Transforming Hitler's Germany

Transforming Hitler’s Germany written by Tim Heath & Annmarie Vickers and published by Pen & Sword Books - £25 - Hardback - Pages 272

As the last flames of the Second World War flickered and died, Germany emerged into

an apocalyptic wasteland, where the Hitler Youth generation would be cursed with the

running sore of National Socialism. With the uncaged bear of the Soviet Union flexing

its muscles and the escalating tensions between East and West providing some

distraction from the funeral pyre of the Third Reich, those living in West Germany soon

understood that they were the geological bulkhead, a component in the prevention of

communism spreading throughout the infantile peace of post-Second World War Europe.

Despite all the destruction and political tensions which surrounded them, the young men and women of Germany were keen to experience the world beyond their own precarious borders. In August 1945, Tia Schuster and Lisa Kraus were two fourteen-year-old Berliners, and - like many - they found themselves shoehorned into what was to be the second ‘new era’ of their young lives. The first had brought about only death and destruction, yet this second had a cold unfamiliarity about it.

As the late 1940s gave way to the 1950s and ‘60s, a series of new decadent eras - of rock-n-roll, fashion, flower power and sexual revolution - was on the horizon, which posed a threat to the traditional German way of life championed by the Nazi regime and post-Second World War German government. With this heady mixture of new-found freedom, the youth of Germany unwittingly became a feature of everything that both fascism and communism despised.

This unique work tells the story of the tentative steps taken by young men and women into the ‘afterlife of Nazi Germany’. Encompassing memoirs along the way, it presents a quirky portrayal of charm, humour, mischief and personal accomplishment along with a vitally important slice of (West) Germany’s social history, which has remained hidden from the literary world for decades. 

Transforming Hitler’s Germany is a book that follows the lives of a number of young people but particularly  Tia Schuster, Lisa Kraus and friends. The book follows how they saw life whilst living under the Nazi party, but then life in Germany after WW2 in Berlin. The book through notes and letters, looks at their beliefs about life post-war ranging on a number of subjects such as music, love, relationships, sexuality, education, work, growing up and also social influences that were filtering through from the west. I believe that this is an important book that looks at the social history of young people in Germany, which I know from reading I think, five previous Tim Heath books, and I personally think that the addition of Annmarie Vickers, gives an extra balance and maybe a little more female influence to the book. I always enjoy a Tim Heath book as he often concentrates on the social side or the lives and views of women and children living through WW2 Germany, something we don’t hear much about.

I would like to say finally, that being a Dad to teenage boys 18 & 19, they could learn a lot from this book, as I got a lot out of reading this first-class book. A fine book I would highly recommend to anyone interested in social history or the lives and thoughts of young people. An early contender for one of my top ten books of the year already.

Spies Who Changed History

Spies Who Changed History written by Nigel West and published by Frontline

Books - £25 - Hardback - Pages 256

Spies have made an extraordinary impact on the history of the 20th Century, but fourteen

in particular can be said to have been demonstrably important. As one might expect, few

are household names, and it is only with the benefit of recently declassified files that we

can now fully appreciate the nature of their contribution.

The criteria for selection have been the degree to which each can now be seen to have had a very definite influence on a specific course of events, either directly, by passing vital classified material, or indirectly, by organizing or managing a group of spies. Those selected were active in the First World War, the inter-war period, the Second World War, the Cold War and even the post-Cold War era.

These include Walther Dewé who formed a spy ring in German-occupied Belgium during the First World War. This train-watching network, known as ‘White Lady’, reported on German troop deployments and possible weaknesses in the German defences. Extending its operations into northern France, the ring provided 75 per cent of the information received by GHQ, British Expeditionary Force. By the time of the Armistice in 1918, Dewé’s group had a staggering 1,300 members.

Olga Gray, the 27-year-old daughter of a Daily Mail journalist, was employed as a secretary by the Communist Party of Great Britain. In 1931 she undertook a mission for MI5 to penetrate the organization and discover its secret channel of communication with Moscow. Gray learned that the Party’s cipher was based on Treasure Island and this breakthrough enabled the Party’s messages to be read by Whitehall cryptographers.

These, and other surprising stories, are revealed in this fascinating insight into a secret world inhabited by mysterious and shadowy characters, all of whom, though larger than life, really did exist.

This book Spies Who Changed History, basically tells the stories of 24 spies from around the world in each chapter, these range from the Great War up to the end of the Cold War. These are all well-written and go into good detail about the spying missions, the cause and the outcome. I quite enjoyed this book as the stories were more factual rather than the added-on fiction or adjectively based. So I think those who want more detail in their reading will enjoy this book. I have also read a couple of Nigel West books previously and his book is always of a detailed kind and are comprehensively informed. A good book for the spy lover.

Tank Craft 37: M60 Main Battle Tank

Tank Craft 37: M60 Main Battle Tank written by David Grummitt and published

by Pen & Sword Books - £16.99 - Softcover - Pages 64

The M60 was a second-generation American main battle tank, the last in the line of Patton tanks

that had first been developed at the end of World War. It entered operational service with the US

Army in 1960 and some 15,000 M60s were manufactured by Chrysler at the Detroit Tank Arsenal

Plant between then and when production ceased in 1983. It served with both the US Army and the

US Marine Corps and was the principal tank deployed in Europe in the ‘sixties, ‘seventies and

early ‘eighties, providing NATO’s main armoured force at the height of the Cold War. It became

one of the most widely used armoured fighting vehicles of the twentieth century, serving in the

armies of over 25 countries. It continued to serve alongside the M1 Abrams into the 1990s before

this venerable Cold War warrior was finally retired from active service with the US military in 1997.

This volume charts the development of the M60 from its origins in World War II to the Cold War. It focuses on its service with the US military and other NATO armies, examining its combat service in the First Gulf War and also with other armies in the Middle East. The book gives a full account of the wide range of kits and accessories available in all the popular scales and a modelling gallery features builds covering a range of M60s in service with various armed forces. Detailed colour profiles provide both reference and inspiration for modellers and military enthusiasts alike.

A fantastic book that really does sell and make the M60 Main Battle Tank look really good, and I really enjoyed this book, maybe it’s because this tank and book focus on the Cold War era of tanks, which just makes a nice change from WW2. It shows the main differences and the changes needed for tank warfare in the later period, as the Cold War was changing things. Yet again these are highly crafted books from Pen & Sword Books as usual with great text, photography and detail throughout the book. Certainly, a book that is going to appeal to all model makers who love tank warfare. Highly recommended.