2 comments about An Iowa Pilot named Hap: Hartley A. "Hap" Westbrook.

1. I have not read the book, but the author spoke to our rotary club yesterday. He is a retired architect who lives in Ames, Iowa and started writing about WWII veterans he met and interviewed. He shared some amazing stories about men who survived 32 degree water after crashing in the North Atlantic, one who refused to surrender in the Phillipines and lived in the jungle with Phillipino resistance fighters for over 2 years, a man who survived 4 wounds from machine gun fire and a man who missed a mission during which his plane exploded in mid air from a direct hit in their fuel tanks. Mr. Rudi is a great story teller and the message is loud and clear. War is Hell.



2. This is a fasinating story about a man I personally knew while training at his flight school in Ames, Iowa. A well written account of his life, especially his time of service during WW2. Flying B-24's over Germany, his plane was brought down and he was captured. A riveting tale of life as a POW and eventual liberation at the end of the war. The book then goes on to talk about his post-war service flying B-36s and the successful founding of his flight school. A well written piece that will have you wanting more. A great book about a great pilot. Rest in peace, Hap.

1 comments about Fateful Flight of the Lonesome Polecat II.

1. Mike Darter met his brother Eugene once, when Eugene was on leave from the Army Air Corps. At the time, Mike was a baby, and he would never see his big brother again. Eugene Darter, flying on a B-17 Flying Fortress on his first mission, went down off Texel Island and was never seen again. Many years later, Mike began to search for the fate of the Lonesome Polecat II and its crew. He found that some of the men had, indeed, survived, after parachuting out slightly sooner and landing on Texel Island. Eugene, badly injured, had parachuted safely, but landed in the frigid waters and was unable to get to shore.
   
   This book reads like a detective story, as Darter begins to make the connections needed to find out about his brother. He searches MACRs, interview survivors, researches the air battle after which the Polecat went down, and even travels to Texel Island to meet with the last man to see the plane and, possibly, his brother.
   
   This is a fascinating book, full of maps and diagrams charting the data that Darter has meticulously collected. It is a fine tribute to the men of the Lonesome Polecat II.

3 comments about War in the Boats: My WWII Submarine Battles (Memories of War).

1. Capt. Ruhe captures the essence of the submarine officer. The frustrations, hardships and ultimate glory of the silent service are powerfully captured on every page. The patrol accounts make you feel as if you were there. Ruhe details all his daily concerns, both as a junior officer, and as the Executive officer. You get a good feel for his leadership style, and those of the other wardroom officers. I only wish he had included some of their accounts of different incidents to get a broader feel for the story. The prose is easy to read and spiced with homey wartime era ancedotes and subtle humor. I Recommend it to all Navy officers, especially Submariners and any WWII history buffs



2. As a reader from Germany interested in history I already read a number of memoirs from German submariners and technical/historical literature on the topic. So in comparing this book with the above mentioned ones my mind just forms one question: How did this bunch win their war? And the answer: Because Japanese ASW-effectiveness was near to nonexistent. Facing an adversary as Great Britain it would have been doubtful if any of the submariners in US-boats would have survived. But this author as many others lament the high losses (about 50 boats with crew; for comparision:Germany about 700 boats, 30000 of 40000 men). At least he does not boast the 'welldeserved' victory as is typical for US-authors. And he even apologizes for his sometimes jingoistic diction being result of wartime mentality. Having said this I can admit that I enjoyed reading this book,for it is an interesting and first hand insight view of US sub warfare in WW2 and a counterweight to the standard literature centered on either technic or 'big picture' history.
   I can recommend this book with the above mentioned restrictions.
   But do read some similar books written by German submariners for balance (but not 'iron coffins', that is biased to say the least).



3. War in the Boats is a classic in the field of submarine history and World War Two history. It's a good read, highly entertaining, and filled with information about the war from the first person perspective of a young officer in the silent service.
   
   Inside you'll find spine-tingling stories of what it was like to serve on a diesel boat in the war. The tight confines, harsh conditions, interesting flushing systems for toilets (let's just say you didn't want to plug the bore of this breach feed weapon), stunning bravery, chance and a depth charge so close light was seen through the ship's hull.
   
   This book really puts into perspective the dangers of submarine warfare in the war and does a very nice job of presenting the history of the Pacific war without bogging the reader down.
   
   This book easily compares well to it's contemporaries such as RADM Dick O"Kane
   s Clear the Bridge and Galltain's Take her Deep!
   
   But enough! I'll ruin the book for you if I tell you more.

1 comments about From Huntsville to Hell: LTC. MB Etheredge and The Men of K Company 30th Inf. 3rd Div. in WW II.

1. I love books on WWII and this is a great one. This man is a true American hero. I would highly recommend this book. Thanks Curt

1 comments about The Life of Alexander the Great (Modern Library Classics).

1. I was impressed with this translation of Plutarch's Life of Alexander the Great. The prose was very clear and readable, and I finished the book very quickly. You shouldn't expect a detailed treatment of military or historical topics; the book is less than 100 pages in length, and such was not Plutarch's object anyway. Plutarch's Lives are really discussions of morality and character as evidenced in the lives of great men, and the history surrounding these men is really only a backdrop against which these things are portrayed. Use this book to begin to get a picture of Alexander the man; use other books to flesh out your understanding of Alexander the soldier, the king, and the politician.

5 comments about Berlin Dance of Death.

1. These are the experiences of a 17 year-old conscripted in the last couple months of the war where training was "on the job". Unbelievable accounts of fighting in Berlin where chaos reigns. Very detailed, very graphic. Every male from 14 to 60 gets pressed into service, or shot by the SS. Many don't have useable weapons, very little food and no rest from the hell of war. Civilians carry their few remaining possessions as they flee before the Russians. The flight of the remaining military and civilians as they try to break out of the Russian encirclement of the city and reach the western front is described graphically. The author is one of only a few survivors of a company of 150 17 year-olds. Probably the most enthralling first-person account of the many I've read, if only because it was written by a youth and covers only the last few months of the war when there was no longer any glory left to fight for--only survival.



2. Altner was a seventeen year old German when he was inducted into the German Army and fought for five weeks in the defense of Berlin. This book is the story of those five weeks. As a previous reviewer has noted, Altner is not very careful in his descriptions of arms, tanks, aircraft, etc. Footnotes are provided that fill in much of this information. What is a seventeen year old interested in....food and sex, and so some of the story focuses on these two items at the expense of others. Altner also focuses on the traumatization of war, seeing a friend without his nose and eyes, walking past a wounded soldier without stopping, watching wounded soldiers be run over by tanks.
   One gets a pretty vivid portrait from this seventeen year old kid of what war is like.
   Although an interesting read, there are better stories out there such as Sajer's The Forgotten Soldier. Altner's experience was only five weeks, so perhaps it was not a complete picture of the war on the Eastern Front.



3. Many of stories like this never got told, surviving the last days of the Soviet steamroller on the Oder line and then again in Berlin surely was a chancy bet. A studied and thorough military history, Berlin Dance of Death is not. It is a stunning personal account of a young soldier in the desperate last days of the Third Reich. Altner's story reflects the crushing of the East Front, the harrowing retreat, Soviet encirclement, retreat into Berlin, the battle for the city, his escape, and final capture. He brings all this to the reader on a very immediate level.



4. As a career soldier, one must first remember that soldiers are people, mostly young people that may or may not be students of history or burning with a passion for all things military. Soldiers join the colors for many reasons. Anybody who knows what "Bismarks" are, understands what "pacific" means, or gone searching for squelch oil understands this. So, if a young soldier is basically confused and clueless over grand strategy and small details that some affcionados desire, that is the way it is in all armies at all times. It is the experience of being a soldier. While to some it may seem distracting that young men are more in tuned with details of meals and sex, well, we have to remember that they are young men. Furthermore, this is something they know unlike the confusing world of soldiering and combat. This is a great story about the experience of war in Berlin in 1945. It is a microcosm. To understand the larger pitcure try Tieke or Ryan.



5. It is not hyperbole to suggest that Helmut Altner's Berlin Dance of Death may be one of the most interesting first-person narratives of combat ever written. That it is the story of a German teenager who was called to active duty on March 29th, 1945--to fight in a war that had less than two weeks left to it--makes this book often compelling. It is raw and sometimes clumsy in its prose, but it is genuine.
   
   Altner reconstructs the events of his fighting in the streets of Berlin from a diary that somehow, miraculously, survived his eighteen months in Soviet captivity. He uses straightforward, declarative sentences and, with little adornment, allows the drama of moments to present itself: "We take up position in the dining room. The Reichs War Flag and the Party Flag with the swastika are hung on the paneled walls, symbols of the unity of the armed forces and the Party? Opposite there is a poor oil painting of Hitler and two machine guns on the floor with their barrels pointed towards us. An officer enters and the staff sergeant makes his report. The young second lieutenant speaks about the flag, the Führer and obedience until death. I am not with it; to me it is all like the stage of a theatre, myself a stand-in in a sad scene. He reads out the form of the oath in a dull voice and we repeat it slowly after him, `With God's help!'
   
   This book is essential to those who study the psychology of combat experience and to those who study the loss of innocence on youth. It is translated and wonderfully annotated by Tony Le Tissier. This is a first-rate book that deserves a wide audience.

4 comments about The Custer Reader.

1. This book is unique in that it provides essays on the numerous facets of Custer's life not only by the participants that knew him but from Custer himself including notable historians that know Custer best. It also covers fascinating facts such as Custer's First Stand at Trevillian Station, a Civil War Battle where Custer was surrounded by Confederate Calavary. Hutton, himself a notable Western Historian, is one of a number of well written essays on the Custer Myth including a critical look at how movies and art portrayed Custer over the years representing the pathos of the nation at that time. The change of view from Erol Flynn's "They Died with Their Boots On" to Richard Mulligan's portrayal in "Little Bighorn" takes a well versed explanation. One of my favorite parts of the book is an essay by Hutton where he explains why in movie director John Ford's "Fort Apache" version of Custer's last stand, John Wayne's character Captain York praises the gallant loss of Colonel Thursday (Custer,) who he actually hated, because York "realized that society understands little of the true motivation of heroes but still needs to idealize them as figures to emulate". This is just not an interesting read but a reflection of how changes in society change perceptions of men and history. By the way, its a fun read!




2. Must us old Custer Buffs be subjected to a rehash of everything we read on the subject dating back to the 1930's and wonder why the same old ground is plowed over and over. I think I know. It makes reputations for PhD's who find it easy to send their graduate students to the library to assemble a (new?) book for them.

   
   It reminds me of Victor Borga's famous act in which he excerpts scraps from the Blue Danube and Shubert's Serendae, plays them, sometimes backward, pastes the scores together, we are told a he goes along, and finally plays the result, which he calls Blue Serenade by Strubert. At least he made no bones about it. Happily it is nearly impossible to compose original music in a library, and unhappily it is easy to appear to compose an original book in a library.

   
   I am waiting for the day that an "uppity" and enterprising graduate student notices that he can use the Library's computers to find relatives of Custer and those who were his associates and do a book about the survivors and what they may be able to find in the attic that hasn't yet been published.

   
   They will have to look for a new "advisor" and perhaps a new school to get their Graduate Degree, but they may get famous in the process.




3. I am fairly baffled by the negative review below. This book is a great collection of materials -- both primary (19th c.) and secondary (20th c.) -- covering the whole of Custer's life. It's not a comprehensive argument, but a collection of reprints, but many of the things here are hard to find elsewhere. If you have an interest in Custer or the Indian Wars, this is a terrific resource, not only for learning the history but for understanding the mythologies that have come out of it. If there's a fault in the book it is that it could be revised with an expanded edition to include new material. How about it, Professor Hutton? A second edition? Please!



4. I recommend this book for anyone that is interested in the life of General George Armstrong Custer. I found this book to be the most insightful reporting of his life before, during and after the Battle of the Little Bighorn on June 25,1876. As always anything written by two of the greatest western and Custer historians of all time, the articles by Mr. Utley and Mr. Hutton are excellent. Because of number of articles written by so many authors you get a different outlook on what Custer's life was like during and after the Civil War. I own and have read upwards of forty books and articles on Custer, having started when I was a youngster and I was greatly suprised to find this book later in my life. I don't know how it slipped by in my Custermania. If there was only one book I could say offered a little bit of everything in Custer's life this is it. People tend to forget what a great Civil War hero he was and dwell on his great defeat in Montana that fateful day.

3 comments about "When Is Daddy Coming Home?": An American Family during World War II.

1. With stories of young men coming home from Iraq in coffins the timing on this book is perfect. Many books are written on the history of World War II, from big stories of the movement of great armies, to the tales of heroic acts. This is not such a tale but a simple story of a young boy in Wisconsin (but the same story took place in every state). The young boy, born in November of 1940, writes of life in America during the war. Living in a happy family he was four years old when the telegram arrived at his family's home informing them of his father's death.
   
   His father did not die the heroic death that you make movies about, it was an ordinary soldiers death. What makes it special is the writing in this book. At once historical, memories and poignant. It is an often heart-rending picture of life in wartime America.
   
   Don't attempt to read this book without a hankerchief at hand.



2. When Is Daddy Coming Home is a very well written and heart moving story about how WWII impacted the author, his family and his life. The author's father, drafted later on in the war, and sent to Europe after those in his classification were determined to be exempt from the draft, was killed on a mission that didn't need to take place, after the glider he was in was hit right before it landed. The theme of the story, however, is the relationship between the author, his mother, and father. This is what we read about throughout the book, and this is what makes this story such a sentimental one. The author also reminds us that for every soldier that went overseas, there was a family, or friend waiting at home, and, many times, these people were left to carry on after the soldier was killed. I thank the author for sharing his story with us. This is a great book and I highly recomend it.



3. An amazing tribute book to both his father and his family during a time of turmoil for many many people. As said before it is a story that had taken place in towns across the United Stated, but also shows the side of Americans at home. I have had the honor of having Dr. Haney teach me in two classes and his knowledge is amazing on numerous subjects. After reading his book I hold him in even higher regard than I had before. It is an outstanding book that I recommend everyone read.

1 comments about Getting to Know the General.

1. A very interesting book. As always with Graham Greene, it is very well written, but it is also a very observant portrait of not only Omar Torrijos, but of Panama and Central America during the late 1970's and early 1980's. Well worth buying.

2 comments about Mississippi to Madrid: Memoir of a Black American in the Abraham Lincoln Brigade.

1. This book is one of the greatest books I bought at the time when I was in the US. Pete Seeger wrote about the book: This is a great story, a great read, and has a great lesson to teach young Americans , black and white, of how you can be strongly rooted in your home community and at the same time see a sense of kindship with working people around this whole world. The battle to save the elected Loyalist government of Spain 50 years ago was the first battle in World War II. The Abraham Lincoln Brigade and others may have lost a battle but they didn't lose the war, nor have lost it yet. Carry on! I want to send all my respect to the members of the Abraham Lincoln Brigade, your international solidarity which you showed in the battle against the fascist Franco regime will never be forgotten, we will never forget you bright stars in the darkness.



2. An excellent book, which pays attention to an episode in history, that should not be forgotten. In simple words James Yates makes clear the relationship between his struggle for civil rights in the US and his later contribution to the International Brigades in Spain. Also his courage to go on with his activities after the Worldwar, as his pictures show, is impressive...