What would you LIKE to research ?

Martin, I didn't heard about that book, I wil look for it on Amazon.com I do have few books written by local authors which tend to be pretty biased.
One book that is worth reading is "Eastern approaches" by Sir Fitzroy Maclean, who, among other things, was British liason officer with Tito's HQ during the war.

 

Deakin also spent several months with Tito and his book ( which is highly recommended by historian John Keegan ) takes the form of a memoir of that time. Keegan also recommends 'Beacons In The Night' ( Stanford, 1993 ) by Franklin Lindsay, an American OSS officer who was involved in the latter stages of the campaign.

 

Do anyone knows if there's a book or writing about Tito's campaign by Lt. col. Randolph Churchill? Who was sent by his father, the PM to be a liaison between the British Army and Tito's Army.

 

As far as I'm aware, he did not write of his experiences there. The same period is dealt with obliquely by Evelyn Waugh in his letters and diaries.

 

Freddy, I think you’ll find Randolph Churchill was mainly sent to ‘keep Tito onside’ and obviously advise if there was any anti Allies plot. Randolph actually asked for his old drinking buddy Evelyn Waugh to accompany him, for which Waugh had to be called out of forced ‘retirement’ in the Horse Guards. Prior to this Waugh performed with commendation during the evacuation of Crete while serving as an Intelligence Officer with No.8 Commando – which itself contained a high percentage of volunteers from the Guards.

Churchill and Waugh were ‘guests’ of Tito which meant they were confined to camp and only went and communicated where allowed. However, Waugh had an alternate agenda which especially involved fact finding of Tito’s treatment of the Catholic Church, Waugh being a staunch convert some 14 years prior. Waugh made unauthorised sorties (reputedly sometimes disguised as a woman), and compiled a considerable dossier about Tito’s pointless and severe persecution of the Church.

On their return to Britain, Waugh presented and pursued his dossier with the Foreign Office. Britain had already screwed-up by backing Tito over Mihailovic, (and America followed the lead), from decisions taken much earlier in Cairo where Soviet agents close to British Intelligence succeeded in swaying opinion that way. As the war neared its end and the prospect of confrontation with the Soviets became more ominous, such a dossier as Waugh produced was not formally welcomed. Unfortunately that colossal disgrace to Britain, Anthony Eden, sought not only to dismiss and bury the dossier, but also to vilify and discredit Waugh. If you were to read this dossier, it would only restate what you already know about Tito and provide further detail of atrocities.

No.9

 

Srdo, are you interested in first person accounts or overviews of the Yugoslav war? Most books, such as those mentioned, are mainly one person’s experiences for the time they were involved, and obviously for the particular area they were in. There are other works which deal with the overall position as seen by the British and Americans in the guise of the SOE and OSS.

I’ve quite a few accounts from Commando books and reports regarding encounters with Yugoslav forces. Overall they were not enjoyable experiences as relationships were usually ‘strained’ or became that way. There are instances where the Commandos had to defend themselves! Being a soldier who pursues a war brutally against the enemy is one thing, but pursuing barbaric practises against your own civilian countrymen is quite another. Today it would fall under the category of ‘ethnic cleansing’.

And it would be pointless for the British and Americans to claim ignorance!

No.9

 

Yes, of course I am interested in those books. Once again, you are right about killing civilians in those days but I must point out that term "Yugoslav forces" is too general. There were many different forces fighting against German, against Communist, against each other and clarifying relationships in those days is no an easy task. I would like to reccomend you a site that casts some light on fighting in Yugoslavia and has some interesting facts-http://www.vojska.net/ww2/
Thanks in an advance for the books

 

Thank you very much for the responses, Martin and Nine. I had only seen a picture of Randolph Churchill with marshal Tito and read the footnote in one of Time Life's WWII books. But I haven't read it yet so I didn't know all that. Thanks.

But I do know about the horrible nature of the bloody partisan warfare in Yugoslavia. Maybe it was bloodier than that of the Soviet Union because of the racial hatred and terrain.

But I also read about Ukrainian and Soviet partisans brutally fighting each other in the USSR. And the population had to endure attrocities from their own countrymen, the Soviets and above all that, the Germans!

 

Thank you for the forum address Srdo, I’ll keep an eye on it and look forward to reading the comments of its members.

The two books I find most useful in my research are OSS and the Yugoslav Resistance by Kirk FORD for the OSS perspective, and British Policy Towards Wartime Resistance in Yugoslavia and Greece by Phyllis AUTY for the SOE.

I take your point about ‘Yugoslav forces’, but I was making the same point by using the term. The British Commandos found themselves dealing with a variety of units which sometimes changed during an operation. I appreciate clarifying relationships is not an easy task and also, as you stated, native authors are invariably liable to have a strong political bias in their writings, probably at the expense of accuracy and balance?

Another consideration affecting new books is that a number of the original participants are still alive as certainly are their descendants. From the post Tito devolution of Yugoslavia and the recent conflicts, issues were clearly not settled in 1945 and probably aren’t today? In one respect I can see that the history needs to be told, but in another it would serve to bring many situations back to the boil.

No.9

[ 20. November 2003, 11:34 PM: Message edited by: No.9 ]

 

My next research will be on Anzio.

Other then it being in Italy, I haven't a clue. This research will be on a different Uncle. When he died the obit stated he had won a bronze star at Anzio. News to me.

Why do we wait until they pass on to start asking questions?

Gunny

 

I'm useless on:

• The Pacific.
• Naval stuff generally, particularly the strategic implications of big ships/fleets, (I have terrible trouble fitting them into the overall picture) & Naval gunnery; how on earth they hit each other on a fluid surface at 2 mile ranges fascinates & eludes me, is it sheer volume of shot really?? (though I thoroughly enjoy the Naval threads, where words like 'and' & 'the' sometimes make sense to me.)
• The air war, (where it doesn't in some way combine with ground forces and tanks).
• And many many more areas...
• I'm determined to get a clearer understanding of Italy as a theatre too.
• Oh yes, and there's loads more to learn about armour too...

Cheers,

Adam.

 

This is an interesting question. Sometimes I am overwhelmed by what I see out there, there is so much written about WWII, I'm not sure I can get to what I want to get to beofore I'm dead! And I'm not that old! I would like to know more about the resistance fighters in all countries, how the average citizen coped with the war, Malmedy, PTO, the Doctors, Nurses and Medics, and so much more.

But closer to my heart would be the resistance fighters of Holland.

 

gee somebody pulled this one out of the cobwebs .......... and why not. Adam you may want to follow the Sydney/Kormoran thread in the Atlantic war forum this thing is almost changing every day

I expect someone will pull out all the nails and publish something on this wild event over this weekend

 

I would like to learn much more about the Balkans Campaign.

 

I'd like to learn more about the "behind-the-scenes" people and their vehicles. Like mechanics, engineers,etc.

 

My list would be the same as Adam's, so I wont tire my fingers out by typing another copy.

 

i would like to research how they got steel ships like the bismark to float.

 

Surprised I never saw this thread before? Like WOW mon.

Eh hem, anyway, I would like to research (if I ever get the time to) the following:

1) Anything und evrything to do with the battle for Stalingrad.
2) Ditto for Kursk.
3) The German retreat from Finland.
4) The fighting in the Courland Pocket.
5) The Evacuation through Riga.
6) The fighting in the area where my favorite RKT won his Knights Cross-which was in Latvia. Need I say his name? ;-D
7) The battles for the Seelowe Heights.
8) And finally, the battle for Berlin.

PS, I almost forgot to add:

1a.) Operation Barbarossa.
2a.) The initial drive towards Moscow.
3a.) The drive towards the Germans farthers penetration on the Eastern Front-towards the City of: Astrakhan-on-the-Volga. You can thank von Manstein for this one ;-))
4a.) Both battles for Kharkov.
5a.) The fighting for Kiev and the great encirclements thereof.
6a.) The Siege of Leningrad.
7a.) The fighting in the Kuban Peninsula-siege of Sebastopol etc.
8a.) The battles for Mount Elbrus - where the highest battle of the ground war took place.

1b.) The Don River Crossings.
2b.) Anything to do with the defensive battles of 1942 1nd 1943.
3b.) Anything to do with the Russian Winter and Summer offensives of 1941, 1942, 1943, 1944, and 1945.

To make my list short, anything and everything to do with the fighting on the Eastern Front from 1941 to 1945. :-D

A one track mind--hell yes!!! ;-))

 

How steel ships float ?

Displacement. Try putting a saucepan in the bath.

 

I 'd love to research these topics:

1. Nazi experiments during the war/ Occult subjects they were involved in, if any
2. Anything to do with Medical personnel stationed in the many bases in England
3. The Fighting in Overloon and the Maas Salient 1944-45

Jeez, there are so many topics...