I've read both of them, but I'm more familiar with Overy's book. Basically, it is excellent. Thematic analysis, very tightly focussed on the question. Deals with naval and aerial warfare, economics, moral factors, technology, and also crucial engagements like Normandy, Stalingrad/Kursk and Midway. Argument well structured and, as a bonus, highly readable as well.

Herbert Maeger - "Verlorene Ehre, Verratene Treue" (title translated in English would be: Lost Honour, Betrayed Loyalty).

Its an autobiography about a belgian 19 years old boy with german parents serving for the LSSAH at the Ost-Front (Sambek, Charkow, Kursk, Belgorod), in France, Italy and at the Oder-Front. Most of the time he was a driver. For me it's the first autobiography of a soldier and I find it very exciting.

I have read large parts of this book as well. I also e-mailed with Herr Maeger, but lost his emails in my PC crash...

I saw him on-line somewhere recently, that he was at some signing of artwork or something to that effect.

It is a very interesting book. It was the first real insight for me about how new recruits were treated when they joined the LLSAH.I think he was also a medical officer in 36th SS division Dirlewanger, after the LLSAH. Something he wasn't really happy about as Dirlewanger had somewhat of a reputation then.

It is a good read. I'd like to think what you thought of it when you have finished with it.

__________________
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I liked very much Beevor's book by the same arguments mentioned by Major Destruction, but I think that the best book about Stalingrad may be Stephen Walsh's Stalingrad, the Infernal Cauldron. Much more detailed.

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"War is less costly than servitude, the choice is always between Verdun and Dachau." - Jean Dutourd, French veteran of both world wars

"A mon fils: depuis que tes yeux sont fermes les miens n’ont cessé de pleurir." - Mère française, Verdun

Stevin, I tell you when I've finished the book so that we can discuss it. Right now I'm on page 237.
What did Hr. Maeger tell you in the e-mails?

Sounds good. I don't quite remember what he wrote. It is a while back and unfortunatley I don't have the e-mails anymore. He was happy for me to get the book, thanked me for my interest and hoped it would give an insight into the life of a German soldier in WW2. As far as I remember he didn't discuss is wartime career in great detail, as that was not necessary as that was all in the book.

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As a liitle 'light relief', I'm reading the second book in the '633 Squadron' series by Frederick E. Smith ( 'Operation Rhine Maiden' ).

OK, OK, it's not Tolstoy...but it's quite a good light read !

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"Stand by to pull me out of the seat if I get hit" - Guy Gibson

But that is fiction right!? [img]graemlins/no.gif[/img]

I am about to finish Tale Of Two Bridges by Pine-Coffin. Very good read. I hope they turn the rest of Col. PC's diary into books too. Still have some veteran books waiting, but as of monday, it is back to uni again... [img]smile.gif[/img]

__________________
"Facts are meaningless. You could use facts to prove anything that's even remotely true!" - Homer Simpson

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Yep - it's fiction, but then some people think a lot of history books are, too ! [img]tongue.gif[/img]

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"Stand by to pull me out of the seat if I get hit" - Guy Gibson

I have got Neillands 'Eighth Army' on the go. As i mentioned in another thread it is ok but has some stupid detail mistakes. something that i have found common in his other works.

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Thoughts on Military History
Cornish Scale Modellers
Ross' Military Modelling and Art

Reading the biography of Otto-Wille Kuusinen
( head of the Finnish government by Stalin in Winter war if Finland had lost )

http://www.kirjasto.sci.fi/kuusin.htm



Kuusinen to the right

And the "Long Nose"

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I recently bought (much to my now regret) a book titled The Blitzkreig Myth by John Mosier. I really cannot fanthom how anyone could pack so much misinterpetation of historical fact into one volume. I cannot even begin to try and give even a few examples of just how badly misinformed this author is. Whole chapters come to wrong conclusions. Just awful.

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Truth is stranger than bullshit!

T.A., Who is the publisher of this trollop of a book? [img]graemlins/bazooka.gif[/img]

I wonder why books like this see the light of day through a publisher (a big one, perhaps, without a decent history editor??) and some great books (written by vets or serious researchers) remain unpublished.... [img]graemlins/no.gif[/img]

Maybe one should enage in a career of publishing anyway...

Later:

Oh dear, this man is a Professor and a former Pulitzer-prize (in history) nominee (for his book on the Myth of the Great War)

[...]The Blitzkrieg Myth clarifies this misconception by tracking through the major campaigns in Europe. Mosier emphasizes that the Polish campaign in the fall of 1939 and the fall of France in spring 1940 were not blitzkrieg victories. He also explains how Rommel's North African campaigns, D-Day, the Normandy campaign, Hitler's final frantic breakthrough attempt into Antwerp in the Battle of the Bulge in December 1944, and other actions do not support the blitzkrieg myth. Actually, Mosier says, strategic airfare in Europe was almost a failure. The warfare of World War II really represented only an advance in technology, not strategy.

Mosier affirms that the allies won due to a combination of numbers and the democracies of the United States and Great Britain. The Germans' handicap, Mosier confirms, was that they eventually became locked into Hitler's master plan, and furthermore, their victories were a result of luck.

"They think the title is going to sell the book," says Mosier about publisher HarperCollins (the biggest publisher in America); people are still oblivious that the blitzkrieg myth is actually a myth. Mosier trusts his 80-year-old editor at HarperCollins, who is a military history expert and who suggested the title[...]

http://www.loyno.edu/newsandcalendar...11/mosier.html

[ 15. February 2005, 01:45 AM: Message edited by: Stevin ]

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"Facts are meaningless. You could use facts to prove anything that's even remotely true!" - Homer Simpson

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Sounds positively hilarious, in some twisted sort of way. I wonder what his definition of blitzkrieg is?

And what the heck is this passage about? First talks about ground offensives and from this draws the conclusion that strategic "airfare" failed...

__________________
"Nervous wait for the whistle to blow
Rush of blood and over we go..."
- Iron Maiden, "Paschendale"

Indeed....And they seem to lump together all these kind of battles, without distinction. Offensive battles and defensive battles all thrown together. How can you compare the Blitzkrieg in Poland with the battle for Antwerp? You can, but you won't come up with anything sensible about the Blitzkrieg... [img]graemlins/no.gif[/img]

This is from a review or something from his own university. I also wonder about his military history editor....

Mind you, I haven't read the book, but I think I have read enough.....

__________________
"Facts are meaningless. You could use facts to prove anything that's even remotely true!" - Homer Simpson

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www.basher82.nl

It's worse than that. Although I really had not intended to talk at lenght on this book here are some pieces quoted from it. Make up your own mind:

From Chapter 1 War as Pseudoscience: 1920-1939

To say that Fuller's (Major J F C Fuller) idea took hold is an understatement. By the summer of 1940, after Poland and the fall of France it had the status of sacred doctrine. (This in a discussion of Douhet and Fuller and their impact on strategy and tactics, in this case witht the Allies subsequent to 1940)
pg 16

From Chapter 3 The Tank Production Myths:

...one of the most successful German designs of the war, the Hetzer tank destroyer, a slab-sided turretless vehicle mounting a potent long-barreled 75-millimeter gun.
pg 51

...the FT (French FT 17) weighed only seven tons, had a two-man crew, and mounted a low-velocity 37-millimeter gun in its rotating turret....But the 22 millimeters of armor...and 37-millimeter gun was considerably more potent than the two machine guns of the Mark I (Pzkpfw I) or the 20-millimeter weapon of the Mark 2 (Pz II).
pg 52

Germany entered the war totally dependent on an obsolete transport (the Ju 52) plane for its air drops. It had been unable to develop a strategic bomber.
pg 58

Chapter 4 Lessons Mislearned; Poland and the Winter Wars

In 1940 all of its (Germany's) opponets were more heavily mechanized than were the Germans themselves, and as late as 1944 it was still the least mechanized (or motorized) army in combat.
pg 75

The mine and the tank trap rendered most ideas of armored warfare moot.
pg 77

Chapter 5 The Germans and the Allies Prepare for War

By May 1940 the French, as we have seen, had twelve armored divisions, comprising literally thousands of tanks, together with twenty-eight independent battalins of R35 and H35 tanks.
(I assume he means 3 DLM, 4 DCR, and 5 DLC)
pg 109

By the same point the British had managed to assemble one armored division...
pg 109

There was however one clear area where the Allied air forces were greatly inferior to the German. In German doctrine the air mission was totally subordinated to the ground campaign.
(italics mine)
pg 111

Chapter 7 The Uses and Misuses of Armor

Like all professional German officers, Rommel had been trained to pay close attention to logistics... His opponents, like almost all professional British officers, had not been.
pg 158

Armed with a high-velocity 75-millimeter gun, by 1943 the obsolete German Mark 4 tank was still a formidable weapon: Its wide tracks gave it better performance on rough terrain than the Sherman...
pg 177

Chapter 8 The Failure of Strategic Airpower: 1940 - 1944

...all of these planes were tactical aircraft developed almost exclusively for ground-support missions. (In a discussion of the German Ju 88, He 111 and Do 17).
pg 194

Chapter 9 Normandy and the Breakout at Saint-Lo

This curious blindness could of course be traced to the backgrounds of the American commanders and their staffs. The last great maneuvers of the US Army had taken place mostly in north and central Louisiana ....Or perhaps the American commanders were simply inexperianced and overconfident. (In a discussion of the breakout after D-Day and the hedgerow problem).
pg 222

It was inconceivable to the American commanders that once ashore, their tanks would be unable to operate in accordance with their theories....Moreover the Americans believed that the absolute air superiority the Allies would enjoy over the battlefield would cancel out any problems.
(italics mine)
pg 223

Chapter 10 The Breakthrough Failures

However, some of Dietrich's Sixth Army's tanks had thrust all the way to Celles, about 10 kilometers from the Meuse at Dinant, and were still largely intact....
pg 268

I could go on but, I really need a vomit break right now.....

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Truth is stranger than bullshit!

Perennial Publishing a division of HarperCollins, NY, NY.

Its really too bad I can't send this putz an e-mail personally. In my 30+ years of studying history I have not come across such a piece of tripe as this particular work. Even the amateurish Hitler's Army: The Evolution and Sturcture of Germans Forces, 1933 - 1945 (Edited by Command Magazine, Combined Books, PA)was nowhere near as bad as Mosier's work.

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Truth is stranger than bullshit!

Mosier, John F. ( jmosier@loyno.edu )
Title: Professor
Department: English
Office: BO 344
Phone: (504)865-2296
Campus PO Box: 050


[img]smile.gif[/img]

Funny, that he is in the Loyola University's English Department. You would think History....Then again, maybe it is a work of fiction??

__________________
"Facts are meaningless. You could use facts to prove anything that's even remotely true!" - Homer Simpson

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www.basher82.nl

Well, actually quite amusing statements....one could make some kinda WW2 joke book out of them...I guess the Blitzkrieg was at its best when the Germans were retreating, actually...no wonder it did not work in the end...somebody should have told Hitler!

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I think he should get together with Suvorov and write something, perhaps throw Dan Brown into the mix as well for some public appeal.

The Myth of the Icebreaker Code? It's a blockbuster for sure! Read how our hero reveals the false blitzkrieg theories written by Stalin for an assault on Germany, hidden within the Dead Sea scrolls!

__________________
"Nervous wait for the whistle to blow
Rush of blood and over we go..."
- Iron Maiden, "Paschendale"