I just found this in one of my bedside drawers. My brother got me this for Christmas 2018, I’d put it away for a bit of nightly pre-sleep reading and had then completely forgotten it was there as it became buried under lots of other odds and ends..until its rediscovery today. Books coming out of my ears at the moment!
Have finished Canada and the Liberation of the Netherlands (Goddard). Very good - to a great extent accounts from Canadian soldiers and Dutch civilians. Helped really bring it home for me. I'm now on to a library book - C. S. Forester's The Ship, a novel of I think a fictionalized light cruiser on convoy escort duty to Malta. I didn't even know he wrote WW2 fiction but it came up when talking with my father, because apparently his novel The Good Shepherd has been adapted for film and will be released this May.
Just completed this book, which I found thought-provoking, uplifting and utterly dismaying at times too. https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/44787608
This is a VERY good book. Really good at conveying the experience of being on a sub in various situations. The disaster Young was in on his second boat (collided with a trawler and sank) was terrifying. I think it helps that I toured HMS Alliance last March, so that when Young talks about the crew spaces I have a memory of what those were like. (If you go near Portsmouth I highly recommend the sub museum.)
A classic which I first read over 50 years ago Back in the days when we still had a king and I was a wee sprog a diesel electric boat called in at Preston Docks. Dad somehow knew the commander and I got given a tour of the boat which I think may have been a T Class. The diesel was running charging up the batteries and what has stuck in my mind to this day was the sheer noise inside the pressure hull. It was near unbearable.
I've neglected this thread a bit recently but my last few were: The Boy Airman - Richard Petty (Not much to this one really, a generic view of WW1 by his son and a few pics and diary entries from the man himself. One for memoir completists who are more hardcore than me. PM me if you want it!) Rovers of the Night Sky - Nighthawk MC - (WW1 long range bomber pilot. Plenty of action, all written in a boys own style. 'The Great Game' rather than the horrors of war, but a decent read nonetheless). Dimsie - Donald Stones (Mentioned this one earlier in the thread. Cracking read of a DFC* pilot who served in the Battle of France, Britain, Malta and Burma. It combines his two previous books and adds a final few pages leading up to his retirement. At least half of the book is post war, dealing with his time in Kenya, Malaya as a DC and latterly as an aircraft salesman. His numerous failed marriages are also laid bare. All in all a very honest memoir)
I am currently reading up about the North African campaign. I have just finished ‘Tobruk and El Alamein (Australia in the war of 1939-1945)’ by Barton Maughan, and have moved on to ‘The Desert Generals’ by Corelli Barnett.
That's pretty much the genesis of the idea that there actually was a first Battle of Alamein as opposed to a series of disparate and uncoordinated actions that succeeded in keeping Rommel from the Delta through sheer good fortune. The counter-blast against the 'Montgomery Myth' as it were.
Bilingual and profusely illustrated. Looks at the history of this small Axis ally from the prewar Yugoslav airforce to its final days. Types, history and organization well covered and decent translation too. The one book to get is you have any interest in the subject.
Ok so as a note, One Of Our Submarines is probably one of the best memoirs I've read. I've moved on now to Battle for the Rhineland by Thompson (sorry, no cover image) and it is already driving me bonkers with how pro-Monty it is.
I've just started re-reading Naga Path, by Ursula Graham Bowyer. It always amazes me that on second reading, so many new pieces of information come forth, or you stumble upon a name that meant nothing first time around, but has significance now.
Talking with Psychopaths: A Journey into the Evil Mind A bit about Neville Heath wartime serial killer
Picked this up on a recommend from a friend. It is a wargaming book but it's also a pretty well sourced history of the actions of the Italian Army in the USSR during 1941. Uses Italian sources and does a good job discussing the issues the Italians faced. Another book on an unusual subject for the library.
Chris, That's strange - I'd always thought that Thompson was rather critical of Montgomery. Can you provide some examples of what you think are examples of his pro-Monty-ness!! Regards Tom
Hm. You're right, actually, now that I look again. Some of what put me in a bad mood was his paean for Churchill at the start of chapter 2, and then there is the part in my copy on page 31 about Monty's hope for two miracles and statements following. I guess the question is, is Thompson saying that the Rhineland battle was the only way to break through into Germany or was that just what Montgomery wanted?
I don't think Montgomery thought the Rhineland battle was the only way to break into Germany but that he thought wherever the Allies tried they needed to make sure they had concentrated enough resources. God knows what Thompson thought! Montgomery hoped for two miracles? Was one that the weather held? And the other that the Americans captured the dams before the Germans blew them and flooded the Roer river? Regards Tom