No comments about My Experiences of the War between France and Germany: Volume 2.

No comments about Sword and Olive Branch: Oliver Otis Howard (The North's Civil War, No. 9).

No comments about Hangar Flying.

2 comments about Lost Battalion: Railway of Death.

1. During WWII, Kyle Thompson survived six years of military service in Asia, four of them as a prisoner of war with the "Lost Battalion." As a sixteen-year-old, he enlisted in the Texas National Guard at Wichita Falls, and was inducted into the U. S. Army following mobilization of the U. S. Forces in 1940. The 2d Battalion of the 131st Field Artillery, destined for the Philippines, diverted to Australia when the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor. From there they went to Java to aid the Dutch in holding the Dutch East Indies. When the Dutch surrendered Java to the Japanese, the captured men took a lengthy and uncomfortable voyage by rail and sea, ending up in Thailand. The Japanese objective was control of India, and for that they needed an overland connection across Southeast Asia through Thailand and Burma. Prior to the war, the British had abandoned plans to build a railroad across that forbidding terrain, but the Japanese tackled thejob with prisoners of war and workers captured in countries they had overrun as WWII began. The public has heard of that railway in the story and movie, The Bridge Over the River Kwai, one part of the same railway. Mr. Thompson tells of the good times of which there were few and the bad of which there were many. He praises the comraderie of the men that helped offset the cruelty of their captors. He describes the miserable living conditions lacking in even a minimum of food, clothing, and shelter. He speaks of the long hours of back breaking labor and nights made sleepless by heat and insects. He tells how the men kept their courage up by listening to a forbidden radio ingeniously rigged to bring in news of help on the way. He communicates the joy of final liberation of the men who remained, and he lists in the book the names of the many who died of tropical diseases, neglect, and malnutrition. The book strikes at the heart of any American conscious of the debt owed to courageous men such as Mr. Thompson who endured so much to ensure freedom for all. It reminds us of the need to review th story,to remember the heroic deeds, to express gratitude for the wartime service of this great generation.



2. This story is about a young man from the Texas National Guard who gets captured by the Japanese. He is one of the few Americans who toiled long hard hours along side British soldiers constructing a railroad thru Burma. The movie Bridge on the River Kwai is a ficticious account of this terrible ordeal. Mr Thompson tells how his faith in God got him thru those grueling times with only " a thousand cups of rice " to eat.

No comments about The Life of the Right Honourable Horatio Lord Viscount Nelson Volume 1.

4 comments about With the Jocks: A Soldier's Struggle for Europe 1944-45.

1. If you are interested in first person accounts then this is a must-read book. Peter White was a second Lieutenant and platoon commander in the King's Own Scots Borderers, in 52nd Division, and saw service from October 1944 to May 1945. During this time he participated in the assault on Walcheren, the defense of the Meuse, Operation "Blackcock", the clearing of the western banks of the Rhine, the battle for Wesel, the battle for Ibbenbüren, and the final operations east and west of the Weser river towards Bremen, good worm's eye perspective descriptions of which are included in this book because, against orders, he kept a diary, and it is based on this that the memoir was written.
   
   Unlike his colleague Sydney Jary, author of the famous memoir "18 Platoon" and the longest-surviving platoon commander on the western Front in 1944-45, French was not born for war, and least of all for the infantry business of killing people up close. He was also a very religious man, a teetotaller and had a strong artistic bent, which shows in the very high quality of the good number of sketches which illustrate the book. This distance to the business he had to perform is what gives the book a unique quality.
   
   French volunteered for service and served in the anti-aircraft artillery before being transferred to the infantry in 1944. He started with the AA section of the battalion before being transferred to command of a rifle platoon. French's observations on the life of the infantry are sobering. When reading the book, the amount of misery and hardship endured by the soldiers is overwhelming at times. Unlike other authors, French does never stop to consider the life lived by him and his soldiers as something extraordinary and weird. His diary is full of reflections on this life, his thoughts about the civilians through whose life he is passing - either being taken in by newly liberated Dutch, or turning out Germans of their homes requisitioned for his platoon. At times, the writing has a lyrical quality about it that lets one enter into the scene easily.
   
   "The occupants of the flat I had selected for Platoon HQ were a very well dressed, portly, red-faced man who was suffering from most obvious mental turmoil in trying to know what manner to adopt towards us. [...] The mother, like the daughter, had a sleek, trim elegance akin to a Dresden figure which was added to by expensive well-cut clothes in soft tasteful colours. In their startling contrast to the Jocks, they made the latter look like heaps of mud-smeared vegetables."
   
   White also writes a lot about his thoughts of the men he is commanding, their attitudes and behaviour, and the book provides a list of all those who did not make it through the war, a large part of the men who he commanded, while he himself escaped unscathed.
   
   There are harrowing accounts of combat, the worst of which is probably the battle accident (friendly fire incident) at Ibbenbüren when his platoon is shot up by a platoon of British self-propelled guns with high losses in killed and wounded.
   
   In conclusion, I have not read anything like this in a long time. The book is a compelling read - although I would recommend the winter for reading it, to be better able to relate to the hardship suffered by French and his men. I can not recommend this book highly enough to anyone who wants to get a glimpse into the world of the men who fought to liberate Europe from Nazi occupation.



2. An officer with the Scottish 52nd Lowland Division, Peter White shares the real discomfort caused by lack of sleep, hours without meals, inadequate clothing while at the sharp end of an infantry unit. Through the winter of 1944, White's unit fought and suffered horrendous casualties in NW Europe. White details the self-inflicted wounds, the "bomb-happy" soldiers, the friendly fire victims, the mundane life-taking accidents, and the AWOL types, all the way to the other end of the spectrum detailing the gallantry and courage of many other men of his unit in combat. Peter White examines the role chance had in own survival when he describes how two platoons were detailed to work up each side of a farm track. His platoon made it okay but the other platoon was cut down by concealed MG-42s. With the Jocks is one of the best personal combat memoirs of WWII.



3. This is the best kind of memoir: filled with details about the actions, thoughts, emotions and terrifying events this fine officer went through with the greatest courage. I could not put it down. Those who want to get a glimpse of the real horror of war and the truly awe-inspiring courage of these men must get this book. It ranks among my top ten best memoirs of that war. These men were truly amazing.



4. Peter White was an officer with the 52nd Lowland Division in WWII. The Division was sent to NW Europe after the Market Garden fiasco (A battle the Division was planned to be in) and fought all the way to VE-Day. White is an interesting person himself and his disdain of swearing and his gentlemanly manners are evident to the reader. White is also an artist who contributes some of the illustrations in the book, he also illustrates to the reader the life of the British Soldier at war. You see the life and death struggle with the enemy and the boredom of the soldiers' life in great detail. White also details the attitude of his men towards the German civilians in the last days of the war. The book is quite long, and I have top admit losing the author in some places (cultural differences perhaps) but overall I enjoyed the book.

No comments about Ambroise Pare and His Times 1510 to 1590.

No comments about The Unconquered Knight: A Chronicle of the Deeds of Don Pero Nio, Count of Buelna (First Person Singular) (First Person Singular).

No comments about Theresienstadt: Hitler's Gift to the Jews.

3 comments about From Hiroshima With Love: The Allied Military Governor's Remarkable Story of the Rebuilding of Japan's Business and Industry After Wwii.

1. This personal, behind-the-scenes account of the occupation of Japan is the only book I've come across on this subject in spite of my interest in WWII history. I found it to be educational and fascinating.



2. I was looking forward to a book about Hiroshima. Although it did talk a little about Hiroshima, it is mostly a story about Ray's father (Wally) and his "adventures" in Japan after World War II. It seems the main purpose of this book is to show how "smart" his father was. This may be true but I was deeply disappointed that this "smart" father didn't care more about his wife and marriage vows. I guess my biggest disappointment is the somewhat cavalier way the infidelity is treated; as if there was really nothing wrong with it. Any respect I had for Wally went out the window as the story progressed and he eventually simply dumps his wife for his Japanese girlfriend. It is too bad Ray (the author) didn't see this as a more serious matter and acknowledge it as one of Wally's weaknesses instead of tacitly accepting it. Although that was my biggest problem with the book, I also thought there was too much made of Wally's "accomplishments." It seems that Wally was really just trying to keep a job while having a heck of a good time with his new girlfriend and other Japanese friends. Too bad the book didn't talk more about Hiroshima and how it came back after the devastation of the A-bomb.



3. As Author, I tried to tell the human side of History...the years 1945 to 1970 when a few Americans helped channel the energy, brains and enthusiam of the Japanese people for Japan to emerge from the ashes of World War II as a strong Democratic country and valuable asset to the free world. I am convinced now that it was made possible by three things: Truth, Love and Freedom. From Hiroshima With Love (25 years in the making from the detailed diaries and documents of my father) reads like a novel, detailing history through the eyes of one American Navy Commander turned businessman who fell in love with the country and one special woman and stayed 27 years to help. I found the book has been a hit with everyone who has read it; particularly Veterans of WWII, historians, business people and Asian-Americans. It tells how to build relationships; understand the Japanese; and do business with them. The quarter-century of history of which Americans should be most proud.