By Al Hemingway

Noted Irish writer and poet Oscar Wilde once said, “I choose my friends for their good looks, my acquaintances for their good characters, and my enemies for their intellects. A man cannot be too careful in the choice of his enemies.”

Regardless of their political leanings, many of the German officers who fought against George S. Patton fall into that category. They certainly demonstrated exceptional leadership during both world wars—and had the distinction of facing one of America’s premier generals as well.

Much has been written about the prowess of “Old Blood and Guts.” Patton was certainly a daring individual who excelled in combat—from his days as a young officer with General John J. Pershing’s expeditionary forces seeking the notorious Mexican bandit Pancho Villa to the killing fields of World Wars I and II.

In his new book, Fighting Patton: George S. Patton Jr. Through the Eyes of His Enemies (Zenith Press, Minneapolis, MN, 2011, 514 pp., photographs, notes, index, $30) military historian Harry Yeide has written an absorbing account of Patton and the adversaries he faced during both conflicts.

During World War I, Patton and his German counterparts began to see the advantages of mechanized warfare. Still in its infancy, tank warfare was an unknown factor on the battlefield. Men like Patton, and German officers Fritz von Broich, Otto von Knobelsdorff, Hans von Obstfelder, and Hans-Gustav Felber, used the battlefields of France as their training to learn and hone tactics using tanks for the first time on a large scale in war.

Between wars, Patton, like many of his future enemies, was not actively involved with mechanized units. However, with the invasion of Poland in September 1939, Patton watched with keen interest and learned as much a he could about the German blitzkrieg. Patton also read many papers, articles and books written by German officers including one book by Erwin Rommel, who although never having served with a tank unit in World War I was given command of a panzer division and proved to be a remarkable commander.

In the aftermath of World War II, the surviving German field commanders that Patton faced spoke out saying, for the most part, that he was a bold and competent leader. In their opinion, he was not afraid to take risks, unlike his British rival General Bernard Montgomery.

Field Marshal Gerd von Rundstedt, German Army commander in the West, noted that Patton was “speedy in the advance.” Heinz Guderian, father of the blitzkrieg, echoed Rundstedt’s comments and added that Patton was “very quick,” and “the essential thing in panzer command is speed.”

Even Rommel, who had considerable experience against Montgomery, praised Patton in a paper he wrote while recovering from wounds he suffered in France. He said that Montgomery was a strategist, and a “multidimensional commander.” Patton, on the other hand, he viewed as a tactician and even though he felt that the Americans did well in North Africa, it was Patton “in France to see the most astonishing achievements in mobile warfare.”

Inferno: The Epic Life and Death Struggle of the USS Franklin in World War II by Joseph A. Springer, Zenith Press, Minneapolis, MN, 2011, 320 pp., photographs, bibliography, index, $19.99, paperback.

Here is a moving chronicle focusing on the bombing of the aircraft carrier USS Franklin. While conducting operations off the coast of Japan in 1945, just prior to the assault on Okinawa, one lone Japanese bomber managed to let loose a single 250-pound bomb that would strike the flight deck and ignite aviation fuel and ordnance that would eventually kill and wound nearly 1,000 crewmen.

The author relies on numerous first-person accounts of what happened on that terrible day to give the reader a gripping tale of not only tragedy, but also of extreme heroism. Many of the crewmen were decorated for performing extraordinary tasks to keep the ship afloat and to administer aid to the survivors. One such individual was Father Joseph O’Callahan, who had lost a sister in the Philippines and would earn the Medal of Honor. He was a much respected member of the ship’s complement, and even “went toe-to-toe” with its superiors for the men. He was referred to as “Father Joe.”

Towed to Pearl Harbor by the cruiser USS Pittsburgh, after a quick repair job the Franklin was able to make her way to the Brooklyn Navy Yard, arriving there in April. The ship, often referred to as “Big Ben,” was open to the public for Navy Day celebrations and was decommissioned in 1947.

The Franklin received four battle stars in World War II, and her crew would become the most decorated in U.S. naval history. She truly lived up to her name, “The ship that wouldn’t die.”

The Sword of St. Michael: The 82nd Airborne Division in World War II by Guy LoFaro, Da Capo Press, Cambridge, MA, 2011, 746 pp., photographs, notes, index, $40, hardcover.

During the Battle of the Bulge, a U.S. tank commander asked a young soldier their location. He replied, “You’ve just arrived at the American front lines…. I’m the 82nd Airborne Division, and this is as far as the bastards are going.”

With a fighting spirit like that, it is easy to see why the 82nd Airborne Division was one of the most highly decorated outfits in World War II. Its esprit de corps began at the very top with commanding generals such as Matthew Ridgway and James Gavin, who led their troops from the front.

LoFaro, a graduate of West Point and a veteran of the division, has written the definitive account of the unit’s history, including its inception in 1940, its baptism of fire in Sicily in 1943, the Italian Campaign, Normandy invasion, Operation Market Garden, and its leading the victory parade down Fifth Avenue in New York City.

The unit compiled an impressive wartime record: 422 days in combat, five campaigns, 15 Presidential Unit Citations, and three awards from foreign governments.

LoFaro has really done his homework and has scoured official reports and personal letters, diaries, and oral histories from the men who participated in the various operations. A really masterful job and a real tribute to those “devils in baggy pants” that gave the 82nd Airborne Division its much deserved reputation as a premier fighting unit in World War II.

Joe Rochefort’s War: The Odyssey of the Codebreaker Who Outwitted Yamamoto at Midway by Elliot Carlson, Naval Institute Press, Annapolis, MD, 2011, 616 pp., photographs, maps, notes, index, $36.95, hardcover.

This book is a real gem. The life of Joseph Rochefort, the man who is credited with breaking the Japanese code that allowed Admiral Chester W. Nimitz to defeat them at the Battle of Midway, is surrounded in mystery. Joining the Navy at the age of 17, the Ohio native fixed his birth certificate to read that he was 18. He quickly rose through the ranks and was commissioned an officer, although not among the Annapolis crowd.

Rochefort could be irascible and short tempered. His frankness and eccentric manners irritated many of his superiors, including those who had the ear of Chief of Naval Operations Admiral Ernest J. King. When Rochefort was recommended for the Distinguished Service Medal for his outstanding intelligence work that helped defeat the Japanese Navy at Midway, it was rejected.

Carlson gives the reader an excellent view into Rochefort’s innermost thoughts from those that would work closely with him in the small, cluttered basement at Pearl Harbor where he read and interpreted Japan’s every move. It was not until 1986, years after his death, that Rochefort was posthumously awarded the Distinguished Service Medal by President Ronald Reagan. After more than 40 years, the skinny kid from Ohio was finally recognized for his brilliant achievements during America’s dark, early days of World War II.

Ostkrieg: Hitler’s War of Extermination in the East by Stephen G. Fritz, University of Kentucky Press, Louisville, 2011, 664 pp., maps, photographs, notes, bibliography, $39.95, hardcover.

There is no doubt the Ostkrieg, or war in the East, was savage and brutal. It consumed more than 35 million people, both military and civilian. While many have believed over the years that Hitler attacked the Soviet Union out of desperation, the author states, in his opinion, that it was a well thought out plan and had always been Hitler’s top priority.

With the collapse of the Soviet Union, records never before seen in the West have been discovered, shedding new light on the Eastern Front. They detail the massive land assault that began in June 1941, how it was planned and carried out, and the final solution, the extermination of the Jews that played an important role in it as well.

Fritz, professor of history at East Tennessee State University, delivers an all-inclusive account of not only the military action of the German war machine, but also its economic goals, the utilization of the massive amounts of natural resources within the country itself, and the Nazi plan for a new Aryan race.

This is an in-depth book focusing on the killing ground of the Eastern Front that, in many ways, dwarfed the fighting in the West.

Pearl Harbor Christmas: A World at War, December 1941 by Stanley Weintraub, Da Capo Press, Cambridge, MA, 2011, 224 pp., photos, index, $24, hardcover.

America was shocked when the Japanese dealt such a devastating blow to its naval forces on the quiet Sunday morning of December 7, 1941, a mere 18 days before Christmas. How did Americans observe that Christmas holiday?

Although most Americans went about their business, purchasing gifts, setting up Christmas trees, and planning family get-togethers, the war was on everyone’s mind. There was no way to escape it—Marines fighting for their lives on Wake Island, General Douglas MacArthur preparing for a Japanese invasion of the Philippines, Singapore, or Southeast Asia, the Nazis steam rolling through Europe. It appeared as if the enemy was winning.

Out of this chaos, however, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill visited the United States to spend Christmas with President Franklin D. Roosevelt. The crafty leader realized that he now had the ally he needed to win the conflict and he knew he must sit face-to-face to plan the strategy that would defeat their common enemies.

Despite the seriousness of the situation, the White House still had time to decorate the Christmas tree, go to church Christmas morning, and celebrate New Year’s Day, as an example to Americans. No one knew what lay ahead. But men like Roosevelt and Churchill had the resolve to see it through to the very end. It was indeed an incredible holiday season. Despite the fear and anxiety, the pair conveyed a message of hope to the world. n

Arnhem: Myth and Reality: Airborne Warfare, Air Power and the Failure of Operation Market Garden by Sebastian Ritchie, Hale Books, London, England, 2011, 272 pp., maps, photos, bibliography, index, $39.95, hardcover.

Author Sebastian Ritchie has written a thought-provoking book focusing on the reason that Operation Market Garden failed. The plan called for American, British, and Polish airborne forces to capture key bridges in the Netherlands and cross into northern Germany into the Ruhr Valley, the country’s industrial center.

The author concentrates on three myths that have endured over the years: that airborne warfare was a successful method of conducting an operation, Market Garden was a well-conceived plan and failed at the operational-tactical level, and both the British and American air units involved were also at fault because the plan went awry. As for this last myth, he contends that the true extent of the air effort was never appreciated. In little more than a week, Allied planes flew thousands of air sorties in spite of bad weather to support the campaign.

Arnhem: Myth and Reality provides the reader with a whole new perspective of the tragic events that unfolded during the operation—and its lessons should not be ignored.

Leningrad: The Epic Siege of World War II, 1941-1944 by Anna Reid, Walker and Company, New York, 2011, 496 pp., maps, photos, notes, index, $30.00, hardcover.

The author delivers a gripping account of one of the longest and most deadly sieges in military history: Leningrad. When German and Finnish forces struck in September 1941, the city was virtually cut off from the outside world. Most of the young men had gone off to war, leaving behind a population comprised mainly of old men, women, and children. Incredibly, the citizens would hang on for nearly three years. During that time, they had to deal with not only the German bombardments and assaults, but also starvation and disease. About 750,000 residents died before the siege was lifted.

The author draws heavily on memoirs, journals, and diaries to tell the tragic story of the ordeal that Russians living in the city at that time had to endure to survive. There were even reports of cannibalism, after every dog, bird, or other animal had been eaten by the residents.

Reid has done a remarkable job, gathering never before seen material for her narrative that took five years to write. She was particularly moved when she talked to survivors.

“This massive tragedy was not ancient history,” she said, “but still within living memory.”

Short Bursts

Voices of the Bulge: Untold Stories from Veterans of the Battle of the Bulge by Michael Collins and Martin King, Zenith Press, Minneapolis, MN, 2011, 320 pp., maps, photos, index, $28.00, hardcover.

What sets this oral history apart from the many others that have been published is that it is accompanied by a 47-minute DVD of the authors’ documentary of the Battle of the Bulge. Both men are filmmakers and spent a dozen years compiling the personal vignettes that bring both the book and DVD to life. Collins and King collected anecdotes from American and German soldiers and civilians.

The massive German onslaught began on December 16, 1944, and lasted until January 1945. Hitler’s last desperate gamble in the West was the largest land battle in U.S. military history. The authors have done an excellent job in describing the action.

Made in Hanford: The Bomb That Changed the World by Hill Williams, Washington State University Press, Pullman, 2011, 190 pp., photos, index, $22.95, paperback.

During World War II, the quiet little town of Hanford, Washington, situated near the Columbia River, was transformed into a nuclear facility that was part of the ultra-secret Manhattan Project.

The city was home to the first plutonium production reactor in the world, and its product was used in “Fat Man,” the atomic bomb dropped over Nagasaki on August 9, 1945, to end the war in the Pacific. During the Cold War, the huge complex would continue producing plutonium that would be used in bombs tested at Bikini and Eniwetok Atolls, and the Marshall Islands.

The author, a former Seattle Times science writer, relied on the diaries and journals of those intimately involved with the project and interviewed the island inhabitants and anthropologists who worked closely with them.

The SS Dirlewanger Brigade: The History of the Black Hunters by Christian Ingrao, Skyhorse Publishing, New York, 2011, 224 pp., notes, $22.95, hardcover.

The 36th Waffen Grenadier Division of the SS was a step above other Nazi units when it came to committing terrible atrocities against civilians, especially the Poles. Commanded by Oskar Dirlewanger, twice convicted of sexual assault, his men were responsible for torture, rape, and murder with no repercussions.

The soldiers, also known as poachers because they hunted the partisans like game, were given a free hand by SS chief Heinrich Himmler to rid the countryside of any freedom fighters. They were even used to suppress the Warsaw Uprising in 1944 and are believed responsible for killing approximately 35,000 men, women, and children in just one day. The author has performed exhaustive research to tell the story of a disturbing chapter in World War II.

Battle Surface! Lawson P. “Red” Ramage and the War Patrols of the USS Parche by Stephen L. Moore, Naval Institute Press, Annapolis, MD, 2011, 360 pp., photos, maps, bibliography, notes, $34.95, hardcover.

Only seven submariners received the Medal of Honor during World War II, and the hard-charging captain of the USS Parche, Commander Lawson “Red” Ramage was one of them.

During one combat patrol in late July 1944, the Parche and the USS Steelhead combined to sink several huge cargo ships and tankers and barely escaped being rammed by an enemy vessel in the process. The crew of the Parche was awarded the Presidential Unit Citation, and Ramage was presented the nation’s highest award.

Ramage, however, wrote a certificate for every crew member of the Parche acknowledging their important role during the night action in which he earned the medal. He wrote in part that every officer and man “has an equal share in this award.”

The book also lists the enlisted men and officers of the Parche, other awards and decorations, and the enemy ships that the submarine sank during the war.

Death in the City of Light: The Serial Killer of Nazi-Occupied Paris by David King, Crown Publishers, New York, 2011, bibliography, notes, $26, hardcover.

Marcel Petiot is not a well known name. However, this doctor was captured and convicted of murder after police unearthed the remains of 27 people in his home in Paris.

Petiot was mentally unbalanced at an early age. During World War I, he was wounded and gassed, which enhanced his already unstable condition. After the war, he received his medical degree and established a successful practice in the city.

Petiot formed an escape route for individuals who wanted to escape Nazi-occupied France and charged 25,000 francs. Unfortunately, the would-be escapees were never seen again. The mad doctor was eventually caught and beheaded for his grisly crimes. Although the authorities knew of the 27, they believed he may have murdered more than 100. This is a fascinating book that delves into another obscure aspect of Paris during World War II.

Home Front Baltimore: An Album of Stories from World War II by Gilbert Sandler, The John Hopkins University Press, Baltimore, MD, 2011, 164 pp., photos, index, $29.95, hardcover.

Here the author, a U.S. naval officer during World War II, has selected stories from his hometown of Baltimore, Maryland, during the conflict and intertwined them with news from the front.

Ironically, as U.S. soldiers were storming the beaches at Normandy on June 6, 1944, the Orioles of baseball’s International League were making their move for first place. Sandler found items such as these when he was perusing old newspapers at a library one day.

He writes that people back at home could not envision what war was like, but those men in the thick of it knew of its savagery. They could only dream of the life they left—and pray to God that they would be able to return to it.

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