What are you reading at the moment?

The Empire Strikes South - Japan's Air War Against Northern Australia 1942-45

Very comprehensive and worth it for the research done from the Japanese side of things.

 

Well after stumbling across this in a used book store, I bought and started reading it, so I guess I'm reading two books at the same time now? It's good to be reading another Dunkirk memoir (in part) prior to the movie.



Incidentally, Angus Wallace of The WW2 Podcast interviewed Paul Cheall about his dad's memoirs (inc Dunkirk) recently.

 

Finished reading Dunkirk To The Rhineland. Very good, but I would actually have loved a postscript about Murrell's postwar life. It just ends right before he's reunited with his family.

 

https://www.amazon.ca/Dornier-215-L...1500383646&sr=8-1-fkmr0&keywords=Dornier+2015

Classic Publications is back producing books on a regular basis since being bought by Crecy. Their series of Luftwaffe profiles are excellent titles: gorgeously produced and packed with information. This latest title is no exception and includes some interesting digressions into Luftwaffe covert reconnaissance and the development of other Dornier relatives like the Do 17,17Z and 217. The next one in the series is an updated and enlarged book on the Fw200 that looks like it will be the definitive work on the type. Can't wait!

 

Recently read two WW2 books.

The first was Peter Medcalf’s ‘War in the Shadows’, a memoir of an Australian infantryman’s time on Bougainville during 1944-45. This memoir reads like a novel, a series of actions occurring chronologically, focussing more on the relationships between the men, the jungle and the Japanese. The author’s writing style really brings you close into the jungle and gave me an insight as to how long periods of combat affected the men.

A while back I picked up Sinclair McKay’s ‘Dunkirk, From Disaster to Deliverance- Testimonies of the Last Survivors’ in a bookshop sale bin. I have an interest in Dunkirk but have not read greatly (mainly Leonard Lord’s book and Gun Buster). This is a book I really struggled with, particularly the first half.

This seems to fit into that category of books written by newspaper journalists who seem to struggle with the finer details, not helped by poor editing. It is described as testimonies of the last survivors, and there are some, however there are some odd choices- I am not sure that the widow of a last survivor quoting stories told by her husband over many years is a good way to go.

One incident on the North Western Frontier pre-war I thought was doubtful. The odd mention of a soldier taking cover under a Land Rover should have been picked up. There are some strange sources used to paint a broader picture of the mood in England at the time, including Virginia Woolf.

The author also has a strange take on the reasons why the Wormhoudt Massacre took place, explaining that it had a lot to do with hatred and demonization between the British and German troops that took place during WW1. There is no mention of Nazi indoctrination of those Waffen SS troops which would have been more of a factor in my opinion.

That being said I found once I was about half way through the book it picked up as the author explained how the Dunkirk legend was important in setting up England for the rest of the war. He rightly points out that for most of the men involved it was the beginning of their war experiences.

Not a bad book, worth a read, but could have been better.

Scott

 

To Lose a Battle.France 1940 :Alistair Horne

a real eye opener for me

 

Well, I just finished Ace of Aces by Baker, about "Pat" Pattle. It is an incredibly good read... literally. It is hard to imagine that the author wasn't engaged in inserting some of the dogfight details, unless it was customary for all the action to be written up in a report, or for Pattle to put it in a letter and for it to be left uncensored. Still, at least five of Pattle's fellow pilots evidently survived the war and were interviewed by Baker, and they may have been able to jog each other's memories.

 

I applaud their efforts in bringing a lot of military aviation classics back into print, but I have to say that the two books I have from them both have typos in them.

 

Now I've just finished Castle of the Eagles by Mark Felton.

I am not at all certain WHY it has that title, because the castle didn't seem to have anything to do with eagles. However.

It is a somewhat novelistic account of the escape attempts by many senior British (and NZ) officers including Neame, O'Connor, de Wiart, et al while in Italian captivity. The prisoners were quite industrious and tried a number of different approaches which failed, until finally they went to the extreme effort of tunnelling under the walls, after breaking into a blocked-up chapel. Six men escaped, and two managed to reach Switzerland.

I'm going to give this a B or 3.5/5. It's a good read, but I wouldn't have wanted to spend a lot of money on it.

 

New book on Dunkirk

Dunkirk The Real Story in Photographs
Tim Lynch
History Press
ISBN 9780750982733
96pp large Format
£15

Nicely illustrated with a lot of new snippets of info which will make it a must for Drew

 

Just when I was about to finally go to me Burma tour-de-force, I stumbled upon this piece, and being about Beaufighters, just couldn't leave it for the next Southwest Pacific reading spree...

Beaufighters over New Guinea, by George Turnbull Dick.

Sitting at around 190 pp, it is, IMHO, a nice account of RAAF actions over PNG, containing a lot of personal accounts and anecdotes, even though most on shortened mode.

 

Came across this in a second hand store.
The Road of Battle and Glory: I. Danishevsky, David Skvirsky: Amazon.com: Books

Published in Moscow in 1955 so it has the flavour of the time. But read with a criticial eye and looking past the dated political rhetoric, the stories within make for an interesting insight into the "Soviet side" of WW2

 

I've just finished this and can't stop thinking about it. I've read umpteen books about SOE, Resistance, etc but none have affected me the way this one did. What a truly wonderfully haunting story of perseverance.

 

In as much as you didn't know the subject matter well before reading? Or in the sense that the book turns up some surprises?

 

I see I have to learn about uploading a photo.
I found the whole book gripping. I'd read it on the bus, to and from school (I volunteer with reading) and sometimes I just had to close the book and compose myself. I was in tears at the cruelty - yes, I've read about such things in other people's stories - but this was different, somehow. What struck me was his immense strength of will and, when he was almost giving up at certain points, something would happen to renew that strength. The people he met along the way - some survived, some didn't - I'm thankful that I now know of them.

 

Well mate good point
Both

did not know the subject matter in detail and the in fighting within French politics, sabotage of military vehicles whilst in production

 

By John Nesbitt-Dufort
Who's also written the following two titles:


Nesbitt-Dufort had quite the career in the RAF (joined in 1930, flew with FAA, was an instructor, made one of the first Lysander flights into occupied France) and knows his aircraft. Most importantly to me, he writes very well. Engaging, opinionated and with an obvious love of flying. Open Cockpit is full of great vignettes the author throws in from his time in the RAF like the 'phantom' Hawker Fury of 25(F) Squadron, how he convinced riggers and engineers to get an Avro 504 flying where he was stationed in 1942 to make what he believes is the last RAF takeoff and landing of the type and how RAF officers traded rides in Hawker Harts to officers of 3rd Battalion RTR in return for a ride in the Army's own cutting edge vehicles: " ..it was not uncommon to see an RAF officer at the controls of a medium tank as it charged around the shingle at Dungeness" All in all a great read and I'll be seeking out his other two books.

 

As I was telling Orwell1984, I got this on Saturday at a shop for old books. Lord Strathcona's Horse: A Record of Achievement, published 1947. My front cover photo didn't work out so here is a thumbnail I found online:



What's really striking about it is the wonderful paper and binding quality, and the 3-colour maps. You can see here how the ink from the map has actually bled (if that's the right word?) to the facing page. Sorry for the shadows, I took this pic during lunch outside.

 

Offset.

"The accidental transfer of ink from a printed page or illustration to an adjacent page. This may be caused either from the sheets having been folded, or the book bound, before the ink was properly dry, or from the book being subsequently exposed to damp. Offset from engraved or other plates on to text, and from text on to plates, is commoner, and also much more disfiguring, than offset from text on to text."

Definition of term: - Offset (English) - ILAB-LILA

Nice-looking book.

 

Thanks, Charley!

It's a shame about the offset, but it is really nice