Current Reading--Spring 2014

We don't seem to have a "what are you reading" thread going at the moment. So, here goes.

I have recently started Knight's Cross: A Life of Field Marshal Erwin Rommel by David Fraser, which is, of course, mostly about the WW2 years, although I haven't quite gotten to them yet.

"The Soviet Union at War 1941-1945," edited by David R. Stone

Two great sea stories: My Sea Lady: An Epic Memoir of the Arctic Convoys -British trawler on the Murmansk run, and, Ambushed Under the Southern Cross: The Making of an American Merchant Marine Officer and His Ensuing Saga of Courage and Survival, merchant mariner captured by German raider, survives Japanese POW camp.

Just finished: Hitler's Spanish Legion: The Blue Division in Russia in WWII… (edition 2014)
by Gerald R. Kleinfeld, Lewis Tamb...Stackpole has rereleased this volume in paperback. THe previous HB had run out of print and was pretty expensive to purchase.

Recommended to you Ostfront fans, particularly on the fighting in the northern front around Leningrad.

I'm still reading the Rommel bio and also am reading A Call to Arms: Mobilizing America for World War II by Maury Klein.

I highly recommend Call to Arms, very informative.

#6: Yes, I agree--a very comprehensive coverage of the subject (and one that's right up my alley as I'm an economic historian).

Rewatched HBO's "The Pacific" which got me to reread With the Old Breed: At Peleliu and Okinawa by E.B. Sledge.
I highly recommend both.

and Helmet for My Pillow: From Parris Island to the Pacific
by Robert Leckie

Just started Out of the Depths: An Unforgettable WWII Story of Survival, Courage, and the Sinking of the USS Indianappolis from the Early Review batch

Finished Out of the Depths. While the sinking of the Indianappolis would have been unfortunate at any time, I can't help but wonder how the war would have been changed if the Japanese had sunk her before she reached Tinian.

Read: Omaha Beach: D-Day, June 6, 1944 by Joseph Balkoski

TBR: Utah Beach: The Amphibious Landing and Airborne Operations on D-Day, June 6, 1944 … by Joseph Balkoski

These two remind me how fortunate I was to make two trips to Normandy; Omaha, Utah & Juno beaches; the casino at Ouistreham, Merville Battery, Pointe du Hoc, Sainte-Mère-Église (still with a parachute draped over the church tower), and having a Calvados at Cafe Gondree by Pegasus Bridge. Such incredible bravery still amazes me.

Read Marine at War by Russell Davis and the old standard Currahee, both recommended.

Besides Donald R. Burgett's Currahee; also read his: The Road to Arnhem: A Screaming Eagle in Holland, Seven Roads to Hell: A Screaming Eagle at Bastogne and Beyond the Rhine: A Screaming Eagle in Germany. Quite a set of memoirs.

'Half-way through Ernie's Brave Men. It's taking me a while, and it certainly isn't because the prose is particularly difficult.

Oh, I should also mention that my old, yellowed 1944 copy is a "Wartime Book" and is "in full compliance with the conservator's regulations for conserving paper and other essential materials."

I'm currently reading Roosevelt's Centurions by Joseph Persico and also am in the WW2 stages of Chiang Kai-Shek: China's Generalissimo and the Nation He Lost by Jonathan Fenby.

I'm now reading Nomonhan, 1939 by Stuart Goldman.