Experts! Is this book worth reading?

That sounds about right to me, but lord its been 15 or 20 tears ago.

 

I just bought "Winston Churchill: An Intimate Portrait" by Violet Bonham Carter. I am for sure going to read this one, as I know a little already about her long friendship with Churchill.

I just thought I would ask if anyone else has read it and found that it kept their attention or not.

 

With Britain in Mortal Danger...John Warwicker.

 

Is William Shirer's The Rise and the Fall of the Third Reich still worth buying? I'm intending to buy a general Nazi Germany history book, and I'm undecided between Shirer's book and Richard Evans's The Third Reich trilogy. Obviously, Evans's books are more expansive and up to date than Shirer's, but is it good to first read Shirer as a sort of a primer on Nazi Germany before tackling Evans, or has Evans completely superseded Shirer on this subject?

 

Shirer's book is still very 'readable' ( it was the first Third Reich history I ever read...) but a great deal of new information and research has come to light since it was published. Evan's three volumes are very good indeed, or if you just want to stick to a single volume, there is Michael Burleigh's 'The Third Reich - A New History'.

Shirer's single-volume history is rarely cited in bibliographies today - it is generally considered to have been superseded.

( This doesn't apply, however, to his excellent 'Berlin Diary' which will always remain a valuable source of 'how it was'..... )

 

Are Evans and Burleight complementable in the sense that one holds information the other one doesn't, or is Evans the same thing more detailed? I ask because I want to know does it worth to own both books.

 

Information-wise I'd put them about the same ; obviously, being split over three volumes Evans' books are more expansive and delve rather deeper into specific issues. I have all of them but then....I'm a collector !

If I just wanted a good single volume, then I'd go for Burleigh. To get through all three volumes of Evans is quite a marathon. The writing style of both Burleigh and Evans flows wel lenough ; they're not too 'dry' to read.

 

Hey folks, I just bought an original copy of "They were expendable" by W.L. White very cheap. Love the movie, but wondering if the book is worth the effort?

 

It was so long ago that I read it that it was practically the dark ages, but IIRC the book is far better than the movie as it goes into far more detail of the problems they encounterted etc.

 

A Short History of World War II by James L. Stokesbury. Still a good primer on WW2? Is there something better?

 

Suprisingly little is STILL known about the Auxiliary Units, tho' with careful research the picture is slowly clearing. Fleming - who had previously been in Norway liaising with Colin Gubbins for a time during the long retreat north to Bodo - was one of the first liaison officers with the organisation; he had been involved in the first days of an indepedent stay-behind organisation in Kent created by Military Intelligence that was rapidly amalgamated with the Aux. Units, and the idea of underground Ops' Bases is said to have originated with Fleming.

A lot of the original Aux Units Liaison officers later followed Gubbins into the SOE like Fleming, including his colleague...Anthony Quayle the actor! Famous for among other things playing an SOE BLO in The Guns Of Navarone....

With Britain in Mortal Danger by John Warwicker. A foreward by Ironsides son...Brings out many explanations on the setup of the Aux units. The chapter on Gubbins in Poland alone is worth the price.

 

Anyone read, "The Men Who Killed the Luftwaffe," by Jay Stout?

 

Is that about Goering and Milch?

 

I just picked up two books this week...Hitlers Flemish Lions by Jonathan Trigg .. The history of the 27th SS Gren.Div.Langemarck. Also, Top Nazi by Jochen Von Lang ..SS General Karl Wolff. The Man between Hitler and Himmler...looking forward to reading .

 

haven't read this one, but a great book to read on the deception plans for D-Day is Operation Mincemeat, one great book and shows just how hard the secret SOE services worked in such dire conditions to help win the war.

 

I am wanting to buy a book regarding the Falaise Gap. My interest is the 28th Infantry Division. Any suggestions on what book out there is the most historical accurate?