'Pegasus Bridge' or 'Why I don't like Stephen Ambrose'

No.9, actually the reason I am after overview books is because of school. We just changed sylabus so that we can do WW2, the thing is my reading tends to be too specific for the course, I tend to look at specific units (No.3 Commando, 12th SS, LAH and so on) rather than the big picture. I am going to start looking into Italy next I think because my grandfather served there, I may read 'Battleaxe Division' which is about 56 Div (my grandfathers unit) or 'The Gothic Line'. After all, stuff I learn for a-level will help for a year, stuff I learn for mu own interest will help for much longer.

 

Staying with D-Day, read 'Fortitude' by Roger Hesketh ISBN 0316 851 728, the deception operation!

No.9

 

Understood Stef, for overview purposes (and political perspective), I would suggest ‘Churchill as War Leader’ by Richard Lamb ISBN07475 1485 2. I would recommend this book in general for any British WWII library.

Re Orgill’s ‘Gothic Line’ (the one with the ‘bullet’ holes in the jacket), IMHO I wish I never spent money on it. I don’t say I find in inaccurate on the whole, but poorly written and at the end find myself asking what the point of the book is?

Overviewing Italy, from the Allies point, you have Mark Clark’s ‘Calculated Risk’ and various of/about Monty. However, you could also examine the Italian Civil War and the huge understated/ignored roll of the Italian people in their war to get EVERYBODY out of their country. Unless you want to read authors who never progressed from the North African propaganda perspective of ‘can’t fight, won’t fight’ re Italy, I would recommend two books to start with. Richard Lamb, again, with ‘War in Italy’ ISBN 0312 110 936, and the American (yes I’m endorsing an American author) George Botjer’s ‘Sideshow War’ ISBN 089096 7180.

Did you see on the news yesterday that Italy has opened a judicial inquiry as to why a mass of documents dealing with German atrocities in Italy were officially ‘buried’ post war in the interest of build European relations? One attorney I saw interviewed said they’ve only just started to read the contents and the first they read detailed an entire village of 1’000 people south of Bologna massacred. Miraculously a few children survived and are alive today. The new village was built some distance from the old one which has been left in ruins, like the one in France but not made a tourist attraction. Such is the Italian trait to get on with life!

No.9

 

A very good book about the Italian Campaign is ' Tug Of War - The Battle For Italy 1943-45' by Dominick Graham and Shelford Bidwell ( Hodder & Stoughton, London, 1986 ). It's not too difficult to find and is good because the authors, apart from analyzing all the main battles, also tackle grand strategy, the problems of coalition warfare and the personalities of the generals involved. It also includes an excellent select bibliography for further reading.

 

Very drole mon ami... I am organising the D Day anniversary tours for Leger Holidays battlefield tours next year (http://www.leger.co.uk) - we have 20 coaches allocated, of which 5 are already fully booked!!!!!

 

Stefan - this is a good book, but it is about the 78th Division, not 56th. There is a history of that formation ('The Black Cats') which is reprinted by the Imperial War Museum.

You can find information on the 56th on my website at:

http://battlefieldsww2.50megs.com/56th_division.htm

I also have a lot on my site about Italy.

 

Can someone please explain to me why I keep thinking it is 56th Div not 78th Div? Thanks Sommecourt, I feel really stupid because I am always getting confused over the two units, I have a feeling it is to do with his unit (5th Batallion East Kents) and another unit he was in at one point, hmm, damn silly of me.

 

No problem mate - I will be adding the 78th Div (often called 'Churchill's Butchers') to the site fairly soon.

 

Paul, my lovely fair haired wife just put your CD in my hands. Evidently it came several days ago and she wanted to surprise me. Give it a show hopefully tommorrow or Monday as I may take it off

thanks my friend !!

cheers

E

 

Stefan, my grandad was in the Royal West Kents, he was at Dunkirk in 1940.

 

I seem to remember you mentioning that at some point, nice little coincidence. Actually my old RSM was in the west kents when he joined up.

 

No worries, mate. Hope you enjoy it. Glad it arrived okay, as one I sent to a veteran in the US got stolen...

 

Sommercourt, that series of books is indeed an excellent series.

I particularly enjoyed the Dunkirk and the Calais one brought lots of generally unknown stories and facts to the fore.

I'd recommend this group of writings greatly to all.

 

Quality of the series has been a little variable but I'd highly recommend Frank Steer's two 'Market-Garden' titles, ' Arnhem - The Bridge ' and ' The Landing Grounds / Oosterbeek ' . These actually manage to complement, not clash with, John Waddy's superb little battlefield guide.

And I see there's an ' Operation Bluecoat ' title out...

 

Operation Bluecoat, Martin???

How would you rate THE BATTLE OF ARNHEM by Cornelius Bauer and (Lt.Col.) Theodoor Boeree?

Last year I bought an uncorrected proof of this book, to be published by Hodder and Stoughton, with "probable publication date" of September 12, 1966...

 

Bauer's book is essential for any Arnhem collection, Stevin !
Col. Boeree was an early 'authority' about the Battle and made all his research and papers, collected since 1945, available to Bauer. This book is now quite a tough title to track down....

 

An essential! Great! I was pleasantly surprised by the content of Lt. Col. Boeree's documents. A lot of German Battle reports and questionaires filled out by German officers. I read he also hid Gen. Hackett in his house in november 1944 and they discussed the defeat then. They kept in touch after the war.

On bookfinder you can find dozens of this title though. I got it from a little secondhand bookstore, which shall remain nameless , where I regurlarly get a box with books. They have some great titles once in a while and apperantly don't specialise in Military History cause I got some gems for CHEAP! (and I mean CHEAP!)