Customer Reviews

Forgotten Voices of World War II: A New History of World War II in the Words of the Men and Women Who Were There

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There is always so much imfo. in these war books that whenever one reads them it's impossible to take it all in. I read the first Forgotten Voices book (WW1) and most of it was about the Trench Experience. WW2 however was just so huge that you feel the author struggles admirably to get it all in and at the same time maintain the entertainment factor of the first book. Practically everything in the book is an account of something told by a survivor. Max Arthur obviously has to try and use accounts which are funny perhaps, or sad, or imformative or all three. The book just can't go into depth about certain things. There is a D-Day section, a concentration camp section, Market garden, Africa, Japanese etc. and there are books out there about these things in their own right. For instance I just read Armageddon by Max Hastings which is about the battle for Germany in '44/'45. But this book, Forgotten Voices, is not really about the war. It is about the ordinary people/children and soldiers fighting/existing in it so there's a big difference between this and all the others. On several occasions while reading it I've had to put the book down when reading of a situation someone had found themselves in- I've just put the book down and thought 'Oh my God!' and have needed time to think about it before continueing.

It is a mainly British perspective with the occasional American/German/Dutch input etc. I would strongly recommend it and if you like these Forgotten Voices books then you would also like All Quiet on the Home Front. A similarly told book of mainland Britain during the first world war.

Good reading!

There are any number of books written by people involved in World War II, most of them of course by Generals. This book is different.

Like Steven Ambrose's collection of recordings from vetrans in this country, the Imperial War Museum has taped the accounts of thousands of ordinary participants from World War II.

Here is the report from the young British sailor. He got a pass and with his friend picked up two girls to go to the movies. Suddenly the movie was interupted with a message for all sailors to return to their ships. They went to Dunkirk.

Some of the recordings are from the Axis. A Japanese naval officer reports: "Our forces were ambushed by the American forces... My ship was hit by more than a hundred shells in, I think, about a two hour engagement. At that time I was quite high on the deck, and I was holding the binoculars with both hands. A splinter came up and cut off both my arms in the middle.

I know this book is out of publication, but I just got my copy, and have not been able to put it down.

I have never read or seen such a collection of reminisecences. They just draw you in, and short as they are, you can literally see, smell and hear the experiences they describe. I've been moved to tears, felt the frustration of some of the speakers as they watched lives and effort wasted, and laughed out loud in a couple of spots, particularly as one soldier describes a joyful French cafe owner, cafe conscripted as a hospital on D-Day, digging ninety bottles of champagne out of the garden to distribute to the wounded heroes who've come to rescue his beloved France.

Marvelous, marvelous book, of interest to anyone who reads history, or enjoys a good human interest story. I sincerely wish there would be additional volumes in the series.