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Campfire Ranger
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OP
Campfire Ranger
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Posts: 17,230 |
just started, finished the first two books ( North Africa and Italy) still enjoying it It is the twentieth century's unrivaled epic: at a staggering price, the United States and its allies liberated Europe and vanquished Hitler. In the first two volumes of his bestselling Liberation Trilogy, Rick Atkinson recounted how they fought through North Africa and Italy to the threshold of victory. Now he tells the most dramatic story of all―the titanic battle for Western Europe.
D-Day marked the commencement of the European war's final campaign, and Atkinson's riveting account of that bold gamble sets the pace for the masterly narrative that follows. The brutal fight in Normandy, the liberation of Paris, the disaster that was Operation Market Garden, the horrific Battle of the Bulge, and finally the thrust to the heart of the Third Reich―all these historic events and more come alive with a wealth of new material and a mesmerizing cast of characters. With The Guns at Last Light, the stirring final volume of this monumental trilogy, Atkinson has produced the definitive chronicle of the war that unshackled a continent and preserved freedom in the West.
...Actually Sycamore, you are sort of right....
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Campfire Ranger
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Campfire Ranger
Joined: Oct 2005
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I am about half way through the second book.
it sure presents it differently then a lot of the books you read.
Patton doesn't come across so good to me.
THE BIRTH PLACE OF GERONIMO
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Campfire Ranger
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Campfire Ranger
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Nobody of the high generals come across as perfect so far....
kind of gives me some ideas for more reading. I want to know more about the Italian campaign. I knew almost nothing about it before.
...Actually Sycamore, you are sort of right....
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Campfire Kahuna
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Campfire Kahuna
Joined: Nov 2003
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as I said in the previous thread about these books, Rick Atkinson is the most depressing historian I have ever read. He has cherry picked WWII, and painted every Allied leader in the worst possible way. He has nothing good to say about anyone, and if you follow his line of thought, it's a wonder we won the war at all.
Sam......
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Campfire Ranger
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Campfire Ranger
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Mannlicher, if you think Atkinson is depressing, don't read Robert Caro.  Just finished the third volume. great series, keeps you reading all the way through . ( I would hate like hell to be tested on the material  ) The end was suitably serious, and deep. I'm looking for a naval version for the Pacific now, looks to be 2 volumes by one author and the final by a second author. Sycamore
...Actually Sycamore, you are sort of right....
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Campfire Ranger
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Campfire Ranger
Joined: Mar 2013
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War was bloody and difficult for troops.
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Campfire Tracker
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Campfire Tracker
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Almost finished with Guns and by reading Atkinson you wonder how the Allies prevailed. I think Atkinson wrote something on the Pacific.
Fight fire, save lives, laugh in the face of danger.
Stupid always finds a way.
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Campfire Tracker
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Campfire Tracker
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Sycamore:
Have you read Eisenhower's Crusade in Europe for his point of view?
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Campfire Ranger
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Campfire Ranger
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No, I read his son's book about the Battle of the Bulge. "The Bitter Woods"
...Actually Sycamore, you are sort of right....
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Campfire Outfitter
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Campfire Outfitter
Joined: Jul 2001
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I am just glad Canada came into the fray so early to ensure you all get to read the books in english. 
"The 375HH is the greatest level of power you can get for the investment in recoil." (JJHack)
79s and losttrail, biggest waste of air.
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Campfire Outfitter
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Campfire Outfitter
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Nobody of the high generals come across as perfect so far....
kind of gives me some ideas for more reading. I want to know more about the Italian campaign. I knew almost nothing about it before.
You might try Circles of Hell- The war in Italy1943-45 by Eric Morris. He didn't think much of Patton and even less of Montgomery.
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Campfire Kahuna
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Campfire Kahuna
Joined: Nov 2003
Posts: 67,697 |
this is what, the third thread on the same book?
Sam......
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Campfire Ranger
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Campfire Ranger
Joined: Dec 2003
Posts: 17,230 |
it's a trilogy, there are three books, in a trilogy.
...Actually Sycamore, you are sort of right....
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Campfire Ranger
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Campfire Ranger
Joined: Oct 2005
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if you want depressing try youtube. I like watching the battlefield recovery of equipment, from tanks, to equipment, to guns etc. Some of the stuff recovered still looks usable even after all those years passing. I just finished watching a couple programs on the winter war, and the continuing war between finland and russia, then finland and germany.
A heck of a lot of people died in a environment mostly frozen. So what do you do with the dead people? Throw them in a shelhole. There are a couple of episodes of recovering the mummies. Both finland and russia have teams going out in the summer to recover bodies, body parts, to rebury in a proper grave. Watching this it would take a strong person to do this kind of work.
It is interesting to see the mixture of firearms used and recovered. I saw a swiss K31 at one point. How it got to finland i don't know.
Lewis guns seemed to be extremely popular in that area of the world in WWII.
I saw the mangled remains of one gun that has me stumped. Looks just like a m16.
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