulfilled. He brought food back to his fellow prisoners to supplement their meagre rations. He broke out of the camp over two hundred times and towards the end of the war even managed to bring radio parts back in. The BBC news would be delivered daily to over 3000 prisoners.

The official website of Do Birds Still Sing in Hell?

Obituary: Horace Greasley (Daily Telegraph 12th February 2010)

Available from:
Libros International

Out of the Italian Night - Wellington Bomber Operations 1944-45

2009-09-06T20:11:00.003+01:00

During 1944 and 1945 the squadrons of 205 Group were launching air attacks from bases in Italy. In many ways their efforts were the same as those of aircrew attached to Bomber Command in Britain, yet conditions for the men were very different. The men fought their war as much against the weather, as against the enemy. The Wimpy, as the Wellington was affectionately known, had been operational when war was declared and five years on their young crews were still taking them into battle.

Maurice Lihou joined the RAF in 1939, just before the outbreak of war. He trained as a wireless operator to become aircrew, but found himself working in ground stations. He decided to re-muster as a pilot and completed his training in Canada where he was awarded his wings. He soon became captain of an aircraft and ferried a Wellington to North Africa. He was then posted to Italy and joined No 37 Squadron, becoming involved in various operations to harass the retreating German army.

Available from:
Pen and Sword

Prisoner of the Rising Sun

2009-07-03T17:19:00.002+01:00

This is the story of Stanley Wort, a young man thrust into the Royal Navy in distant Hong Kong. He relates some of the humorous situations in which he found himself and provides a realistic account of what life was like for servicemen in pre war Hong Kong.

It describes the prelude to war from his point of view and his part in the Battle for Hong Kong. There follows the story of what happened to him when taken prisoner and life and death in prison camps in Hong Kong and Japan. It tells what it was like to be shipped to Japan in the hold of Japanese merchantmen with constant fear of being torpedoed.

In Japan itself he and his fellow prisoners were used as slave labour. Treatment was harsh and brutal and although many of them died the Japanese never broke the spirit of the survivors.

The author explains how it felt to be a prisoner working in a Japanese factory when a major earthquake struck. He also relates what it was like to be on the receiving end of a B29 fire raid and what the Japanese did to downed American airmen. In August 1945 he saw the Japanese bow before loudspeakers and although he did not realize it then, heard the Japanese Emperor announce the surrender of Japan. The book contains a tribute to the efficiency and kindness of the American forces that got him out and on his way home.

Available from:
Pen & Sword

Cockleshell Commando: The Memoirs of Bill Sparks DSM

2009-07-03T17:17:00.004+01:00

One of only two survivors of the famous Cockleshell Hero raid, Bill Sparks' war and post-war career has never before been told in full. In this gripping book, he describes not only his part in Operation FRANKTON, the daring Gironde raid, and his escape back to Britain, but how he fought with the Greek Sacred Squadron thereafter. Operating in small groups they raided and liberated islands in the Aegean Sea. After the war, bored with life as a bus driver, he joined the Malayan Police and saw action aplenty during the Emergency. Always something of a military maverick, Bill's memoir is truly action-packed. The book benefits from the inclusion of the official German investigation report into the Cockleshell Raid.

Available from:
Pen & Sword

Night Action: MTB Flotilla At War

2009-07-03T17:10:00.001+01:00

This memoir is Peter Dickens' account of his experiences as the young commander of the 21st MTB Flotilla during 1942-43, mainly in the North Sea and the Channel. In all the annals of the war at sea, comparatively little has been written about the role of the torpedo boat, and yet these small and vulnerable boats, travelling at high speed amid storms and gunfire, and usually under the cover of darkness, managed to closely engage enemy convoys and escorts in high-speed attacks and wreak havoc among the German supply lines.

Like the sailors who fought against the U-boats in the battle of the Atlantic, Dickens and his comrades were experiencing a new kind of warfare and had to hit upon the techniques and tactics as they went along; their kind of action called for great courage, spilt-second timing and complete understanding between captain and crew.

Night Action is a lively and thrilling account, but also one which is frank and carefully considered; there is humour but the horror of war is never far away and the author conveys to the reader a sharp sense of the reality of those operations in a way that no history book can do.

Available from:
Pen & Sword

Heartland Heroes: Remembering World War II

2009-07-03T16:50:00.003+01:00

Heartland Heroes is a collection of remarkable stories from ordinary men and women who lived through extraordinary times. They resided in places like Lee's Summit, Independence, and Kansas City, yet their experiences were very much like those of World War II veterans everywhere. Some were marines, nurses, or fighter pilots, others were simply civilians who lived through the war under the martial law imposed on the Hawaiian Islands after the attack on Pearl Harbor.

In Heartland Heroes, Ken Hatfield gathers the stories of more than eighty men and women, whom he began interviewing in 1984 while reporting for a small weekly newspaper in Liberty, Missouri. Hatfield's first subject was a marine named Bob Barackman, the uncle of one of Hatfield's coworkers. That interview, which lasted for several hours, had a profound effect on Hatfield. He began to realize that as a journalist he had a unique opportunity to preserve that small piece of history each veteran carries with him.

Hatfield spent the next seventeen years interviewing nearly one hundred World War II veterans and other individuals, but it was not until August 2001 that he decided to compile the stories into a book. The interviewees, most of whom lived in the Kansas City area at the time of the interviews, included Jim Daniels, a Grumman Wildcat pilot, who while trying to land at Pearl Harbor on the evening after the Japanese attack survived a blizzard of friendly fire, which claimed the lives of three of his friends and fellow pilots; Charles McGee, a pilot with 143 combat missions to his credit, who fought the Germans in the air and racism on the ground as one of the Tuskegee Airmen; and Dee Nicholson, who was just six years old when the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor and her home on Hawaii. She and her father recall what life was like for them and others, including Japanese Americans, after that fateful day. Through their stories, Heartland Heroes effectively captures this fading period of time for future generations.

Available from:
University of Missouri Press

Japanese Eyes...American Hearts

2009-07-03T16:43:00.003+01:00

Japan's attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, set Hawai`i on a new course of history that would affect every living soul in these Islands. How Hawai`i's people, particularly those of Japanese ancestry, responded to the act of aggression by Japan changed Hawai`i's social, economic, and political history forever.

Much has been written about how Americans of Japanese Ancestry (AJA) in the 100th Infantry Battalion, 442nd Regimental Combat Team, Military Intelligence Service, and the 1399th Engineer Construction Battalion answered their country's call through military service - and the high price they paid in human lives in freedom's cause.

Not as thoroughly recorded, however, are the thoughts and innermost feelings of the nisei soldiers who put their lives on the line for their country, and what those experiences meant to them. Those stories have always been the most difficult to pry from the hearts and souls of the AJA men who served our country in World War II. It was that void in the story of Hawai`i's nisei soldiers that Bishop Ryokan Ara of the Tendai Educational Fund asked members of the Hawai`i Nikkei History Editorial Board to fill.

Japanese Eyes... American Heart is the result of that effort. It is a rare and powerful collection of personal thoughts written by the soldiers themselves, reflections of the men's thoughts as recorded in diaries and letters sent home to family members and friends, and other expressions about an episode that marked a turning point in the lives of many.

Available from:
University of Hawai'i Press

World War II Reflections: An Oral History of Pennsylvania's Veterans

2009-07-03T16:31:00.002+01:00

Thirty veterans of World War II from Pennsylvania recall their time of service in France, Italy, Burma, Guadalcanal, the Philippines, and the Pacific in this new volume based on Pennsylvania Cable Network's award-winning series "World War II - In Their Own Words".

The very personal and deeply human accounts are presented in the veterans' own words, giving a perspective of the war through the eyes of ordinary citizen-soldiers. The stories range from profound experiences of dealing with death on a daily basis to the everyday facts of camp life, such as food, clothes, and leisure.

Available from:
Amazon

Memoirs of a Hungary Soldier

2009-07-03T13:34:00.004+01:00

Memoirs of a Hungary Soldier provides an insight into an area little covered by English language books - the experiences of a soldier in the Hungarian Army in World War II.

Joseph Gyokeri was a sergeant (Szakaszvezeto) in the Royal Hungarian Army field artillery. Enlisting in 1940, he fought in the Yugoslavia campaign in April 1941, and he was wounded twice, shot through the right thumb, and through the top of his left foot. In 1941, he was transferred to Hajmasker where he served until 1943, then in September of that year he was transferred to the 68th Border Guard Group located in Szekelyudvarhely (Transylvania, currently Romania). He remained there with his family until September 1944 when the Russians invaded.

For the next 8 months he, with his wife and young son retreated across Hungary and into Austria, where all three were captured by Russian forces near the city of Linz. His wife and son were released, but Joseph remained a prisoner from April 1945 to August 1945.

Thanks to the author, Joseph's grandson Joe Gyokeri, for this information.

Available from:
Lulu

On A Green Twig

2009-07-03T13:24:00.003+01:00

On a Green Twig is the memoir of Anna Klein Spencer who grew up in Germany during the Depression and World War II. Her lively, richly detailed recollections of rustic life in a Rhineland village provide invaluable perspective about German life before and after Hitler, Nazism and World War II. This personal account tells how a young girl’s family life and her community were turned upside down by world events. It offers a lesson in how perseverance and courage can transform tragedy and misfortune into a new lease on life – on a green twig.

The author has a blog dedicated to the book, and it is also possible to read selected pages on the publishers website.

Available from:
Lulu

Len's War: Ambulance Convoy Despatch Rider in WW2

2009-05-21T16:52:00.004+01:00

Len's War is the story of Len Smith, a British Army despatch rider serving with an Ambulance Convoy in North Africa and Italy. The book has been produced by his son-in-law, Dave Hambridge, in an e-book format. It contains personal anecdotes and photographs from the period, and a general account of the combat for the non-specialist reader.

Sadly Len passed away in May 2009, just a month short of his 87th birthday.

The book is available free to read here.

The Missing Years: A POW's Story from Changi to Hellfire Pass

2009-05-16T10:38:00.001+01:00

The Missing Years is the story of Captain Hugh Pilkington's disastrous Malaya campaign in which he was shot by a Japanese sniper, became a PoW while hospitalised in Singapore, then— with only one good arm — was packed off to work on the Thai-Burma Death Railway.

This account has two unique elements which make it standout - Pilkington survived the infamous Alexandra Hospital Massacre of February 1942 and his memoirs were completed in October 1945 while on a POW repatriation ship, hence providing a raw, unfiltered, surprisingly dispassionate voice, undistorted by time.

Travel writer Stu Lloyd (who has spent 13 years in Southeast Asia) retraces the captain's steps with Pilkington's son Paul, to uncover Pilkington's past as a rubber planter and soldier, and find out— with often surprising results— what the locals today make of that period they know largely as 'Japan time'.

Captain Hugh Pilkington was born in India, 1904 and worked as a rubber planter in Malaya from 1922-37 before joining the Royal Norfolk Regiment in 1939. His knowledge of the tropics, landscape and language proved invaluable to the Allies. He died in 1982. Paul Pilkington was born in 1941 and was nearly five before he met his father, back from war.

Available from:
Rosenberg Publishing

Into Enemy Arms

2009-05-16T10:29:00.003+01:00

Ditha Bruncel's detailed memory of living in Germany during the Second World War provides a rare, first-hand insight into the day-to-day struggle against Nazi oppression, when even small acts of defiance or resistance carried great personal risk.

In 1945, Ditha was living with her parents in the small town of Lossen, in Upper Silesia. Close Jewish friends had vanished, swastikas hung from every building, and neighbours were disappearing in the middle of the night. At the same time, more than one thousand, five hundred British and Commonwealth airmen were being marched out of Stalag Luft VII, a POW camp in Upper Silesia. Twenty three of these prisoners managed to escape from the marching column and by chance hobbled into Lossen. One amongst them, Warrant Officer Gordon Slowey, was the man Ditha was destined to meet and fall in love with.

This book tells the extraordinary story of Ditha and the escaped POWs she helped to save. Together, they embarked on a dangerous and daring flight out of Germany. As they faced exhaustion, hunger, extreme cold and the constant risk of discovery, Ditha and Gordon's love for one another intensified, and so did their determination to survive and escape together.

This book is based on Ditha's vivid recollections recorded by her nephew, Michael Hingston, in over a hundred hours of conversation between the two of them, as well as exhaustive research in archives to verify the facts.

Available from:
Amazon

An Artilleryman in Stalingrad

2009-05-16T10:25:00.003+01:00

In August 1942, Wigand Wüster was a veteran 22-year-old officer leading an artillery battery in Artillerie-Regiment 171 (71. Inf.-Div.) as it approached Stalingrad. The preceding months had been marked by heat, dust, endless marches, and brief skirmishes with the enemy - but mostly by an ongoing battle with his bullying battalion commander.

In this brutally honest account, Wüster provides a glimpse of the war on the Eastern Front rarely seen before. With frankness, humour and perception, Wüster takes us from the heady days of the German 1942 summer offensive to the icy hell of Stalingrad's final hours, and finally into captivity.

Available from:
Leaping Horseman Books

No Better Place To Die - Ste-Mère Eglise, June 1944 - The Battle for La Fière Bridge

2009-05-16T10:05:00.002+01:00

In the early hours of D Day, the 505th Regimental Combat Team of the 82nd Airborne Division was dropped in Normandy. Its task was to seize the vital crossroads of Ste Mère Eglise, and to hold the bridge over the Merderet River at nearby La Fière. Benefiting from dynamic battlefield leadership, the paratroopers reached the bridge, only to be met by wave after wave of German tanks and infantry desperate to force the crossing.

Reinforced by glider troops, who suffered terribly in their landings from the now-alert Germans, the 505th not only held the vital bridge for three days but launched a counterattack to secure their objective once and for all, albeit at heavy cost. In No Better Place to Die, Robert M. Murphy provides an objective narrative of countless acts of heroism, almost breathtaking in its “you are there” detail.

Robert M. Murphy (1925-2008) joined the US Army in October 1942, serving with the 82nd Airborne in Italy, Holland, Africa, and Normandy. He received the Purple Heart (3), Valor (2), Bronze Star, Medal of Honor as well as the highest honor given by France, "The Legion of Honor".

Available from:
Casemate

Halifax Down!: On the Run from the Gestapo 1944

2009-05-16T09:42:00.002+01:00

On the night of 22/23rd April 1944 Tom Wingham was the bomb aimer in the crew of a 76 Squadron Halifax shot down while on the way to bomb Dusseldorf. Coming to in a tangle of parachute and harness straps he realised the precariousness of his situation and so, dazed and aching with a painful concussion and navigating by the stars alone, he quickly set off on his long and difficult journey home through occupied territory, constantly depending on the kindness of others who risked their lives to help keep him hidden. Tom made his way from Holland, at the hands of The Escape and was then passed via L'Armee Secrete, a London run organisation operating in the east of Belgium, but fell right into the path of the Gestapo. In a deadly game of hide and seek Tom evaded his captors long enough to witness the retreat of German soldiers as he stayed at the house of Madame Schoofs, which became a temporary German HQ.

In the 1980s Tom assisted a Dutch air historian with some research and this prompted him to look into the details of his own crash. What he uncovered not only shed more light on his own story but also those of his fellow crew members. He plotted approximately where each person landed that fateful night and slowly their incredible stories emerged. Added to his own experiences their accounts make "Halifax Down!" an extraordinary first hand insight into the experience of a heavy bomber crew shot down in World War Two.

Available from:
Amazon

An Ordinary Signalman

2009-05-16T09:27:00.004+01:00

John Raymond Dawson joined the Royal Navy in Leeds, his home town, in December 1940 aged 19, with his best friend Norman Brooks. He served until early 1946, which was when he wrote up his “diary” setting out his experiences during the War.

His son promised him in 1985 that one day he would write this up for publication. John agreed but only if this was after his death. Sadly this came too soon in the following year when he was aged just 64. In 1999, letters John had written during the War to his elder sister Eileen were found in her attic when she was moving. This provided more valuable material for the book.

Being a signalman in the Royal Navy led John to see parts of the world he would not otherwise have seen. He saw danger even in his training at Devonport from severe German bombing in the week of his arrival. He visited the USA and Canada before a relatively quiet time based in Scotland on HMS Forth, a submarine depot ship. John had to swim for his life in January 1944 when after being involved at Minturno and Anzio, HMS Spartan was sunk. He and most survivors then joined one of the light cruiser HMS Aurora, on which he saw action at the invasion of the South of France at Toulon, and at the liberation of Greek islands and Greece itself.

The diary and letters provide an insight into the adventures of a young man from Leeds,
progressing from Ordinary Signalman to Yeoman of Signals, seeing action from the bridge in his signalman’s role. They also provide an insight into the effects on him being far from home and what was a very close family, with his strong beliefs and views often expressed.

Available from:
Melrose Books

Memoirs of a B-29 Pilot

2009-05-16T08:56:00.003+01:00

Charles R. Reyher, Major, U.S. Air Force (Ret.) memoir is of the author’s wartime experiences leading up to and as a B-29 Superfortress Aircraft Commander.. He was participated in the air offensive against Japan from the Marianas Islands in the South Pacific.

After graduation as a pilot cadet, he became a bomb approach pilot at a bombardier training base for one year. Then, rated as a B-17 Flying Fortress 1st Pilot, he spent six months duty as a B-17 instructor pilot at an airbase training new B-17 crews as replacements for the 8th Air Force in England. Many months of training to be a B-29 Aircraft Commander followed.

He arrived at newly constructed Northwest Field, Guam, in early June 1945. 125 factory-new B-29B Superfortresses made up the new 315th Very Heavy Bomb Wing. He and his crew flew 13 missions before the end of the war, all against oil targets.

In addition to covering his wartime service, the author concludes the book with several chapters detailing various aspects of the air war against Japan and how he believes attacking Japan’s oil refineries and supplies could have ended the war even without the use of the atomic bombs.

Available from:
Merriam Press

After the Battle issue 144

2009-05-16T08:38:00.003+01:00

The latest issue of the excellent After the Battle magazine has just come out. Issue 144 contains articles on the Battle of El Guettar in Tunisia in 1943 between the US 1st Armored, 1st Infantry and 9th Infantry Divisions and seasoned Axis troops; the story of POW Camp No. 13 at Murchison in Australia - home to 2,100 Italian, 1,300 German and 185 Japanese prisoners from April 1941 to January 1947; Putting a Name to a Face - the story of how American researcher Norman S. Lichtenfeld identified an unknown GI featured in photographs of captured POWs in Jean Paul Pallud's book Battle of the Bulge Then and Now, traced him to New Jersey and put a name to his face: George E. Shomo; and lastly the always interesting From the Editor section - Readers' letters and follow-up stories on previous issues. Highly recommended.

Available in some newsagents in the UK and directly from the publishers After the Battle.

New & Notable - 12th May

2009-05-12T13:29:00.007+01:00

Saipan: Oral Histories of the Pacific War
by Bruce M. Petty

The battle for Saipan is remembered as one of the bloodiest battles fought in the Pacific during World War II, and was a turning point on the road to the defeat of Japan. In this work, the survivors—including Pacific Islanders on whose land the Americans and Japanese fought their war—have the opportunity to tell their stories in their own words. The author offers an introduction to the volume and arranges the oral histories by location—Saipan, Yap and Tinian, Rota, Palau Islands, and Guam—in the first half, and by branch of service (Marines, Army, Navy, Airforce & Home Front) in the second half.

Available from:
McFarland

The Bamboo Cage
The POW Diary of Flight Lieutenant Robert Wyse 1942-43
Edited by Jonathon F. Vance

Robert Wyse enlisted in the RAF in the late 1930s. Too old to be trained as a pilot, he became a flight controller and served throughout the Battle of Britain. In late 1941, his squadron was despatched to the Far East. The Japanese soon invaded, and Robert Wyse, along with tens of thousands of his comrades, became a prisoner of war. Shortly after arriving in his first prison camp, Wyse returned to keeping the diary he had begun en route to the Far East. Although P.O.W.s were forbidden to keep diaries, Wyse persevered and hid his journal, usually in a bamboo pole beside his bed. Over two years, he kept a detailed record of life in various camps in Sumatra, only ending in December of 1943 when it became too dangerous. He buried his notes, intending to return to claim them after the war.

The diary is a remarkably detailed and frank portrayal of life as a prisoner. Wyse was sharply critical of some of his fellow P.O.W.s, either for botching the defence of Java and Sumatra or for failing to provide the proper leadership in captivity. Nor did he hesitate to describe the savage conduct of his captors, although sometimes clearly struggling to find the words to adequately describe the brutalities he had witnessed.

Wyse spent over three years in enemy hands (the first two of which are described in this diary) before being liberated in the late summer of 1945. He was hospitalized for some time and didn’t return home until late 1946, his health ruined by the privations of his imprisonment. He died in 1967 at the age of 67.

Available from:
Goose Lane Editions

Always Tomorrow - Sempre Domani

2009-05-03T14:19:00.004+01:00

Alfred Nisbett's book, Always Tomorrow - Sempre Domani, is his memoir of his wartime experiences in North Africa and Italy. It is not however a tale of combat, as shortly after joining the Royal Engineers in North Africa, Alfred found himself captured by a German panzer unit during the retreat from Benghazi in 1941. Shipped off to Italy, he soon busied himself with attempts to escape. First held at Sulmona (Campo 78), then moved to a smaller camp near L'Aquila (Campo 102). When the Italian Army surrendered in 1943, Alfred took advantage of the chaotic situation to take his leave and slipped away into the surrounding countryside. Unlike Charles Mayhead (see 'Rumours: A Memoir of a British POW'), Alfred was successful in his escape, and by the time the Germans had stepped in to manage the camps, he was hiding out in the mountains, befriended and looked after by Italian villagers. Moving frequently, he managed to avoid recapture due to the care and selflessness of the local people, who were under the constant threat of reprisals from German troops should Alfred, or any of the numerous ex-POWs in the area, be discovered. In July 1944, he encountered an advance party of British soldiers, and his adventure 'on the run' was over.

The story of the escaped Allied POWs in Italy is not particularly well known compared to that of POWs in German and Japanese hands (although I am rapidly discovering a number of books on the subject!). Alfred Nisbett introduces a number of fascinating characters in his story - the Marchetti and Morelli families who hid and fed him and fellow POWs; a Scottish-Italian caught visiting relatives in Italy at the outbreak of the war who ended up being a camp translator; a German deserter who was on the run alongside British POWs; a South African who was carrying out propaganda broadcasts for the Fascists in Rome; and it is the human aspect of his story that is the strongest. Alfred witnessed many acts of kindness and compassion from the people who he'd believed were the enemy - often at great danger to themselves - and through this friendships were made that have lasted over 60 years. While the book would benefit from the addition of some maps to trace Alfred's route and clarification of dates, it is a very well written story which I wouldn't hesitate to recommend to anyone who'd like to learn about this unusual aspect of the war in Italy.

Available from:
Athena Press

Similar title(s):
Rumours: A Memoir of a British POW

Pillar of Fire - Dunkirk 1940

2009-05-03T14:06:00.004+01:00

The story of the evacuation of the BEF from Dunkirk is well known, however Ronald Atkin's book made me question how much I presumed I knew about the campaign in France and Belgium in 1940. Told using first person narratives, reproduced from a large number of sources and utilising interivews carried out by the author, Pillar of Fire provides an excellent account of the experiences of members of the BEF during the retreat to Dunkirk and the beaches of La Panne and Bray Dunes. The stories are, in the most part, from British soldiers, although there are a number of French and German accounts which add further levels of detail. These recollections are intertwined with the story of the historical events of 1940 - told clearly and without too much superfluous information which can sometimes make campaign accounts a bit dry.

While the popular perception of Dunkirk as a heroic withdrawl remains predominantly unchallenged by Atkin, the inclusion of occasional tales of less than honourable behaviour, and an examination of the British attitiude to the French Army, helps to provide a balanced account. The results in an extremely readable book that should be purchased by anyone with an interest in the human experiences of those caught in the chaos of the Dunkirk evacuation.

Available from:
Birlinn Ltd
Amazon

New & Notable - 15th April

2009-04-15T13:46:00.008+01:00

Penalty Strike
The Memoirs of a Red Army Penal Company Commander 1943-45
by Alexander Pyl'cyn (Stackpole Books)

The focus of this book are the author's vivid memories of service as a company commander in a Red Army officers' penal battalion on the Eastern Front 1944-45. During this time, he and his unit participated in the 1944 Soviet summer offensive Operation 'Bagration', the Vistula-Oder operation into eastern Germany, and the final assault on Berlin.

Alexander Pyl'cyn was a platoon commander and later a commander of an officers' penal company. He was a senior lieutenant having a degraded regiment commander as a second-in-command. He and his company had to carry out the most difficult and dangerous operations in order to break through the enemy defenses. With more than 80% of the men lost his company succeeded in completing their missions. The horrors of war, the hand-to-hand fights with a desperately struggling enemy are described in this book along with a story of a strong feeling between the young officer and a hospital nurse Rita. Thanks to Alexander Rita was appointed a nurse in the penal battalion. She saved dozens of soldiers, carrying them from the battlefield under enemy fire. It was Rita who saved Alexander Pyl'cyn from death, when he was badly wounded near Berlin. She became his wife in the last months of the war.

Available from:
Amazon.com

Hurricane Pilot: The Wartime Letters of W.O. Harry L. Gill, DFM
Edited by Brent Wilson with Barbara J. Gill (Goose Lane Editions)

Harry L. Gill was born in Devon and attended Fredericton High School. He enlisted in the Royal Canadian Air Force in Moncton in 1940 at the age of 18 and was among the first to pass through the British Commonwealth Air Training Program. . After flying training he was posted to 607 Fighter Squadron of the Royal Air Force.

In February 1942, Mr. Gill’s squadron of Hurricane Fighters attacked the German warships Scharnhorst and Gniesenau during the infamous “Channel Dash”. Mr. Gill’s bravery and flying skill in that action won him a Distinguished Flying Medal. In June of 1942, he traveled with his squadron to India to shore up Commonwealth defences against the Japanese. On Jan. 17 1943, at age 20, Harry Gill was shot down and killed in action. He lies buried in Maynamati Commonwealth War Cemetery in Bangladesh.

Drawing extensively on Gill's correspondence with his parents and his siblings, this very personal account of war shows how Gill was transformed from a small-town boy to a mature fighter pilot serving in a global war on another continent. His letters depict the enthusiasm of youth, a strong sense of humour, his plans for the future, and this continuing attachment to home.

Available from:
Goose Lane Editions

Only One Returned

2009-04-15T13:36:00.003+01:00

Only One Returned is the true story of B-17 pilot Richard Christenson’s return flight from a bombing mission over Stuttgart, Germany. Richard was assigned to the 92nd Bomb Group of the Eighth Air Force and flew from Alconbury, England. After landing his crippled plane in occupied France, he spent four months on the run aided by the French Resistance.

Richard passed away in 1980 so his daughter, Kay Janiszewski, wrote Only One Returned relying on a few records and her mother’s memories. The story encompasses daily life with the families that hid him, harrowing train rides to the south of France, an arduous trek over the Pyrenees Mountains in December, and his eventual return home.

An epilogue contains wartime letters from the French Resistance families who helped Richard.

Available from:
Author's website

New and Notable - 6th April

2009-04-06T20:40:00.015+01:00

Torpedo Leader
by Wing Commander Patrick Gibbs DSO, DFC and Bar (Grub Street)

Written during the war without benefit of hindsight, this is a remarkable and valuable account. A very personal story, its lucid, exciting and readable narrative describes firstly the author's frustrations as a Staff Officer in Cairo, then his triumphs and disasters as a Beaufort Flight Commander on the anti-shipping operations from Malta with 39 Squadron in 1942, during which Gibbs' contribution was immense.

Wing Commander Patrick Gibbs, DSO, DFC and Bar, RAF torpedo bomber pilot and film critic for The Telegraph newspaper was born on April 2, 1915. He died on March 8, 2008, aged 92.

Read a full review on the Aircrew Book Review blog

Available from:
Grub Street (note: site works better in Internet Explorer than Firefox)

Further reading:
Times Obituary 26 March 2008

Guns Above, Steam Below
In Canada's Navy of WWII
by A.G.W. Lamont (Melrose Books)

Guns Above, Steam Below is the true story of the experiences of A.G.W. Lamont, an Engineer Lieutenant in the Royal Canadian Naval Volunteer Reserve.

His first sea-going experience was in the corvette HMCS Cobalt on the triangle run Halifax, New York, St. John's. Cobalt was one of many corvettes, fending off the U-boats while themselves experiencing Guns Above, Steam Below. The largest part of the book, however, deals with the River Class destroyer HMCS Qu'Appelle on various assignments, including the Normandy invasion of World War II.

Lamont provides a brief history of the ship with the aid of photographs and diagrams. Extracts from the memoirs of some of his ship-mates are used to recall life on board and he describes many of the crew in detail, and with great affection. Lamont also recalls his own experiences in the 'Steam Below' spaces of the ship where the men were oblivious to what was happening, either on-deck or in the sea below, and were subject to extreme heat and noise - including the noise of outgoing and incoming shell fire, depth charges and torpedoes exploding nearby. He then recounts his experiences of the events that took place during his career.

After several trips across the Atlantic, Qu'Appelle was assigned as the lead ship of four to be positioned at the west entrance of the English Channel during the Normandy invasion. Their orders were to prevent U-boats from getting at the enormous number of vessels in the invasion fleet. About a month later, Qu'Appelle was also leader of the four Canadian River Class destroyers engaged with their 'Guns Above' in the Battle of the Black Stones, launched against a group of U-boats and heavily armed escorts as they left port in Brest. In October 1944, when their presence was no longer required in the Channel, Qu'Appelle and three other ships, including HMCS Skeena were sent to patrol an area near Iceland. A vicious storm blew up and the shore authorities advised the ships to anchor until it had passed. This proved successful for all but one, HMCS Skeena. Lamont gives a most gripping and moving description of the wild and tragic events that followed as Skeena's anchor dragged and she was driven relentlessly onto the rocks near Reykjavik, causing the loss of a number of her crew.

Available from:
Melrose Books

Mogens Høirup
An Extraordinary Story of an Ordinary Man
by Howard and Hanne Kulin

Moved by a deep sense of justice, in early 1944 Jutland history teacher Mogens Høirup became a leader of the local Danish resistance movement. Subsequently captured and imprisoned by the Gestapo, Høirup survived and horrors of Neuengamme Concentration Camp and returned home at the end of the war.

Through original communications and family photos, An Extrordinary Story of an Ordinary Man, written by Mogens Høirup’s daughter and son-in-law, provides rare insight into this “quiet hero” of the Danish Resistance. Gripping and tender, his story and words are as meaningful today as they were more than a half century ago.

Available from:
Hellgate Press

Rumours: A Memoir of a British POW in WWII

2009-04-06T20:03:00.006+01:00

Charles "Chas" Mayhead served during the Second World War with the Royal Army Service Corps. Sent to the Middle East, in 1942 he was separated from his company in the desert and was captured by the Germans.

He was held captive in North Africa, then shipped across the Mediterranean to Italy. Held for a short while in a camp near Naples, he was then transported to Northern Italy to keep him away from the invading Allies. One of the camps Chas was held at was Campo Concentramento P.G.53 at Sforzacosta. Later, in 1943, he escaped from another camp and managed to hide out for two months near Novara. As the Germans entered the area, he made for Switzerland, across the Alps, but was recaptured just outside the Swiss border.

Transported to Innsbruck in cattle trucks, then by passenger train (after being placed in chains) to Germany, he ended up after one week of travel at Stalag XIB at Fallingbostel near Hannover. In 1945 he escaped yet again when the prisoners from Fallingbostel were marched further into Germany to escape the invading Allies (again!) near the end of the war.

Available from:
Pleasure Boat Studio
Amazon UK (the site contains extracts from the book - it is cheaper to buy it direct from the publisher than via Amazon)

Further reading:
Fallingbostel Military Museum - Stalag XIB

We Remember D Day

2009-04-02T19:58:00.008+01:00

Frank and Joan Shaw compiled a small number of books in the 1990s, all compiled from personal recollections of momentous occasions during the Second World War.

We Remember D Day contains the stories of over 130 men and women, from many of the Britsh regiments that landed on Gold and Sword Beaches on the 6th June 1944. Members of the 6th Airborne Division, VAD Nurses, RAF pilots, Royal Navy sailors, US Army soldiers, Resistance fighters, and many more individuals provided their memories for this book. It was produced so all profits would go to Normandy veterans (the Normandy Veterans Association and the Royal British Legion).

A slight criticsm is that some of the stories are a bit on the short side, however they all include information on the individuals arm of service (in most cases regiment or ship), so this helps to put them into context. There are a large number of period photos, and 'then and now' photos of the contributors which bring a human face to the stories. This is an excellent book to read alongside one of the numerous overviews of D Day that have been published, although it is now out of print.

Available:
Believed to be out of print.
Amazon

New and Forthcoming - 25th March

2009-03-25T21:28:00.006Z

The new and forthcoming titles this week include School of the Sea - the story of a Merchant Navy sailor, The Russian Patriot - a unique recollection of a Russian soldier who fought with Vlasov's Russian Army of Liberation alongside German forces, and Escape from St. Valery-en-Caux - the escapades of a British Army officer during the Battle of France in 1940 and his subsequent escapes from German and Vichy imprisonment.

School of the Sea
by Stephen Richardson (Whittles Publishing)

Based on his daily diary entries, Stephen Richardson recounts his development as a merchant mariner starting with his apprenticeship from 1937-41 on Elysia, a passenger ship on the India run. For the remainder of the Second World War, he served as an officer on cargo ships, where he experienced episodes such as seeing ships sunk in convoy, hearing bombs drop beside the ship when in port during heavy air raids and the horrific experience of being torpedoed. The extremes of nature - winter storms on the North Atlantic; navigating in convoy through floe ice and avoiding icebergs; fog and the ever-present danger of collision; the extreme heat experienced in the Red Sea and Persian Gulf, without air conditioning are all accurately described. He also relates the problems encountered when sailing on worn-out ships that would normally have been scrapped had it not been for the war.

Available from:
Whittles Publishing

The Russian Patriot
A Red Army soldier’s service for his Motherland and against Bolshevism
by Sigismund Diczbalis (The History Press)

The only personal memoir of a rank and file Russian-born veteran of the Russian Army of Liberation to be published in English, this looks like an intriguing title.

Sigismund Diczbalis, a committed young communist, was originally a member of the Red Army. Captured and imprisoned by the Germans, he was offered a way out from almost certain death by being ordered to infiltrate an anti-partisan unit. Soon he became an anti-Bolshevik, joining General Vlasov’s Russian Army of Liberation that was devoted to toppling Stalin and restoring social democracy in Russia. The following year Sigismund was re-captured by Soviet spy-hunters, SMERSH, which meant an automatic death sentence but somehow managed to escape.

Sigismund Diczbalis was born in Saratov, Central Russia in 1922. He now lives in Australia.

Update February 2011:
Sadly Sigismund Diczbalis died this month in Brisbane, aged 89.
Source: Nick Holdsworth (Co-Author, The Russian Patriot)

Available from:
The History Press

Escape from St. Valery-en-Caux
The Adventures of Captain Bradford
by Andrew Bradford (The History Press)

The dramatic story of Captain Berenger Colborne Bradford, Adjutant of the 1st Battalion Black Watch, compiled by his son using diaries and letters, coded messages and correspondence between his family and the War Office in their desperate effort to hear news of his safety. This book tells of Captain Bradford's experiences between 1939 and 1941, during which time he was in the thick of the action in France, leading up to the surrender of the Highland Division at Saint Valery-en-Caux in June 1940. While being marched into captivity Capt. Bradford managed to escape once from the Germans and then seven further times from the Vichy French. This account details his journey to safety in Gibraltar, spanning France, Spain and North Africa, including a night crossing of the Pyrenees and an astonishing 700-mile voyage in a 17ft sailing boat.

Available from:
The History Press

Mollie & Other War Pieces

2009-03-24T21:24:00.007Z

A. J. Liebling (1904-1963) was an American war correspondent for the New Yorker. He sailed to Algeria in November 1942 to cover the fighting on the Tunisia front, later participated in the Normandy landings on D Day, and was with the Allied forces when they entered Paris.

'Mollie & Other War Pieces' is a collection of short stories written by Liebling during the war, focusing attention on individual soldiers, sailors and airmen who he met during his time overseas. In the original newspaper stories, these individuals remained anonymous. In the book Liebling has provided their names, in most (but not all) cases.

The stories include 'Confusion is normal in combat' - Liebling's search for the truth behind a 'legendary' soldier in the US 9th Division in Tunisia. Mollie (real name Karl Warner) was reknowned for outlandish dress, attitude to Army discipline, and bravery. Posthumously awarded the Silver Star, Mollie was killed in 1943. The story is supported by excellent descriptions of his daily experiences in Tunisia with the US Army.

'For Boots Norgaard' considers Liebling's time with a P-38 Squadron in Tunisia; 'Direction: Paris' describes the advance across France and the liberation of the French capital; 'And So To Victory', Liebling's famous account of D Day was written while onboard LCIL-88 at Omaha Beach; and 'The Massacre' - a chilling account of the murder of civilians in the village of Comblanchien in Southern France by German forces in August 1944 - an event which seems to be little known 65 years later.

Having picked up this book in a remainder shop, I wasn't sure what to expect. It turned out to be one of the best written personal recollections I've read in a long time. Granted, it was written by a professional journalist, but I wouldn't hesitate to recommend this book to anyone with an interest in personal recollections of WWII.

Available from:
Bison Books (University of Nebraska Press)

Further reading:
Comblanchien - photo gallery (website in French)

A Member of the RAF of Indeterminate Race: WW2 Experiences of a former RAF Navigator & POW

2009-03-18T19:12:00.009Z

Cy Grant, born in British Guyana, was one of about 400 Caribbean men who joined the RAF as aircrew in the Second World War.

He came to Britain and joined the RAF in 1941, qualifying as a navigator, and was posted to 103 Squadron. As part of the crew of an Avro Lancaster, his plane was shot down during a raid on Gelsenkirchen in June 1943. It was only his third operational mission. Bailing out, he landed in Holland, where he was captured and sent first to Amsterdam - where his photo was taken by the Germans. It was later to appear in the newspaper Volkischer Beobachter, with the caption 'A member of the RAF of indeterminate race'.

Imprisoned in Stalag Luft III until 1945, the camp was evacuated before the invading Russians, and Cy and his fellow prisoners were sent to Stalag IIIA at Lukenwalde, where they were liberated by Soviet troops (although not actually release for a number of weeks!).

Cy Grant's memoir provides a unique perspective on the war, coming from a Caribbean volunteer with the RAF and POW. Cy states that the only racism he encountered while serving was the institutional form, from within some of the higher echelons of the RAF, and none from any of the rank and file Canadian and British airmen who he served with.

Obituary: Cy Grant (from The Daily Telegraph 15th February 2010)

Available from:
Woodfield Publishing

Welsh Sailors of the Second World War

2009-03-16T20:29:00.008Z

Welsh Sailors of the Second World War is predominantly a book of first-hand accounts of the experiences of Welsh men and women serving in the Merchant Navy, the Royal Navy, Fleet Air Arm, dockyards and naval bases during the Second World War.

The book also contains chapters focusing on particular snapshots of the war at sea - the contribution of one Welsh Port, Barry, to the Merchant Navy; the sinking of the Anglo Saxon by the German raider Widder and the survival of two of her crew members after 51 days adrift in the Atlantic; the sinking of the SS Elwyn; and the story of the war service of the seven Hortop brothers.

The personal recollections recall service on a large number of Royal Navy and Merchant Navy ships and Fleet Air Arm Squadrons including (but not limited to) 767 Squadron and HMS Ark Royal (sinking of the Bismark); HMS Swift; Merchant Aircraft Carriers; LCTs at D Day, Merchant Navy crewmen on the Russian and Atlantic convoys; the sinking of the MV Empire Cromwell; HMS Jamaica; HMS Catterick; a DEMS Gunner on the Empire Prince; HMS Talent; MV Dolius; LST 165; 206 Squadron (Coastal Command); Baron Oglivy; HMS Glasgow; MV Empire Confidence; HMS Warspite; HMS Frobisher; MTB 469; and the Royal Navy Patrol Service.

At over 400 pages, this is a considerable book - the coverage is comprehensive, and is going to be of interest to anyone with an interest in the Royal and Merchant Navies during the war.

Available from:
Glyndwr Publishing

Further reading:
Barry Merchant Seamen

New & Forthcoming - 16th March

2009-03-16T17:03:00.014Z

I've received some information on a few recent and forthcoming books from The History Press and Stackpole books:

Red Star Under the Baltic: A Soviet Submariner in World War II by Viktor Korzh (Stackpole Books).

The author served on a Soviet submarine during the war, and this memoir describes his experiences hunting German shipping in the shallow waters of the Baltic. Originally published in Russian in 1966, this is a rare book that covers the war from the angle of a Soviet submariner. The author died in 1993.

Available from:
Amazon
Pen & Sword (UK Edition)

Burma 1942: Memories of a Retreat
The Diary of Ralph Tanner, 2nd Battalion The Kings Own Yorkshire Light Infantry

by Ralph Tanner and David Tanner (The History Press)

Burma 1942 is taken in part from the diary and maps kept by Ralph Tanner, who served as a Second Lieutenant with 2nd Battalion The Kings Own Yorkshire Light Infantry during the fighting retreat to the Indian border, and from the official Battalion war diary by Major Chadwick. It includes information on the Battalion in 1941, who they were, their equipment and what they were trained for, and considers the series of disasters at Moulmein, Sittang, Toksan and Yenangyaung which left them increasingly unable to fight as a unit. It serves as a tribute to the strength of the men of the battalion - most of whom were conscripts - and of whom a fifth were killed and have no known grave.

Available from:
The History Press

Armoured Guardsmen: A War Diary from Normandy to the Rhine
by Robert Boscawen (Stackpole Books)

Shortly after D-Day, Robert Boscawen, fresh from Cambridge and Sandhurst, found himself in Normandy with his Coldstream Guards tank unit. During the months that followed, he kept a diary recording the Guards Armoured Division's almost constant activity in France, Belgium, Holland, and Germany until, having already had three tanks shot from under him, he suffered severe burns and had to be evacuated, one of only two survivors of his crew. Following a lengthy convalescence after the war and a career in business, he served in Parliament from 1970 to 1992.

Available from:
Amazon

God, Honour and Country

2009-03-12T20:36:00.006Z

Stanislaw Jozefiak escaped from Poland in 1939, travelling via Romania, Turkey, Greece, Eygpt and France to England. Arriving in 1940 as a member of the Polish Airforce, he continued his training and joined 304 Squadron as a WOP/AG in 1941. Shortly after he was forced to bail out of his damaged Wellington after a mission to Boulogne, landing near Tunbridge Wells. Badly wounded, his recuperation took nine months. 4 of his crew were killed, with only one other member, Sgt Nilski, surviving.

He returned to 304 Squadron, and continued with missions to places such as Essen, Cologne, Lubeck and St Nazaire. in May 1942, his squadron was transferred to RAF Coastal Command, patrolling the Atlantic and the Bay of Biscay for U-boats. In March 1943 he received the Virtuti Militari and during his career received the Krzyz Waleczny (Cross of Valour) four times.

In July 1943 he started training as a pilot, and in 1945 was posted to 317 Squadron, flying Spitfires. Very shortly after this, the war ended in Europe, although he continued to serve for a number of years.

This book provides substantial information on Stanislaw Jozefiak's service with the Polish Airforce, and this certainly makes the book work reading. There is also a fair amount of information on his post war experiences, which may not be of great interest to all readers, although his perspective on the changes in post-Cold War Poland make for interesting reading.

Available:
Believed to be out of print.
Amazon

Further reading:
Polish Air Force Operations Books: 304 Squadron
History of 304 Squadron

A Long Night for the Canteen Boat - The Story of HMS Cassandra

2009-03-12T19:43:00.005Z

A Long Night for the Canteen Boat is subtitled 'The Torpedoing and Salvage of HMS Cassandra December 11th 1944.

HMS Cassandra was torpedoed by the U-387 during the night of the 11th December 1944 while part of a convoy from Murmansk. 62 members of her crew were lost. HMS Cassandra was towed back to Kola Inlet and was later returned to the UK.

This interesting little book is a compilation of the recollections of 16 members of HMS Cassandra's crew, describing the torpedoing, their experiences marooned in Murmansk while the ship was repaired and interaction with the Russians, and their return to the UK. While the book covers a very specific incident, it provides an enlightening insight into the experiences of Royal Navy crews who escorted the convoys from the Shetlands to Russia.

Available
From the publisher Arcturus Press

Further reading
HMS Cassandra memorial and Roll of Honour
HMS Cassandra information on naval-history.net
Photos of HMS Cassandra

Memories of World War II - Volume 2

2009-03-08T08:39:00.010Z

Memories of World War II - Volume 2 is a collection of first hand accounts from members of the Dorset 84 Branch of the Normandy Veterans Association. Published in 2004 it contains approximately 40 stories of varying lengths, all of which describe experiences from D Day to VE Day in Europe.

They include the story of LCT 628 at D Day by a member of the crew; the experiences of a soldier with the 53rd Medium Regt Royal Artillery & 3rd Regiment RHA at Dunkirk, North Africa, Salerno and in Normandy; memories of a tank commander on Gold Beach with the 114th Royal Armoured Corps; a description of Operation Varsity (crossing the Rhine) with the 6th Airborne Division; and the story of a member of the RASC from Normandy to the end of the war in Germany.

A number of the stories in Memories of WWII are quite brief, however the stories listed above go over several pages. The book is a paperback, in A4 format, and contains a small number of photographs, mostly of the authors. It also contains a nice fold out map of the landing beaches and the order of battle on D Day & during the battle of Normandy.

If you have enjoyed reading books from the 'Forgotten Voices' series, then Memories of WWII will be of interest to you.

Available:
Believed to be out of print.
As the book was locally published, the cheapest copies will probably be found in Dorset secondhand bookshops. Online, it is available at:
Abebooks
Amazon

Further reading:
Return to Normandy - a story by a member of the Dorset 84 Branch of the NVA

What Price Bushido?

2009-03-07T11:32:00.011Z

Alf 'Blackie' Baker was captured by the Japanese in Singapore in February 1942. 'What Price Bushido?' is his story of his treatment as a FEPOW.

However, while a considerable number of stories have been published by FEPOWs about the treatment in POW camps in Thailand (the 'Death Railway'), Alf Baker's story is very different.

He was one of the 600 Artillerymen who were transported to Rabaul, New Britain (now Papua New Guinea - see Google Map) in October 1942. When the war ended three years later, only 18 men remained alive. 517 of these men were taken to Ballale in the Solomon Islands, from which none returned alive - a terrible incident which seems to have been lost in history.

Before I read this book I had no idea about what happened at Rabaul and Ballale. Alf Baker's book includes a Roll of Honour of both the lost and the survivors. It is a fitting tribute to the men who lost their lives while POWs of the Japanese.

Available:
Believed to be out of print, although I have seen copies in secondhand bookshops in Devon.
Amazon

Further reading:
The story of Alfred William Burgess (killed at Ballale)