4 comments about Matthew B. Ridgway: Soldier, Statesman, Scholar, Citizen.

1. First of all I can say that I am a great admirer of Matt Ridgeway. The book is overall exceptional well written but lacks the personal sense that Carlo D'Este put into Patton: Genius for War. It seemed that the author has a title for each chapter then expanded this based on topic. A chronological order to Ridgeway's history would have made the book more substantial.



2. I have to respectfully disagree with the previous reviewer's take on this book. While the book is choppy at times in the way that it is formatted, it is still a very good biography.
   
   The previous reviewer stated that it was disappointing because it did not compare to Carlo D'Este's biography of George Patton ( A Genius for War). However I do not feel that this is a fair comparison. How many military biographies can compare to this classic?
   
   I think that this book should be judged on its merits and in my opinion; the author does a good job of telling the life story of this great American General.
   
   Each chapter is dedicated to a certain section of Ridgeway's life; Korea, Joint Chiefs of Staff, etc and while at times this does make the book seem choppy, it still is a pretty good book if you want to learn about Matthew Ridgeway.
   
   One last note about the book, to his credit the author George C. Mitchell does manage to accomplish something very important when writing a biography. It left me wanting to know more about the subject and read more about Ridgeway's life.
   
   I definitely recommend it if you are looking for a good introduction into Ridgeway's career and life.



3. Through correspondence and telephone calls, Matt Ridgway and I became friends. I attended his 85th birthday party in Pittsburgh, with all of his old General-staff from WWII and Korea. he was still 'flint' at 85. Matt talked Ike out of entering Vietnam (IndoChina) in '54, and convinced JFK that it could not be won. this is a wonderful book about a man who lost his beloved son, Mattie (age 20) and rather emotionally imploded after that. Incidentally, I presented him with 'the book' that saved his life in Korea. It was a paperback, with a 50-caliber shell sticking about 3" out either side. Matt is beside me in the photo and howling. "Penny, I know you want this book that brought Matt home to you." It was title: "Hot Army Nurses". The room went up in laughter. Great man...great book....Marshall called him "the finest soldier who ever wore the uniform'. davegwinn@aol.com



4. Of all the great American military leaders the last century produced, from Black Jack Pershing to the World War Two icons- Dwight D, Eisenhower, Chester Nimitz, George Patton, Omar Bradley, George Marshall, Douglas MacArthur, through Stormin' Norman Schwarzkopf, perhaps the greatest of them all, militarily speaking, was General Matthew Bunker Ridgway, the man who took over from MacArthur after Big Mac was dismissed by President Harry S. Truman during the Korean War. It was Ridgway, Commander of the U.S. Eighth Army, who rallied the UN Forces from nearly being pushed into the sea by the North Koreans, Russians, and Chinese, and forced what has been an over half century long stalemate. Because of things as this, General Marshall, in fact, called Ridgway, `the finest soldier I have known.' General called it `the greatest feat of personal leadership in the history of the Army.'
   
   Yet, the book Matthew B. Ridgway: Soldier, Statesman, Scholar, Citizen, rereleased in 2002 by Stackpole Books (231 pages, $15.95), and penned by George C. Mitchell, does little to expand on the essence of the man. His personal life is a virtual cipher, which renders his son's accidental death, years before his own death, a mere fact, with no pathos nor gravitas given to it, for we hardly know the boy, nor his relationship with his father, to care that much over the loss. At best, this book is a straightforward rendering of the four aspects of the man its subtitle claims. While this makes for a good encyclopedia entry, as a book, it makes for rough reading. Especially odd is that this rather dry rendering was written by Dr. George C. Mitchell, a well known journalist, diplomat, and educator who had the advantage of knowing his subject before his death before his July 26, 1993, death at the age of 98. Yet, he never exploits this fact to his reader's benefits, with personal anecdotes nor reminiscences of the great man in his dotage. There is no play with form nor stretching of the medium. Of course, given its subject, the book could not be bad, for even an A to B to C journey through the life of such as man as Matthew B. Ridgway is informative and enlightening. Yet, the book never makes a claim for putting its subject on a par with his contemporaries, as MacArthur nor Patton.... I just hope that a book like this will serve as a spur to a future military historian who feels that Matthew B. Ridgway deserves better and deeper treatment. Often it takes a third or fourth stab at a biography of a historical figure to get the true historical significance of a man. Perhaps someone like a David McCullough, if he ever decides to turn his attention to more recent times, will take a stab at Ridgway before he, too, leaves this earth. The only other book to really even deal with Ridgway in any extended manner was Clay Blair's The Forgotten War: America In Korea, 1950-1953, but that only did so in a few sections about the larger war. Ridgway, of course, won many honors, such as a Distinguished Service Cross, a Silver Star, a Distinguished Service Medal, a Bronze Star, a Purple Heart, and a Medal of Freedom, as well as a Combat Infantryman Badge- rarely given to officers, and he was also decorated by many other nations. Would that these words held the same regard for him and the time reading this book would be a good way to be entertained while learning. As it is, even a stroll through the factual online mess that is Wikipedia can satisfy the casual fact hunter as well as this book can. It will also save your fingers the burden of turning pages, although it may not ease you into sleep as well. Such tradeoffs are what military men endure in life, and what some leave after their deaths.

2 comments about Pompey the Great: A Political Biography (Blackwell Ancient Lives).

1. The story of the rise and fall of Pompey is the story of the fall of the Roman Republic and its eventual rebirth as an Imperial empire. Both coincide with each other with ones gains coming at the expense of the other. However, Pompey did not initiate the events that began the Republics downward spiral. Rather he helped hasten them to their inevitable conclusion. And so begins Robin Seager's historical biography on Pompey.
   
   Seager begins first at the events that set in motion the decline of the Republic and the rise of Pompey (and others sharing the same limitless ambitions) by discussing the popular reforms attempted by the Gracchi brothers to return land to the landless. Over the years, war service and an influx of slaves through military conquests had led to many Romans losing their farm lands and losing the ability to work in the agricultural sector. On top of this, once Romans lost their land, they no longer qualified for military service and thus the state lost a soldier. The reforms attempted to correct this reality by providing recently conquered land to the landless. The Senate, greatly opposing this as it would affect them financially, ensured that the reforms failed. This event marked the growing conflict between the Senate and the Tribunes (who directly represented the peoples interest, theoretically) over control of the Republic. An event that sparked bitter rivalries between equites (a sort of merchant class who were wealthy but until recently stayed out of politics) who demanded recognition and respect from the Senate and the aristocrats who believed it was their innate right to govern through exclusion.
   
   Seager continues to set the stage for Pompey's entrance by discussing his father (Pompeius Strabo) and Sulla, both of whom had strong influences on Pompey. They reinforced the value of loyal troops and the value of maintaining multiple connections in the Senate, something Pompey would never forget (although he wasn't very skilful in the latter leading to problems later on). Over time, as Pompey built a reputation for himself, he won numerous accolades from the Senate on his victories in Spain, his successful war against the Mediterranean pirates and his accomplishments in the East against Mithradates. He also shrewdly took credit for the defeat of Spartacus even though he arrived too late for the final battle. With these victories he expected to be no less then worshipped by the people and the Senate. However, the reality proved different. Being humiliated and shunned, as the Senate wanted to ensure Pompey understood his rightful place in the Republic's hierarchy (he was from a relatively young wealthy family and thus did not have the long-established family history other Senators had); Pompey allied himself with another brash rising star, Caesar. All these events, as Seager discussed, amplified the decay of the Republic's core foundations. Rather then upholding the Republics values (regardless of how suspect and imaginative they were), these men began placing their importance and prestige first. With this change in focus, it would only be a matter of time when the Republic would be torn apart into rival factions vying for its crown. Seager brilliantly brings all these events to light. He covers every step of the deterioration through the life of Pompey who had an integral part in ushering in this new era. From his first salute to Sulla as imperator to his final stand in Greece, Seager, in a comprehensive narrative, outlines Pompey's many decisions, the reasoning behind them and their eventual consequences to himself and the Republic.
   
   Although I strongly recommend this book (6 stars if it existed), a prospective reader needs to keep a few things in mind before purchasing this book. The books, at-many-times, excessive details does have its failings mainly being that the book can at times drag on. Add in Seager's obsession with including every Consul's name (many which are similar to others via familial relationships) and you can easily have one chaotic and confusing mess. I should know as I threw down this book in frustration on my first attempt at a read-through. This book needs to be read careful paying attention to the fine detail Seager adds in as most of it ties into later parts of his book. Doing this rewards the reader with an essential and absorbing look at the later Republics political life with all its rewards and treachery. As well, Seager's primary focus is on Pompey's political achievements and failures with a nod towards his campaigns, hence the books subtitle: A Political Biography. As you can probably tell at this point, this is a scholarly work with its main focus being on providing and critiquing information and sources rather then providing a quick and exciting narrative (see Tom Holland's excellent book, Rubicon: the Last Years of the Roman Republic for that).
   
   If one wants a simple narrative of Pompey's actual military campaigns, this book is not the source. If one however wants a better understanding of all the characters directly involved in the downfall of the Republic including its main protagonists, Pompey, then I strongly recommend this book. Thank you Mr. Seager for providing us with an exceptional work. If you do end up liking this book, I would strongly recommend Seager's other work, Tiberius, as well.



2. Seager's Pompey is an excellent book that is a necessity for anyone wanting to fully understand the political career of Pompey Magnus. Over the years, countless books have been written on Caesar and the fall of the Republic, and I find it interesting that very few (at least very few in English) book have been written on the life of Pompey.
   Seager's book does a fantastic job of explaining how Pompey was able to rise to power through the use of the army and his military victories. An interesting point that Seager makes about Pompey's rise is that since Pompey skipped many of the offices that most Romans needed to obtain before becoming consul he did not have the political acumen of others in his position. This explanation does much for enlightening the reader as to why Pompey made some decisions (which in hindsight) which damaged his reputation within the Republic.
   Another interesting point that Seager makes in his book is that he believes that Cicero may have exaggerated the threat of Catiline to galvanize the Republic against the return of Pompey. After all Sulla's return from the east was still fresh in many Romans' minds (the proscriptions had effected most of the patrician families in one way or another) and since Pompey had been a lieutenant of Sulla there was speculation that he too would make a grab at supreme power over the Republic.
   Seager has produced a thorough biography of Pompey's life in this book and it should be read by those interested in the complexities of Pompey and the late Roman Republic. However, be aware that Pompey's military exploits are glossed over in this book and Seager's primary focus is on Pompey's political career.

5 comments about Custer's Fall: The Native American Side of the Story.

1. This book provides interesting reading for Custerphiles. It markedly shows that no one, not even the native participants knew what was happening on all parts of the battlefield that day. Each had his own perspective of the area immediatly around him and that changed from each individuals perspective. In the long run I would go with eyewitness accounts unless directly refuted with iron clad evidence. The author tried to present the native side as they experienced the battle. He did a great job, but left us with just as many unanswered questions as we started with. Still a good book to include in a library. It is not a favorite with revisionist historians.



2. David H. Miller's claim to have interviewed oodles of Indian survivors of the Custer fight is bogus. Most of the factual Indian material in the book is freely lifted from interviews recorded by other people such as Stanley Vestal. Even the Indian "portraits" which Miller supposedly did from life appear to have been done from photographs. It is significant that Miller waited until the last Indian survivor had died in 1955 before publishing. Like his spiritual descendent, Dee Brown, Miller writes nonsense while leaning on the works of more reputable authors...

   His "original" material is sheer nonsense, like his contention that Custer committed suicide and that the powder burns were somehow "wiped away" by cover-up officers -- and that Custer's body was taken away on the Far West rather than buried on the field. (Oddly enough, he also claims that Custer got shot crossing the river...)




3. Having read several differing accounts of the battle at Little Big Horn, I find that no one, not even the Indians know what happened that day. Mr. Miller has done his best to present the views of the Indians who fought at the battle as factually as possible. I have not read a recent printing, (my book was printed in 1965, 208 pages counting lists of Indians interviewed or mentioned and the Officers of the 7th Cavalry). I have not been able to find anything in this book, or in any other books to make me believe that Mr. Miller has done anything other than present the facts as best as he could, and I highly recomend this book for anyone interested in the truth about what happened June 25, 1876.



4. I have not yet read the book but am now ordering it. I noticed that a couple of the reviews from readers questioned the validity of the book. It is absolutely authenic. I was the Millers banker in 1981 when they lived in Rancho Santa Fe, Ca. and I visited their home on 2 occasins. Mr. Miller has a fascinating background which does include living with the indians and seeking out those who had fought Custer approximately 50 years prior to his painting their busts.His home was full of Indian artifacts which he refused to sell because they had been given to him and had special meaning. Mr. Miller was also employed on the sets of several cowboy movies as an Indian expert. He was about 75 years old in 1981 and I have lost total contact with him. I just want readers of this book to know that it is the real thing.



5. History is filled with stories not always true. In the days following the Battle of the Greasy Grass or Little Big Horn, hundreds of survivors suddenly surfaced. Some even had the cruel audacity to write Elizabeth Custer with their fictional accounts as they chased their 15 minutes of fame.
   The reality of the death of General Custer and his immediate command and those of the Indians is well known and that is the problem with this book.
   Elizabeth Custer knew exactly what happened in June of 1876 to her husband, brother in laws and soldiers from the investigative retracing of none other than General Nelson Miles, the greatest soldier the United States produced until George S. Patton.
   In her book, there is a recount of that day as traced from factual evidence. In short, Custer concerned the Indians would flee not as a group as were his "hammer" orders to strike the combined forces and drive them to General Terry's "anvil" to smash them, attacked the Indians quickly.
   He divided his command as he had numerous times before and in facing 2 other Little Big Horns. Capt. Benteen was to scout for fleeing Indians with Maj. Reno intended to drive the Indians as Custer attacked the camp diverting the Indian forces.
   Custer tried to cross the river, but it was too deep and finally to try and help Reno he opened fire on the camp which in fact drew the Indians off Reno and they crossed up river which started the Last Stand.
   Custer deployed his forces perfectly on ground not suited for a fight and sent for Benteen to bring up reinforcements. Benteen though upon finding the completely rattled Reno appears to have decided to "let Custer fight his way out of his own jam" in a lingering grudge he had with Custer.
   Benteen fought bravely in their stand, but both Reno and Benteen let Custer down, one for cowardice and the other for not obeying orders.
   Twice during the 2 hour Custer fight his forces fired mass volleys were an Army signature of distress and to alert other forces to come to their aid. In fact, part of the Reno command did try to force their way to Custer, but were turned back under fire from Indians.
   Custer and his command fought very well as the field of battle evidence revealed. His flank was over run at one point and that began the end as the Indians simply wore down the ranks.
   Col. Richard Dodge who records part of the Custer Stand honestly concluded that Custer did commit suicide. This is not some cowardly act as those on the plains knew that death by fire and steel is what awaited an Indian captive. This was not secret in sinews were cut off as well as body parts from living captives as fire was kindled on feet and hands till it was burnt on the chest as Indians warmed themselves and taunted the person till they expired.
   Libby Custer understood this and her husband even had soldiers stationed with her with orders to shoot her if they were attacked to keep her from being ravaged by the Indians. Ravaged as records show was gang raped by every male in being taken back to camp with the Indian women making crude comments. The captive woman was then passed around in camp for days for rape until she came back to the owner who would gamble her away as the Indian women forced her to serve them and beat her.
   It is important to understand though the Indians were savages in the mentality they did not deem rape, murder and theft as evil. Those means of war were celebrated on non tribe members, but were considered "bad" by an Indian if attempted on members of their own tribe as the leaders would beat the Indian and sometimes kill them for it. That made it bad, because they suffered for it.
   The Indians though savage did cherish their children and captive children. The men though practiced war while the women served their masters. The known fact though was the most horrid of tortures were always noted by Indian women. None of this is an indictment, but simple fact of the times and the tribes. This is what any non tribe member faced whether white or Crow from the Sioux and Cheyenne. Custer's own brother Tom at the Little Big Horn in being wounded was alive and an Indian cut his heart out. If Custer did commit suicide, it was only a rational decision as all of his were that day.
   As for the Indians who fought there, there is no evidence on that day that any of them knew this was Custer. They viewed it as simply horse soldiers and went out to fight them. The relics or war booty they gathered has never been discovered. Legend has it that it was buried on the flight to Canada which makes sense as any Indian who had a part in a massacre knew their lives were forfeit not just by government troops if they were caught, but by Sioux loyal to the United States still on the reservations. This divide is still at odds on the reservation today.
   Therefore most accounts published by Indians are suspect and in the case of beleiveable stories like Red Fox who only stated he saw the smoke of battle from camp as he was a boy, the versions often never match known historical evidence of the actual battle.
   So this is not a book about Custer's fall, but a view of hopes like Dee Brown who suffer from the eastern malaise of guilt over winning wars with Indian peoples who were butchering Americans over land the Indians themselves only had acquired a few years before from other Indians. As a historical fact, the Sioux were in the process of genocide against the Pawnee and Arikara Indians and were driving the Crow farther into Montana. It is why the Pawnee and the Crow were allied with the US government. It is also the reason that the US Army was on the plains in June of 1876 as the Crow had begged Washington to protect it's tribes from raids by the Sioux which were happening.
   Too much has been written about Custer as the focal point with no one examining the horrid mistakes of Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse in leading their people to destruction when others like Spotted Tail were trying to build a future for the Sioux. Custer's fall actually occurred months earlier when he was testifying in Washington over corruption by the Indian Department who were selling guns to the plains Indians in gleaning the last dollars from the tribes before they were destroyed by a war being fomented by both Crazy Horse and elements of the Grant administration.
   Those are the facts in this from historical records and one could do much better than reading accounts from people who either have an axe to grind on Custer or want to make the plains Indian tribes of that era what they never were.
   If one wants to read the Memoirs of Red Fox, it does a much better job of an Indian view on life. If one wants to read reality of Indians, Col. Richard Dodge's book on his life among the wild Indians reveals the Indian who they were with faults and glory and if one wants to read of Custer, then try Libby's books and the work of Gen. Nelson Miles as the facts are there.
   Yes there was a cover up of failure of duty by Reno and Benteen in the Court Martials, but the Army's memory while sweeping it away in public did not forget and Reno was later drummed out of the service and Benteen was dumped into Utah to disappear.
   The fact though of George Custer and that day are found in better places than this book which rates as rumor...and rumor has no place in history.

1 comments about The Mysterious Private Thompson: The Double Life of Sarah Emma Edmonds, Civil War Soldier.

1. "The Mysterious Private Thompson" is a first-rate, riveting book about a woman who ran away from home to avoid an arranged marriage and disguised herself as a man to make her way in the world. She first became a successful traveling book salesman and then, astoundingly, served as a Civil War soldier for two years. Not only is the story fascinating as to how someone could maintain a disguise so effectively for so long a period of time, but the story's historical context is so carefully researched and deftly conveyed that you are almost unaware that this is a history book as well as a human interest story. I learned more in this book about the Battles of Bull Run, the Peninsula Campaign, the Battle of Fredericksburg, plus Generals McClellan and Burnside, than I had in all my years of school. Laura Gansler is a brilliant, gifted writer and I highly recommend this book.

2 comments about Journal, 1955-1962: Reflections on the French-Algerian War.

1. There are a few important works on the Algerian Civil War available for the English reader. Franz Fannon, Alistair Horne's history, the film "Battle of Algiers, and recently Feraoun's diary are the ones that readily come to mind. Feraoun was a western educated Algerian and well accquainted with the French. His desire for an independent Algeria was strong, but tempered by a strong sense of historical reality. He reveals the day to day impact of the violence. It is in this respect that the work is most moving, and reveals the senselessness and degradation that occurs to all people involved, Feraoun eventually a victim himself. An essential view of the psychological costs of guerrilla and anti-colonial war.



2. First, I will comment on the book itself from an American point of view. The book is not easy to read because it is not a book: it is the author's journal he kept during the French Algerian War. Knowing that still, his journal entries, which at the beginning were frequent and detailed, were focused on keeping track of who was killed, tortured or who was doing the killings. It was as if the author, Mr. F.(his notation of using people's initials to hide their identity from I suppose the French secret police), was keeping a testimony of the murders occurring all around him as evidence. This makes for dull reading; however, given the events of 9-11, I made a valiant effort to immerse myself into the author's mind and try to understand this incredibly brutal civil war.

   (...)

5 comments about Inside Hitler's Bunker: The Last Days of the Third Reich.

1. While not as thorough as Anton Joachimstahler's or James P. O'Donnell's works on Hitler's last days, Fest provides a good introduction to the last month of Hitler and Nazi Germany's lives. The book somewhat bounces around between Hitler, the Soviet onslaught, and conditions in Berlin, but Fest does a pretty good job of balancing these and writing a readable book. Again, not the most detailed of accounts, but a good intro.



2. I wish that I had read the negative reviews of this book and avoided it. This is a very poorly done account of Hitler's final days in the bunker. The book is poorly written, lacks linear progression, and provides an erratic treatment of the subject. The text itself is cobbled together in piecemeal fashion from other books on the subject - there seems little original here. Quotes about Hitler are often made without attribution leaving the reader to wonder whose opinion was being posited. Fest writes pages and pages of filler material consisting of his own amateur psychoanalysis of Hitler which adds nothing to the record and further sidetracks this work.
   
   If you wish to read an engaging and informative account of Hitler's final days, skip Fest's book and read instead the book written by Hitler's secretary Traudle Junge's or Ian Sayer and Douglas Botting's book The Women Who Knew Hitler which chronicles Hitler's last days extremely well.



3. Fest's haunting description of the last days of the Third Reich is a magnificent accomplishment. Despite its brevity, Fest manages to weave larger historical issues into a narrative full of surreal, compelling details about the Nazis' end. There are the evocative stories of Berlin in turmoil: SS patrols summarily hanging whoever they felt was a shirker, citizens struggling to survive in the shelled-out ruin of a city, the Soviet encirclement growing ever closer. Meanwhile, inside the Hitler's bunker, the story of delusion and denial grew ever more fantastical -- Hitler commanding generals to counterattack the Russians with army units existing in his imagination, and growing more and more furious with their "betrayals" as the Russian advance still came on.
   
   The story arrives ultimately at the Russian approach to the bunker and the suicides of Hitler, Eva Braun, and the inner circle. Their grimly nihilistic end, burned in a trashheap, paralleled their desire for the same fate for Germany. Hitler wanted Germany to go down with him. That so many in Berlin actually did follow him in suicide, or fighting the Russians to the end against suicidal odds, seems now almost too bewildering to believe. Fest's book is bleak, but in a straightforward journalistic style argues why the end in the bunker was the culmination of Hitler's theatrical, nihilistic vision.



4. James O'Donnell's "Bunker" is the authoritative history of the Fuhrerbunker. Even Mr. Fest acknowledges that in his Bibliography notes. "Inside Hitler's Bunker" is cursory, superficial and unoriginal and it escapes me that there can be any reason this book was written except to make a quick buck off of unwary readers. It's a joke. Avoid it at all costs.



5. Inside Hitler's Bunker is a good introduction to the final days of the Second World War from the Nazi perspective - a horrific denoument to a great crisis in world history as Hitler and his cohorts, realising defeat was inveitable, still pursued a grand Wagnerian ending until the last. Berlin was in ruins, thousands were dying by the day, the Red Army were marauding in from the East. And Hitler, a 'cake gobbling wreck', shattered by events, bloodily ended it all along with his wife.
   
   This is a short, journalistic history, mainly from secondary sources, with a good deal of speculative rumination. It is not a deep scholarly book. It will appeal as an introduction to the topic, interspersed with some interesting pictures of the war ravaged Berlin, and inside the Bunker itself.

5 comments about Few Returned: Twenty-Eight Days on the Russian Front, Winter 1942-1943.

1. Above all, this book is a record of one man's experience as an Italian soldier fighting on the Eastern Front during World War II against Russia. More specifically, it is about a few horrible weeks of fighting and retreating. It is *not* a story or novel, really, but almost like an after action report. The book contains the author's feelings and some of what he saw, but you get the distinct sense while reading this book that he wrote it as a record of what he saw and did, and as an homage to his friends who never made it out of Russia, but not as an attempt to write a story. The author never really tries tying the events into a broader context or explaining the full experiences he had on the Eastern front; it is just a snap shot of a limited time frame, and only limited snapshots even within that time frame.

   This book is not a blow by blow recitation of combat. While the author is clearly involved in a number of intense fights, both before and during the period covered in the book, we never really hear about it. It's almost as if he is trying NOT to make this a book about combat. If there is an engagement we hear of the troops forming up for it, a sentence or two about the fight, and then more pages about the aftermath - the wounds, the dead.

   The most insightful and remarkable aspects of this book to me are: 1) the ability of the author to show us the horrors of war; 2) the brutality on both sides; and 3) how horrible the Nazis were even to their allies. I take each in turn.

   1) This book makes very clear how much human suffering war brings with it. Through its dry, almost camera-like recitation of horror after horror (friends freezing to death in front of him, morter shells cutting people in two) we can almost imagine what it must be like to be walking through a combat zone strewn with bodies and wounded men and animals. We also see how war turns honorable, good men into self-interested beings centered only on survival. The author, for example, is clearly a brave, honorable, educated man and officer. We watch as his pride in being an officer and an Italian soldier slowly gives way to self-survival. We also watch as this man with deep loyalty to his unit and his friends gives way (as we all would, I'm sure) to self-interest. Fascinating.

   2) Suffice it to say that the book makes clear how brutal all sides were in this war: Soviets and Nazis alike commit brutal, heartless acts.

   3) The savagery and callousness of the Nazis towards their allies is stunning. While paying homage to the combat skills of the Nazis, the author shows clearly how the Nazies treated the Italians serving and dying in their cause only slightly better than their hated enemy the Soviets. For example, we read of a time when, during the retreat, the Nazis held up thousands of Italians, subjecting them to withering small arms and artillery fire from the Russians for hours, in order to clear mud off of German trucks. We see how Nazis failed to share food, information or shelter with their "allies." We see Germans shooting at wounded Italians (their allies, remember!) who dared to try and get a ride on a German vehicle.

   This book is somewhat dry, somewhat repetititious, but worth a read for those wanting a sense of what the winter retreat was like for an Italian soldier serving in WW2's horribly grueling East Front.




2. .. I think that one of the "soldier view" of the whole Eastern Front history from axis side is "The Sergeant In The Snow" by Mario Rigoni Stern.



3. This book is different from others in that it does not glorify War,it does not tend to over exaggerate what happened in battle, it does'nt even try to blow up the truth with nonsensical war heroics recounted ( like many german or British books, dare I say).
   Its a straight forward recount in diary form of how onw Italian officer and his brave troops dared all to fight back the Russians, the bitter cold and the odds of making it back on foot without decent rations , heavyweapons or transportation which were rendered useless in battle or just plainly nevr had their ammo resupplied by the faster retreating better equiped self serving Nazis.
   It si common for the uneducated armchair historian or plainly ignorant war hobbyist to brand the Italians as cowards, however when one delves deeper into the actualities of WW2 and gets to the events as they really happened unaltered by propaganda and rascist reporting then we really see that the Italians which were up against it from the start, put in as brave a performance as any fighting man could and beyond that in many a case.

   I recommend this book to all for the honesty and open portrayal of the horrors of War and the true nature of men when faced with the harshness and desperation of survival.
   Its not a novel as anyone who's half literate can plainly see, but a diary of man brave man and his troops that fought their way thru the russians, the elements and evn the Nazis cruelty to survive!
   Enjoy the read! A must have for the war historian at heart.




4. I have always been interested in the Second World War and especially the little known battles and actions of that war.
   Lately; I have delved into the Italian part in this conflict and the tragic consequences to their brave soldiers.
   "Few Returned", gives you a first hand glimpse of what it was like for man, pack animals and equipment, fighting and struggling to survive on the Eastern Front.
   You will wonder how anyone returned from that winter retreat.
   The author Eugenio Corti also gives the reader a good feel for the national differences between the Italians, Germans and Russians.
   Combat is sporadic throughout the retreat, but again Corti gives you a good feel of how it was for all sides.



5. Corti who was a twenty-one year old artillery officer on the Stalingrad front, was part of the Eighth Italian Army that was cut off when Zhukov sent in the pincers that surrounded the Sixth German Army. His group was in a pocket northeast of Stalingrad that was made up of Italian and German soldiers.
   
   Out of the 30 thousand Italians who held the front at the Don north of Stalingrad, less than four thousand made it out of the pocket and up to one thousand of those died from their wounds and exposure. Corti doesn't pull any punches as to what happened in the pocket or who was to blame.
   
   Many of the Italians had just come to the front over the last two weeks. They were totally unprepared for what was going to become a retreat over one hundred kilometers while constantly under Russian fire. They had to walk most of the way in inadequate uniforms and boots while the Germans requestioned horse and mules and sleds for their own use.
   
   Corti speaks of how the Germans were much better organized and kept their military lines-or-command intact, whereas the Italians in many cases became a mob without any reason or understanding of the situation. At times no one was in charge of taking care of the wounded or giving out provisions. While the German Luftwaffe dropped food and ammunition by parachute, the Italian Air Force was conspicuous by their absence.
   
   The story is straight forward and brutal. Corti does not try to make excuses for anyone (including himself) in the treatment of fellow soldiers or of civilians. It was survive at any cost.
   
   Zeb Kantrowitz

5 comments about The Deserter's Tale: The Story of an Ordinary Soldier Who Walked Away from the War in Iraq.

1. I sit next to an Iraq vet every day in school, and I knew he was against the war and against recruiting for this war because of dishonesty in recruiting. I believe what this author has to say. He is not a great writer, but he is real and has a conscience. This book is easy to read in terms of how the author uses language, but very hard to read in terms of subject matter. I strongly suggest you read it for yourself before you decide whether or not to believe it. I found it to be a real wake-up call. I will do all I can now to end this war and to fix what is wrong with our military.



2. This book is full of lies and half truths. Wouldn't buy it to save my life.



3. Joshua Key paints a very disturbing picture of the way U.S. troops treat Iraqi civilians. If even one tenth of what he claims is true then all Americans should be outraged as well as being outraged at the illegal invasion and occupation of Iraq. Key presents soldiers calling Iraqi's Hajis just like many U.S. troops called the Vietnamese gooks during the Vietnam War. What I found most disturbing were the parts where troops were taught during training that all Muslims were their enemies. The fact that Joshua Key is discouraged from interacting in socially with Iraqi civilians which his superior officers describe as fraternizing with the enemy is a great contrast with claims by the Bush Administration that the U.S. is acting as a liberator in Iraq and that U.S. troops are only opposed by a few Baathist dead enders and foreign fighters.



4. I found this book to be a heartbreaking and horrifying account of the early months of the Iraq war. All these people who are so ready to brand Key as a coward should consider the idea that abandoning the war and all its crimes was what took real courage. Key states very clearly in his book that he is fully prepared to stand trial for what he's done, as long as the Bush Gang who drove us off the cliff into this mess also has to do so.
   
   People also need to remember that, following World War II and the Nuremberg trials, it is now incumbent upon every soldier in every military organization in the world to refuse illegal orders.



5. I read this book in a couple of hours, and it was a very easy read. When I was reading I felt as though I was sitting in a car with him driving down the highway listening to his story - it was that easy - much like a conversation.
   
   It is of course one side of the story [...]
   
   JK makes a lot of claims that are better judged by those who have been there - more specifically those from his unit, than myself.
   
   I like the book, it was a good and interesting read, but I want the whole story - this is just part of it. There is always more than one version of events.
   
   I hope someone else who was there with him writes a book. We've heard what he says "really" went on, I'd like to hear what they say "really" went on.

5 comments about Rebel Private: Front and Rear: Memoirs of a Confederate Soldier.

1. This is a good, first hand account of the life of a Confederate soldier. Fletcher writes of only what he seen during the war. The only judgement he cast is upon his leaders actions at Gettysburg. This book will definitely change your perspective on the life of a common soldier.



2. Excellent, first had observations made by a common private in during the Civil War. The author IS NOT a professional writer. This makes it all the more valuable. The author is not writing the book to entertain, or to pass along old, gory war stories. This is a story by a simple man trying to tell us his point of view, simple as that. This account is quite valuable to anyone interested in the study of this horrible conflict. Recommend it's reading and recommend you add it to your collection. I do wish there had been more like this one.



3. Perhaps if the writer had put his thoughts to paper soon after the events described he might have remembered a few details! We barely find out anything about his weapons, his leaders, his thoughts on seccession etc... While the small details of camp life and escaping are interesting a better book on that subject is Prison Pen.



4. An outstanding view of the War Between the States from the point of view of an "ordinary" soldier.



5. This book is a very enjoyable and powerful read. The "War of Northern Aggression" has never seemed such a real happening to me before. It makes well-known battlefield names come alive. Fletcher was a very practical, down-to-earth man and the reader is exposed to the practical everyday concerns of a Confederate soldier. The plight of the wounded is nearly felt by the reader. Fletcher candidly discusses taking food from women and children in Union territory and scavenging the dying. He even expresses regret that he had refrained from shooting an enemy soldier because he appeared very young and he wonders if it hurt his nation's cause. There are very exciting stories about being captured and escaping from a moving prison train. After the war, he heard a North Carolina soldier ask Fletcher's Texas cavalry unit if they had any bacon. When one answered yes, the man said "Grease and slide back into the Union." After thinking about it a while, Fletcher saw the wisdom in that statement and did just that. He became a highly successful lumber entrepreneur. I highly recommend for students of military or Southern history or anyone who likes true adventures.

5 comments about Witness to Nuremberg.

1. Barbara Schlang's review.....Richard W. Sonnenfeldt's just published book (Witness to Nuremberg) reveals personal conversations with the top Nazi defendants at the Nuremberg trials, shedding a merciless light on their criminality, but it is also a tale of adventure never told before. He was just twenty-two when he became Chief Interpreter for the American prosecution at the War Crimes trials of 1945-46.
   Born into a Jewish family in Germany, he fled to attend school in England in 1938, to escape the Nazi terror. But when the Germans conquered France two years later, his erstwhile hosts interned him as a German national and deported him in a prison ship, that was torpedoed by a German U-boat, but made it to Australia. The British then realized their mistake and ordered him back to England to be freed, but now his boat was diverted to in Bombay, India. Instead of returning to England he managed to go to the United States, all solo, at age seventeen. On arrival in New York he became a media celebrity in April 1941. Two and a half years later he was an American citizen and combat soldier who fought in France, Germany and Austria. He was one of the first to see the concentration camp of Dachau and its prisoners, too stunned amid mountains of corpses to grasp that freedom was theirs.
   
   General "Wild Bill" Donovan, the head of OSS (predecessor to the CIA) who was organizing the American prosecution for the Nuremberg trial then picked up him as his interpreter.
   At Nuremberg, directing a staff of fifty, he produced over 10,000 pages of sworn testimony, interpreting and later himself conducting interrogations of the twenty top surviving Nazis. He had Goering, the No.2 Nazi, acknowledge his signature on the order of July 1941 to organize the holocaust. He extracted from Hoess, the commandant of Auschwitz, a detailed statement how three and one half hapless victims were exterminated at Auschwitz, at a rate over 20,000 a day.
   After the verdicts, which punished ten of the defendants by hanging them, he returned to America, served on the team that created color TV and became a noted executive. To celebrate his fiftieth year in business he crossed the Atlantic in his sailboat, also celebrating his 75th birthday.
   He was invited to return to the small German town where he grew up and his reports of interaction with the citizens there are no less interesting than his recollections of Nuremberg. He was then invited to speak at a principal cathedral in Berlin, and at Hitler's erstwhile Nazi headquarters in Nuremberg. Soon he was feted by the German national press and became a sought after personality on German television and radio.
   His book "Witness to Nuremberg" published by Arcade Press, follows his German bestseller "Mehr als ein Leben." I could not put the book down. It is full of many thrilling and some dangerous adventures, but most of all it is a tale of the zest of life and it is all true!



2. During 1945-46, Richard Sonnenfeldt, age 22, was the chief interpreter on the U.S. prosecution team at Nuremberg. In this role, he served U.S. Supreme Court Justice Robert H. Jackson, the chief U.S. prosecutor, and his interrogation team as the lead interpreter in the pre-indictment interrogations of many imprisoned Nazis, including all 22 who became Nuremberg defendants.
   
   Sonnenfeldt actually was much more than the U.S. prosecution's lead interpreter at Nuremberg. Because of his German and English language skills, his smarts and maturity, and his surprising rapport with and control over many of the prisoners, Sonnenfeldt actually became a de facto senior interrogator. His work and successes as interpreter and interrogator are recorded in the many thousands of pages of interrogation reports that are central parts of the Nuremberg trial and historical record. At the end of the Nuremberg trial year, Justice Jackson saw to it personally that Sonnenfeldt received a military decoration for his work.
   
   But that's actually not the half of it. In outline form, this is Richard Sonnenfeldt's quite amazing life story:
   * born Jewish, son of two physicians, in Gardelegen, a town in north central Germany, in 1923;
   * happy, assimilated boyhood until Nazism and Nuremberg laws change everything, including shutting down his parents' work;
   * getting out of Germany, along with his younger brother, to a boarding school in England;
   * being interned in England as an enemy alien once active war with Germany started in 1940;
   * being shipped with other internees and German POWs from England to Australia;
   * being paroled from Australia to India, and making it on his own there;
   * getting passage from India to the U.S. (His parents, in a separate miracle, had made it from Germany to Sweden and from there to Baltimore);
   * becoming, as his ship docked in New York, a media event because he was an unsupervised boy who had survived all of these "adventures";
   * working, while still a teenager, as an electrician in Baltimore and entering Johns Hopkins night college;
   * being drafted into the U.S. Army, becoming a U.S. citizen, and fighting in Europe as a combat soldier;
   * entering the Dachau concentration camp in April 1945;
   * in May 1945, being called out of a motor pool in Austria, because of his bilingual skills, to serve as General William J. ("Wild Bill") Donovan's OSS interpreter;
   * moving with Donovan into the Justice Jackson/war crimes project that became Nuremberg;
   * serving as the principal and preferred interpreter of each prisoner, including Hermann Goering;
   * playing a significant role in interrogating and studying each of them;
   * being half of the 2-man team that served the October 1945 indictment on each Nuremberg defendant;
   * working for the U.S. prosecution throughout the trial;
   * returning to Baltimore and succeeding as a Johns Hopkins engineering student;
   * becoming a distinguished engineer with RCA, where he was part of the team that invented color television;
   * working on NASA projects;
   * working as an executive at NBC;
   * obtaining patents on numerous inventions;
   * becoming a husband and very proud father;
   * sailing three times across the Atlantic; and
   * never talking much about his past until his grandchildren started to interview him for school projects and papers.
   
   Richard Sonnenfeldt's life is an extraordinary true story, and he has written it modestly and well. His book deserves to reach a very large general audience, and I am confident that any reader, from children through seniors, will find it to be relevant, exciting and inspiring.



3. I bought Witness to Nuremberg after reading the other "Amazon" reviews and I was not disappointed. I could not put the book down! I want to comment on the writing. Sonnenfeldt's story of incredible adventure is told in a most captivating way with flashes of humor and never a boring moment!
   
   There emerges a teen and later, a man who turns adversity to his advantage, who always looks forward. Just 22 at Nuremberg, after a solo trek through five continents, he is the chief interpreter for the American prosecution who becomes a star interrogator to unmask the groveling and miserable personalities of the Nazi defendants. He tells us who ordered the Holocaust and why we did not know its true dimension until eleven months after the war ended. Even more remarkable is his return to Germany, fifty years after the Nuremberg trials, where he became a media celebrity as he related his conversations with the Nazis. This book is a worthy companion to the many books of Holocaust survivors. You must read it.



4. This is an interesting and well-written account of the young man who was the Chief Interpreter at the Nuremberg trials of the Nazis.
   
   But the aforementioned is only half the story, because the author also tells us about his life in Germany both before the Nazis too power and after. His tales of escape from Germany are so amazing and remind me of a children's book I read as a child called "When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit" a fictional account of becoming a Jewish refugee in the 1940's. Who knew that fiction could be beaten by true-life!
   
   I found this book very compelling and a great yarn. Truly, after seeing the author on Charlie Rose I became interested in reading the book. I was not disappointed. I am sure you won't be either.
   
   By the way, his accounts of the Nazis he interviews are very compelling! Truly, as has been said before that evil is so often banal!
   
   When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit



5. I saw Mr. Sonnenfeld interviewed on Charlie Rose last year and had this book on my wish list. I finally got around to ordering it and dived into it the day it arrived. I was disappointed to find that only the first quarter of the book (if even that) dealt with Mr. Sonnenfeld's translating work at the Nuremberg Trials, i.e. "Witness to Nuremberg". The remainder of the book is autobiography, from childhood to the present. Granted, it is an interesting life to read about, but for those seeking a book dedicated to the "Nuremberg experience" you will be disappointed, as I was. I could have gone on reading more about Nuremberg. Nonetheless, it is a well written interesting read.