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.Dunkirk: Retreat to Victory
City Travel Guides > Books > Origins
by: Julian Thompson

May 02, 2008
`History provides many examples of a British Army being asked to operate under appalling handicaps by the politicians responsible for British Policy, but I doubted that the British Army had ever found itself in a graver position than that in which the governments of the last twenty years had placed it.'

Maj Gen Noel Mason-MacFarlane briefing the press, 15 May 1940

So opens Julian Thompson book on the Dunkirk Campaign, the title is a bit misleading since it covers the whole employment of the BEF in that forgotten campaign of 1940. Julian Thompson rightly points out that within twenty years the best-trained, best equipped and best-command army went to within a hairs breath of total defeat. The army that in 1918 was ... Read More:
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.Violette Szabo: The Life That I Have
City Travel Guides > Books > Origins
by: Susan Ottaway

December 19, 2002
Having been brought up on a diet of "Victory at Sea", "The World at War" and no end of stories and documentaries about it, I grew up in the 1960s and 1970 thinking that the war had rather been rammed down my throat. However, when I read "Carve her name with Pride", the story of Violette affected me like no other. I could barely think about it without a lump in my throat for a long while afterwards and for me this was *the* story about WWII.

Susan Ottoway's welcome new biography attempts to provide us new insights into this very courageous woman, it also dispels a few myths that have grown up. Though I was pleased to see that one of the most surprising tributes to her courage really happened.

During her fateful second mission, ... Read More:
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.France: The Dark Years, 1940-1944
City Travel Guides > Books > Origins
by: Julian Jackson

March 06, 2003
I studied history but now I'm just looking for straight forward enjoyable narrative history. This is a well researched, well written book. However, I'm finding it very hard to work my way through, and often I've read a whole page without paying any attention to it as it is so dense and detailed. I would recommend this book if you are studying this at university, but if you want some bedside reading, think twice about it. The section on resistance is very good though.
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.Lancaster Target
City Travel Guides > Books > Origins
by: Jack Currie

2004-02
I must admit I didn't buy this book from Amazon, in fact I have had it more than 25 years and I still enjoy reading it.

Gripping descriptions of bombing missions are interspersed with other anecdotes, often very funny and irreverant. You get a real feeling of what it was like and how Currie and his crew coped when others didn't.

Highly recommended.
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.Children of the Flames: Dr. Josef Mengele and the Untold Story of the Twins of Auschwitz
City Travel Guides > Books > Origins
by: Lucette Matalon Lagnado, Lucette Matalon Lagnado, Sheila Cohn Dekel

1992-05
This harrowing book traces both the life of 'the angel of death', the psycopathic monster, Dr Josef Mengele, and his victims who survived.
Mengele carried out a range of horrific experiments on a range of people, mainly twins. particularly Jewish and Gipsey children, and various others.
As Mengele's life is described, so is the life of the survivors, the horrors that they experienced at Auschwitz and how they lived in the decades afterwards.
"Most of the twins began their descent into Auschwitz by witnessing their entire families being led away from them to be killed. In their special barracks, located just yards away from the crematoriums, they observed the Nazis' extermination of Jews at close range. Twins as young as five and six ... Read More:
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.I Escaped from Auschwitz
City Travel Guides > Books > Origins
by: Rudolph Vrba

April 27, 2006
A truely heartfelt account of the pain suffering and injustice inflicted by humans on humans.Very difficult to put the book down and one that leaves nothing to the imagination.Left me wondering how Rudi Verba was able to function as a well rounded objective man.Wish I could have met you!!!!!!!!!
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.Lost Victories: War Memoirs of Hitler's Most Brilliant General
City Travel Guides > Books > Origins
by: Erich Von Manstein

October 29, 2004
In my opinion this is one of the best books ever written about second world war. I have to say that i've read this book over twenty times, and i've got over three hundred books of second world war. If you are an enthusiast you must read this one. The most brilliant tactician.
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.Betty's Wartime Diary 1939-1945
City Travel Guides > Books > Origins
by: Betty Armitage

July 05, 2002
I was so disappointed with this book, somehow to me it just doesnt ring true that this was written by a middle aged woman in war time, I would be interested how much of the authors slant was put on the originals diaries, everything is very much glossed over and the fact that in the introduction the author states that most of the original diaries are now unavailable, left me wondering... If you want a thoroughly good read of war time diaries look no further than the three books by Simon Garfield based on the Mass Observation Probject, they are absolutely superb and I think that is what has left me wanting more in this publication, oh well!
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.The Fall of Hitler's Fortress City: The Battle for Konigsberg, 1945
City Travel Guides > Books > Origins
by: Isabel Denny

March 15, 2007
Isabel Denny has written an immensely readable account of the fall of the prosperous and cultured city of Koenigsberg (now Kaliningrad), in 1944, towards the end of the Second World War. Her book covers all aspects of the terrible events, beginning with a history of the city, separated from the rest of Germany by the Polish Corridor, set up after the First World War to give Poland a route to the sea and the port of Danzig (Gdansk).

She goes on to describe the wider context and includes an excellent short description of Operation Barbarossa (the German attack on Russia, leading to the terrible events of Leningrad and Stalingrad). She describes the appalling treatment the German army meted out to the Russian villagers they encountered on the way, and the horror ... Read More:
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.War Boy: A Wartime Childhood
City Travel Guides > Books > Origins
by: Michael Foreman

October 23, 2006
I bought this book for my six year old son, as well as After The War Was Over. Both are perfect for dipping into and inspire endless discussions about what life was like in 'olden times' This book combines a personal story with factual information and wonderful illustrations. Perfect for children who are ready to progress from picture books to chapter books in terms of content but who like the reassurance of plenty to look at in a book as well as words. A great introduction to history and supports the national curriculum, my older son found it very useful during Year 5 as a reference book.
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