What are you reading at the moment?

Almost finished book one and on to book 2 next. Sadly the third book to complete the series is unlikely to see the light of day with John Lambert's death.

 

Gone right into The Men Inside the Metal and enjoying it. Interesting to see an evolution for an online world: there are many asides with references to photos not in the book but their IWM identifier is given, so you can look them up on the web. Pathe video clips are referenced with identifiers and time-stamps as well.

 

Supreme Courage, 150 Years of the Victoria Cross, Peter de la Billiere:

 

Another four I've just finished in quick succession before my kindle unlimited trial expires:

We Sat Alone - Fred Whitfield - Account of an RAF rear gunner during the closing stages of the war. Pretty standard to be honest, but ok for the completists.

Guest of the Fuhrer - Les Shorrock - This is a great POW account from a private soldier taken captive at Dunkirk. Plenty of info about working camps (which he seemed quite good at avoiding). No heroics, just an honest account of a young lad who lost five years of his liberty.

Up and Under - Gwyn Martin - This is an absolute corker, quite long, covering his training, tour of ops as an observer and his POW experiences with many notable people from the great escape. He was one of the tunnellers in 'Harry', being part of the purge to Belaria before it was completed. His pilot was Ken Rees, so it's nice have read both their experiences as he featured very heavily in Ken's memoir (Lie in the Dark and Listen). Another no holds barred account (bodily functions have never been described in more detail), but a slight concern is that some of Stalag Luft 3 reminiscences seem lifted directly from the Great Escape film. It was written the 1980s, but has an immediacy more akin to the classic works of the 50s and 60s.

Rescued by The Enemy - Tom Pickering - Another great find, being an account from a Beaufort air gunner from 22 squadron who was the only survivor from an attack on a flak ship in late 1940. Told in a very honest fashion, what comes across immediately is that a lot of these aircrew were very young men, in this case a young lad who'd never been to a pub before signing up. This had all the makings of a very good account, but tragically the author suffered a stroke after getting as far as Dulag Luft in his narration and was unable to continue, so we don't get to hear of his POW experiences. Nonetheless this is well written and quite a scarce memoir, covering his time as a Blenheim air gunner around the Dunkirk period and trialling Torplanes which I need to read up on a bit more.

 

Third Class to Dunkirk (Worm’s Eye View) - Peter Hadley

A lucky eBay find of a relatively rare book from an officer of the BEF who was picked up at Dunkirk. For a book released while the war was still being fought (1944) I’m amazed by its honesty. The whole experience from advancing towards Belgium and the subsequent retreat reads like a catalogue of confusion and time wasting. Panic under fire, disobeyed orders, queue jumping for the boats and even a comment on the perceived false heroics of some of the rescued are covered. The author comes across as quite a modest man, concerned for the soldiers under him and also for the French livestock left to fend for itself.

 

Something completely different: a combat analysis of the operations of the 22nd US Infantry Regiment (4th US Inf Div) in its 18-day-ordeal in the Huertgen Forest (Nov/Dec 1944). In the gruelling battles for the villages of Klein- and Grosshau and Gey and possesion - names no-one probably ever heard of -the GI's had to pass the wooded ridge with the sinister name Rabenheck (Raven's Hedge Hill). During these 18 days the regiment lost 2.805 soldiers, or 86% of its assigned strength.

How did the unit manage to carry on fighting in the face of such heavy losses. Two chapters at the back of the study, entitled: Organizational Effectiveness and What kept the soldiers fighting?, seem the most tantalizing of the book ... but I have not yet reached that part.

The soberly described combat actions are very detailed, using the official Combat Interviews, and tell a story of brutal battle in which both belligerents showed little mercy for each other.

 

Reginald Thompson devotes a chapter to the Huertgen forest in The Battle for the Rhineland. He is not kind (but also very pro-British, so if he was unfair to the Americans, I would not be shocked).

 

Interesting read on how it was set up, the ships used, the crews, Lend Lease and the losses and actions. Lots of pictures too.

 

The best book (IMO) about the Huertgenwald is written by Charles B. McDonald: The battle of the Huertgen Forest (https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07BX4CZ1H/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_hsch_vapi_tkin_p1_i2)

Even as a member of the Office of the Chief of Staff of Military History (OCMH) of the US Army McDonald is most critical about this battle.


The gloom and misery of the Huertgenwald: a pill-box at Buhlert picture taken during a battlefield tour in 2015. See: Battlefield Tour - Huertgen Forest 2015

Other works of him re the Huertgenwald are "The Siegfried Line Campaign" (the digital version: The Siegfried Line Campaign - U.S. Army Center of Military History)

and his remarkable detailed contribution on the dramatic battle fought by the 28th US Infantry Division for Schmidt in "Three Battes: Arnaville, Altuzzo and Schmidt" (digital: Three Battles- Arnaville, Altuzzo, and Schmidt - U.S. Army Center of Military History)

But I'm a bit biased. McDonald is one of my favorite writers. His books triggered my interest for WW2, starting with his excellent autobiography "Company Commander".

 

'The battle of the Scheldt' (1985) by the Whitakers, originally published as 'Tug of war'.




Just started but seems good so far.
One thing that I did find annoying was a repetition of the old canard about Coventry being sacrificed to preserve the secret of Ultra and the breaking of the German Enigma - a particular bug-bear of mine. I've spent many a frustrating hour trying to convince people that Churchill did not know before hand.

 

Two books on the go.

• Jon Fennell Fighting the People's War: The British and Commonwealth Armies and the Second World War. (Interesting view but I don't agree with some of his hyperbole or opinions on tactics or doctrine )
• Piers Brendon The Dark Valley: A Panorama of the 1930s

James Holland and Al Murray recommended the Dark Valley on their excellent pod cast "we have ways of Making you talk."

 

Tolbrooth will be interested to learn your impression of the book when you're done.

 

I picked up the book, "With Blood and With Iron" [J.B. Hutak] from a local secondhand book shop - the cover was the first thing that grabbed my attention. (The '58 paperback is pretty good too - typical of Panther Books' "war series" designs.)

When I realised it was a book on the razing of the Czech village, Lidice, (which I visited in 1998) it was a no-brainer to buy. A very interesting read so far - the author fled to England in 1940 and served with the Czech Independent Brigade until 1945.

 

Thanks to a certain Admin, who shall remain nameless, starting threads about Flying Boats, I'm about to start this;

And then quite possibly this;

 

I've started reading --

 

I am about to begin reading one of my late father's Far East themed collection:

You'll Die in Singapore by Charles McCormac. A true story of escape from a Japanese POW camp which includes coincidentally, a Flying Boat!!

 

Let us know when you've sifted/sorted/read his Malaya books. I'd be interested to hear what you have and what they cover.

I am remembering this right, aren't I?

 

If I may be so bold (in light of the current Flying Boat interest), i'd recommend 'Last of the 39ers' Sean Feast writing about Alfie Fripp. It's at the frankly shocking price of a mere 83p on Amazon at the moment for a secondhand copy, and here's a short paste from the blurb:

But Alfie's story begins well before the outbreak of the Second World War. One of Trenchard's 'Brats', Alfie trained as a wireless operator before spending more than five years in various flying boat squadrons in the Far East. He was again one of the last survivors from the days of the mighty Southampton, Scapa and Singapore flying boats that ruled both the skies and the waves, and helped ensure the safety of the Empire.

Alfie sadly died whilst in the middle of a set of interviews for the book, but the flying boat stuff was a section that was fortunately completed.

 

Will do CF.