Books - What are you reading?

[DD_Arthur]

Last month I called into my favourite charity shop and for pennies acquired three books for Christmas holiday reading;

 

A pristine paperback copy of Catch 22 that I’ve wrapped and put under the tree for my youngest son.

 

A remarkable book called “The day we bombed Switzerland” - a memoir by an Eighth Airforce B24 navigator and in its way a four engined version of Catch 22.

 

Finally, which I’m reading right now over coffee and cigarettes, a book called “The fall of fortresses” by Elmer Bendiner, another Eighth airforce navigator.

This is a work of American literature that could rank up there with anything by Joseph Heller.

 

Returned from a costly raid on Kassel, the ground crew recover a remarkable eleven unexploded cannon shells from their B17’s fuel tanks.

These are sent to the armourers to be made safe and given to the crew as souvenirs.

 

The armourers however turn them over to the Intelligence Officer and Bendiner hears no more of them for thirty-five years until a reunion with his pilot when it is revealed that the twenty Mike Mike shells were found to be empty - devoid of their explosive filling - except for one which contained a rolled up piece of paper with words scrawled in Czech;

 

“This is all we can do for you now”

 

 

 

[Feathered_IV]

A Fall of Fortresses is an exceptional book.  It won't disappoint.

[Ghost666]

1 hour ago, DD_Arthur said:

A remarkable book called “The day we bombed Switzerland” - a memoir by an Eighth Airforce B24 navigator and in its way a four engined version of Catch 22.

When I was young, fresh out of high school, I had a landlady from Switzerland. She told me of watching US bombers bombing the dam outside her village because it supplied electricity to Germany. Quite an interesting lady who made the best Rum Cake I have ever had.

[No105_Swoose]

3 hours ago, DD_Arthur said:

Last month I called into my favourite charity shop and for pennies acquired three books for Christmas holiday reading;

 

A pristine paperback copy of Catch 22 that I’ve wrapped and put under the tree for my youngest son.

 

A remarkable book called “The day we bombed Switzerland” - a memoir by an Eighth Airforce B24 navigator and in its way a four engined version of Catch 22.

 

Finally, which I’m reading right now over coffee and cigarettes, a book called “The fall of fortresses” by Elmer Bendiner, another Eighth airforce navigator.

This is a work of American literature that could rank up there with anything by Joseph Heller.

 

Returned from a costly raid on Kassel, the ground crew recover a remarkable eleven unexploded cannon shells from their B17’s fuel tanks.

These are sent to the armourers to be made safe and given to the crew as souvenirs.

 

The armourers however turn them over to the Intelligence Officer and Bendiner hears no more of them for thirty-five years until a reunion with his pilot when it is revealed that the twenty Mike Mike shells were found to be empty - devoid of their explosive filling - except for one which contained a rolled up piece of paper with words scrawled in Czech;

 

“This is all we can do for you now”

 

 

 

Salute @DD_Arthur  The note found from the Czech slave laborer in the dud cannon rounds found in the B-17 makes for a great story but it may or not be true.  I first heard it a few years ago when I was volunteering at the Military Aviation Museum in Virginia Beach, Virginia.  The museum has an 88mm Flak 36 antiaircraft gun displayed in its Luftwaffe hangar, an original structure brought from Cottbus, Germany.  Docents would tell Bendiner's story to visitors when showing them the 88.  Being originally from Missouri in the USA - we call it the "Show Me!" state - the story seemed somewhat implausible to me and I decided to get more information.  I contacted an historian at the National Museum of the US Air Force at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio, and he sent me the following reply: I am not inclined to disregard completely Elmer Bendiner's story, but his details may be on the fuzzy side.  It is doubtful that the 20mm shells mentioned in his book were from antiaircraft guns on the ground.  They simply lacked the range to reach a B-17 formation at a normal bombing altitude.  However, it is possible that 20mm shells from German fighters (Focke-Wulf Fw 190s or Messerschmitt Bf 109s) struck Mr. Bendiner's aircraft.  The way he describes the event in his book does not clarify if the shells were just from his aircraft, from all the B-17s hit that day, or if they had been collected over a number of different missions.  I supposed it is even possible that the Allied intelligence offices told Airmen that story boost morale.

It is known with certainty that slave laborers used by the Nazis risked their lives to sabotage German ammunition, equipment, and weapons.  Inside the National Museum of the US Air Force's Messerschmitt Me 163B Komet is a note presumably written by one of the French slave laborers who built it:  "Mon coeur est en chomage" (which roughly translates to "My heart is not occupied" - as opposed France which was occupied by the Germans at the time).

Since it is impossible to prove or disprove Elmer Bendiner's story, you may prefer suggesting to the Military Aviation Museum Director of Volunteers that the details may not be totally accurate, but the tale shows that there were Europeans willing to risk their lives to sabotage the Nazi war effort.

[DD_Arthur]

Hi Swoose,

You are correct in that this story may or may not be true.

However, I have to ask whether you, the historian or the ‘docents’ have actually read this book?

His account of this is actually quite specific.

 

What are ‘docents’ by the way?

[TheBlackPenguin]

This one will be tough reading:

 

[ZachariasX]

On 12/22/2021 at 6:45 PM, DD_Arthur said:

What are ‘docents’ by the way?

It corresponds to an „associate professor“ at European universities. Literally translated it means „lecturer“.

 

Btw., I heard that story of a B17 geetting hit by duds in the guise of being hit by 88 mm.

[cardboard_killer]

Started another fiction.

 

[cardboard_killer]

Broke down and bought this one as the library system didn't have a copy.

 

[Alexmarine]

Recently finished "Holding the line"

 

Next one will be 

 

I already previously read "Red Devils over the Yalu" by Igor Seidov which covered the Soviet 64th IAK operations.

 

Also expanded my library of Osprey smaller publications covering the single types of planes used in the war

[cardboard_killer]

If anyone is interested, in my continuing effort to live with as few items as reasonable, I have the following books for sale:

• Terror in the Starboard Seat (HB, ex-library, cover, good condition)
• The Big Show (Corgi PB, fair condition)
• God Is My Co-Pilot (Ballentine PB, poor condition, but binding is good)

All for $12 shipped media rate in the USA.

[SYN_Ricky]

Edited January 13, 2022 by SYN_Ricky

[Dogbert1953]

Brothers In Arms - James Holland.

 

[Irishratticus72]

On 1/14/2022 at 11:38 PM, Dogbert1953 said:

Brothers In Arms - James Holland.

 

Is he ever going to finish and publish his final book in the war in the west trilogy? 

On 10/18/2021 at 10:15 PM, [CPT]HarryM said:

The Last Stand of the Tin Can Sailors

Been on a roll with him, read "Neptune's Inferno" then "Ship of Ghosts", great writer.

 

One of the best books on a naval battle I've ever read. 

[SYN_Ricky]

[von_Tom]

 

von Tom

[J37_Spyboy]

https://www.bergstrombooks.se/stalingradexcerpt1

https://vaktelforlag.se/produkt/stalingrad-new-perspectives-on-an-epic-battle-vol-2-the-city-of-death/

If these are anything like the Black Cross/Red Star series they could be the definitive work on the subject. 

Edited February 10, 2022 by J5_Spyboy

[Gambit21]

[Semor76]

New in my bookshelf : a great read for every VVS nerd:

 

 

 

...and "the mother of all books":

 

 

 

[Cybermat47]

53 minutes ago, Semor76 said:

New in my bookshelf : a great read for every VVS nerd:

 

...and "the mother of all books":

 

Those look good, I'll have to get my hands on them sometime. 

[marycarneg]

Now I'm reading a series of books by Daniel Carnegie and they really change my mind. I never thought such books even existed. What other useful books can you recommend?

[cardboard_killer]

Volume I just in on interlibrary loan.

[cardboard_killer]

Release date, 15 March. Not sure I want to spend the $60 on it, though I do want it pretty badly.

 

 

Quote

 

For the first time, this book tells the story of how naval air operations evolved into a vital element of the Royal Navy's ability to fight a three-dimensional war against both the Kriegsmarine and Luftwaffe. An integral part of RN, the Fleet Air Arm was not a large organization, with only 406 pilots and 232 front-line aircraft available for operations in September 1939. Nevertheless, its impact far outweigh its numbers; it was an RN fighter that shot down the first enemy aircraft of the war, and an RN pilot was the first British fighter "ace" with 5 or more kills. The Fleet Air Arm's rollcall of achievements in northern waters went on to include the Norwegian Campaign, the crippling of Bismarck, the gallant sortie against Scharnhorst and Gneisenau as they passed through the Channel, air attacks on enemy E-boats in the narrow seas, air cover for the Russian convoys, air attacks that disabled Tirpitz, and strikes and minelaying operations against German shipping in the Norwegian littoral that continued until May 1945. By the end of the war in Europe the FAA had grown to 3243 pilots and 1336 aircraft.

This book sets all these varied actions within their proper naval context and both technical and tactical aspects are explained with 'thumb-nail' descriptions of aircraft, their weapons and avionics. Cross reference with the Fleet Air Arm Roll of Honour has been made for the first time to put names to those aircrew killed in action wherever possible as a mark of respect for their determination against enemy forces on, above and below the sea surface which often outnumbered them.

The Fleet Air Arm and the War in Europe completes David Hobbs's much-praised six-volume series chronicling the operational history of British naval aviation from the earliest days to the present.

 

 

[Semor76]

Got my new book today. Very interesting topic and 350 pages printed in high quality.

 

 

 

 

 

"War is a place where young people who don't know each other and don't hate each other, kill each other by decision of old people who know and hate each other, but don't kill each other!" Erich Hartmann

Peace for Ukraine.

Слава Україні, Slawa Ukrajini

[Legioneod]

This is probably the best book on American submarine operations/history during WW2.

For anyone interested in American submarine history this is a must have book imo.

 

[cardboard_killer]

Gave up on Hilberg, just too depressing. Started on

 

 

[CUJO_1970]

On 3/12/2022 at 6:05 PM, cardboard_killer said:

Gave up on Hilberg, just too depressing.

 

This is one of the biggest problems with trying to study history in depth, and the biggest reason I had to take a step back.

[Gunter_Severloh]

What im currently reading and halfway through

 

This is a fascinating read, the author describes in details in many stories his day to day activities,

how he felt, what he learned who he talked too, what he experienced, book starts in the early 1930's.

   He was in every iconic battle since the start of WW2 as a Stuka pilot, such battles like Invasion of Poland, Blitzkrieg of France,

Belgium, Great Britain, Dunkirk to name a few.  He was a Hauptmann in his own unit, i recall offhand a few things he described in the book, like

he was flying in a operation where there were 30 Stuka planes, thats 60 crew!

    In another he was describing how he got the generals to get his squadron to have escorts and so during Dunkirk, Cliffs of Dover, and across the channel

to Great Britain there were two (forgive me i forget the name) squads of BF109's one of them led by Adolf Galland.

 

In another situation before getting escorts this was in France, Helmut described that him and his few planes had a tactic to create a

an interference or a way to disrupt enemy fighters from attacking them was to carry rolls of toilet paper, he said it worked a few times where while on the way

to a target when the enemy fighters approached, everyone in sync would throw toilet paper out of their cockpit, and he said the sky

was littered with streams of paper, after a few times of that, they ran out and then the fighters eventually caught on and learned to avoid them and attack another way.

    Currently half way through the book, and they are in the Mediterranean, headed to malta, their fighting the British, and allied with the Italians,

working off an airfield in Italy, at the same time he mentioned preparations to invade the Soviet Union.

     In the book he lists all the major dates of things happening during WW2, even prior to WW2 starting he was talking about how Hitler came to power

and other things going on.

=========

Prior to this book i finished reading this

   In this book the author covers some famous Stuka pilots, and mostly describes with alot of pictures from

a photo album from a Stuka Pilot by the name of Erich Heine, a nice read, mostly pictures, and stories about those pictures, and the life

of Erich Heine and pics of him, in training, flight, ect,.

==========

Ps. i had to redo the post because of swastikas on the pics, sorry mods for that. Cheers!

[cardboard_killer]

On hold at the library.

 

 

Also this fiction.

 

[Vig]

Just finished this; I thought it was quite good.

[cardboard_killer]

On to

 

 

[Ghost666]

The first 16 book were good, think I'll finish the set of 24.

 

Edited April 7, 2022 by Ghost666

[cardboard_killer]

Fiction, but looks like it might be too depressing for me.

 

[cardboard_killer]

And this.

 

 

[Alexmarine]

 

Quick Osprey reading before the real battle:

 

[Bremspropeller]

Just ordered the german versions of "1491" and "1493" - really looking forward to reading those.

[cardboard_killer]

Finished this unsatisfying "science" fiction. I've been getting some really mediocre fiction lately, IMO.

 

Just downloaded this from the library. Three weeks to read it on the kindle.

 

 

 

 

[Majpalmer]

Actually, I'm re-reading The Blue Max along with Mackersey's No Empty Chairs. 

On 3/9/2022 at 2:27 AM, Legioneod said:

This is probably the best book on American submarine operations/history during WW2.

For anyone interested in American submarine history this is a must have book imo.

 

I agree. Great book. Also loved his two-volumes on the U-Boat war. 

 

I worked in DC during the '80s for the Navy and got to know Blair, and his wife who doubled as his research assistant. Nice man.  

[Vig]

Almost finished.  Excellent.

[Bremspropeller]

 

Stalin's Falcons:

Exposing the Myth of Soviet Aerial Superiority Over the Luftwaffe in Ww2

 

Looks interesting - due for release later this year...