Book Reviews Archives

Book Reviews

Peter Harmsen’s ‘Fury and Ice’

By Christopher Miskimon

Weather prediction was vital to nearly all the war efforts of the Axis and the Allies during World War II. Read more

British Prime Minister Winston Churchill inspects Polish troops at Tentsmuir, Scotland, in October 1940. To Churchill’s right is Polish leader in exile Wladyslaw Sikorski.

Book Reviews

Peter Zablocki’s ‘The Death of General Sikorski’

By Christopher Miskimon

When the Nazis and Soviets partitioned Poland in 1939, the Polish government in exile was set up first in France, then in the United Kingdom in 1940 as France fell. Read more

M4 Sherman medium tanks of the 1st Canadian Armoured Division stir up clouds of dust as they rumble forward during the advance toward the Germans’ Gothic Line defenses in August 1944. Although the Gothic Line was breached, the German Tenth Army remained a potent fighting force.

Book Reviews

Tim Cook’s ‘The Good Allies’

By Christopher Miskimon

The United States and Canada share a border thousands of miles long; this naturally gives rise to friction. Read more

The Red October factory was destroyed during the fighting for control of Stalingrad, the industrial city on the banks of the Volga River. Here, Red Army soldiers take cover in the rubble as they prepare to fire on the German enemy.

Book Reviews

Prit Buttar’s ‘Hero City’

By Christopher Miskimon

During World War II, the Soviet city of Leningrad endured a siege lasting 900 days. The suffering and starvation of the populace became as legendary as their endurance. Read more

Another Robert Capa photo, taken as he departed his landing craft with the combat troops, shows men wading inland while others take shelter behind beach obstacles or three of the six DD tanks that made it to shore.

Book Reviews

Philip Kay-Bujak’s ‘Empire Javelin, D-Day Assault Ship’

By Christopher Miskimon

The Empire Javelin carried five companies of the 1st Battalion, 116th Infantry Regiment across the English Channel over the night of June 5-6, 1944, en route to their appointment with destiny at Omaha Beach on D-Day. Read more

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Ingo Bauernfeind’s ‘US Battleships 1939-45’

By Christopher Miskimon

On December 6, 1941, most people considered the battleship the queens of the world’s oceans. A day later that notion lay smashed and sinking at the bottom of Pearl Harbor. Read more

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Steven J. Zaloga’s ‘Beutepanzers of World War II’

By Christopher Miskimon

As Germany conquered neighboring nations in Europe, it made use of whatever military equipment and vehicles were used or manufactured in the occupied territories. Read more

Book Reviews

Brian Bruce’s ‘MacArthur’s Bloody Butchers’

By Christopher Miskimon

The U.S. Army had hundreds of thousands of troops serving in the Pacific Theater, among them G Company, 163rd Infantry, of the 41st Division. Read more

Damaged during the savage naval battles around the island of Guadalcanal, the cruiser USS San Francisco arrives at Pearl Harbor to undergo repairs.

Book Reviews

Mark Lardas’ ‘U.S. Navy Pacific Fleet 1941’

By Christopher Miskimon

As the age of the carrier dawned the Pacific Fleet, the most powerful in the U.S. Navy, was still dominated by battleships. Read more

A Sherman tank belonging to the Sherbrooke Fusiliers Regiment rolls through the abandoned streets of Caen on July 10, while the Germans still controlled the southern half of the city.

Book Reviews

Daniel M Braun’s ‘Armored Thunder’

By Christopher Miskimon

During World War II the Sherbrooke Fusiliers was an independent armored regiment attached to 2nd Canadian Armoured Brigade during the Normandy campaign. Read more

Book Reviews

Mick Ryan’s ‘The War for Ukraine’

By Christopher Miskimon

The war in Ukraine is a mix of the old and new. Both sides fight with a combination of weapons that date back to the Soviet Union and which were created after the war began and are still being refined. Read more

Soldiers of the U.S. 106th Infantry Division come under sporadic German fire during fighting in the Ardennes Forest.

Book Reviews

Alex Kershaw’s ‘Patton’s Prayer’

By Christopher Miskimon

The German Ardennes Offensive threatened the Allied lines in December 1944. While it was a crisis, the situation also presented an opportunity. Read more

Book Reviews

Mark Galeotti’s ‘Forged in War’

By Christopher Miskimon

When the Battle of Austerlitz turned against the Alliance of which Russia was part, it was the cavalry of the Russian Imperial Guard who managed to capture the only French regimental eagle of the day from the 4th Line Regiment. Read more

U.S. helicopters not only transported South Vietnamese troops to firebases inside Laos, but also carried them to Tchepone when the armored column stalled on Route 9. The March 6 air assault by elements of the South Vietnamese 1st Infantry Division was the largest helicopter assault of the war.

Book Reviews

Tom Feigel and Larry Weill’s ‘Super Slick’

By Christopher Miskimon

Within a year of graduating high school, Tom Fiegel received his draft notice. Entering the army, he was soon assigned to aviation. Read more

Book Reviews

Kenneth M. Swope’s ‘ Struggle for Empire’

By Christopher Miskimon

Zuo Zongtang (1812-1885) rose from rural poverty and obscurity in Hunan Province to become a powerful Han Chinese official in a nation controlled by the Manchu. Read more

U.S. Marine Corps helicopter drops off Vietnamese Marine reinforcements, February 23, 1968. Introduced in Vietnam in 1965, the Boeing/Vertol CH-46 Sea Knight could carry 12-13 marines, compared to the Army’s Huey capacity of 5-6. The CH-46’s cruising speed of 155 mph was also 25 mph faster than the Huey.

Book Reviews

Michael L. Kelly and Peter Burbank’s ‘The Gunner and the Grunt’

By Christopher Miskimon

Michael Kelly, the Gunner, flew fire support missions in a UH1 helicopter. Peter Burbank, the Grunt, served as an infantryman, relying on the support those helicopters could give him in battle. Read more

Book Reviews

James Stejskal’s ‘Mission Iran’

By Christopher Miskimon

After American Embassy personnel in Tehran were taken hostage in 1979, the US military organized a rescue mission known as Operation Eagle Claw. Read more

Confederate Brigadier General Wade Hampton, momentarily alone, desperately fends off enemy saber blows in a swirling melee in the farmland south of the York Turnpike at Gettysburg in Don Troiani’s painting, Hampton’s Duel.

Book Reviews

Timothy J. Orr’s ‘The Battle of Gettysburg 1863 (3)’

By Christopher Miskimon

The Battle of Gettysburg is one of the most pivotal and important battles in the American Civil War and in American military history. Read more

Plagued by dysentery, malaria, hunger, and exhaustion, King Henry V and his weary soldiers prepare to face off against their French foes near the tiny village of Agincourt, in this painting by Sir John Gilbert.

Book Reviews

Michael Livingston’s ‘Agincourt: Battle of the Scarred King’

By Christopher Miskimon

The English invasion of France in 1415 seized the French port of Harfleur, but only after a long siege. Read more

Book Reviews

Andrew Long’s ‘BRIXMIS’

By Christopher Miskimon

The British Commander in Chief Mission to the Soviet Forces in Germany, abbreviated as BRIXMIS, resulted from a little-known agreement allowing liaison missions where British observers could move freely in the Soviet/East German Zone. Read more

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