Posted on 07/05/2002 4:46:49 PM PDT by Enlightiator
I have, and while it is an interesting book, the author's ignorance of things military and focus on the darker side of the war have to be taken into account. And while he offers many relevent observations, many of the authors conclusions are way off base. A better book on why we failed in Vietnam is "War Without Windows". I forget the author, but he an intelligence officer during the war and goes into great detail how much of the intelligance that was gathered was ignored, mis-interpreted, and mis-used.
When you put that book down you'll be proud to be an American. It's one of the best books I've read.
"The Longest Day" by Cornelius Ryan. Does a great job of depicting the panorama of d-Day (not a bad movie either).
The Forgotten Soldier by Guy Sajer is good. It is his account of service as a German soldier on the Eastern front (I think he uses a little literary license here and there, but the tension of war seems authentic).
Finally Five Years to Freedom by Nick Rowe is great. He was a prisoner of the vietcong for five years until his escape in the late 1960s. He later founded the US Army SERE school for POW instruction.
2 are written by Dick O'Kane (MOH, 3 Navy crosses): "Wahoo: ZThe Patrols of America's most Famous WW2 Submarine, "Clear the Bridge: The War Patrols of the USS Tang". Great reads by an American hero (O'Kane served with Mush Morton on the Wahoo, before getting his own boat, I believe Morton also won the MOH.
THe 2 on the Russian front are written from a German perspective, meticlously researched from Germna Archives, written in the late 1950's. Paul Carrell:"Hitler's moves East, 1941-1943" covers the start of Barbarossa through Manstein's stabilizing the Southern Front after Stalingrad, and "Scorched Earth" picks up where Hitlers moves East leaves off and covers Kursk theorugh the destruction of Army Group Center, and the retreat to Germany.
Dick O'Kane Obit:
Richard O' Kane, a rear Admiral who won Medal of Honor as submarine commander in World War II, died of pneumonia Wednesday February 16, 1994 at a nursing home in Petaluma, California. He was 83.
He retired in 1957, and won the Medal of Honor for valor as commander of the USS Tang in South Pacific. The Tang sank a Japanese ship every 11 days on five patrols and rescued scores of US fliers who had been shot down in raids on Japanese ships and bases. During one patrol in Formosa Strait on October 24-25, 1944, the Tang sank 110,000 tons of Japanese shipping, including a destroyer. The submarine then fell victim to her 24th and last torpedo when it malfunctioned, circled back and hit the Tang, killing all but 9 of her 87-man crew.
The commander and other survivors were taken prisoner and spent the last ten months of the war in a prison near Tokyo, where they were subjected to beatings and a starvation diet. (He weighed 88lbs at the end of the war, he was over 6ft tall).
After the war, he was promoted to Captain and commanded the Submarine School in New London, Connecticut, before retiring as a Rear Admiral and settling in California. In retirement, he wrote two books about his war experiences: "Clear the Bridge" in 1977 and "Wahoo" in 1987.
Born in Durham, New Hampshire, where his father, Walter, was a professor at the University of New Hampshire. He graduated from the US Naval Academy in 1934.
He is survived by wife, Ernestine, whom he married in 1936 and who lives in Petaluma. February 2, 1911-February 16, 1994.
He is buried in Arlington National Cemetery, Section 59, Grave 874.
O'Kane MOH Citation:
Citation: For conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty as commanding officer of the U.S.S. Tang operating against 2 enemy Japanese convoys on 23 and 24 October 1944, during her fifth and last war patrol. Boldly maneuvering on the surface into the midst of a heavily escorted convoy, Comdr. O'Kane stood in the fusillade of bullets and shells from all directions to launch smashing hits on 3 tankers, coolly swung his ship to fire at a freighter and, in a split-second decision, shot out of the path of an onrushing transport, missing it by inches. Boxed in by blazing tankers, a freighter, transport, and several destroyers, he blasted 2 of the targets with his remaining torpedoes and, with pyrotechnics bursting on all sides, cleared the area. Twenty-four hours later, he again made contact with a heavily escorted convoy steaming to support the Leyte campaign with reinforcements and supplies and with crated planes piled high on each unit. In defiance of the enemy's relentless fire, he closed the concentration of ship and in quick succession sent 2 torpedoes each into the first and second transports and an adjacent tanker, finding his mark with each torpedo in a series of violent explosions at less than l,000-yard range. With ships bearing down from all sides, he charged the enemy at high speed, exploding the tanker in a burst of flame, smashing the transport dead in the water, and blasting the destroyer with a mighty roar which rocked the Tang from stem to stern. Expending his last 2 torpedoes into the remnants of a once powerful convoy before his own ship went down, Comdr. O'Kane, aided by his gallant command, achieved an illustrious record of heroism in combat, enhancing the finest traditions of the U.S. Naval Service.
Riveting stuff. The best of the genre.
Very timely! My wife and I and our youngest son walked the trail of battle of Kings Mountain just this past weekend. It had been more than a few years since I had been there, but it was still very moving to walk the ridge trail where the battle took place and read the signposts at various parts of the trail. Over a thousand patriot troops, including the Overmountain men, fought this battle against Major Patrick Ferguson and his equal number of "tories," loyalists who fought for England. The battle only lasted about an hour, Ferguson made the mistake of putting his men on top of the clear ridge, while the patriots fought from cover below! Heres a good link about this battle: Battle of Kings Mountain
The chapter about the patrol finding an American soldier who had been captured and was still alive just about made me throw up. What an awful decision to have to make. Talk about a real horror of war!
In one scene, a young Russian officer is shot off his horse, and lying wounded in the snow wonders detachedly why some French soldiers are running. He suddenly realizes "Could it be...to kill me? Me, whom everyone likes?"
Tolstoi commanded a battery in the Crimean war in the 1850's.
Nothing else that I have ever read really even comes within a country mile. Indeed, the cycle is as much geo-political history as a war story, but for truly understanding all aspects of World War Two -- including the actual fighting -- there is nothing more definitive on the face of the earth, nor will there ever be.
And Churchill is one of the great writers of our time, on top of all his other talents.
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