I blame all the people in the BoB rewatchSince its the Holidays and as such, we've all got some free time/disposable income how about a rec post on some of our favorite WWII/War-themed books
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Okay, I'm not half as well-read in terms of military non-fiction as some of you guys, but there's a few things I can think to recommend:
D-Day by Antony Beevor is a critically acclaimed and very readable overview of D-Day and the Normandy campaign, which covers it from just about every perspective possible: the Americans, the Brits, the Canadians, the Germans, and the French (both army and civilians). It's stuffed full of interesting little details and asides. Also, as a BoB fan of predictable tastes, I really liked getting to read about the Battle of Bloody Gulch (the battle where Harry Welsh blew up that tank) from the German side of things. Beevors' book on Stalingrad is apparently also excellent, though I haven't had the chance to read it yet.
Tail-End Charlies by John Nichols and Toby Rennell - it's been a while since I read this but I remember racing through it at the same time as I watched BoB for the very first time, and the sheer culmination of wartime drama putting me in a strange state of mind
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Charley's War by Pat Mills is pretty much a legendary work of British comics. It was a rare anti-war story in the otherwise rather gung-ho kids' war comic Battle, showing the horrors and injustices of WWI through the eyes of ordinary 16-year-old, Charley Bourne. Pat Mills isn't a subtle writer by any means, and some of it can be heavy-handed and obvious, but the plot clips along at an amazing pace (which comes of the story being a four-pages-a-week serial) and the narrative tension rarely drops. There are some fantastic set pieces, and the art is amazingly detailed.
Going Solo by Roald Dahl - I haven't read this since I was a child, but I remember adoring it and devouring it in a couple of sittings; it was certainly a major contributing factor to my juvenile obsession with WWII. The second half of the author's memoirs, it mostly focusses on his time as an RAF fighter pilot stationed in Greece. His descriptions of the experience of flight and aerial combat are just amazing.
Journey's End is something I so wanted to see in the vaunted Broadway production from a couple of years ago with Hugh Dancy and Stark Sands. It was so well-reviewed. I think I shall read the play. And just act it out in my living room.
Ha, that's pretty much how we did it at school, until we finally got to London to see it on stage. I believe there's been a couple of films done which are probably available by the usual channels - one made in 1930, and a TV movie from 1988. (Wikipedia tells me there's also Aces High, a 1976 film based on Journey's End but which for some reason transposes the setting to the Royal Flying Corps. I've got to track that one down.)
Anyway, I'm awfully fond of it. I mean, it does have exchanges like this:
MASON - Will you have a nice cup of tea, sir?
STANHOPE - Can you guarantee it's nice?
MASON - Well sir - it's a bit oniony, but that's only because of the saucepan.
STANHOPE - In other words, it's onion soup with tea-leaves in it?
MASON - Not till dinner-time, sir.
(Oh yes, that's possibly the other thing to mention. It's utterly, gratuitously British. Stiff upper lips, endless deadpan understatement, and public school nostalgia all over the place.)
Oh yes, that's possibly the other thing to mention. It's utterly, gratuitously British. Stiff upper lips, endless deadpan understatement, and public school nostalgia all over the place
I like the sound of Tail-End Charlies, as despite being interested in the RAF bomber crews for ages, I've not read much about them. Bomber Hall in the RAF Museum is my favourite section of the museum, I always linger far too long there and have to be chivvied along by the family.
D-Day by Antony Beevor is a critically acclaimed and very readable overview of D-Day and the Normandy campaign, which covers it from just about every perspective possible: the Americans, the Brits, the Canadians, the Germans, and the French (both army and civilians). It's stuffed full of interesting little details and asides. Also, as a BoB fan of predictable tastes, I really liked getting to read about the Battle of Bloody Gulch (the battle where Harry Welsh blew up that tank) from the German side of things.
Beevors' book on Stalingrad is apparently also excellent, though I haven't had the chance to read it yet.
Tail-End Charlies by John Nichols and Toby Rennell - it's been a while since I read this but I remember racing through it at the same time as I watched BoB for the very first time, and the sheer culmination of wartime drama putting me in a strange state of mind ( ... )
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Charley's War by Pat Mills is pretty much a legendary work of British comics. It was a rare anti-war story in the otherwise rather gung-ho kids' war comic Battle, showing the horrors and injustices of WWI through the eyes of ordinary 16-year-old, Charley Bourne.
Pat Mills isn't a subtle writer by any means, and some of it can be heavy-handed and obvious, but the plot clips along at an amazing pace (which comes of the story being a four-pages-a-week serial) and the narrative tension rarely drops. There are some fantastic set pieces, and the art is amazingly detailed.
Going Solo by Roald Dahl - I haven't read this since I was a child, but I remember adoring it and devouring it in a couple of sittings; it was certainly a major contributing factor to my juvenile obsession with WWII. The second half of the author's memoirs, it mostly focusses on his time as an RAF fighter pilot stationed in Greece. His descriptions of the experience of flight and aerial combat are just amazing.
Journey's End by RC ( ... )
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Anyway, I'm awfully fond of it. I mean, it does have exchanges like this:
MASON - Will you have a nice cup of tea, sir?
STANHOPE - Can you guarantee it's nice?
MASON - Well sir - it's a bit oniony, but that's only because of the saucepan.
STANHOPE - In other words, it's onion soup with tea-leaves in it?
MASON - Not till dinner-time, sir.
(Oh yes, that's possibly the other thing to mention. It's utterly, gratuitously British. Stiff upper lips, endless deadpan understatement, and public school nostalgia all over the place.)
Reply
gratuitously British. Stiff upper lips, endless deadpan understatement,
and public school nostalgia all over the place
Sounds vaguely homoerotic.
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OSBORNE - You don't know him as I do; I love that fellow. I'd go to hell with him.
HARDY - Oh, you sweet, sentimental old darling!
And that's 7 pages in.
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