European War Book Reviews -

RESISTANCE: The Underground War Against Hitler, 1939-1945

18Jan

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RESISTANCE: The Underground War Against Hitler, 1939-1945

Halik Kochanski’s “Resistance” traces the underground opposition to the Nazis across the continent of Europe. RESISTANCE: The Underground War Against Hitler, 1939-1945, by Halik Kochanski For continental Europeans World War II was a vastly different experience than it was for the people of the British Commonwealth or the United States. In the English-speaking world the war was largely a long narrative of military operations happening somewhere else — sometimes going very badly, but always going, and ending in a comfortably self-affirming victory. They were spared the hardships, horrors, moral dilemmas and later recriminations of foreign occupation. Not so with the peoples of Czechoslovakia, Poland, Norway, France, Yugoslavia, much of the Soviet Union and many, many others. For them,...

10Jan

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Books, European War Book Reviews

A Bridge Too Far

Author: Cornelius Ryan ISBN: 0450837319 A Bridge Too Far (1974) is Cornelius Ryan’s opus. Author of The Longest Day and The Last Battle, Ryan brings his considerable talent as a journalist, storyteller, and historian to bear in this text. A dense read, A Bridge Too Far is some 670 page long including a generous selection of pictures, maps, index, acknowledgements, and “Soldiers and Civilians – What They Do Today” sections, and bibliography. Don’t let the length of the book scare you off, however. This is a must read for airborne history readers, with sections outlining the activities of the American 101st, 82nd, and British 1st Airborne Divisions, with emphasis on the British experience, and of course, XXX Corps, whose job it was to navigate Hell’s Highway all the way to Arnhem in sho...

10Jan

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Books, European War Book Reviews

A Better Comrade You Will Never Find

Author:Helmut Schiebel Language:English Text Format:Hardcover Dimensions:6" x 9" Pages:272 pages Photos:5 b+w images, 12 colour images, 45 photos, 4 colour 3D drawings. Publisher:Fedorowicz Publishing ISBN:9780921991977 A Better Comrade You Will Never Find presents Eastern Front experiences of Helmut Schiebel from 1941 to the end of WW II. The author took part in the invasion of the Soviet Union in June 1941 as a member of the 43 Motorcycle Infantry Battalion of the 13 Panzer Division. In September he left for an Officer Candidate course in Germany, returning as a Leutnant and platoon leader to the division s reconnaissance battalion at the end of April 1942. He was wounded at the end of June and retuned to Russia in September 1943. On the way to the 18 Panzer Division, he fou...

11 Days in December: Christmas at the Bulge, 1944

10Jan

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11 Days in December: Christmas at the Bulge, 1944

Stanley Weintraub, (224pp) ISBN 978-0-7432-8710-4 The Battle of the Bulge doesn't quite fit the epic mold it's often cast in—bloody, yes, but lacking in strategic consequence, with no one but Hitler doubting the Allied victory. That the carnage spoiled Christmas time is the slender irony anchoring this aimless retelling by military historian Weintraub (Silent Night: The Story of the 1914 Christmas Truce ). Noting American complacency about the German buildup, and strategic and personal squabbles among the Allied commanders, he trumps up Patton's prayer for good killing weather into a dramatic turning point. Mainly, though, the book is a kaleidoscope of anecdotes, combat scenes alternating incoherently with foxhole doldrums and frontline picaresque. There's pluck and defiance—" 'They've ...

In ‘Operation Underworld,’ local author Matthew Black chronicles an unholy alliance in World War II

10Jan

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Books, European War Book Reviews

In ‘Operation Underworld,’ local author Matthew Black chronicles an unholy alliance in World War II

Author’s dogged research uncovers never-before-seen details of a secret collaboration between the U.S. government and the Mafia. Ocean Beach author Matthew Black has uncovered new information regarding a Mafia and U.S. Navy partnership during World War II. In his new book, “Operation Underworld: How the Mafia and US Government Teamed Up to Win World War II,” Black details how this secret deal came to pass. Following a ship fire in New York in 1942, the U.S. military feared there were Nazi saboteurs in the shipyards. The government secretly collaborated with Italian gangsters to gather information on dock workers and, later, plan the Allied invasion of Sicily. In return, the gangsters wanted the notorious mobster Charles “Lucky” Luciano behind bars. Black tells how he discovered th...