Experts! Is this book worth reading?

Yes. Lloyd is good and this is a fine work..

 

Well worth reading. He reported on the 1940 campaign from the German point of view. It is really about his experiences in Europe in the 1930s until he quit Berlin through censorship.

 

Thanks, I've started reading it, so far it feels very personal--I'm enjoying the firsthand, 'in the street' perspective.

 

I've started reading the first of Holland's trilogy. So far I'm enjoying it's narrative style. Is this worth reading? Any concerns with the content or conclusions?

 

Howdy Folks! I just started “The Last Days of Patton by Ladislas Farago. I have seen good reviews on Amazon, but wanted to ask my trusted forum.

Anyone think this old book still stands on its own, or would it be outdated?

Much appreciated as always!

 

'The Last Days Of Patton' is a very 'readable' account and I don't think it's totally outdated. However, more research has been done since it was published and I prefer the full biography 'A Genius For War' by Carlo D'Este.( 1995 ). This cites Farago's books as sources and carries a full discussion of Patton's death with detailed source notes.

 

Thank you for your insight Martin. Much appreciated. I will put Carlo D’Este’s book on my wishlist. I just stared “The Last Days of Patton” and I am enjoying it very much so far. I just got done reading “General Patton: A Soldier’s Life” by Stanley Hirshon which I really enjoyed. I feel know I have a good background of information to try and attempt to read Martin Blumson’s “The Patton Papers” (eventually).

 

Just curious to know if there is any comments on the German artillery ammunition. In wages of destruction there was a calculation if the war had lasted over three months in the west Nazi Germany would have ran out of artillery ammo...?? So once you have read the book...

 

Has anyone ever read either of these two books by Craig W.H. Luther?

1) Blood and Honor: The History of the 12th SS "Hitler Youth" 1943-45
2) For Germany: The Otto Skorzeny Memoirs

I've read Barbarossa Unleashed: The German Blitzkrieg through Central Russia to the Gates of Moscow June-December 1941, and The First Day on the Eastern Front: Germany Invades the Soviet Union, June 22, 1941. I was delighted with Barbarossa Unleashed, but the latter title seemed a bit redundant.

Also, how about these two:

1) Combat and Genocide on the Eastern Front: The German Infantry's War, 1941-1944 by Jeff Rutherford
2) Surviving the Sword: Prisoners of the Japanese in the Far East, 1942-45 by Brian MacArthur

I've got these two, and they're on my "to read some day" list.

I'm presently about 1/4 of the way through Bloody Streets: The Soviet Attack on Berlin by A. Stephan Hamilton.

 

Reading number two will make you angry...

 

How so? I've never read anything about Skorzeny, so I really wouldn't know what to expect.

 

Soz...I meant "Surviving the Sword"

 

Jeff Rutherford's book is very good, but a rather 'heavy' one to read. But it's a highly-regarded reference work for the Eastern Front.

I agree with you entirely ref 'The First Day Obn The Eastern Front'. It's good, but too similar - with many familiar quotations from - the earlier work.

You may also like the recently published 'Soldiers Of Barbarossa' by Luther / Stahel. ( Stackpole, 2020 ). This consists of translated Feldpost letters from 1941, edited by Luther and Stahel with the latter providing a very good introduction.This is the first such English language collection and I'm finding it utterly absorbing.

 

I liked the Skorzeny memoirs. But like you know there are many who do not care. If you ask me I liked reading it.

 

Yeah, I can imagine it having several horrific accounts of brutality. I think I remember reading in Iris Chang's Rape of Nanking (or maybe it was somewhere else) where Japanese soldiers threw Chinese infants into cauldrons of boiling water. It reminded me of the biblical account of children being sacrificed to Moloch (being thrown into fires). I would go into Surviving the Sword expecting the same kind of gut-churning accounts.

 

Jeff Rutherford's book does seem a bit "textbookish." However, I appreciate having sources provided per page, even if some are so long they take up half a page. I can't help but chuckle a bit when i think how this book contrasts with Lars Celander's How Carriers Fought: Carrier Operations in World War II, which, other than an extensive bibliography, contains NO notes or citations.

Soldiers of Barbarossa is on my wish list on my Amazon account (along with about a hundred other books). I'm thinking maybe it's a rehash of First Day on the Eastern Front (?).

I'm thinking the next Stahel book I'm going to read is Joining Hitler's Crusade: European Nations and the Invasion of the Soviet Union, 1941. I just pulled it off the shelf last night and started looking through it. I may "spot read" it or go from cover to cover, haven't decided yet.

 

The little I've heard about Skorzeny is that he played a prominent role in the rescue of Mussolini and during the Battle of the Bulge. I guess he's just one of those larger than life characters, like Hartmann, Rudel, and Pieper. In the grand scheme of things, maybe some don't find their contributions effecting the outcome of events either way. I guess it just boils down to what kind of stuff you like reading about.

 

James is a leading British popular military historian. He is very prolific and many of his, consistent, ideas are prominent in each work. He does not have a military background and approaches the war from an economic point of view. I heard him give a brilliant talk on a cross channel ferry to a group of Americans on a WW2 Museum Easy Company tour on the American industrial mobilisation for war. He also gave a 45 minute talk about uniforms which brought out two of his pet themes. Much German design was over engineered. He demonstrated this with a German gas mask case and compared it to the utilitarian British case that he used as his computer bag. Germans uniforms - style over substance...

 

No ... confusingly, it seems the other way around .....

'First Day' uses some of letters in 'filleted' form, whereas Soldiers Of Barbarossa gives the full letters, very skillfully selected to provide a narrative. IMPO it's a superior book, full of detail, and you will like the extensive and detailed notes.