What are your WW2 specialties?

I know a lot about American and Japanese planes and even more about guns. I'm pretty well informed on Operation Barbarossa and Stalingrad too.

 

Italian Front, from Salerno up to the capture of Rome.

 

For me it is, The Afrikakorps and the battle in the dersert. It was amazing what they were able to do there..knabe

 

I guess I don't really have any particular specialty, I try to learn as much about all of it as I can. But if I had to choose one it would be post-D-Day ETO.

 

Nose Art
Not that I know anywhere NEAR enough about it to make me happy.

 

Besides a cursory overview of the war (I think I know more than the average person my age, though) which I am constantly trying to improve, I like to get documents, documentaries, or books on individual battles, and sort out all the information. Then I come out with a better understanding of the tactics, the units, and the individual unit movements involved in each battle. I rarely go any deeper than regiment or at the very most battalion level.

I really only know a few in extensive detail, and all are in the ETO. El Alamein, Moscow, Normandy up until the end of Cobra, Citadel, and Stalingrad. I've been reading up a little on Battle of Britain, but the information I find on that is quite general, and involves a little too much politics and more strategic stuff than I'd like.

 

I don't know that I can claim an expertise in anything but, like Lou, I like the political and social aspects of the war, especially personal memoirs and studies of the "Citizen Soldier." The locations and the machines may change from war to war, but I believe that the personal experiences of the individuals are consistent. Terror is terror and courage is courage and duty is duty whether the war is WWII or the Punic Wars.

 

My specialty is the Eastern Front, no doubt about it. I'm pretty knowledgeable on Soviet GPW memorials as well, not to mention propaganda and aviation (again, only that which was part of the Red Air Force).

 

Anyhting about the Normandy Niemen squadron Tovarisch?

 

Hmm, I'm trying to remember if I have that one. Too many with the same title. For Leyte I have for sure,
The Battle of Leyte Gulf - Hoyt(SP?)
The Battle of Leyte Gulf - Woodward
The Battle of Leyte Gulf - Cutler
The History of United States Naval Operations in World War II - Morison

Books about the Battle off Samar as the primary topic
Last Stand of the Tin Can Sailors - Hornfischer
Sea of Thunder - Thomas
The Men of the Gambier Bay - Hoyt
The Fighting and Sinking of the USS Johnston DD557: As Told By her Crew - Survivors accounts
Hoel and Kongo off Samar - Survivors accounts
I have also read the E-book at bosamar.com
Books that mention Samar
Admiral Halsey's Story - Halsey
Fading Victory - Ugaki

I also have The Battle of Surigao Straight - Tully
A number of AAR from Taffy 3 in a filing cabinet somewhere.


Other than those, do you have any other suggestions?

 

Ah yes the cover tells me all I need to know. Yes, that would be the third that I have. The one with the same title in which I am missing would be Willmott's. Updated above post

 

Yep, One of the first places I look for anything about the war. I have been meaning to ask though, for the strategical studies for Samar it says "Volume IV: [Not available at this time]". Is that because It never got written, or you never received a copy? what are the future prospects of getting that one up?

 

Strongest in the Air and Naval wars.
But not a dummy concerning the ground portion.

 

The germans where smart dressers thats for sure.
I like any thing to do with experimental weapons and the pacific campaign

 

Documenting the movements of, personnel, and equipment used by the Engineer and Engineer Aviation Fire Fighting Platoons from WWII.