Book Reviews
World War II Book Reviews for Spring 2023
By Christopher Miskimon Full ReviewsBitter Peleliu: The Forgotten Struggle on the Pacific War’s Worst Battlefield (Joseph Wheelan, Osprey Books, Oxford, UK, 2022, 336 pp., Read more
Book Reviews
Book Reviews
Perilous Fight For Peleliu
By Christopher MiskimonThe cacophony of naval gunfire proved so thunderous it left some marines in a stupor. Dark smoke roiled thousands of feet in the air from the bombardment of Peleliu, a small island in the Palau Islands. Read more
Book Reviews
Steven E. Maffeo’s ‘Captain Chaos’
By Christopher MiskimonThe Battle of Leyte Gulf was the largest naval battle of World War II, and by most measures the largest in history. Read more
Book Reviews
The World War II Diary of Lieutenant General James. M. Gavin
By Christopher MiskimonJames Gavin began his wartime service as the commander of the 505th Parachute Infantry Regiment during the Sicily operation, before assuming command of the entire 82nd Airborne Division for the remainder of the war. Read more
Book Reviews
Prit Buttar’s ‘Meat Grinder’
By Christopher MiskimonFew in the West know about the Rzhev Salient. The fighting around Moscow and Stalingrad come quickly to mind, but this little-known salient near the town of Rzhev, roughly 100 miles west of Moscow, was so terrible it was nicknamed the “Meat Grinder.” Read more
Book Reviews
Lt. Col. Wayne K. Blickenstaff’s ‘Ace in a Day’
By Christopher MiskimonLieutenant Wayne Blickenstaff saw a group of German Messerschmitt Me-109 fighters disperse after making a run at some American bombers. Read more
Book Reviews
Mark Stille’s ‘Leyte Gulf 1944 (2): Surigao Strait and Cape Engano’
By Christopher MiskimonThe Battle of Leyte Gulf, while the largest naval battle in history, was composed of four major actions occurring over two days. Read more
Book Reviews
Ian Baxter’s ‘The Soviet Baltic Offensive, 1944-45’
By Christopher MiskimonThe overwhelming Soviet offensives in the summer of 1944 threw the German army back. Much of the German Army Group North drew back into the Baltic States of Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania. Read more
Book Reviews
Ian Buruma’s ‘The Collaborators’
By Christopher MiskimonFelix Kersten acted as Heinrich Himmler’s personal masseur and did the job so well Himmler nicknamed the outgoing, heavy set Kersten the “Magic Buddha.” Read more
Book Reviews
Jonathan Trigg’s ‘D-Day Through German Eyes’
By Christopher MiskimonThe German Army had extensive combat experience, some of the best weapons and equipment, and in June 1944 was holding its own in Italy and on the Eastern Front. Read more
Book Reviews
Robert F. Ashby’s ‘D-Day, Arnhem and the Rhine’
By Christopher MiskimonGlider Pilots occupied a perilous position in British airborne divisions. It took skill and determination to pilot a glider. Read more
Book Reviews
Katie Stossel’s ‘A Handful of Heroes’
By Christopher MiskimonIt was chiefly due to the courageous conduct of these men that communication with the hospital was kept up at all,” stated an article that appeared on the London Gazette on May 2, 1879. Read more
Book Reviews
Justus D. Doenecke’s ‘More Precious than Peace’
By Christopher MiskimonIn just 19 months the United States mobilized and sent overseas two million troops and built an industrial war machine that greatly aided the Allies in winning World War I. Read more
Book Reviews
Michael D. Mahler ‘s’Tales from the Cold War’
By Christopher MiskimonMichael Mahler first arrived in Germany in 1960 as a young lieutenant. He and his new wife shared a small apartment that seemed to the couple to always be cold. Read more
Book Reviews
Michael Livingston’s ‘Crecy: Battle of Five Kings’
By Christopher MiskimonKing Edward III of England placed his army on high ground where the Hesdin Road passes alongside the Forest of Crecy on August 26, 1346. Read more
