View Single Post
  #25  
Old 05-16-2009, 07:28 PM
Matt Wiser Matt Wiser is offline
Registered User
 
Join Date: Sep 2008
Location: Auberry, CA
Posts: 1,002
Default

The two books by Antony Beevor are pretty good; one thing you find out when reading Stalingrad is that Ivan executed 13,500 of his own soldiers for various offenses (real and imagined)-a whole division's worth. And the book on Berlin you find just how out of control the Red Army was: a lot of attrition among junior officers, and discipline slacked off big time-hence a lot of out-of-control soldiers wreaking havoc on civilians. And they were encouraged, too, by some of those writing for Soviet Army newspapers.

A few more:

Hitler's Last Gamble: The Battle of the Bulge by Trevor Dupuy (his last book): a very good read on the last major German offensive on the Western Front in WW II.

Leave No Man Behind by David C. Isby: POW/Hostage Rescue missions conducted by the U.S. military from 1945 (Los Banos in the Philippines) to 2003 (the Lynch rescue in Iraq).

Clash of the Carriers, by Barrett Tillman The story of the Battle of the Philippine Sea; the final carrier clash of WW II and might be (though I doubt it) the last one of its kind.

A Glorious Way to Die by Russel Spurr: The story of the superbattleship Yamato's final sortie and her sinking (7 Apr 45) in the largest war-at-sea air strike ever launched. More planes went after the Yamato in that strike (386) than Nagumo launched at Pearl Harbor (353).
__________________
Treat everyone you meet with kindness and respect, but always have a plan to kill them.

Old USMC Adage
Reply With Quote