Has anybody read Belton Cooper's book "Death Traps" ? It is supposed to be a great book about AFV warfare. Is that right ? Malladyne
We have a topic on that book in the Library section http://www.fun-online.sk/forum/viewtopic.php?t=2174 which contains an excellent review, if I say so myself It is a good book, but written with a bias so big that the book falls over if you try and stand it upright!
"Death Traps" Cheers, Ricky, for your input on the above book. I shall check out the review details you gave me. Your comments on the bia aspect sound intriguing. As a published author I have long since learned to be discreet on website forums, so I hope that if I say that I may well keep my personal details confidential, even though I see from your location that we could be neighbours, that you won't think that I am being a wet blanket. Ciao, Malladyne
Re: "Death Traps" Any time. It is a good book, but the man has a definate agenda. Wet blanket? No! (nuff said) What have you written about, if I may ask?
My first published book. It feels hard to be modest or bashful when after many years I have now gotten a book published, so whereas I would normally keep shtum, I am happy to say that two years ago I co-authored a work called "The History of the 370th. Fighter Group in World War 2". This Fighter Group saw extensive ( mainly ground attack ) service in the last year or so of WW2, generally making the best of things after they had to exchange their Thunderbolts for Lightnings ( a poor exchange in their opinion ! ). Mind you, for ground attack the Lightning had a lot going for it, since all of its armament was concentrated in its nose( which made for a high level of accuracy- I have lost count when, in all of the 1000's of feet of gun camera film footage I have seen, a single Lightning has taken out either one man walking, or a motorbike, or a horserider, and with only a half dozen or so .50 calibre shells ! ) For several reasons (mainly tax and my not being an American citizen) I have had to let my co-author's name appear on the cover, whereas mine is shown inside, but I have now sorted this out ( I shall accept American citizenship early next year )so my next books (see below) will all be attributed to me exclusively. I am now working on three more U.S. air force unit histories ( I cannot say more at this stage ), as well as a book about a spectacular sea battle fought between a British ship equipped with every conceivable type of service and experimental anti aircraft weapon, and an elite ship killing Luftwaffe unit in their He.111 torpedo planes. This also is a true story and must be kept secret as well for the time being. The last book I have started is one dealing with unusual shark attacks. Cheers, Malladyne.
To be fair to Belton Cooper it's always the case that the actual participants are good sources of information yet because of those personal experiences unable to view things from a detached historical perspective. Inasmuch as the unit he was with experienced 400% casualties (in tanks) and he was personally involved in hosing out the blood and brains of the previous crews on some of them one can understand why he might have an overly negative view(from a historians viewpoint) of a tank that was nonetheless a workhorse and mainstay of the very successful campaign to defeat the Germans. Congratulations marlin on getting your work published and good luck on your future projects. Hopefully we will get the chance to pick them up from our local bookstores when they become available.
Thank you ! Thanks, Grieg, for your congratulations on getting my book published. I tell you, there was a time when I thought I'd never get the thing off the ground. What made the difference for me though, was when I had an appointment to go see Elenor Guggenheim of the Guggenheim Museum family. Her long dead husband, Randolph, was the Wing's Intelligence Officer in WW2 and as such he had accumulated a vast store of material and film footage on the Group. Obviously access to this was crucial for me, but when I arrived at Elenor's 5th. Avenue apartment in Manhattan, it was obvious that the poor old dear (she was 93 )hadn't a clue as to why I had asked to see her. This was because she had advanced Alzeimhers Disease and had no memory longer than about 15 minutes ! However, all was not lost since also at the apartment happened to be a friend of Elenor's, Hillary Clinton no less ! Hillary was puzzled as to why a Brit was so interested in an American Fighter Wing, and since the Wing was largely formed in upper New York State ( an area where she was campaigning at the time ), she took a great deal of interest in me. This manifested itself in a letter addressed "To Whom it May Concern", and demanded that any help short of the disclosure of National Secrets be given me. Not only did this letter get me a publisher immediately, but I also got access to places and sources that I would never have gotten into in a million years !!!! The book is available on "Amazon" and elsewhere, but it'll cost you about 60 quid or its dollar equivalent....and so it should do, since the bloody thing took me 12 twelve years and is nigh on 500 pages long ! Malladyne
