Book Description
A "magisterial" (The New York Times) single-volume history of WWII
It began with the German invasion of Poland on September 1, 1939. By the time it came to an end on V-J Day-August 14, 1945 -it had involved every major power and become global in its reach. In the final accounting, it would turn out to be, in both human terms and material resources, the costliest war in history, taking the lives of thirty million people.
In one brilliant volume, eminent historian Martin Gilbert offers the complete history of the Second World War. With unparalleled scholarship and breadth of vision, Gilbert, the official biographer of Winston Churchill as well as one of the leading experts on the Holocaust, weaves together political, military, diplomatic, and civilian elements to provide a global perspective on the war, in a work that is both a treasure trove of information and a gripping, dramatic narrative.
"In his transmission of the horror of the war, Martin Gilbert has achieved something no other historian but he could. There is indeed a relentless force about chronology when it is used as a tool by an historian of the stature of Martin Gilbert."
-The Sunday Telegraph
"Gilbert's flowing narrative is spiced with anecdotal details culled from diaries, memoirs, and official documents. He is especially skillful at interweaving summaries of military
strategy with vignettes of civilian suffering." -Newsweek
Customer Reviews:
Superb Coverage.......2007-09-09
Excellent read -- the author's style is comfortable so I never felt as if I were immersed in a text book. Thoroughly enjoyed this one from cover to cover.
Excellent Read.......2007-05-25
Not completely finished with it yet, but so far...AMAZING!!!! Don't let the high page count and the small text deter you....it is an easy read and very riveting....keeps you turning the pages. Highly descriptive and detailed. Pretty much a day to day account of the Second World War
Comprehensive one volume history.......2007-05-15
As with all of Martin Gilbert's works, this is an accomplished and polished history of World War II, looking both from a bird's eye view of events, to a closer more intimate picture of so many of those involved.
It details the war in Europe, from the Nazi invasion of Poland in 1939, to then effects of the War even today.
The millitary conflict, is set against the backdrop of the genocide by the Nazis of millions of Jews, Gypsies, Poles, Russians , Serbs, 'anti-social elements' and others.
Even before the war, Hitler had boasted that the result of the war, would be the total destruction of European Jewry (echoed today by the threats of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, to 'wipe Israel off the map', and his nuclear weapons programme, in order to do this.)
In response to Hitler's persecution of the Jews, Dr Chaim Weizmann, the elder statesman of the Zionist movement, wrote to the British Prime Minister, to declare that the Jews would fight on the side of the democracies against Nazi Germany- his letter was published in The Times on September 6.
The human cost is recorded in harrowing detail. On September 25, the Germans launched Operation Coast. a massive air attack on Warsaw, which dropped a total of seventy incendiary tons on the Polish capital. A Polish officer's wife, Jadwiga Sosnkowska, who later escaped to the West recalled the horrors of that night. Also recorded by Gilbert was the bombing of Belgrade, in which 17 000 civillians were killed in one day.
Gilbert covers the Soviet connivance in the rape of Poland, and quotes from a variety of sources on the holocaust, such as the diaries of Chaim Kaplan and Emanuel Ringleblum.
The power of the German occupation authorities to tyrannize through hunger, fear and terror was unlimited.
We can take inspiration from the words of Winston Churchill to the members of his new government: 'You ask what is our policy? I will say it is to wage war by sea, land and air, with all our might, and with all the strength that G-D can give us; to wage war against a monstrous tyranny, never surpassed in the dark, lamentable catalogue of human crime.'
This is the stand that leaders of the free world need to take in the war of terror, and against the axis of evil Islamist and Marxist regimes, today, which stands for the destruction of Israel and the West.
Unfortunately in these days of moral relativity and fashionable political correctness, such a stand is not fashionable, hence all the hate directed against brave leaders like President George W Bush, and Tony Blair.
Roosevelt also gave us some wisdom on how to deal with totalitarian states by 'resistance, not appeasement'.
There were always propagandists for Nazi Germany and her agression, such as the propagandist William Joyce, known as Lor Haw Haw, who broadcast pro-Axis messages from Radio Bremen, into Britain.
Gilbert covers antisemitic filth, which has poured from Nazi faucets, which made the holocaust possible, indeed moral denigration encourages physical elimination.
'Even the world of film and entertainment had been dragooned to serve the cause of race hatred.'
This is mirrored in the propaganda against the Jews of Israel, by the extreme Left, the international media, the United Nations, much of the European Union, the Non-Aligned Movement, Third World regimes, universities and leftist academics.
Nazi films such as 'Jud Suss' and the 'Eternal Jew' are mirrored by violently anti-Israel and pro-terror movies like 'Paradise Now', 'documentaries such as John Pilger's 'Palestine Is Still the Issue' and plays like Alan Rickman's 'My Name Is Rachel Corrie'.
The book highlights heros such as the Jewish volunteers from the Land of Israel- Peretz Rosenberg, Hannah Szenes , Enzo Sereni, French heros such as Jean Moulin, British heros such as Noor Inayat Khan, Norwegian heros such as Arne Dahl, and those brave Germans who opposed the Nazis such as Hans Scholl, his sister Sophie Scholl of the White Rose, Pastor Niemoller, Bernhard Letterhaus and Gertrude Seele.
Also villains such as Eichmann, Mengele, Stroop , Hans Frank, the Mufti Haj Amin El Husseini and Rashid Ali of Iraq.
The scale of human cruelty is mindblowing. Even after it was clear that all was over for Hitler and the Nazis, 20 Jewish children were hung on Hitler's birthday, ranging in age from five to twelve years.
The basic message of remembering thse events is that totalitarian evil must be fought without quarter, and that the forces of good must never surrender.
A MONUMENTAL JOB OF RESEARCH, A WW II BUFF'S VITAL TEXT.......2006-09-15
Although overwhelming in its detail, Gilbert's book brilliantly captures the day-by-day evolution of the war on all fronts, which nicely supplements other, more "themed" presentations (such as Keegan's outstanding book). The two running themes that do emerge from the piling on of detail after detail are: 1) the Germans' relentless persecution of the Jews, despite military setbacks and setbacks in prosecuting the war, and 2) the vital role of the codebreakers in helping win specific battles and, ultimately, the war itself. The book must be read in small doses; its cumulative effect is too depressing.
ouch, ouch, ouch ..........2006-07-16
The great Churchill scholar Martin Gilbert's 'complete' history of the Second World War can perhaps be faulted on only one count: plodding.
This weakness in rhetorical strategy is also the virtue that sets this history of the Second War apart from others. A glimpse at the dated chapters in the table of contents is barely enough to prepare the reader for the cumulative impact of marching month by month through this great conflagration. One skips from one military theater to the next, always aligned with the same dates.
Thus, Gilbert allows the crushing burden of *world* war to settle upon the careful reader with devastating effect. One wonders how the world survived.
Survive it did, thanks in part - with apologies to doctrinaire oponents of 'great men' history-making - to decision-makers and opinion-shapers like Gilbert's beloved Churchill. Still, the bulk of this work's attention falls upon the generals. How could it be otherwise in a theater-movement-and-strategy approach? One follows the bloodied paths of armies who follow, to some degree at least, the edicts of generals who see dimly through their glasses and on their HQ maps. This, too, is a reality of war.
I highly recommend this book. It is not the view of the man in the foxhole or the nurse in the dressing station. It is, however, a bird's-eye view of how the world tore itself to pieces and then stopped just before there was nothing left.
Book Description
The acclaimed British historian offers a majestic, single-volume work incorporating all major fronts-domestic, diplomatic, military-for "a stunning achievement of research and storytelling"
(Publishers Weekly)
It was to be the war to end all wars, and it began at 11:15 on the morning of June 28, 1914, in an outpost of the Austro-Hungarian Empire called Sarajevo. It would end officially almost five years later. Unofficially, it has never ended: the horrors we live with today were born in the First World War.
It left millions-civilians and soldiers-maimed or dead. And it left us with new technologies of death: tanks, planes, and submarines; reliable rapid-fire machine guns and field artillery; poison gas and chemical warfare. It introduced us to U-boat packs and strategic bombing, to unrestricted war on civilians and mistreatment of prisoners. Most of all, it changed our world. In its wake, empires toppled, monarchies fell, whole populations lost their national identities as political systems, and geographic boundaries were realigned. Instabilities were institutionalized, enmities enshrined. And the social order shifted seismically. Manners, mores, codes of behavior; literature and the arts; education and class distinctions-all underwent a vast sea change. And in all these ways, the twentieth century can be said to have been born on the morning of June 28, 1914.
"One of the first books that anyone should read in beginning to try to understand this war and this century."
-The New York Times Book Review (cover)
Customer Reviews:
A Compelling Read.......2007-08-23
I enjoyed reading it immensely. Somewhere between Keegan's sometimes overwhelming numbers and Strachan's daunting compendium lies this humanizing account of the Great War. I'm not enough of a historian to tell you what may or may not be wrong with this book, but I am enough of a reader to say Gilbert has written an informative and engaging page turner. Well done.
The Hop, Skip, and Jump Approach to History.......2007-05-24
Sir Martin Gilbert is Winston Churchill's official biographer and is one of Britain's best historians. He has been prolific in his writing. He has 72 books to his name, and fully deserves the knighthood he received in 1995.
A trademark of Gilbert's history is his use of narrative. Generally, I prefer this approach in what I like to read and what I try to write. Biography, for which Sir Martin is best known, really demands this approach.
This book is well-written. His coverage is broad. He moves easily from the pounding of artillery on the western front, to the high seas where deadly u-boats patrolled. He looks at both sides and covers the social and political impact of this conflict on the various homefronts.
Despite those strengths, I would not recommend this book to the casual reader. Gilbert goes wrong with his use of narrative. It is so overwhelming in this book that it verges on being the literary equivalent of chronology. The problem is that when Gilbert might be discussing an event, say a battle, that transpired over a long period of time, he will spend two paragraphs on that topic and then move to another issue that might be on the other side of the planet. Then two paragraphs later he has moved on to a third topic, and three paragraphs later he brings up a fourth issue. He often will not return to the first event for 10 or 20 pages. The result is that it becomes quite difficult to keep track of what is happening. With his hop, skip and jump approach, readers do get an idea of the relentless crush of the war, but at the expense of comprehension.
Competent, well written, accurate.......2007-05-10
I have perused a good many of the reviews here, and there is, to me, a surprising amount of disdain for the book and its famous author. This is a competently written account of a wildly confusing jumble of five chaotic years, battled on a dozen or so fronts on 4 continents, with North and South America barely missing out. No one book can capture the whole story; if in doubt look at the splendid, lengthy narratives about one battle or one month or one participant. A survey of The Great War is a daunting task, and Gilbert handles it competently, if not brilliantly. His prejudices are on display, as are those of the various reviewers here. Is it the single one best book describing the whole war? I don't think so. But does he do a good job of telling the story? He certainly does.
Its strengths begin with Gilbert's ability to maintain chronology in such a shambles of action and inaction. We bounce from Poland to Mesopotamia to London to Belgium, and he keeps the reader along for this confusing ride. I had no trouble following where we were, or how we got there. Another strength is how he maintains a fairly objective look. What does he think about Pershing's persistence at not rescuing the Allies before he thought the troops were ready? I'm not sure. I have my opinions, but they are mine. The emphasis on poetry is well-done, making many of those mangled corpses into beings we can identify with. The prose flowed well.
On the downside, I found his omnipresent, if not openly stated, damning of the whole enterprise as futile and stupid as unfair. John Keegan believes the First World War, while resulting in a horrific loss of life, did indeed accomplish something worthwhile, and I'm with him. Lives were not sacrificed in vain. Good men challenged bad men. And they won. Aggression in Europe was thwarted. Were these victorious nations, or their leaders, perfect? As we understand morality today, no they were not. Was there much foolishness and carelessness on both sides. Indeed. But was one side clearly better than the other? To that I wholeheartedly agree. The totalitarian states were crushed and, in many cases, replaced with nations that were an improvement. Perfect? How could it be? Certainly the establishment of the Soviet Union was a dismal, bitter, horrific disaster. (though Nicholas was so inept it is quite possible he would have tumbled without the war.) And true, it took another war to completely thwart Germany's quest for European hegemony, but after two crushing losses, the land grab has stopped. Is Europe more stable today? Certainly. Will it ever be Peace and Harmony everywhere? Only in the fantasies of the moral absolutists.
My other critique is the ending. While lengthy, I too was baffled by Germany's collapse in the 1917-18 offensive. They got tired? The losses were staggering. Yet many among the brass, and, to judge by the favor Hitler received, the common soldier, felt they could fight one. I never really got from Gilbert just what it was that caused the German retreat.
Ultimately, no book trying to tell this complex tale can be more than a gloss of the specifics. This is a shiny gloss. Read it to get the background, delve into the many books that discuss the specifics.
World War I from the perspective of the British and British poets.......2007-04-29
Martin Gilbert is a very concise and thoughtful writer and if this book had been properly titled, I would give it 5 stars. However, this is not a "Complete History". I would wager than less than 12 Austro-Hungarians are mentioned by name, but names of British soldiers appear like poppies in Flanders.
The title of this review, in my opinion, reflects the true title of this book. If you wish to read a book about World War I from the British perspective, and more properly from the perspective of the British intelligentsia and poets, this is the perfect book for you.
If you wish to read a book that is truly a "Complete History", try wonderful writers such as Niall Ferguson or John Keegan.
Mr. Gilbert is an excellent writer, despite the negativity of this review. I highly recommend his "Churchill: A Life".
The Good, The Bad and The Disappointing.......2007-02-01
This has been a very absorbing read, very detailed, chronologically ordered account of each sector of this war. Each battle is described right down to almost every single trench fight, while constantly invoking the strategic aim behind the battles.
However, at a soldier's level, this at best is an account of how the British saw the war. How the British felt about the war, and how the British saw other Allies and Enemies seeing the war. While there is enormous amount of coverage of British soldiers' record of letter-writing, diaries and poem-writing (there must be a hundred poems in the book - it seemed like every soldier was a poet at heart), there is not a single mention of any feelings of any other soldier who took part in the war. You want to know what the ordinary German soldier was thinking? Or even Britain's allied French, and American soldiers? You get an acount of what the British thought they were thinking. That's it! And its not for the lack of existence of any record. Its simply that the only research done was from British sources. The only account of any other country taking part in the war, has been of leaders, so you'll find some statements from the Kaiser of Germany, some generals in the French army, Adolf Hitler's letters to his landlord, etc, but no mention of any ordinary soldiers. It was refreshing to read at one point an account of a British soldier writing in his diary how a few German soldiers on the opposite side of the trenches at the frontline let it be known that they too were sick of the war. It finally gave a human face to the "German Soldier". It would have been great to know what a lot of these soldiers were actually writing in letters to their mothers, and what's recorded in the official German history of the war. But there's nothing there. Not for Germans, or the Austrians, or the Turks, and not even for the Allies.
And now for the truly disappointing part: Germans were "cruel" to use poisonous gases. British were forced to use the same gases, such had become the deterioration in mindset caused by the war. Turks and Austrians "butchered" the soldiers, while the naval blockade by British Navy of Germany causing over 80,000 civilians in Germany to die of starvation is mentioned as a matter of fact. Account of Turks handling the British POWs is deeply humanized from the prisoners' letters and poems, talking about the cruelty, but nothing is mentioned of any of the millions other prisoners that any other country possessed.
Churchill was as big a colonist as any other of his time. This is completely over-looked by the British historians, as if this wasn't really a bad thing. It flies in the face of what leaders on the opposite side were trying to do. So while the annexation of Belgium and Serbia and Poland are accounts mentioned in terms that a reader should find disturbing, British proposal of breaking up the Ottomon Empire, handing Syria, Palestine, Baghdad, Basra, Beirut etc to other countries as incentive to join the war should simply be read as military strategy.
If the wording had been the same for annexation of land and killing of people, this book could have been qualified as an impartial history of the First World War.
Amazon.com
On December 3, 1941, officers of the U.S. Army Signal Intelligence Unit decoded a message sent from Tokyo to the Japanese embassy in Washington, ordering embassy staff to destroy its code books and other sensitive material. This, the officers determined, meant that Japan was preparing to break off diplomatic relations with the United States and go to war. When, they could not say; to gain a precise date, they would have had to break the Japanese naval codes. Therein, writes Stephen Budiansky in Battle of Wits, lay the rub: "Since mid-1939, America had not read a single message in the main Japanese naval code on the same day it had been sent. For most of the period from June 1, 1939, to December 7, 1941, the [U.S.] Navy was working on naval messages that were months, or even over a year old."
For all their lack of preparedness and occasional inefficiencies, and for all the disdain with which some Allied ground commanders held the work of military intelligence, writes Budiansky, Allied cryptographers were of critical importance in determining the outcome of World War II. The decoding of Japanese and German encryption engines, for instance, helped the Allied navies gain victory in the battles of the Atlantic and Midway, while the translation of secret German railroad schedules allowed Winston Churchill to warn Josef Stalin that the German army was about to invade the Soviet Union--though Stalin refused to take the warning seriously. The codebreakers, in short, "averted disasters that would have been terrible setbacks to the Allied cause," and they almost certainly saved a considerable number of lives as they labored to crack such profound puzzles as Enigma and Purple.
Budiansky's narrative is strong on the science of cryptography--so much so that readers without a background in mathematics and logic may have trouble following the arcana of key squares, bigrams, and all the other trade secrets of cryptanalysis. Readers willing to brave matters technical, however, will find Budiansky's comprehensive account to be the best single book on the subject, and one well worth their attention. --Gregory McNamee
Book Description
A million pages of new World War II codebreaking records have been released by the U.S. Army and Navy and the British government over the last five years. Now, Battle of Wits presents the history of the war that these documents reveal. From the Battle of Midway until the last German code was broken in January 1945, this is an astonishing epic of a war that was won not simply by brute strength but also by reading the enemy's intentions.
The revelations of Stephen Budiansky's dramatic history include how Britain tried to manipulate the American codebreakers and monopolize German Enigma code communications; the first detailed published explanations of how the Japanese codes were broken; and how the American codebreaking machines worked to crack the Japanese, the German, and even the Russian diplomatic codes. This is the story of the Allied codebreakers puzzling through the most difficult codebreaking problems that ever existed. At the same time, the compelling narrative shows the crucial effect codebreaking had on the battlefields by explaining the urgency of stopping the wolf pack U-boat attacks in the North Atlantic, the burning desire in the United States to turn the tide of the war after Pearl Harbor, the importance of halting Rommel's tanks in North Africa, and the necessity of ensuring that the Germans believed the Allies' audacious deception and cover plans for D-Day.
Budiansky brings to life the unsung codebreaking heroes of this secret war: Joseph J. Rochefort, an intense and driven naval officer who ran the codebreaking operation in "The Dungeon," a dank basement at Pearl Harbor, that effectively won the Battle of Midway; Alan Turing, the eccentric father of the computer age, whose brilliant electromechanical calculators broke the German Enigma machine; and Ian Fleming, whose daredevil espionage schemes to recover codebooks resembled the plots of the 007 novels he later wrote. Among the villains, we meet the Nazi Admiral Donitz, who led the submarine wolf packs against Allied shipping in the North Atlantic with horrific casualty rates?until the codebreakers stopped him.
Budiansky, a Harvard -- trained mathematician, demonstrates the mathematical insight and creativity of the cryptographers by showing step-by-step precisely how the codes were broken. This technology -- the flow of information, its encryption, and the computational methods of recovering it from the enemy -- had never before been so important to the outcome of a war. Informative diagrams, maps, appendices, and photographs show exactly how, why, and where the secret war was won. Unveiled for the first time, the complete story of codebreaking in World War II has now been told.
Customer Reviews:
Outstanding!.......2007-07-13
This book is great! Highly recommended to everybody interested in World War II History and historical aspects of cryptoanalysis.
Fills in a critical part of WWII history........2006-02-16
I have for many years wondered exactly how the supposedly unbreakable German Enigma machine and the Japanese diplomatic and Naval codes were broken. Stephen Budiansky does a great job at explaining how this was done. This was no easy task, requiring the ability to explain complex mathematical and mechanical concepts in a political and military context. Budiansky is uniquely suited to this task and I for one am grateful for his successful effort. He has a master's degree in applied mathematics, along with work in military studies as a Congressional Fellow. To this one must add that he is a good writer, as attested to by the fact that he is a correspondent for The Atlantic, The New York Times and The Economist among other prestigious publications.
This is no dry academic text, but is a story of great excitement, of great internal rivalries and intrigues. It is also fortunately much more, as it also goes into detail about the design and operation of the code machines and ciphers, as well as the novel approaches that were used to overcome them. It goes into considerable detail about these approaches, without becoming overly pedantic. This book covers the Japanese Diplomatic and Naval codes as well as the German Enigma machine. As such, it covers both code machines and ciphers, with a very good discussion of the history of both and the distinction between them. This book is more than a dry discussion of mathematics, but also delves into the personalities of the people involved and the internal rivalries between the US Army and Navy and between the civilian and military branches of the governments involved. It touches on espionage and the application of the knowledge of what was learned from the code breaking.
I was aware of the general outlines of what was done, of Bletchley Park and the American equivalents and of the importance of the early work of Polish code breakers. What I was not aware of was exactly how this was done. The Germans were confident that even if the allies got hold of a code machine they could not unscramble a message that was coded with what was a virtually unlimited number of possible combinations. I now have a better idea of how this was done and if you read this book so will you. I learned of the importance of a spy in Germany who early on provided a few messages and some code setting that were of great initial help, how German regularity in the form of the messages and the laziness of some operators in reusing the same text were of great importance, of the struggles to overcome the continual changes in the machines and upgrading of the codes. Most of all, I learned of the creativity and persistence of the human mind. My only criticism, and it is a minor one, is that very little space is given to the German and Japanese efforts (many of them successful) in deciphering allied codes. I hope that this will be the subject of a future book of Budiansky's.
Fascinating; lots of detail.......2005-08-08
This was a great read. It helps quite a bit to be able to understand technical subjects, because this isn't a simple technology. Great detail.
Biased.Too Anglo-American centric.......2004-06-02
It seems there is no dearth in books on intelligence[codebreaking ] in World War II.Ever since British Govt lifted Official Secrets Act in 1974 there have been explosion of books on this sensitive subject.
Author dwelts upon complex intricate nature of German, Japanese ciphers;difficulties involved in breaking it which make up most of this book .Author's narration at times looks convoluted,abstruse.Especially dificult to follow mechanism of American IBM computer used to break Axis ciphers.Americans being more mechanically minded came up with devices like Comparator,RAM [Rapid Analytical Machinery ]for breaking codes.Appendix section of the book contain detailed explanation of German naval Enigma and Japanese purple ciphers plus techniques used for decoding it.
What I like in this book is the section dealing with U boat warwhat author calls shadow warfare.This was a dicey situation with warring powers reading each other codes with themselves not aware of it.On the negative side ,To assert FDR had no fore warning about Japanese raid on Pearl Harbor when we have abundant evidence to the contrary partially detracts the value of this book . Budiansky has virtually ignored Eastern Front despite the fact former Soviet Union bore brunt of war against Nazi Germany.I feel this to be a manifestation of author's cold war mentality unfortunately prevalent among few academics in the West.
What we do not know even today wheather Russians too read German ciphers.Soviet dictator Stalin definitely knew about Ultra thanks to Kim Philby and Cambridge spyring.Soviets had a spy network operating in the Nazi-occupied Europe [Red Orchestra].Information it provided influenced some crucial battles fought on the Eastern Front.For details refer Red Orchestra by Tarrant V.E.
To sum up,Budiansky's work is highly Anglo-American centric.To call this book-as given in the title'Complete story of codebreaking in World War II'- is actually misnomer.
Really complete story!!.......2004-03-21
I was interested in the history of codebreaking in World War II but my very incomplete knowledge about the subject stemmed from fiction work, both movies (such as "Enigma') and books (such as Neal Stephenson' 'Cryptonomicon'). After reading this book I have now a very clear picture of what really happened. The author does a great of explaining in great details the history and background of this cryptograhical war. The emphasize of this book is really on efforts by both British and Americans to break German codes although activities to break codes of other Nazi allies also described. The author does a very good job of explaining how various algorithms worked in a language that should be understandabe to anybody (for somebody who is interested in more technical details there are a number of appendixes). It provides a very good and 'live' portraits of people that were involved in these activities. It made me realize how much bureaucracy and stupidity these people had to overcome. Highly recommended for anybody who is interested in the subject but feels he still didn't get a complete picture.
Book Description
This is the story of the Allied air campaign across Australia, Sumatra, Java, the Philippines, Burma and Ceylon during World War II. It documents the Allied underestimation of Japanese ability, and ends with the Japanese at the extremities of their advance.
Customer Reviews:
Diary of a Disaster.......2007-07-06
An outstanding book! This series has been a wonderful source of information concerning the more obscure air combat scene in the Asia/ Pacific warzone. The day-to-day accounts of allied air activity combined with personnel insights and photos provide a stark picture of the war's early days. British, Dutch, American, Aussie, and Japanese accounts of the signifcant early battles are compared and contrasted, highlighting the "fog of war" and the abilities of both sides to grossly overestimate their combat results. Volume one was so outstanding that I ended up purchasing the remaining books in the series immediately after finishing it. You will not regret purchasing this or any of the other books in this series. Volume 2 contains some minor corrections for Volume 1, as well as a chapter that was originally intended for the first book.
I find Christopher Shores one of the best aviation writers out there. This book is really better then 5 stars; the illustrations earn it a 6!
Slightly Flawed But Excellent.......2005-07-06
Let me first say that both volumes in the Bloody Shambles series are excellent and far superior to ANY other text on the subject of air warfare in the first six months of the Pacific War that I've ever seen.
Nonetheless, having conducted extensive research into the role of the Royal Netherlands Naval Air Service (MLD) during the Japanese invasion of the former Netherlands East Indies (NEI), I can tell you that both volumes of Bloody Shambles contain some fairly substantial errors on the MLD. However, this can be overlooked somewhat given that the role of the MLD in the Pacific War is not particularly well covered in English and there is very little information available for the non-Dutch speaking historian. It is unlikely that I would have noticed the errors in question had I not spent 11 years researching my own manuscript on the naval air war in the NEI.
But from what I can tell though, the rest of the information detailing the air war in the Philippines, NEI, Singapore and Burma appears to be incredibly accurate. Having grown up hearing and reading stories about how the "invincible" Japanese blew through Allied air defenses with nary a loss, these texts go a long way in educating the reader that in many cases, the Allies gave just as much as they received from the Japanese.
All in all, a must read for anyone interested in learning more about the true nature of the air war in the first six months of the Pacific War.
invaluable for the historian.......2002-12-28
Christopher Shores is an international treasure, a man who has made it his task to suss out the truth about aerial combats in far corners of the globe, usually with the assistance of a fellow historian or two from the countries most involved. In this particular case, he is one of the few who have accessed Japanese records, and he compares them with Allied accounts on a day-by-day basis. This is great stuff, especially for those of us who already know something about the campaigns. My particular interest is the Flying Tigers of Burma, and I was delighted to have Shores's version, especially since he gives equal time to the RAF squadrons that fought alongside the AVG. But I confess that it took a great deal of concentration for me to slog through the Philippines campaign, about which I knew very little. So my conclusion is this: the more you know already, the more you will learn from this account. -- Dan Ford
Christopher Shores/Brain Cull.......2002-03-08
This book, yet another in the wonderful series of air war accounts done by Christopher Shores and Brian Cull is a great review of the early air war in the Pacific Theater. Mr. Shores and Mr. Cull use interviews with the participants as well as the actual unit reports to bring an idea of the constant struggle that the air war represented. Rather than being dry, these books are easy to read and a great resource.
Book Description
This companion volume presents how the Panzertruppen fought during their defensive struggle with details on the units, organizations, types of Panzers, and tactics. , 47 b/w photographs, maps, charts, 8 1/2" x 11", appendices
Customer Reviews:
Excellent reference.......2004-08-04
This book, along with volume one which covers pre-war development and early war employment of the Panzer divisions, is an excellent reference. Any information you need about German armored divisions from 1943-1945 is likely here. I can not recommend it highly enough.
Jentz picks up in this volume where he left off in the previous book. He provides a wealth of information on force structures (including how platoons, companies, battalions, staff companies, etc.) were organized. All of this is presented in tables and figures for easy reference. Each reorganizaton is accompanied by the translated order which created the change. As in the first volume, Jentz provides unit strengths, as well as listing tank types, for each division at the start of a new operation (or at the end of one).
Also included are numerous translated after-action reports, which reveal a great deal about German armored tactics and the performance of their tanks in the field. These are fascinating, and are not available anywhere else. One final table in particularly interesting: it presents the number of tanks available to each division at the end of the war. Many panzer "divisions" had only a platoon's worth of tanks left.
The end of the book presents a variety of data in a set of appendices. This includes charts showing monthly data on the on-hand strength of each tank type as well as comparative technical data for German and Allied late-war tanks.
Also strongly recommended is volume I of the set; with both, you have a comprehensive set of information on the Panzer divisions in World War II. I constantly refer to both of them, so much that they are usually out on my desk rather than back on the shelf.
Great Primary Source Material.......1999-05-08
This book uses after-action reports, and war diary entries to describe German armored operations. The material has an immediacy that one just can't find in other, excellent, works of the same subject. As an example, if you want to know what crews really thought of the Panther and Tiger, not what post-war technical analyses say, this is the series for you. You can also follow the evolution of tactics as German and Allied tank and anti-tank weapons evolve throughout the war. As a previous review said, this series assumes a certain familiarity with German WWII military terms and ranks-probably not for the general enthusiast.
Unique look into the combat story of the Panzertruppe.......1997-12-17
Based on German WWII documents Tom Jentz gives the reader a rare look into the organization and combat tactics of German armoured formations in the 1943-1945 period. The tactics of platoon, company and battalion sized units are told by extensive quotes from wardiaries and battle reports. There are statistics on tank-availability in many individual units as well as numerous TO&Es. The book does not cover every unit in every theater of war, but uses examples to tell the story of small unit tank-combat in WWII. All in all it is 300 pages packed with info not available in any other book on the subject. As the author used many WWII German military terms, a certain familiarity with these could be helpfull to the reader.
Book Description
On February 19, 1945, seven battalions of U.S. Marines landed on the eastern beaches of Iwo Jima. On the southernmost flank, in the shadows of Suribachi, the First Battalion, 28th Marines, stormed ashore into the bloodiest and most renowned of all battles fought by the U.S. Marine Corps. Thirty-six days later, the Marines overran the "Bloody Gorge" and dislodged the last enemy holdouts. The battle was over, but at great cost: 225 of the First Battalion's men died on Iwo Jima.
Based on official reports and personal accounts, this is a day-by-day history of the First Battalion, 28th Marines, on Iwo Jima. Each chapter presents an overview of that day's combat and other relevant events, and also contains the text of that day's official regimental and battalion narratives. The text is complemented by a chronology and transcribed muster rolls for February and March 1945.
Customer Reviews:
An Exemplary Research Project.......2000-08-15
Robert Allen has produced an amazing work on the oft-reported saga of the Marine Corps and Iwo Jima, that terrible island. As an amateur military historian (and former Marine who has attempted to reconstruct certain campaigns), I found myself asking over and over again: where and how did he get this information? how long did it take to accurately compile, for instance, the daily "muster rolls" of an entire battalion in the field? The picture that emerges of the Iwo Jima assault is even more horrifying from this perspective of dry military "diaries" and the daily recounting of casualties and replacements. This was island warfare against Japan at its worst, and Allen's microscopic treatment helps to bring it all into focus at the fighting man's level. With the United States Government itself doing little to advance in-depth WWII analysis, writers like Allen are doing a great service for those who do care.
Always Faithful....Always Remembered.......2000-05-18
Bob Allen's work represents the best kind of historical narrative-a first hand narrative from the perspective of one who was in motion on Iwo Jima's bloodied sands, and the thoughtful and detailed analysis provided by his focus on the overall picture of the events. Bob's devotion is to telling the story and painting as much of the canvas as he can, while there is time to do so. The memories are 50+ years out there, but they are as clear as though they were this morning. You must read this, and treasure it as a family heirloom of American history. Bob Allen, and his fellow Marines and Sailors, put it all on the line for us, and this is the story of what that really means. Thanks, Bob. Semper fi.
Book Description
Examines the notorious Nazi's life.
Customer Reviews:
Mengele: The Complete Story.......2007-07-16
A very helpful, scholarly bio with information about Mengele's entire life. A great book for those seeking more than just an overview of Mengele. If you want to know more about Mengele's work, visit the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum's website for "Deadly Medicine" exhibition, now at Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta this summer (2007).
Mengele: The Complete Story.......2007-06-18
Was hard to stay interested in this book. I found it very boring to read.
34 years in hell.......2007-03-26
First of all: A damned good book! Bonechilling material!! Furthermore:
What kind of punishment do you give a man like Mengele?
Deathpenalty? Life in prison? The first one is over too quick and the second one is too easy. No, I think Mengele has got the best punishment he could have. He was 34 years on the run. Never had a moment of peace in his entire life after the ending of WW2. The stress it brought him, even gave him a shorter span of life. He developed a lot of stress related sickness. Always had to look over his shoulder. Did they recognize him? Was this his last day of "freedom"? If he had been sentenced for life in prison he could have reached, like Hess, a respectable age well over 80 years old. Now he died 68 years of age. Alone and forgotten in some Godforsaken place in Brazil. He sticked, untill his dead, to his beliefs about the Nazi's and the Jews. A rigid and untolereant character of a man.
He never got the chance to fullfill a job on his intelectuel level, always lowpaid workman's labour. Never could socialise with people of his intelect. That hurt him like hell. So, in fact, life in "freedom" was in fact life in hell. Never the hell he created for the people who died through his hands or command. But even we, as normal people, couldn't give him, if he had be captured, the torments he gave all those other innocent people. For that, we are to civilised. No, I think it has been for the best that he stayed on the run. He punished himself with it. More then we ever could give to him. I feel sorry for his son Rolf. You only get one biological father in your life and he got this one.
Mengle: The Complete Story.......2007-03-09
Overall, I felt this was a book worth reading in order to get a good overview of Mengle especially after World War II (which was the focus of this book). At times it seemed to drag when it went into excruiting detail about the different agencies who were trying to catch Mengele and why they all failed.
interesting book.......2006-11-03
It is a very well documented book about nazy criminals. I appreciate the author( I also read the book about Chinese Mafia) and i think is somehow impartial in the context of a jewish ruled world where everything anti-jewish is seen Holocaust-ic. thank You
Book Description
"A first-class popular history of the war, lively, entertaining, and continuously informative."--Publishers Weekly "His ability to recreate the emotions of war makes this monumental work a living history."--Booklist
Customer Reviews:
Great Read.......2007-08-04
When I first gained an interest in history it was this book that hooked me for the long haul. A brilliant read. The prose is so compelling there were times I thought I was reading a work of fiction.
Good reading, but long for college students..........2005-02-11
If you are a college student you might find this book way too long, so go for another source. However, if you consider yourself a history lover then this print will certainly more than entertain you. Highly recommended for those interested in WWII battles.
Did the U.S. Marine Corps win WW II?.......2004-10-25
Attempting to fit a subject as enormous as World War II into one single volume of history is no mean feat. Whether Mr. Leckie's book is indeed the first such endeavour is open to debate - it may well be the first American one-volume history, but by declaring his book a "first" without reservation, Mr. Leckie rather sets the tone for the entire account: This is a short version of World War II seen from a purely (and chauvinist) American point of view.
The account furthermore suffers from factual inaccuracies, as the author makes every effort to belittle (or indeed ridicule) especially the British from Montgomery to Churchill, demonize the Germans and generally overlook the decisive effort of the Soviets. But even if the reader accepts the book as a history of mainly the U.S. war effort, the narrative is unbalanced by the excessive attention given to the island-hopping campaign in the Pacific.
Mr. Leckie is, I believe, a former Marine himself, and his loyalty to his old corps is touching - but damaging to his credibility as a writer of history. The number of individual marines portrayed, the detailed decriptions of their weapons and equipment are completely out of proportion in a one-volume history of a conflict of this magnitude, especially when taking into account that - in the larger scheme of things - the campaigns of MacArthur and Nimitz were little more than a side-show. The only decisive contribution to the outcome of the war provided by the island-hopping was the securing of forward air bases from which the air offensive against the Japanese mainland - culminating in the dropping of the nuclear bombs - could be staged. Such bases might just as well have been secured in China had the Americans used some of the ressources poured into the Pacific to support the Chinese war effort. Still Mr. Leckie allows the Pacific campaign to outshine even the monumental American effort in Europe.
Only in his description of the Yalta conference does Mr. Leckie achieve an objective evaluation of the American contribution to the war - and its sad aftermath. The author deserves praise for his severe criticism of how President Roosevelt and his entourage allowed their biases and idiosyncracies to cloud their judgement at Yalta, thus condemming half of Europe to communist tyrrany.
Generally, however, the book seems in a sense oddly superflous: It is too subjective and selective as well as too factually flawed to be of use to readers who want to gain insight into the history of WW II by reading just one book, while it falls far below the scholarly requirements of those who wish to study the conflict in detail.
Brilliant... but for one, irksome thing..........2003-12-07
The narrative of this book is supurbly written and it almost reads like a novel in many parts. It must have been a daunting prospect when Mr. Leckie set out to write this and he pulled it off with almost unprecendented brilliance. Having read this the reader might be wondering why this doesn't get five stars from me. The reason for this is that this book has an almost unbearable one-sidedness. The bias towards America in this book is almost painful to read. Leckie has almost no shame as he deals out a surplus of scathing remarks to almost anyone or anything not American. Not even America's British allies are spared with Montgomery receiving some particularly harsh remarks. Only the Australian troops in New Guinea and Erwin Rommel receive any praise from this American chauvinist. Just a glance at the units listed in the index and one will see that there are 157 American units listed compared with just 42 Germans, 35 Japanese and and stunning 8 Soviets (despite the fact that Soviets fielded the most troops of all nations by far and sustained fifty percent of all the losses in the Second World War). It is unfortunate that an otherwise splendid book should be so ruined just because this man couldn't stop his bias seeping into the writing. Don't read this book unless you have a considerable knowledge of WWII already otherwise you will miss out on a lot as there are some dreadfully large omissions.
Monumental task eloquently done..........2003-09-22
An extremely courageous undertaking...many detailed volumes have previously been written on World War II at the specific battle level that to imagine a one-volume account of the whole war which is not only useful but also readable seems initially to be a ridiculous proposition. Robert Leckie, however, pulls it off marvelously and earns his reputation as a "masterful historian" with this epic work.
Starting at Versaille following the dreadful end of World War I and ending on the deck of the Missouri battleship for the formal Japanese surrender, this account (in over 900 pages of extremely small type) covers all the major details with surprising comprehensiveness while at the same time not sacrificing that important readability component. If one were to combine this book with the DVD issue of the classic WWII saga "The World at War", you'd get a beguiling experience of the events that continue to shape our world today.
Leckie's experience at extolling just the right amount of battle detail while balancing the "human" side of the struggle is really masterful...each period of the War is told in easily read chapters and paragraphs and although at times episodic, makes this work one that can easily be started and stopped at short intervals.
The post WWI German and Italian economies are the main impetus for the development of Fascism and Leckie develops this plot with wonderful biographies of Mussolini and Hitler...the rise of the Third Reich follows and Leckie explains this with deft political discussion as well as with many first-hand accounts from Generals down to the every-day Berliner. The English and French make little attempt at interdiction and Hitler is off on his dillusional nationalism...the invasion of Poland is just the start of the "empire building" that lasts for almost six more years.
The Japanese rise and ultimate invasion of Pearl Harbor are integrated as well and the reader really gets a true feeling of the coming of war. Leckie's previously published works on the Southwest Pacific theatre are obviously used here and thus makes for enticing reading at the battles for Guadalcanal and the Phillipines...also, his depiction of MacArthur goes against the "standard" history and is a refreshing point in this story.
The Allied invasion of Europe and the "island hopping" in the Pacific are discussed in full military detail (again, just the right amount) as are the many first hand soldier accounts of those battles that add depth and immediacy. The highlights of this work (in my opinion) are the fall of the Third Reich and the subsequent Hitler suicide; the American homefront and what it meant to a struggling American economy; the Normandy invasions and subsequent breakout and, finally, a completely comprehensive and disturbing summary of the Holocaust. Leckie adroitly mixes details with his amazing story-telling ability that leaves the reader with a pleasingly full knowledgable experience. This truly is THE text to start any study of WWII. The only criticism I'd add is the lack of maps...the afore mentioned Pacific theatre discussion would have been exceedingly better had Leckie included maps...
For an initial undertaking of serious study of this conflict, I'd challenge anyone to find a better starting point than "Deliverd from Evil"...I give this a very high recommendation.
Book Description
An insider's look into wartime diplomacy in Europe, through Mussolini's foreign minister's confidential diaries that were secreted out of Italy after Ciano's execution in 1943.
Customer Reviews:
Great primary source for World War 2.......2007-02-22
Ciano's Diaries are an invaluable resource to scholars who want to study the diplomacy of the Nazi's and Italy in World War 2. For those who are just causal readers of history these diaries will probably not be of interest. For the scholars of Europe they are essential. These are great and honest reports of what Italy under Mussolini was thinking. Ciano's second set of diaries paints the dark days of World War 2 for Italy and how the regime was on the brink of collapsing. Ciano himself would be executed as a traitor by the end but he and a small group worked to preserve Italy. The diplomatic maneuverings between the Germans, Russians and the Allies are captured here in unabashed detail making for interesting reading. For those who want to understand the diplomatic realties of World War 2 this is essential.
A must-read for WWII buffs..........2006-06-26
I had been wanting to read Count Ciano's Diaries for years because I kept seeing quotations from them in all sorts of books on the period. They did not disappoint! Count Ciano had a front row seat to the whole show. Well, up until early '43 when the Nazis shot him... It truly is an amazing perspective on the war. Ciano vacillates between fear and admiration for the Nazis, as their fortunes run hot and cold. He pouts when Hitler does things behind the backs of the Italians, yet he gleefully acknowledges every time the Italians attempt to pay the Nazis back in their own coin. It's stunning to see how completely incompetent the Italians were in military affairs, and how incapable they were of reversing their fortunes. They stuck with much of the same military leadership throughout the conflict, despite their constant bumbling. More than anything it was a text that had me questioning why the Axis could be so stupid as to extend a war that they hadn't won. After the fall of France those must have been heady days for the Axis leadership. The world stretched before them. You really get a sense of this reading the diaries. Yet Hitler attacks the Soviet Union with the UK at his back. Inconceivable! Even Mussolini attacks Greece when he had more fighting than he could handle in the sands of Egypt. Looking back it takes your breath away. What if these guys hadn't pushed their luck way too far?
A Historically and Politically important work.......2003-02-13
There are very few published writings by those that sat in positions of power during the period leading up to and during the Second World War that are of this personal and telling nature. This is the great difference between Ciano's Diary and the writing of the defeated or victorious from this time.
Ciano was not looking back and writing in an attempt to absolve himself of his role nor was he allowing the glow of victory to taint his recollection of events.
These sometimes seemingly shallow entries in his personal diary can allow us to view events of unfathomable consequence from his seat and without the ideological raging or gossamer thin excuses and attempts at self absolution of many other works; Albert Speer being a prime example of the latter; written by politicians or those that held office at this time.
To read this Diary in search of ideological or moral answers would be misdirected but to study this Diary and gain insight into Ciano, Mussolini and the machinations and power struggles of what was in reality a far from stable Dictatorship with an often tenuous alliance with Hitler's Reich would be to serve yourself well. This is a work that no scholar of Politics or History should overlook.
Rather pointless exercise..........2002-10-21
This diary has little interest: no political analysis and no view on military affairs... obviously Ciano and the rest of the Italian government and military have no clue about what's happening around them. They keep saying stupidly: 'this war is going to be long'. Needless to say, not a world of moral or ethical judgment.
Most entries are criticism of some inept Italian General (too fat, and dyes his hair !), complaints about the Germans , or complaints about Albanians stealing silver cutlery at official dinners. Admittedly there is some emotion after 1942 when they start to realize that everything is going wrong, but the psychological analysis is very shallow (Ciano merely notes the 'depressed' mood of everybody after 1942). Nothing about Ciano's personal life in Rome's upper class, which would probably have been more interesting.
For a clever (too clever ?) Italian view of the war, read Kaputt, by Curzio Malaparte.
Offers great historical insight.......2002-02-24
Written as personal diary, this book offers a keen insight into the events leading to World War II. Count Ciano, Mussolini's son-in-law, served as his foreign minister. Ciano opposed Italy's participation in the war and disliked Hitler. Yet Ciano also has his share of faults and moments of poor judgement. Undoutedly one of the most honest books from the period. The editing is often uneven. Some material contained is trite. The last entry, when Ciano knows he willbe executed by the Fascist puppet state, is quite moving.
Book Description
My Dear Mr. Stalin is the first publication that contains the complete correspondence between Franklin D. Roosevelt and Joseph V. Stalin. This collection of more than three hundred hot-war messages, never before fully available in any language, is an invaluable primary source for understanding the relationship that developed between these two great world leaders during a time of supreme world crisis.
The correspondence, secret at the time, begins with a letter Roosevelt wrote to Stalin offering aid to the Soviet Union following Hitler’s surprise attack in 1941. It ends with a message that was an attempt to minimize the differences between the two leaders, approved by Roosevelt only minutes before his death in 1945. The book traces the evolution of their unique relationship, revealing the statesmanship of the two men and their thinking about the grave events of their time. An informative introduction to the volume and generous annotations set the letters in context.
Customer Reviews:
Really insightful! Fantastic read and research book.......2006-06-22
This is a really good resource book to have. A friend gave it to me as a gift, and jsut as I thought I already knew everything about WWII, this book surprises me with new facts straight from Stalin and Roosevelt themselves! The book guides you through each president's thought process and how they dance through political fires with wit and strategy. Roosevelt is much more fascinating now that I see how he thinks. I wished this book has some pictures I can refer to. That will be even better. Highly recommended if you want to read about 2 impt leaders and WWII.
Because of its importance....its glimpse .......2006-03-06
If in content,not in tone, I completely agree with the review by Col. Szych. The story of the complete betrayal of the Polish nation is rarely taken up, and it is tremendous in its historical significance.
The list of material sent from US to Russia alone is facinating.
Long before Pearl Harbor we were in it up to our eyebrows. They were marching on our boots and behind our armour, but such a small sacrifice was asked of us by comparison----
US lost 405,000 of her people
RUSSIA lost 27,000,000------that millions....
and then....that madman.....well, I hope you know the rest....
In Black and White--the Betrayal of Poland.......2006-01-24
The review you posted by Publishers Weekly literally made me want to gag. This book is not a "history junkie's delight"; it is the essence of Poland's 50 year nightmare from 1939 to 1989.
As a retried U.S. military officer and Polish-American baby-boomer whose father fought at places like Iwo Jima during WWII, I have great interest in the betrayal of Poland during WWII. Anyone who knows about the Katyn Forest Massacre (done by Dear Mr. Stalin), the Warsaw Rising of 44 (when Dear Mr. Stalin refused to allow the Allies to come to the aid of the people of Warsaw) and the mass deportations and genocide against the Polish people, will be highly interested in this book.
A great percentage of the letters are about the "Polish Problem." And I am afraid the Polish Problem still exists today whereby people glorify the contributions of the Soviet Union led by a mass-murderer whilst at the same time being almost totally ignorant of the contributions of Poland to the defeat of Nazi Germany. The effectiveness and impact of Poles of the 1st Polish Armored Division, the two Polish Fighter Squadrons during the Battle of Britain, and the Poish heroics and sacrifices at places like Monte Cassino are either unknown or minimized. To this, add the contributions of hundreds of thousands of Polish Americans, sons and grandsons of Poland, like my father and more famous (maybe not so famous) Polish Americans like Col Gabreski and Lt Col Urban.
At Amazon.com, you stock books like "A Question of Honor" which should be read by all those who want to truly know what wartime misery is all about. Shame on anyone who tries to varnish or glorify the abject misery that Stalin (not Hitler) brought to his own people but especially to the Polish nation.
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General
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The First World War, Second Edition: A Complete History
Churchill: A Life
The Holocaust: A History of the Jews of Europe During the Second World War
A World at Arms: A Global History of World War II, New Edition
The Second World War
