Book Reviews Archives

Book Reviews

Mark Stille’s ‘Leyte Gulf’

By Christopher Miskimon

History often remarks on the attack on the Japanese battleship Yamato, but her sister ship, the Musashi, suffered a similar fate at the Battle of Leyte Gulf. Read more

Terror is reflected in the eyes of these Polish Jews and other civilians as they are rounded up by German soldiers and destined for a concentration camp. Henry Zguda became a political prisoner of the Nazis and spent months in captivity.

Book Reviews

Lewkowicz with Calvin’s ‘The Survivor’

By Christopher Miskimon

The author was a starving teenage boy, enslaved by the Nazis and imprisoned in a concentration camp. Over the years of his captivity, he spent time in six different camps. Read more

Admiral Wilhelm Canaris pictured with Colonel Franz Eccard von Bentivegni, an Abwehr counterespionage expert, in Smolensk in Octo- ber 1941. Canaris alienated his superiors when visiting the Eastern Front, warning them not to expose German troops needlessly to the hard- ships of the Russian winter.

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David Alan Johnson’s ‘Admiral Canaris’

By Christopher Miskimon

Admiral Wilhelm Canaris served as Hitler’s chief of military intelligence, leading the Abwehr. Many found him dull and uninteresting, not even a particularly good naval officer. Read more

Cautiously moving through the Bocage, or hedgerow country, of France, infantrymen of the U.S. 30th Division advance toward Mortain where they made a heroic stand against a German counterattack.

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Stephen A. Bourque’s ‘Tubby’

By Christopher Miskimon

Raymond O. Barton earned the nickname “Tubby” at West Point due to his athletic ability in football and wrestling. Read more

Incoming artillery sends U.S. soldiers scurrying for cover along a roadside in Holland. The 101st Airborne Division jumped into Holland as part of Operation Market Garden in September 1944.

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Robert M. Edsel’s ‘Remember Us’

By Christopher Miskimon

When Nazi Germany invaded the Netherlands in May 1940, it began four and a half years of brutal occupation. Read more

A squadron of B-25 bombers speeds its way toward a rail yard, the target of this mission during the Italian campaign. The B-25s regularly bombed rail yards in northern Italy to prevent the movement of German reinforcements and equipment toward the front lines to the south.

Book Reviews

Thomas McKelvey Cleaver’s ‘Mediterranean Sweep’

By Christopher Miskimon

The Italian Campaign had to be fought, though no one on the Allied side wished to fight it. Read more

Twisted piles of debris were all that remained of much of Hiroshima and Nagasaki following the detonations of the atomic bombs. Heat and shock waves vaporized people and incinerated wooden structures.

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M.G. Sheftall’s ‘Hiroshima’

By Christopher Miskimon

At 0812 hours on August 6, 1945, the B29 bomber carrying the atomic bomb began its final bomb run. Read more

A U.S. Navy A-7E Corsair II from USS Kitty Hawk bombs Hai Duong railway and a highway bridge in North Vietnam.

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Norman Fine’s ‘Blind Bombing’

By Christopher Miskimon

As France fell in May 1940, scientist Vannevar Bush delivered a note to US President Franklin D. Roosevelt. Read more

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Ian Baxter’s ‘The Soviet Battle for Berlin, 1945’

By Christopher Miskimon

The Battle for Berlin was the climax of the War in Europe. This massive operation involved 2.3 million Soviet troops on two fronts, from the east and south. Read more

Book Reviews

Damien Lewis’s ‘Forged in Hell’

By Christopher Miskimon

At 3:30 in the morning, the first mortar round exploded on the Capo Murro di Porco gun battery on the island of Sicily. Read more

St. Vith lies a desolate ruin on February 7, 1945, days after the desperate fight for control of the key Belgian village was over. After several weeks of fighting, the Germans were forced to abandon their winter offensive and relinquish all the territory they had gained during the Battle of the Bulge.

Book Reviews

Hugues Wenkin’s ‘The Battle of St. Vith and the Potteau Ambush’

By Christopher Miskimon

The first days of the Ardennes Offensive were hard on the American forces defending the region. St Vith was hit especially hard. Read more

Book Reviews

Becky Aikman’s ‘Spitfires’

By Christopher Miskimon

Spitfires is the story of 26 American women who shared a love for the air and a desire to do what their own country wouldn’t let them—contribute to the war effort as pilots. Read more

Paratroopers of the U.S. 82nd Airborne Division perform a mass jump during the 2006 Joint Service Open House at Joint Base Andrews in Prince George's County, Maryland. The 82nd was the U.S. Army's first airborne division, converted from an infantry division prior to World War II.

Book Reviews

James Donovan’s ‘Nothing but Courage’

By Christopher Miskimon

A small stone bridge over the Merderet River was a linchpin in the Allied invasion of Normandy, part of a causeway through marshy land that would allow troops from Utah Beach to get to Cherbourgh—the only deepwater port that could support such a massive military offensive. Read more

Dutch civilians, identified by some sources as members of the resistance, talk with troopers of the American 101st Airborne Division as they look over a map of the area.

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Tim Bouverie’s ‘Allies at War’

By Christopher Miskimon

It took an ideologically and politically divided coalition to defeat the global threat of Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan. Read more

Book Reviews

Joseph Wheelan’s ‘The Farthest Valley’

By Christopher Miskimon

The Chinese assault troops lay down in the snow to hide from the U.S. Marines guarding the American perimeter at Yudam-Ni, November 27, 1950. Read more

Wearing American flag armbands so that Dutch civilians can easily identify them, American paratroopers load their C-47 transport plane just before taking off on September 17, 1944, opening day of Operation Market-Garden, the combined airborne/ground offensive into the Netherlands.

Book Reviews

Robert M. Edsel’s ‘Remember Us’

By Christopher Miskimon

When Nazi Germany invaded the Netherlands in May 1940, it began four and a half years of brutal occupation. Read more

Crewman aboard a U.S. Navy river patrol boat (PBR) man their weapons during a river patrol mission in Vietnam.

Book Reviews

Thomas J. Cutler and Edward J. Marolda’s ‘The Brown Water War at 50’

By Christopher Miskimon

The United States Navy, Marine Corps and Army fought a long campaign along the coast and on the rivers of South Vietnam. Read more

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Peter E. Davies’s ‘Chrome Dome 1960-68’

By Christopher Miskimon

The Cold War never became hot in part due to the efforts of the US Strategic Air Command (SAC). Read more

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John Ferling’s ‘Shots Heard Round the World’

By Christopher Miskimon

When the British Army marched on Lexington and Concord, the American Revolution began. However, the war was not just between England and its rebellious colonies. Read more

Newly liberated Polish prisoners of the Nazi concentration camp at Hanover-Ahlem queue up to receive rations of soup from American soldiers.

Book Reviews

Josef Lewkowicz and Michael Calvins’ ‘The Survivor’

By Christopher Miskimon

The author was a starving teenage boy, enslaved by the Nazis and imprisoned in a concentration camp. Over the years of his captivity, he spent time in six different camps. Read more

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