What are you reading at the moment?

[morse1001]

The Death of the Scharnhorst By John Winton.

The book not only covers the final voyage of the Scharnhort but the conditions and politics of both sides of the combat. Where the book has the advantage over earlier attempts to tell the story, is Wintons access to the signal logs of both sides.

The German Navy may have looked good on paper but it was mishandled not only by the leadership of the navy but by Hitler, who admitted that he had no knowledge of sea warfare. Thankfully, it never really used it full potential against the Royal Navy because of attempts to prevent the ship being lost.

He does, as many other authors have done, describe in detail the lack of cooperation between the kriegsmarine and the luftwaffe over air cooperation and support, unlike the british who had joint HQs manned by RN and Coastal Command personnel. Thus valuable signals concerning convoys had to be sent by the aircraft and then transmitted over other means to get to the kriegsmarine.

The final voyage is recorded by eyewitness accounts from both sides and goes into great detail over the manuovers carried out by both sides. On several occassions, the Scharnhorst was in a tacticall advantage but never took up the oppertunity. In the end, it was the better seamanship and gunnery of the RN which won the day, along with a surprising large number of radar units fitted to the ships!

[Kyt]

Originally Posted by Ron Goldstein

On Peter G's recommendation I have just aquired "The Years of Extermination" by Saul Friedlander, sub-titled Nazi Germany & the Jews 1939-1945.
It is likely to be my sole reading for the immediate future (870 pages) and I will likely pop up occasionally to report on points that have impressed me.

Excellent. Thanks for the heads-up Ron. I'd read the first volume "Nazi Germany & the Jews 1: Nazi Germany and the Jews 1933-1939: Years of Persecution", and had been awaiting the second volume for years.

Let us know what you think. I'm sure it will be as good, if not better, than the first volume.

[morse1001]

I picked up a copy of HAP Arnorlds autobigoraphy today! So, I have some heavy reading to do!

Also, I never knew that he had been taught to fly by the Wright bros!

[Antipodean Andy]

Good score, Morse.

Everytime I think of Hap Arnold, this noseart springs to mind.

http://www.fredonia.edu/faculty/emer...of_497thBG.jpg

[morse1001]

Originally Posted by Andy in West Oz

Good score, Morse.

Everytime I think of Hap Arnold, this noseart springs to mind.

http://www.fredonia.edu/faculty/emer...of_497thBG.jpg

Interesting nose art!

[morse1001]

This was written by Nick Richardson, who was the pilot of the 801 Sqdn Sea Harrier that was lost over Croatia in 1994.

he gives a vivid description of life as FAA pilot of the time and of his family problems, his wife was having difficulties with her latest pregnancy.

He then moves on to the period when 801 was embarked on HMS Ark Royal for a tour providing air support over Bosnia.

This involved an interesting period At Decimommanu in Sardina, the site of the armaments practise camp. The Serbs operated a sqdn of Mig 29s and in order to gain experience and to devise tactics, a pair of Luftwaffe Mig 29s were sent to do some dis-similar combat practise with the Sea Harriers.

The Sea Harriers were called back early and re-embarked and sailed to the Adriatic Ops area. Once the carrier reached the area, 801 was then carrying out sorties in Bosnian air space. it was while on one of these sorties, Richardson received a call from a Forward Air Control Op that was coming under fire from serb forces.

He was asked to bomb two tanks hiding in the woods, he decided to to go down for a better view and it was at this point that the rocket hit the rear of the Sea Harrier and he had to bang out.

Richardson was very lucky because he landed in "friendly" territory and was picked up by muslim forces who moved him to Gorazde where there was a SAS unit located with the UN team. News of his survival was passed to the outside world and 801 sent a signal to the unit which read "Flash is not dead"! it refers to the character Lord Flashheart from the Blackadder goes Forth series

The serb forces ended the siege of Gorazde by storming the town, the towns folk started to get angry with the SAS and with thought to what the serbs would to them if they were captured, it was decided to escape ASAP!

Plans were made for the escape, it was handy that Richardson had been a former Sea King pilot and he could sort out a landing site. One of the SAS officers had been injured and had a steel frame on his arm and was in a weakened condition but choose to escape as well.

They broke out of the town and headed to the LZ, where a prearranged Puma of Special Forces Flight would pick them up. After an eventual journey they reached the LZ and where the Puma picked them up.

Quite and interesting story and well worth the £1.50 paid for it out of a charity shop!


On somewhat of a personal note, here is a picture of II(AC) sqdn at Deci in 1982 and my brother Andy is the big guy sitting on the wing!

[morse1001]

This was written by Dr Swee Chai Ang about her time spent helping Palestinians.

I know it is not WW2 related but it covers a period of my life when i was out there at the same time!

[morse1001]

Subtitled - Prisioners of the Japanese 1942 - 45.

This is a harrowing account of the captivity of allied soliders at the hands of the Japanese.

It contains many first hand accounts of survivors of the hellish conditions in the camps and the often brutal treatment handed out by the guards and on the railway, by the engineers.

As Rabbie Burns said, "Mans inhumanity to his fellow man"!

[morse1001]

A handy little book concerning a major part of the sea war against the Nazis.

Again, it has eye witness reports fromthe men who took part inthe convoys and some interesting photos, mainly of sailor "splicing the mainbrace"! the drunken swines!

[morse1001]

This can be descriped as sort of a handy book to introduce the subject to a general reader.

Luckily, the author is british and so the efforts of the Commonwealth forces are described and not just left as footnote as happens in so many american histories of the campaign!