Sea Wolves Savage Submarine Commanders of WW2

Sea Wolves Savage Submarine Commanders of WW2 written by Tony Matthews

and published by Pen & Sword Books - £25 - Hardback - Pages 272

From the heart-rending account of the sinking of the German liner Wilhelm Gustloff in 1945 — the worst maritime disaster in world history — through to a variety of other brutal actions carried out by numerous submarine commanders, including the sinking of the hospital ship Centaur in 1943, this book comes from the deep shadows of a tragic past to reveal the terrible truth of a secretive war that was responsible for the deaths of unimaginable numbers of innocent people.

Discover how merchant seamen were savagely machine-gunned in the water, callously

slaughtered with hand-grenades or simply left to the circling sharks. Elsewhere, hundreds

of doctors, nurses, ship’s crew, ambulance drivers and hospital orderlies were viciously

killed without compassion, despite being protected by the Geneva Convention.

Sea Wolves: Savage Submarine Commander of WW2 features true stories of deeply

murderous intent that lurked menacingly beneath the waves.

You could argue that this is a rather gloomy book and you could say that war is dark, but this book does look at 4 military situations in which a lot of death occurred. The four commanders were Nakagawa, Eck, Ariizumi & Marinsko and these commanders were involved in the sinking of a hospital ship, killing or torturing survivors and evacuating civilians. The stories or incidents were very well told and I suppose we have to remember the bad things that happen in the hope of never repeating them or just because everyone deserves to be remembered no matter how they killed. While this is a good book, if you want a broader telling of submariners at war, you would go for a different title. But the book does stand as a good and well-researched book and one I would be happy to recommend.

Defeating the Panzer-Stuka Menace - British Spigot Weapons of the Second World War

Defeating the Panzer-Stuka Menace - British Spigot Weapons of the Second

World War written by David Lister and published by Frontline Books - £25 -

Hardback - Pages 264

Unlike conventional mortars, a spigot mortar does not have a barrel through with

the round is fired. Instead, the general concept involves a steel rod – the ‘spigot’ –

onto which the bomb is placed before it is fired. This design was, as David Lister

reveals, the basis of a number of successful weapons used during the Second

World War.

The myth of the PIAT man-portable anti-tank weapon is, for example, tied closely to British paratroopers struggling in the ruins of Arnhem with an inadequate design, one inferior to the German equivalent. Similarly, the myth of the Blacker Bombard is of a useless weapon, one of dubious quality, that was dumped on the unsuspecting Home Guard.

In reality, neither scenario is the case. Both weapons were devastating creations of war, often superior to any other nation’s counterpart.

At sea, the Hedgehog anti-submarine weapon was another powerful spigot weapon. It was undoubtedly capable of sweeping the U-boats from the sea and even winning the Battle of the Atlantic before it had really begun. That it did not is one of the great scandals of the Second World War, one hidden by wartime secrecy until now.

In Defeating the Panzer-Stuka Menace the author explores a large number of spigot weapons from the Second World War, many of which were created by the fertile mind of one of Britain’s great weapon inventors, Latham Valentine Stewart Blacker.

I must admit I started to read this thinking I wouldn’t really find it interesting, but quite the opposite, I really enjoyed this book. The book looks at small arms weapons that would be used against anything bigger than a man. We had the spigot gun used to take out a tank from a roadside, a PIAT, another anti tank weapon and then the Hedgehog, a weapon that would shoot small rockets to attack submarines. A whole range of weapons were shown, displayed and explained. A really fascinating read, and I commend the author David Lister for writing a detailed well explained book which was easy to read and understand. The book was complemented by some really good photographs and diagrams which also helped understand the weapons and processes they went through. I would definitely recommend this book.

Hitler’s Traitors - German Resistance to the Nazis

Hitler’s Traitors - German Resistance to the Nazis  written by Susan Ottaway

published by Pen & Sword Books - £19.95 - Hardback - Pages 224

This is the story of the groups and individuals that opposed Hitler and his government

and tells of their heroic, but largely ineffective, efforts to rid themselves of the most evil

regime in modern times. They came from many different backgrounds - Protestant

pastors, catholic bishops, politicians, military men, students and even a member of the

Waffen SS. Sadly, by the time the Nazi regime came to an end most of those Germans

who had resisted it were dead, arrested, imprisoned, tried and executed in the most

barbaric manner.

This book takes a look at individuals and groups that were opposed to Adolf Hitler and the Nazis. While I found this book an interesting read, the book starts out with the rise of Hitler and the emergence of the NSDAP party in post-war WWI Germany. Then the last two-thirds of the book was dedicated to the resistance against Hitler, which was good and interesting to read, but it wasn’t really anything new or anything we hadn’t already heard before. The book felt like a book of its time of publishing both in style and reading. The book was published in 2003, and while the info is good, it feels of the year 2003. I must say though that the b/w photos in the middle of the book were of interest, and a number I hadn’t really seen before. A good book if you're interested in getting into the subject.

March Past! Memoir of a Commando Leader from Lofoten to Dieppe & D-Day

March Past! Memoir of a Commando Leader from Lofoten to Dieppe & D-Day

written by Lord Simon Frazer and published by Frontline Books - £25 -

Hardback - Pages 400

At the outbreak of war in 1940, Simon Frazer, the 15th Lord Lovat and a former

Guards officer, was mobilized from the reserve list to join the Lovat Scouts, the

British Army’s first sniper unit that had been formed by his father during the Boer

War. The following year he volunteered for one of the new Commando units then

being created.

Lovat was personally involved in the training of the Commando troops on the West coast of Scotland. He was eventually attached to, and led, No.4 Commando. On 3 March 1941, Nos. 3 and 4 Commando launched a raid on the German-occupied Lofoten Islands. In this successful attack, Operation Claymore, the commandos destroyed fish-oil factories, petrol dumps, and even eleven ships. They also seized encryption equipment and codebooks, as well as captured 216 German troops.

Promoted to temporary major, Lovat led 100 men of No.4 Commando and a 50-man detachment from the Canadian Carleton and York Regiment in a raid on the French coastal village of Hardelot in April 1942. For this action he was awarded the Military Cross on 7 July that year.

Lord Lovat was involved in further raids against the German-held French coast, most notably Dieppe, during which No.4 Commando destroyed the coastal battery at Varengeville-sur-Mer in a text-book commando attack. This resulted in Lovat being awarded the DSO.

Such was the effect the Commando raids had on German morale, Lovat had 100,000 Reichmarks placed on his head, dead or alive.

Promoted to brigadier, Lovat formed the 1st Special Service Brigade (later the 1st Commando Brigade) which stormed ashore on D-Day to secure the eastern flank of the attacking forces. In this, he famously instructed his personal piper, Bill Millin, to pipe the commandos and himself ashore, in defiance of specific orders not to allow such an action in battle. In the subsequent fighting Lovat was seriously wounded, effectively ending his active career.

March Past! Is a book about Simon Frazer, the 15th Lord Lovat who would become on of

the original men who help set up and train young Commando soldiers based up in Scotland.

In fact if you read those old Commando comic books as a kid, Lord Lovat was one of those

men the comic books could have been based upon. His career, where he fought, what he did

and achieved were feats of heroes. This book is based upon his memoirs and they have

been put together in a great way that shows the real portrayal of a real hero who achieved

some astounding feats in WWII. The other thing that stood out was this was a man who was

blessed with being from a ‘higher’ position, and yet he was one of those men who mixed well

with his fellow soldiers, he was one of the guys. A really good book put together well and

really sells the story of a real hero.

Hitler's Henchmen - Nazi Executioners and How They Escaped Justice After WWII

Hitler's Henchmen - Nazi Executioners and How They Escaped Justice After WWII

written by Helmut Ortner and published by Frontline Books - £18.99 - Hardback -

Pages 136

Helmut Ortner reveals a staggering history of perpetrators, victims and bystanders in

Hitler’s Germany. He explores the shocking evidence of a merciless era – and of the

shameful omissions of post-war German justice.

Johann Reichhart was a state-appointed judicial executioner in Bavaria from 1924 until the end of the war in Europe. During the Nazi era, he executed numerous people who were sentenced to death for resisting National Socialism, including many of those involved in the 20 July 1944 bomb plot on Adolf Hitler.

As a member of the SS-Totenkopfverbände, the SS organisation responsible for administering the concentration and extermination camps, Arnold Strippel served at a number of locations during his rise to the rank of SS-Obersturmführer. These included Natzweiler-Struthof, Buchenwald, Majdanek, Ravensbrück and Neuengamme, where he was responsible for murdering the victims of a series of tuberculosis medical experiments. Like Reichhart, Erich Schwinge was also involved in the legal sphere during the Third Reich. A German military lawyer, in 1931 he became a professor of law and, from 1936, wrote the legal commentary on German military criminal law that was decisive during the Nazi era.

Aside from the part they played in Hitler’s regime, these three men all had one further thing in common – they survived the war and restarted their careers in Adenauer’s Federal Republic of Germany.

In Hitler’s Henchmen, Helmut Ortner uncovers the full stories of Reichhart, Strippel, Schwinge and others like them, Nazi perpetrators who enjoyed post-war careers as judges, university professors, doctors and politicians. Had they been gutless cogs in the machinery of the Nazi state, or ideologized persecutors? Ortner reveals that it was not only their Nazi pasts that were forgotten, but how the suffering of the victims, including resistance fighters such as Georg Elser and Maurice Becaud, and their relatives was suppressed and ignored.

This book looks at various people that were part of the Nazi regime managed to escape blame and carry on a significant lifestyle after the war. The whole book was well written and quite interesting, with quite a bit of research gone into it in what is usually a complicated Nazi regime, but I should probably say that I preferred the second half of the book. Which veered off more into two lesser known assassination attempts on the life of Hitler. In summary I liked this book and I found it quite interesting, but I felt it was two books in one.

Hurricanes in Action Worldwide

Hurricanes in Action Worldwide written by Adrian Stewart and published by

Pen & Sword Books - £22 - Hardback - Pages 224

The Hawker Hurricane was the RAF’s most valuable fighter asset in the Second World

War, yet even today is relatively under-appreciated by the general public. Yet from the

early months of the war it was the single engine fighter most often encountered by the

Luftwaffe and during the Battle of Britain it made 80% of the successful interdictions of

enemy formations.

As this superbly researched book written by a leading authority on the air war reveals, this was only the start of the Hurricane’s war service. Its reliability and versatility ensured that variants saw action in more war theatres worldwide than any other fighter. Indeed, as the RAF’s Official History recalls ‘Everywhere the Ubiquitous Hurricane was to be seen’.

This book follows the ‘Hurri’ to Russia, Malta, North Africa and as far afield as Burma, Sumatra and Java.

Seaborne versions fought in the Battle of the Atlantic and defended the Mediterranean convoys. In the ground attack role Hurricane fighter bombers made countless sweeps over occupied Europe. Pilots’ first-hand accounts supplement the text.

Readers are left in no doubt as to the massive contribution that the Hurricane made to ultimate victory.

As the blurb says on the back of the book, the hurricanes were the planes of the RAF that were doing the donkey work of the flying rather than the ‘glorious’ Spitfire that gets all the praise. This book intends to sell the hurricane to the reader which it does do a great job in doing, as it talks about the heroes, the dogfights and we hear all the stories from around the world where the hurricanes had a strong influence. But there was a minor point for me in the book and that was that it seemed to be missing something, maybe there was a lack of characters, or maybe it was just me and all we wallow in is the glories of the Spitfire. But other than that this was a good read, and it was nice to read about the Hurricane rather than the Spitfire. The book has enough good pictures, and those who are big fans of the Hurricane will enjoy this book.

From the Battlefield to the Big Screen - Audie Murphy, Laurence Olivier, Vivien Leigh and Dirk Bogarde in WW2

From the Battlefield to the Big Screen - Audie Murphy, Laurence Olivier, Vivien

Leigh and Dirk Bogarde in WW2 written by Melody Foreman and published by

Frontline Books - £22 - Hardback - Pages 248

Look closely behind the lives of the stars who appeared in a host of legendary war films

and discover how memories of their real-life experiences in the armed forces were

haunted with heartbreak and yet filled with extraordinary heroism. Just what did America’s

most decorated soldier Audie Murphy go through in battle which led him to star as himself

in the classic war film, To Hell and Back?

When the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor in December 1941, Murphy joined the US Army aged just 17. He went on to fight at Anzio, the Colmar Pocket, and Nuremberg. And for single-handedly holding off an enemy attack he was awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor. But Murphy’s military and celebrity stardom did little to extinguish the pain of his private battle to fit in to a new post-war world he perceived as disappointing, shallow and unfulfilling. Tormented by PTSD Murphy was a man unable to escape from his past. Only the great director and decorated wartime documentary maker John Huston gained Murphy’s true respect.

When war broke out on 3 September 1939, a number of British stars, including Laurence Olivier, his future wife Vivien Leigh, and David Niven, were in the United States under contract to the Hollywood Studios. Keen not to ‘shirk their duties at home’, and against advice from the British Consul, they made their way back to Blighty.

Olivier joined the Royal Navy’s Fleet Air Arm as a pilot. Then with Churchill’s approval he directed and starred in powerful propaganda films, including Shakespeare’s Henry V. In 1943 the beautiful Vivien Leigh ruined her health by enduring the brutalities of the North African climate to entertain the troops in the desert. Meantime, Dirk Bogarde was a British Army intelligence officer seconded to the pioneering RAF Medmenham where he studied aerial photographs and pinpointed enemy targets for Bomber Command. As Lieutenant van den Bogaerde he was posted to France just after D-Day. He went on to star in many leading war films such as Appointment in London (1953) and King and Country (1964). Years later in 1991 Sir Dirk Bogarde was interviewed by the author of this book. He had witnessed the horrors of Belsen in April 1945 and said it changed his attitude to life forever.

In this book, the author honours the real-life stories of some big screen idols who showed true grit behind the glamour.

This book takes a look at four individual film stars and their lives as military figures and and their roles as Hollywood film stars. The book takes a look at all four people Audie Murphy, Laurence Oliver, Vivean Leigh and Dirk Bogarde, and they all come into the war at various times and hold different roles in  different arms of the forces. The book was an interesting one and it was nice to read about their experiences, but the book didn’t really grab my interest, I think this is maybe because I don’t really have much knowledge of the four stars and this book might be aimed more at older readers.

Women Interned in World War Two Sumatra

Women Interned in World War Two Sumatra written by Barbara Coombes
and published by Pen & Sword Books - £25 - Hardback - Pages 272

Thousands of women and children were among those who struggled to leave

Singapore just before capitulation on February 15 1942; their hope was to reach

safety. For many that hope was never realised; countless numbers drowned as

ships were bombed and sunk on their way to ‘safety’. The ‘lucky’ ones who

survived the onslaught of the ships would become guests of the Japanese; many

of these would not live to see the end of the war.

Two very different women fleeing on those last ships and subsequently interned in

camps throughout Sumatra were Margaret Dryburgh, a missionary and teacher, and

Shelagh Brown, a secretary at the Singapore Naval Base. Their paths crossed briefly

prior to the catastrophic events of 1942 and met again in internment. The ‘Captives

Hymn’ composed by Margaret Dryburgh was initially sung by herself along with

Shelagh Brown and friend Dorothy MacLeod on 5 July 1942. It has since been sung

at services throughout internment and continues to be sung at services all over the

world. Music and faith were fundamental to both their lives and Margaret’s creative

talents lifted the spirits of everyone during those dark and difficult days.

In a remarkable partnership, when the women were struggling to find something new

that would lift their flagging spirits, Margaret and fellow internee Norah Chambers

produced a ‘Vocal Orchestra’ using women’s voices in place of instruments. The

first performance stunned the entire camp; they had never heard anything so

beautiful and momentarily made them feel that they were free and floating away

with the music.

This true account, using personal diaries and family documents traces Margaret

Dryburgh and Shelagh Brown’s journey from childhood through to adulthood and

internment. Early life shapes adult life and perhaps contributed to their response to

captivity which showed courage, tenacity, perseverance and surprisingly, given the

appalling conditions, a good deal of humour.

Women Interned in World War Two Sumatra follows the story of two women
from Singapore that had been living there but were trying to flee when the
Japanese invaded in 1942. The story follows Margaret Dryburgh and Shelagh
Brown, two quite different women bought together by harsh circumstances.
We see how the two women try to keep their spirits up during a time of
confinement, we learn how the two women grew up from children and how
they became strong women and what they had to go through from primary
sources and personal accounts. I found this book/story to be quite a moving
one, and if you want to learn what life is like as a prisoner in a camp in a
foreign country, this book is certainly up there with the best of them. It has
certainly been quite a moving book to read.

Save the Last Bullet - Memoir of a Boy Soldier in Hitler's Army

Save the Last Bullet - Memoir of a Boy Soldier in Hitler's Army written by

Wilhelm Langbein & Heidi Langbein-Allen and published by Pen & Sword Books

- £20 - Hardback - Pages 192

Willi Langbein was just thirteen when the Nazis took him away from his parents under

the pretence of protecting him. Their real reason was to turn him into cannon-fodder for

use against Hitler’s enemies. Deployed to the collapsing Eastern Front in the last days

of the war, Willi, now aged fourteen, and his schoolmates were ordered to stave off the

relentless Russian advance. None were expected to return alive from the final battles

of the Third Reich.

Yet, against all odds, Willi does survive but his ordeal is far from over. He returns home to find everything he knows destroyed. Numb and confused, he is mandated to serve one year of forced farm labour. After his release, he gradually realizes that all he was taught to believe in was a lie and he sinks into depression. Eventually, thanks to his friendship with a kind British soldier, he begins to heal. It begins to dawn on him that he can play a part to ensure that the evil he witnessed is never repeated. Ultimately, he succeeds by earning the Medal of European Merit in 1979 for his contribution to the advancement of European democracy.

Willi’s graphic and moving story, told from a Nazi child soldier’s perspective, is an inspiring memoir of lost innocence and despair, but also of determination and hope restored.

I imagine that what is starting to be done in Russia at the moment, is what happened to Wilhelm Langbein, in that he was taken away from his parents by the state and indoctrinated and taught to believe in the military way. A process by which groups of children are taken forcibly by the state and ‘educated’ to believe what the state wants them to believe, for you then to become a soldier declaring undying obedience to that country. Wilhelm would end up being taken and thrown into the war aged 14, where lucky for him, he survived. He would then be forced into working hard labour where he would strike up a friendship with a British soldier who would in a way give him a chance to see the realities of live and people. Wilhelm would go on to campaign for peace and be rewarded. This is a book about courage, strength and perceverance, an excellent book written by Heidi Langbein-Allen who has done her father proud.

Eyewitness at Dieppe - The Only First-Hand Account of WWII's Most Disastrous Raid

Eyewitness at Dieppe - The Only First-Hand Account of WWII's Most Disastrous

Raid written by Ross Reyburn and published by Pen & Sword Books - £20 -

Hardcover - Pages 192

In August 1942, Allied forces mounted an attack on the German-held port of Dieppe; titled Operation Jubilee, it represented a rehearsal for invasion. The amphibious attack saw over 6,000 infantrymen, predominantly Canadian, put ashore, tasked with destroying German structures and gathering intelligence.

The doomed raid was an abject failure and became Canada’s worst military disaster.

Eyewitness at Dieppe is a long-overdue reissue of New Zealand-born writer Wallace Reyburn’s dramatic account of the raid. He was with the first soldiers clambering ashore, and aboard the last ship returning to England after six hours of carnage.

Awarded an OBE as the only war correspondent to witness the street fighting first-hand, Reyburn was fortunate not to be numbered among Dieppe’s dead, suffering just a minor wound inflicted by mortar shell fragments. His book, Rehearsal for Invasion was a wartime bestseller.

Accompanied by freelance journalist Ross Reyburn’s new foreword on his father’s account, this new edition tells us more about Wallace’s intriguing life and details the shortcomings of his father’s book, dictated by wartime censorship corrected in the post-war years through a withering condemnation of raid’s mastermind Lord Mountbatten.

Eyewitness to Dieppe is another very good book as it gives the first-hand opinions of someone who was there to experience the attack. The book is put together by Ross Reyburn, the son of journalist or war correspondent Wallace Reyburn, it’s put together using his written accounts at the time, his opinions about how things went and in quite a few parts he gives his take on certain events that happened. It is good to have accounts of what happened but it should be remembered that Wallace Reyburn wrote his accounts whilst in the thick of the action so his opinions are of what he experienced at the time, where we have since learned some of the events might have been slightly different when you look at all the information as a whole. Reyburn is quite rightly proud of the way the predominantly Canadian troops behaved and fought, but when you look at the action as a whole there were big mistakes made by those in charge, something Rayburn is not afraid to talk about in the book.

Ross Reyburn has done a good job of putting this book together and it’s nice to read an

account of someone on the ground, interesting to see how another side of a story can

differ from another. A very good book and I enjoyed this more personal account of an event.

Battle - Understanding Conflict from Hastings to Helmand

Battle - Understanding Conflict from Hastings to Helmand written by Graeme

Callister & Rachael Whitbread published by Pen & Sword Books - £25 -

Hardback - Pages 288

What are the critical factors that determine the outcome of battles? Which is more decisive in a

clash of arms: armies or the societies they represent? How important is the leadership of the

commanders, the terrain over which the armies fight, the weapons they use and the supplies

they depend on? And what about the rules of war and the strategic thinking and tactics of the

time? These are among the questions Graeme Callister and Rachael Whitbread seek to answer

as they demonstrate the breadth of factors that need to be taken into account to truly understand

battle.

Their book traces the evolution of warfare over time, exploring the changing influence of the social, political, technological and physical landscape on the field of battle itself. They examine how the motivation of the combatants and their methods of fighting have changed, and they illustrate their conclusions with vivid, carefully chosen examples from across a range of Western European military history, including the Norman Conquest, the Hundred Years War, the Wars of Religion, the Napoleonic Wars and the world wars, and beyond.

By exploring the wide range of interconnected factors that influence the results of battles, the authors broaden the study of this aspect of military history from a narrow focus on isolated episodes of conflict. Their original and thought-provoking writing will be fascinating reading for all students of warfare.

This is a very fascinating book indeed that looks at warfare and the reasons why we have

warfare from 1066 right up to modern-day warfare. Each chapter in this book looks are

various battles and explains one of the most prominent reasons for that battle or why it

was fought. For example, just from the first three chapters, cover Society, Grand Strategy

and Leadership and how these all played a major part in particular battles. We also have

chapters on Landscapes, Tactics and Logistics to name a few more. Some of the reasons

are explained and open up new aspects to various battles that some might not have

thought about before, but they also explain a good number of other factors. I must admit

that I really enjoyed this book and it made for a really fascinating read. It reminded me of

books on military history at university where the answers aren’t always clear to see on the

surface, certainly a book for those that like to think more deeply into the subject of military

history. I would like to see another similar book like this, looking at a wider number of

battles or maybe battles involving fighting in the air or on sea. An excellent book. 

Great Escape Forger - The Work of Carl Holmstrom POW #221 An Artist in Stalag Luft III

Great Escape Forger - The Work of Carl Holmstrom POW #221 An Artist in

Stalag Luft III written by Susan Holmstrom Kohnowich and published by

Pen & Sword Books - £25 - Hardback - Pages 168

As one of many artists confined in Stalag Luft III, Carl Holmstrom’s superb artwork depicts life as a

Kriegie created with the perspective only a prisoner of war could draw upon as an eyewitness to

history. He spent the majority of his captivity in that camp made famous by The Great Escape, later

made into an award-winning film.

While a POW, he sketched his fellow prisoners and encouraged others to take up drawing as hobby, thus breaking the boredom of camp life. But his artistic ability proved to be even more important. Carl forged invaluable official German documents for escape purposes for other prisoners—work that was tedious and painstaking. Remarkably, he saved over 200 examples of his work by carrying them on the appallingly-arduous 1945 winter march through Germany when the camp was evacuated as the Russians closed in from the east

Post-war, Carl Holmstrom said, ‘The drawings were made during imprisonment and represent a sincere effort to portray to the American people and especially to the relatives of the prisoners, intimate glimpses of Kriegie life.’ His words proved to be prophetic.

His daughter, Susan Holmstrom Kohnowich, spent five years working on an expansion of Carl’s earlier self-published Kriegie Life book. Extensive research went into the write-ups under the drawings and the biographies of the men in the portraits. This superb book honours Carl’s exceptional artistic gift. Indeed, it has a strong claim to contain the finest collection of POW art to emerge from Nazi-occupied Europe.

I found this book the Great Escape Forger, to be stunning both in history and the huge amount of information to learn and the fantastic artwork throughout the book. Carl Holmstrom was a prisoner of war at Stalag Luft III which would later be made famous by the film the Great Escape. What the book does is take you through the everyday life of living in a POW camp from washing, cleaning, eating, social clubs and also the planning of an escape and all that would involve. People would need to do various jobs in order to support an escape attempt and Carl was responsible for forging German documents like passports, identity cards & papers. 

Susan Holmstrom Kohnowich has done her father proud with this book as it is put together well, and what we learn is closely partnered with some great artwork all drawn by her father. As someone who is an avid reader of history, I have learnt so much about life in a POW camp from this book. I would highly recommend this book for sure as POW camps are an interest of mine. This book has also made me want to find out more about the art of Carl Holmstrom, the pictures of the prisoners and camp staff at the back of the book are just brilliant.  

Forgotten Heroes of the Battle of Britain

Forgotten Heroes of the Battle of Britain written by Dilip Sarkar MBE and

published by Air World Books - £25 - Hardback - Pages 344

Lasting sixteen weeks during the momentous year of 1940, the Battle of Britain ended

with the Luftwaffe having failed to achieve the decisive victory that Hitler had demanded.

Whilst the technical details of the aircraft and weapons involved are, of course, crucial

to our understanding of the events that summer, the Battle was fought by human beings

– and it is that human experience and contribution, to this author, is the most important

thing to acknowledge, record and share.

Nearly 3,000 Fighter Command aircrew fought in the Battle of Britain, immortalised by Churchill as ‘The Few’. Of these, 544 lost their lives that blood-stained summer and 700 more would die before the Second World War ended – a victory very likely impossible had The Few not held out in 1940.

The names of some of these young men, aces such as Douglas Bader, ‘Sailor’ Malan and Eric Lock, were well-known to the free world at the time – and certainly the legless Group Captain Sir Douglas Bader remains, even today, the best-known British fighter pilot of the war. However, the vast majority of The Few remained anonymous, owing partially to Air Ministry policy and equally a desire to play down their august achievements. Since the Second World War, the memoirs of a number of the Few have been published, privately and commercially, and books have been written about others.

The record is a rich legacy, overall – and yet, if we investigate the Battle of Britain further, we find many forgotten heroes, no less deserving of recognition. This book, therefore, seeks to explore the lives and contributions made by certain of these men, to give currency back to their brave deeds. In truth, the list of deserving subjects is virtually endless; those included in this book are individuals whose stories have crossed the author’s path at some stage during his long career – and which he feels are truly ‘Forgotten Heroes'. 

Having done a lot of reading about the Battle of Britain in recent months, I was looking forward to reading this book especially as it concentrates on the less publicised pilots in the Battle of Britain. This book was a really good and fascinating read, I really enjoyed learning about new characters to me, the bravery and strength of these men is extraordinary and this book really does show how this country owes them an awful lot. The book was good in that it wasn’t just a retelling of events, I quite enjoyed all the comments and additions by the family members and friends which added love and meaning to the stories. Another part of the book I enjoyed was the coverage of tactics and flying during the battle, clearly showing the skill and thought that had to go into being a fighter pilot.

I enjoyed the book immensely and judging by the thorough bibliography at the back of the book, Dilip Sarkar MBE is clearly a leading expert on the subject, and one to take notice of. The book contains some great photos and there are lots of personal family photos throughout the book. I would most definitely recommend this book as one of the best I’ve read in a while and an easy read. This will have your attention until the end, and highlights some great characters I enjoyed learning about.