Spartacus Review

Volume 6: 15th November, 2007

Second World War

Title: Voices from the Dark Years

Author: Douglas Boyd

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Publisher: Sutton

Price: £19.99

Bookshop: Amazon

Spartacus Website: French Resistance

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What was life really like in German-occupied France during the Second World War? Douglas Boyd paints the clearest picture yet, using hitherto unpublished first-person accounts of ordinary men and women who lived through this extraordinary and dangerous time, when a few made fortunes, but most went cold and hungry. Less than 1 per cent of the French was pro-German. Is it pure coincidence that the same percentage actively resisted the Germans despite knowing that, if caught, their husbands, wives and children were considered equally culpable under the brutal Teutonic principle of Sippenhaft - guilt by association? Using new, meticulously researched material, Douglas Boyd tells an enthralling and sometimes chilling narrative history of the Occupation, as lived by the French people. It is a record of great heroism and ultimate cruelty. Read it and ask yourself, 'How would I have reacted, living in Occupied France?' The answer may surprise you.

Title: USN Carriers v IJN Carriers

Author: Mark Stille

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Publisher: Osprey

Price: £12.99

Bookshop: Amazon

Spartacus Website: Second World War Sea

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As the Pacific war escalated into the largest naval conflict in history the role of the carrier, the most revolutionary and formidable of all naval weapons, became the linchpin of American and Japanese naval strategy. Finally in 1942, across the huge expanses of the Pacific, these rival carriers found themselves locked in a death struggle as they duelled for dominance of this critical theatre of war. Exploring the four major carrier clashes of Coral Sea, Midway, Eastern Solomons and Santa Cruz, this book dramatically reveals the experiences of the airmen and guncrews of the rival vessels as they battled for victory in a duel of skill, tenacity and guts.

Title: Visions of Victory

Author: Gerhard L. Weinberg

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Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Price: £14.99

Bookshop: Amazon

Spartacus Website: Adolf Hitler

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Visions of Victory explores the views of eight leaders of the major powers of World War II - Hitler, Mussolini, Tojo, Chiang Kai-shek, Stalin, Churchill, de Gaulle, and Roosevelt. He compares their visions of the future in the event of victory. While the leaders primarily focused on fighting and winning the war, their decisions were often shaped by their aspirations for the future. What emerges is a startling picture of postwar worlds. After exterminating the Jews, Hitler intended for all Slavs to die so Germans could inhabit Eastern Europe. Mussolini and Hitler wanted extensive colonies in Africa. Churchill hoped for the re-emergence of British and French empires. De Gaulle wanted to annex the northwest corner of Italy. Stalin wanted to control Eastern Europe. Roosevelt's vision included establishing the United Nations. Weinberg's comparison of the individual portraits of the war-time leaders is a highly original and compelling study of history that might have been.

Title: The Battle of Hurtgen Forest

Author: Charles Whiting

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Publisher: Spellmount

Price: £9.99

Bookshop: Amazon

Spartacus Website: Second World War Battles

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This text is an account of the battle of Hurtgen Forest on the German/Belgian border, in WW2, which ran from September 1944 to February 1945. Thirty thousand US soldiers were killed or wounded during this hellish battle. Thirty thousand American GIs were killed or wounded in the longest battle ever fought by the US Army - a battle that should never have been fought.