Anthony Beevor's Epic new history of World War II

There is little doubt that these are the golden years of World War II research, as literary giants stalk the bookshelves and ferret out whatever essential truths can be discovered about that cataclysmic contest. We who find this war inexplicably and endlessly fascinating are lucky to live during such a time, and to have such a writer as Anthony Beevor to illuminate the darkness with his prose.

Weidenfeld & Nicolson £25

The Second World War, By Anthony Beevor

War story: Grisly tales of man's inhumanity to his fellow man

Roger Moorhouse

Sunday 03 June 2012

Antony Beevor has done a great deal to popularise history. Having played a key role in convincing both public and publishers alike that the subject could be sexy, he has been at the forefront of history's much-vaunted boom of recent years.

Now, after a succession of highly successful books tackling aspects of the Second World War, his new book is a single overarching volume about the entire conflict, from the Battle of the Atlantic to Pearl Harbor; from the first skirmishes at Khalkhin Gol to the grim denouement of Nagasaki.

The result is a handsome, yet rather daunting doorstop of a book. But happily, its 800-odd pages fly by with considerable speed, as Beevor warms to his task, being especially strong on grand strategy and on the experience of ordinary soldiers. The narrative never flags and the myriad pieces of this intricate kaleidoscope are pieced together with exemplary skill.

There are many memorable moments. Beevor opens with the astonishing story of a young Korean soldier taken prisoner by the Americans in Normandy, who had been dragooned by the Japanese before passing through Soviet hands and into Hitler's Wehrmacht. It's an example that seems to typify one of Beevor's leitmotifs: the utter lack of control that those affected by war – soldiers and civilians – had over their lives.

Throughout, he spares the reader little in his searing accounts of man's inhumanity to his fellow man, while simultaneously uplifting us with tales of stoicism or individual heroics. There are a few eye-opening revelations – not least that 60 per cent of Japanese military deaths were caused by disease and hunger, and that, in combating the latter, an organised policy of cannibalism of PoWs and native populations was carried out. The story was so gruesome that it was deliberately excluded from the war crimes trials that followed 1945.

Beevor does well to give due weight to the Pacific theatre, but he sensibly shies away from any spurious "holistic" approach, preferring to treat the Pacific and European theatres as almost entirely separate entities. Indeed, he tends to avoid modish novelties or grand reinterpretations of the conflict, presenting instead a lively, engaging and unashamedly narrative retelling of the vast, complex, global story of the war.

This is a splendid book, erudite, with an admirable clarity of thought and expression. For a summary of the Second World War – who did what to whom, when and why – the general reader would need look no further.

Given such praise, it is perhaps churlish to offer a note of criticism. Yet it is hard to escape the impression that, in tackling such a vast subject, Beevor has been obliged to sacrifice too much of the very aspect that had become his stylistic trademark: the telling anecdote, the poignant aside, the illuminating vignette. The result is that the book – for all its excellence – appears to lack some of the pizzazz of his earlier offerings.

Beevor's Second World War is sure to reach a wide and appreciative audience – and deservedly so. But, such are the stellar standards that Beevor has set for himself over the past decade or so, that one fears that there are a few of his most dedicated readers who might be just a tad disappointed.

Roger Moorhouse's Berlin at War: Life and Death in Hitler's Capital is published by Vintage (£9.99)

Anthony Beevor's epic history of World War II

The end in Germany, 1945

A new book details just how prevalent suicide was in Germany as the Red Army came rolling through in 1944-45. There were also suicides in the west as Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels terrified the populace with allegations of abuse by the Americans and British (the stories about misbehavior of French troops were based in some fact), but for the most part the Germans did not buy into that hysteria. With the Red Army, however, there was no need to exaggerate; the wholesale rape and murder by Russian troops was all too real.

Germany: Book reveals Third Reich was undone by its own propaganda

Josef Goebbels and wife Magda committed suicide in 1945 after poisoning children (Getty)

By ALLAN HALL
Published on Friday 1 June 2012 00:00

THE wave of suicides among Nazi party leaders and army generals at the end of the Second World War was triggered by fear of Soviet reprisals which the regime’s propaganda stoked to fever pitch, according a new study.

Allied to this paranoia of revenge was the prospect of chaos across the country which “ordered German minds” feared following the days of revolution and poverty at the end of the First World War, it says.

Suicide in the Third Reich is a book out this week in Germany – the first of its kind – that sets out to find the answers to one of the biggest examples of mass suicide in history.

As a reich meant to last 1,000 years imploded, the hierarchy of the Nazi party began preparing for its doom. Propaganda chief Josef Goebbels died along with his wife Magda, who poisoned their six children.

Heinrich Himmler, the SS overlord, killed himself by biting on his cyanide capsule after being captured by British troops

Luftwaffe chief Hermann Goering took the same way out before he was to be hanged at Nuremberg; so did labour chief Robert Ley, Holocaust organiser Odilo Globocnik and eight regional Nazi gauleiters, or governors.

Added to those were 53 generals, hundreds of lesser-ranked officers, thousands of minor Nazi bureaucrats – and, of course, fuhrer Adolf Hitler.

The knock-on effect on ordinary people reached its zenith in April 1945 when 3,381 Berliners took their own lives.

Author Christian Goeschl spent years researching the phenomenon, asking why a civilised people could so easily fall into a “cult of death”.

He pins some of it down on the fear that swept Germany as a result of the propaganda pumped out about “subhuman Russians” descending on the country.

For years, the Germans had been fed a diet of half-truths and outright lies about the fate that would befall the country if it fell to the Soviets.

“These stories of the ‘cruel Russians’ did much to strike fear into many hearts,” said Mr Goeschl. “The fear grew as stories of mass rapes, which were true, committed by Russians on German women as they advanced reached the ears of the hierarchy.”

Mr Goeschl studied Weimar Republic (1919 to 1933) suicide rates; these also climbed as the democratic society crumbled.

He went on: “I believe it was an outbreak of anomie in 1945, that is a lack of social norms, the breakdown of social bonds between an individual and their community ties, with fragmentation of social identity and rejection of self-regulatory values.

“Many men committed suicide in Germany in the 1930’s because they had no work, no prospect of work, no self value.

“In 1945, the chaos which many feared would envelop Germany was too much for them.”

Original review in the Scotsman

SEPTEMBER HOPE: THE AMERICAN SIDE OF A BRIDGE TOO FAR by John C. McManus

Operation Market-Garden was one of the strangest battles of World War II. A bold stroke to win the war early engineered by a General for whom bold strokes were anathema, poorly planned, poorly executed, well fought by the men who had to try and win the battle for the glory-hound who planned it. It was, frankly, a mess, brought about because Field Marshal Sir Bernard Law Montgomery did wanted to allow Lt. General George S. Patton the 'glory' of crossing the Rhine River before he did, a feat Patton would have achieved had he been given the supplies that Montgomery requisitioned for Market-Garden.

Montgomery was known for set-piece battles, not improvisational ones planned in a hurry, in other words he was not Patton, and so the Commander of Supreme Headquarters Allied Expeditionary Force, General Dwight Eisenhower, should have known better than to endorse Monty's plan. But Eisenhower made a number of crucial and historic mistakes during the war, and this was one of them.

The battle was memorialized in the outstanding war film 'A Bridge Too Far', but of necessity it concentrated on the British contribution, since it was a British operation and the British 6th Airborne Division was almost wiped out as a result. The American side of things has been neglected, but not now.

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September Hope

The American Side of a Bridge Too Far

John C. McManus - Author

Hardcover | $27.95 | add to cart | view cart

ISBN 9780451237064 | 512 pages | 05 Jun 2012 | NAL | 9.25 x 6.25in | 18 - AND UP

Reviews for September Hope An Excerpt from September Hope

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In September Hope, acclaimed historian John C. McManus explores World War II’s most ambitious invasion, an immense, daring offensive to defeat Nazi Germany before the end of 1944. Operation Market-Garden is one of the war’s most famous, but least understood, battles, and McManus tells the story of the American contribution to this crucial phase of the war in Europe.August 1944 saw the Allies achieve more significant victories than in any other month over the course of the war. Soviet armies annihilated more than twenty German divisions and pushed the hated enemy from Russia to deep inside Poland. General Eisenhower’s D-Day Invasion led to the liberation of France. Encouraged by these triumphs, British, Canadian and American armored columns plunged into Belgium, Holland and Luxembourg. The Germans were in disarray, overwhelmed on all fronts, losing soldiers by the thousands as Allied bombers pulverized their cities. For the Third Reich it seemed the end was near. Rumors swirled that the war would soon be over and that everyone would be home for Christmas.Then came September, and Holland.On September 17, the largest airborne drop in military history commenced—including two entire American divisions, the 101st and the 82nd. Their mission was to secure key bridges at such places as Son, Eindhoven, Grave and Nijmegen until British armored forces could relieve them. The armor would slash northeast, breech the Rhine and go wild on the north German plains. However, the Germans were much stronger than the Allies anticipated. In eight days of ferocious combat, they mauled the airborne, stymied the tanks and prevented the Allies from crossing the Rhine. For the first time, using never-before-seen sources and countless personal interviews, September Hope reveals the American perspective on one of the most famous and decisive battles of World War II.

THE CHICAGO WAY by Michael Harvey

One of the better PI novels I've read, I wrote this review about 5 years ago but the book is still relevant.

THE CHICAGO WAY by Michael Harvey. Everything old is new again,

as the saying goes. But what if it was bad to begin with? Would it be better? That theme underlies the chaos of Michael Harvey’s first novel, but as for the novel itself it is, fortunately, a moot point.

Harvey uses just about every PI novel plot device you can think of, but he does two key things that make them work: first, he only borrows inspiration from the best, and second, he writes one wickedly good book. The Chicago Way starts about like you expect a book titled The Chicago Way to start, with protagonist PI Michael Kelly leaning back in his office chair, feet propped on his desk, having a drink; Raymond Chandler, anyone? Dashiel Hammett? Yes and no. Michael Kelly is drinking Earl Grey tea.

And who walks through his door? No, not a buxom blonde. Not yet, anyway. Instead, it’s his former partner on the Chicago PD, who is working on a case leftover from his days on the force and is seeking Kelly’s help. Before long the partner is dead and Kelly is the prime suspect. Sam Spade, anyone? And before Kelly’s bruises from the investigating Chicago homicide cops have really started turning purple, who drops by his office? Why, a blonde with a gun, of course.

But despite Harvey’s steeping in the lore of great crime fiction past, this is no mere knock-off of the all-time greats by a hack looking to sell a few fast books. From the opening sentence the astute reader can pick out the influences of other writers and not care less; the author is in command from the outset. Spare prose is a given, but nice turns of phrase and hidden surprises are not. Kelly reads Greek classics. For fun. And in the original Greek. He drinks, he smokes, he uses a computer. The style and construction are straight from the 40's, and the villian(s) could be the grandchildren of some of Raymond Chandler’s best bad guys, but the viewpoint is 21^st century bleak, with just a hint of optimism. Let’s call is 21^st Century noir.

Kelly soon finds himself chasing leads that turn bad, people die, and it’s his fault. Who can he really trust in the gathering maze, and who is his client? It’s a mess, a bloody mess, and the surprise ending has the same shock value as with all great crime novels. Sam Spade wouldn’t really turn over his girl-friend, would he? Yes, he would. And a first time writer like Michael Harvey couldn’t really write this good of a book, could he? Yes. He could. And he did.

DEAD SILENCE by Randy Wayne White

One of the five favorite crime fiction series is Randy Wayne White's 'Doc Ford' novels, and this book is indicative of why.

DEAD SILENCE by Randy Wayne White.

Marion Ford, aka ‘Doc’, had always led something of a schizophrenic life. That’s par for the course when your mainstream job, the one the outside world knows about, is that of a marine biologist, and your shadow job is that of a covert operative who is, more often than not, an assassin. Sometimes it can be hard to separate the two. And so it is in ‘Dead Silence.’

Doc is in New York City for a meeting with his covert boss and uses the occasion to see his new friend, with occasional benefits, the powerful and attractive Senator Barbara Hayes-Sorrento. Unfortunately, just as her limousine is pulling to the curb in front of the Explorer’s Club, where Doc is waiting, an ambush aimed at kidnapping the senator unfolds. Doc springs into action and saves her from the bad guys, but he can’t save the 14 year old boy who is her guest in the limousine, a displaced young Indian who won a writing contest (by cheating) and is taken instead of the Senator. It soon becomes apparent that the boy is to be buried alive unless the government forks over some documents taken from Cuba after Castro died. Of course, the bad guys don’t know it yet, but snatching the boy was the biggest mistake they ever made.

Will Chaser is no ordinary 14 year old, although that could be bad enough. Will knows how to do things, and Will gets mad. When Will gets mad, bad things happen. Still, he is only 14 and the kidnappers are very bad people. Doc feels responsible for his kidnapping and vows to get him back alive, and to make the bad guys pay. Don’t they always?

The 16th Doc Ford novel finds author White in comfortable overdrive mode. There is the usual solid plot, the insightful dialogue, the quirky but dangerous secondary characters and, not least, Tomlinson. Doc’s offbeat best friend plays a prominent part in this book, but in the end it’s all just an excuse to bring even more fascinating characters into Doc’s immediate circle. Despite the action, despite the dead-on descriptions, these books are at heart about the characters, their motivations and their stories. ‘Dead Silence’ is no different. Thank goodness.

Spade & Archer by Joe Gores - A Review

Here's my take on this prequel to The Maltese Falcon by Dashiel Hammett

SPADE & ARCHER by Joe Gores

The Maltese Falcon is surely the greatest noir movie ever made, if not the greatest PI flick of all time. And the book is even better, fleshing out some of the movie’s necessarily brief references. They were so good that admirers might find themselves wondering if they were dreaming. Dashiel Hammett knew his subjects, knew their history and their relationships. His audience, however, did not. We could sense it in both the book and the movie, but we could not actually see it. That is, until now. Joe Gores has given us Spade & Archer, the Prequel to The Maltese Falcon. The stuff dreams are made of.

Bad puns aside, this is one fine book. Before beginning, the reader needs to remember that the book of The Maltese Falcon was set in 1928, while the movie was in 1940. Gores’ prequel starts in 1921, with World War 1 veteran Spade back at his old job with Continental Detective Agency, a Continental Op, and dreaming of having his own office. Moving from Seattle to San Francisco he quickly settles in and, soon enough, we meet the faithful Effie Perine and the slick but grumpy lawyer, Sid Wise. Miles Archer is already in the cast, too, and it isn’t long before Sam gets chummy with Miles’ wife, Iva. For fans of the Falcon, the background stories, the tying up of loose ends and filling in the blanks, are almost as much fun as the actual story. And a good story it is, too.

The San Anselmo is just another freighter plying the long Pacific route from California to Australia, until a shipment of gold sovereigns is stolen from her safe. Sam happens to be first on the scene, which makes him suspicious to plodding police sergeant Dundy, promoted by the time of the Falcon to Lieutenant Dundy, and his loyal partner Tom Polhaus. (I dare you not to picture Ward Bond when you see Polhaus on the page.) But wise-cracking Spade won’t be pinned down so easily and he soon knows the master-mind behind the theft: a mysterious man named St. James McPhee, who has conveniently disappeared. And when three guys try to take him down late one night on the waterfront, Spade knows he’s on the right track. Spade, being Spade, escapes danger. Others do not. Whoever McPhee is, he’s a ruthless killer.

McPhee is a slippery character, though, and Spade loses the trail. Years pass, other cases come and go, the firm of Samuel Spade, Esq., prospers. But in the back of his mind Spade knows there is still a killer on the loose, and he’s going to find him.

Those reading Spade & Archer to nitpick and compare it to the original might be able to do so. There will probably be some such. But those who read it wanting fast, hard-boiled fun, will have a much better time. Gores even let’s us know that he has a sense of humor: late in the book Spade uses a pseudonym that will be familiar to all Hammett fans. And the last page is, well, the perfect tie-in to the Falcon.

PANZER-GUNNER by Bruno Friesen

PANZER GUNNER: FROM MY NATIVE CANADA TO THE GERMAN OSTFRONT AND BACK, IN ACTION WITH 25^THTH PANZER REGIMENT, 7 PANZER DIVISION 1944-45 by Bruno Friesen. Helion, 2008.

Imagine you were were a teenage boy in 1930's Canada, a vast land with a sparse population and a decidedly North American view of the world. Food is plentiful, jobs are good, natural resources are abundant...but then, one day, your dad moves back to his native land and you have no choice but to go with him.

To Germany.

Nazi Germany on the verge of going to war.

You are immediately enrolled in school, which is hard because you don't speak German. And Nazi Germany is not a free country like Canada, where you may go almost anywhere you wish, whenever you wish and do whatever you wish once you get there. In Nazi Germany you do what you are told.

So when war comes, when Nazi Germany attacks countries that did not threaten it, you suddenly find yourself learning how to aim weapons at people who have never done anything to you. Such is the situation Friesen found himself in during World War II.

This fascinating book is an inside look at life inside of a German AFV, Armored Fighting Vehicle, fighting the Russians on the Eastern Front. In his case, the AFV was first a Mark IV tank, then a tank-destroyer. For the hard-core buff there is a wealth of material here on how you actually aimed the main battery on an AFV, the algorithms involved and the targeting procedures; if you aren't a buff it tends to slow down the narrative a bit, but the action scenes are priceless.

There are very few books from the German side with the immediacy and poignancy of this book, and it is highly recommended for anyone who wants a closer look at life inside a panzer.

Book Description from the Publisher: There are few memoirs available of German Panzer crews that focus on the climactic last 12 months of the war on the Eastern Front, 1944-45. What makes Bruno Friesen's account virtually unique is his family background: his parents came from a German-speaking Mennonite community in Ukraine, and were to all intents and purposes culturally German. To make matters even more complex, in 1924 his parents left the Ukraine for Canada, where Bruno was born. In March 1939 he and his brother Oscar found themselves on a ship bound for Bremerhaven in Germany. He barely spoke German, and had never been to Germany, nevertheless his father envisaged that a better life awaited them in the Third Reich. Needless to say, Bruno became caught up in the Second World War, and in 1942 was drafted into the Wehrmacht. The author provides a full account of his family background, and how, through these unusual circumstances, he found himself a Canadian-born German soldier. The bulk of the book is a detailed account of the author's training, and his subsequent service with 25th Panzer Regiment, part of 7th Panzer Division. As the title suggests, Bruno Friesen served as a gunner aboard, initially, Panzer IVs, before crewing the lesser-known Jagdpanzer IV tank hunter. The author provides a fantastic amount of information about these two vehicles, and how the crews actually fought in battle with them. This kind of 'hands-on' detail has almost never been available before, particularly such extensive information concerning the characteristics and combat performance of the Jagdpanzer IV. Apart from providing a large fund of information about specific German tanks and their combat performance, the author writes in great detail about the combat the experienced on the Eastern Front, including tank battles in Rumania, spring 1944, Lithuania in the summer of 1944, and West Prussia during early 1945. If one wants to know how German tank crews fought the Soviets in the last year of the war, then this book provides an outstanding account, containing material simply not found elsewhere. The author closes his account by reflecting on his post-war efforts to return to Canada, which eventually succeeded in 1950, and his subsequent life there. This book is not just a critique of armored fighting vehicles and tank warfare, it is above all a very human story, told in a lively, conversational and fluid manner, and is a remarkable contribution to the literature of the Second World War.