Books for Xmas?

Got any interesting WW2 books for Christmas?

 

A big 0 Kai ! in fact Santa got either stuck in a white-out or got a flat along interstate 5.

Pretty lame when it came to presents although my grandkids got a huge haul.

Enjoy the festivities through the new year !

~E

 

No books...yet...
25 dollars to half-price books and 40 or 50 to barnes and noble, so I should be writing here with actual books soon (either that or some good music).

 

Santa brought me the After The Battle 'Battle of the Bulge Then & Now' (which is seriously getting in the way of Christmas munching and the kids aren't too happy I'm not playing with them!), and 'Cross Channel Attack' which is the US Official History for the Normandy landings.

 

Congrats friend on finding a copy of truley one of the best books on the Bulge printed.......

Merry Christmas from a snowy southern Oregon

 

Good stuff, Paul !

This morning, I opened ;

' Until The Final Hour - Hitler's Last Secretary ' by Traudl Junge
' JG 7 ' by Manfred Boehme
' A Separate Little War - The Banff Coastal Command Strike Wing versus the Kriegsmarine and Luftwaffe ' by Andrew Bird
'St Vith - Lion In The Way ' by R. Ernest Dupuy
' Karl Geraet 60cm ' by Thomas L Jentz

Plus 28 back copies of the 'Bomber Command Association Newsletter' !

Happy Christmas everbody !

 

My my friend, Santa sure blessed U !

Martin does your back issues of the association newsletter chat at all about stories covering certain missions and nachtjäger responses ? Would be most interested.......

~E

 

I got some old issues of Fly Past Magizine. They are from 1991-1993. I also got this book from 1940. It is called Modern War Planes. I saw this book in a local aviation museum. Pretty nice.

 

Erich - there's some good browsing to be had among my old 'BCA' newsletters ( which are very hard-to-find as they are originally for 'members only' ). The real value is among the letters and personal reminiscences ; I've already spotted an article from Fritz Rumpelhardt with several discussions in later issues re 'Schrage Musik' and also some interesting theories about the possibilities of prematurely exploding bombs being in some cases responsible for 'Scarecrows'...

Give me a chance to digest my Christmas Dinner & I'll start reading & posting....

 

Wow!

I guess Martin you´ve been a good boy all year...!!



I actually knew I would not get any new books unless I bought one myself, and I think I´ll do some after-Christmas shopping next week. Just finishing three books over the Christmas time so I´ll be ready for some new data by then...

 

No new books here---------unless you call finding 4 books I did not know I had, as getting books for Christmas?

 

I also recieved some old Aviation Classics Magazine. These issues are from the 1960's and early 70's. Good Stuff.

Martin sounds like you did pretty well.

 

Tim :

Good catch ! keep em........

martin I will be most curious as to what neat little items are included in the RAF newsletters, share when you can please

~E

 

Here's my commentary I sent to Osprey Publishing on a book I got:

I just received a copy of your book Sturmartillerie & Panzerjäger 1939 –45 by Brian Perrett. Let me start out on a positive note. As with Mr. Perrett’s previous works the biographical sketches and veteran’s stories included in this book are of his usual high quality as I have found in his books over the years. The remainder of this book however, was extremely disappointing. Virtually all of the photographs are mis-captioned, much of the information given in the text appeared more filler not directly related to the subject or was questionable.
I could have written a better book on this subject.

On the photographs alone, I would note the following corrections:

Pg. 3 Typo: Should read “…or so StuG III….”, not “M.”

Pg. 9 The vehicle shown is an StuG IV not an StuG IIIG as captioned. Note the dual periscope driver’s visor extending out from the superstructure, the road wheels (8 small ones of the Pz IV family) on the suspension and, the cooling vents for the brakes on the glacis.

Pg. 11 The counterweight on the SturmTiger’s rocket launcher is not installed as the caption states. Note the mounting stubs around the barrel. These are the installation points for this counterweight.

Pg. 12 The Pzjr I is not the first self propelled anti-tank weapon the Germans developed. It was preceded by the 8.8cm auf SFL Zkw 12 halftrack.

Pg. 19 This vehicle is with 21st Panzer Division.

Pg. 21 The US tank retriever is a T2 (yes, later standardized as the M 31 but it was generally referred to as a T2 by most veterans). The vehicle is unarmed but it is not “turretless.” The turret was retained. It was the entry / exit point for the wench cables.

Pg. 22 “Mail?” More likely orders and the rider is a messenger. But, of course we shall never be able to fully verify either.

Pg. 24 Contrary to popular opinion and the caption of this photograph, the Elefant served very credibly on the Eastern Front through late 1944, including at Kursk. Only 12 vehicles of this type went to Italy with S. PzJr Kp. 614 for a short period (Where 3 were lost. Vehicle 102 of this unit ended up at Aberdeen Proving Grounds, MD in the US). The vehicle shown is a late war causality on the East Front (well post Kursk) from S. PzJr Abt. 653.

Plate G # 2 This Brummbär is the Adjutant’s vehicle for SturmPanzer Abt 216 assigned to Lt. Stemann at Kursk. The Abteilung CO is Major Kahl. This unit was assigned as III S. PzJr Reg. 656 to support the Elefants of S. PzJr Abt’s 653 and 654.
Pg. 33 An early JadgPanther from S. PzJr Abt 654 in France.

Pg. 36 The vehicle shown has a 75L48 not a “70-cal” (or 75L70) as was put on mid and late production JgPz IV.

Pg. 38 The soldier in the picture, Private Kenneth G. Walker Co F, 142nd Infantry Regiment, 36th Infantry Division, destroyed this Hetzer using a bazooka. The photograph was taken at Oberhoffen Germany. The Hetzer was part of KG Lüttichau during operation Nordwind in January 1945.
Note how the more brittle German armor (due to lack of alloying agents to give the steel toughness) has cracked as a result of the internal explosion that destroyed the vehicle. This is a common problem with late war German armor.
The caption on this picture is pure speculation and totally incorrect.

Pg. 39 This JgPz V is an early vehicle (note the small collar on the gun mantle). The circular container on the side contains the gun cleaning rods not fuel as captioned.

Pg. 40 Taken at Bourgtheroulde France. The JadgPanther’s are from 2 Kompanie , S. PzJr Abt 654. They are retreating to the Seine River trying to escape the Falaise Pocket.

Pg. 41 One of 29 JadgTigers with the “Porsche” suspension system at Paderborn Germany prior to operations with S. PzJr Abt. 653.

These are just the photographs. I won’t even start in on the text. Like I said, I could have written a better book. Maybe I should.

 

T.A. :

You should ! This is just one of the uncountable incidents protrayed by Ospreys WW 2 softbacks. have written both letters and e-mailed directly to individual English authors as to "what the heck is wrong with you people ?"

In direct purchasing of several Luftwaffe a/c titles with many notable errors as to text and profile/photo captions very similiar to what you have so well described.

As my co-web-master and friend were asked to supply information towards a thick volume on the Sturmgruppen we wholeheartedly declined to put our efforts somewhere else.

personally the only thing going for Osprey and their WW2 softbacks is the price. folk will purhcase them because they are dirt cheap, but with that they will be deceived in feeling that the profiles especially will be true and great modeling subjects.......

~E

 

I agree with your comments re the Osprey books.

True, they are attractive titles and, in the aircraft series, feature some nice aircraft artwork. But their total failure to cite any references or to provide a bibliography I find really annoying and so I tend to distrust some of the information given.

 

Hope you gents all had a merry Xmas! Glad to be back on line.

No, no books this year, I am afraid. Christa put up a book-embargo... But I promised myself I could buy some before the year is out. Did get a dvd player though, so I can finally start collecting those dvd'd discussed here....

 

Stevin O, your PM is full--please empty.

 

Well, I am a collector, Carl!

Done, though.

Stevin

 

I got a book called Geography and the History of Warfare: Battlegrounds. It's very interesting, it looks at battles from Alexander the Great to Tarawa in the Pacific. It's great because it supplies maybe 5 pages in a brief overview of the battle.