Customer Reviews

No End Save Victory: Perspectives on World War II

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This book is an excellent companion piece to any conventional history of the Second World War. This compilation of essays represents a "best of the best" of previously published articles from the magazine MHQ, and each provides unique "color" commentary on snap-shot events of the war, some well-known,
some not. Obviously, some of the contributions are better than others, but there are none that I didn't enjoy reading.

The more noteworthy ones include novelist Caleb Carr's look at Germany's 1939 invasion of Poland. The author of two works in the book (the second is a look at the "Black Knight"-Field Marshal Gerd von Runstedt; an interesting piece marred by poorly substantiated and thus unfair criticism of Gen. Eisenhower's strategy in 1944-45), Carr makes a good case in his first essay that the conduct of the often forgotten Polish campaign which started the war is worthy of a lot more study and attention than it has generally received. Similarly, David Glantz gives us a good look at Operation Mars, the gigantic offensive designed to push the Germans away from Moscow in 1942. The offensive was a colossal failure but Soviet suppression and the victory at Stalingrad allowed this battle to be shrouded in obscurity for most of postwar history. David Shears provides two interesting looks at the possibilities surrounding Operation Sea Lion, Germany's half-hearted (and ultimately junked) plan for invading England. In this same theme, "The Turning Points of Tarawa" by Joseph H. Alexander gives a startling reassessment of the bloody battle for Tarawa, from predominantly a Japanese point of view.

For stories from the Home Front, Theodore F. Cooke Jr. gives readers a very illuminating look at Japanese reaction to the news of Pearl Harbor in "Tokyo, December 8, 1941," while George Feifer's "The Last Picture Show" gives an account of Joesph Goebbels' bizarre film project in the dying days of the Third Reich to rally German morale to face the final cataclysm.

Interesting "I Was There" pieces include "The Day the Hornet Sank", a memoir by a nineteen year old petty officer "Airedale," and "A Kamikaze's Tale," the first account published in the West by a surviving Kamikaze flier.

Worthwhile assessments of wartime leadership include Alistair Horne's "In Defense of Montgomery", an apology for the often disparaged British field marshal by an historian worthy (if name-recognition wasn't such a marketing factor) of front-cover billing, but unfortunately he's trumped by the overrated William Manchester (who does have a good, if somewhat disjointed account of the Battle of Britain in this book), as well as the ubiquitous Stephen Ambrose. While I did not agree with many of Horne's conclusions--I would say that von Rundstedt's description of Rommel also fit's Rommel's nemesis Monty: "a brave man, and a very capable commander, but not really qualified for high command" (besides, Monty was a pompous [jerk], a point Horne willingly concedes)--this essay is still highly recommended reading. I was more sympathetic to Victor Davis Hanson's rehabilitation of the legacy of Curtis LeMay (America's version of the RAF's "Bomber Harris") in "The Right Man." While he's been an object of left-wing ridicule beginning primarily in the 1960s, a frank, contextual appraisal of LeMay's wartime (and postwar, too) accomplishments indicates that he's worthy of recognition as one of our great wartime commanders (and deserves credit as the architect of the strategic force crucial to democracy's victory in the Cold War). Read this piece together with Williamson Murray's "Did Strategic Bombing Work?", an excellent rebuttal to the often repeated assertion that the Allied bombing campaign against Germany was not only ineffective but patently immoral.

Finally, Eliot A. Cohen's "Churchill and his Generals" is not only an excellent study of the British Prime Minister exercising wartime leadership, it's also an important reminder to Americans of the inseparable linkage between politics and war. Our traditional desire to separate those two considerations has arguably led to outcomes that fell well short of expectations following many of America's wars.

All in all, this book should be considered an essential addition to any World War II library.

What a wonderful gift editor Robert Crowley has given us with this treasure trove of individual essays from individual contributors in this spellbinding book covering a number of different aspects and experiences during World War Two! As one of the authors, the late popular historian Stephan Ambrose has shown us with many of his own works, the history of the Second World War was such a massive and variegated plethora of anecdotes, campaigns and experiences that it is nearly impossible to exhaust the steady stream of captivating stories that spring from its loins like bouncing babies, fully formed, into the waiting reader's lap. This is a particularly attractive package of essays, perfect for people who want something relatively short, as each individual offering within is, something one can read on a plane flight in its entirety and then pick up later without trying to remember the context or story thread where he had left off. And each of the stories makes for fascinating reading indeed.

The list of authors included is both impressive and eclectic, ranging from Ambrose, who weighs in with the taut and stirring tale of a platoon of paratroopers attempting to take and control a bridge key to the initial thrust of the first few hours of the Normandy landing, to Caleb Carr, better known for his success as a novelist ("The Alienist") but quite an eminent historian as well, to William Manchester to John Keegan to Antony Beever to Stanley Weintraub to David M. Glantz. And this is only some of the luminary historically prominent authors gathered together in what can only be described as a bravura collection of stories and perspectives on the total war effort, ranging in topics from the island hopping effort in the South Pacific to the desperate hours of the first few hours leading up to the Battle of the Bulge in the French Ardennes in December of 1944.

Despite my own wide reading of similar historical sources over the last thirty years, I found several of the articles quite illuminating and educational, as with Caleb Car's treatment of life on the ground as the invasion of Poland proceeds in September, 1939 in the precipitating event that quickly served to trigger the advent of the Second World War as such. Similarly, articles by Charles Berges, Sir David Fraser, and Carlo D'Este proved both fascinating and edifying in illuminating aspects of the war only poorly understood and studied in the existing literature.

This monograph especailly serves the interested private scholars like me who wants to know more about various different aspects and perspectives of the war that are not adequately or fully treated elsewhere, and used in conjunction with marvelous other resources such as Gerhard Weinberg's masterful "A World At Arms", Richard Spector's terrific ""Eagle Against The Sun", and William Shirer's eye-witness testimony in "The Rise And Fall Of The Third Reich", gives us a much richer and more comprehensive understanding of the signal historical event of the 20th century. Enjoy!

With any compilation from various authors, the articles in that type of book tend to be a bit uneven. Some articles are excellent, others less so. That is the situation with this work, I feel. There are the majority of articles which rate five stars, and there are some which go as low as three. I have therefore averaged out my ratings as a whole, and come up with this four star rating opinion. That having been said, let me recommend this work to you if you are at all interested in learning little bits and pieces about important parts of WW II. It is also quite possible that you will enjoy some of the articles that I did not, for everyone's take on writing is subjective. You may not learn a lot of new information in this book, but at its best the info is presented in extremely interesting ways, and even in some of the lower- rated articles, there are still nuggets of information which I appreciated receiving. You won't be disappointed by reading this work.

We have heavyweight authors such as William Manchester, Stephen Ambrose, Caleb Carr, John Keegan, and others write essays covering all aspects of World War II in this heavyweight volume of 688 pages. The essays are fairly short so you can put the book down and come back to it later without feeling you have to pick up where you left off. From familiar stories such as the invasion of Normandy to an interesting story on Germany's Black Knight, Field Marshal von Rundstedt and another on General Curtis LeMay will provide you, the reader, with additional information whatever your background on World War II. As mentioned, the book is long, but the essays enable you to break the book up into managable parts so you are able to pioneer your way through it successfully. Don't be intimidated by the length. It is worth the time to wade through it.

This is a compilation book featuring articles that have appeared in MHQ, the military history magazine.

Authors such as Stephen Ambrose, Caleb Carr, John Keegan and others explore some of the finer points and fascinating vignettes of the Second World War. This book is not a complete history of the conflict and does not intend to be. For the reader who has an understanding of the basics of the war, this fine collection will serve to illuminate little known aspects and operations as well as introduce topics that can be explored in greater depth by other books.

I personally was fascinated by several of the articles. There is a gripping account of the retreat from Bataan and the stoic majesty of General King who had to surrender the American forces in the Philippines. Caleb Carr writes a good account of the German invasion of Poland that gives more credit to the Poles than readers usually find. Likewise the articles on Stalingrad and the Turning Points of Tarawa are interesting. John Keegan does his usual masterful work in an account of the Battle of Berlin.

But the stories that one usually doesn't hear about are the real treats. Paul Kemp reveals one of the Italian success stories in Decima Mas, about a waterborn sabatouge unit that was successful in sinking and damaging significant British shipping in the Mediterranian. I had not been aware of this unit at all before this book. Also new to me were descriptions of a Nazi automated weather station landed in North America on the coast of Labrador and the tale of a Soviet offensive contemporary to the Stalingrad encirlement that was a large failure and cost Stalin 500,000 men. Descriptions of the reaction in Tokyo to Pearl Harbor on December 8th, an account of Orde Wingate's Chindits, the story of the Channel Dash by German naval surface ships, the successful raid that destroyed the Nazi heavy water factory in Norway, the diary of a B-17 tail gunner and the account of a Kamikaze pilot who survived his mission are fascinating.

With it's varied topics, first class authors and relatively short articles, this book should not boor the history buff and will probably introduce all but the professional military historians of the period to new information and fascinating stories of World War II.

This book offers a fine collection of essays written by today's foremost authorities on the second world war. Authors such as Stephen Ambrose, John Keegan, and Dan Kurzman have contributed to this fine book. The layout of the book is excellent. Instead of having individual chapters, the editors have put the essays into chronological order, so the reader doesn't necessarily have to read the book in sequential order. Rather, the reader has the freedom to skip to the parts of the book that they find the most interesting if they so choose.

Each essay gives a unique insight into a specific area of the war. Some of my favorites included "Diary of a Tail Gunner", told by a B-17 tail gunner who survived twenty six missons over Nazi territory. I also enjoyed "The Other Pearl Harbor", which discussed MacArthur's failures in the Phillipines after the Pearl Harbor attack. There is something for everyone in this book, regardless if you enjoy reading about the European or Pacific theaters.

This is a good book and gives a fine overview of the entire war as well as some lesser-known encounters.

This is by far one of the best WWII books in my collection. If you are looking for a overall history of WWII, then look elsewhere, but if you are looking for interesting more in depth side stories or a behind the scenes look at major events then this book is ideal. The audio version of the book is a very small fraction of the printed book. The first essay from Caleb Carr on the German invasion of Poland is superb and will hook any reader. These are short, easy to read essays great for getting students interested in certain events and encourage further research. All of these stories have been printed elsewhere, but to have them compiled into one book of 45 essays is great. Get this book while it's still available.

Even with my predilection for comprehensive, full length books, I can recognize and appreciate the nice job Mr Cowley has done in assembling this collection of memorable essays. Of the 46 essays which are divided into six sections, most are written by prominent authors/historians but a few were written by soldiers having first hand experience of the war. Some of my favorite authors include Carr, Weintraub, Beevor, D'Este, Murray, Ambrose, Keegan and Glantz but there are many more noted authors as well. Some of these authors do us the honor of writing several articles.

Though the book doesn't have complete coverage of the war, Cowley chooses wisely on the topics and gives the reader a nice balance of coverage of events on land, sea and air as well as monographs of key people. Some of the land events discussed are Poland, Dunkirk, Barbarossa, Pearl Harbor, Bataan, El Alamein, Stalingrad, Tarawa, Saipan, Falaise, the Bulge, Crossing the Rhine, Berlin, Okinawa and Operation Olympic. The sea adventures include the escape of the Scharnhorst and Prinz Eugen through the channel, the sinking of the Hornet and action off Guadalcanal. Probably the most touching story had to do with a gunner on a US bomber. He and his crew were expecting to go home after running their 27th mission but the tail gunner never made it home and in honor of John Gabay his diary of his 26 completed missions are presented. Another personal account deals with a Kamikaze pilot, Suzuiki, surviving the war by being shot down before hitting a warship off Okinawa.

My favorite section which I learned the most from was entitled "The Secret War". The section consisted of six essays dealing with espionage, intelligence gathering, creating disinformation and sabotage. Some of the articles included a secret German weather station on the coast of Labrador, the capture of U-boat 110 and its Enigma machine, the sabotage of several British warships at Alexandria, the attack on the heavy water plant at Vemork Norway. One essay included a series of campaigns that never really existed but were generated to mislead the Germans. The most famous one was Operation Fortitude.

The key people discussed are Churchill, Montgomery, Rundstedt, Goebbels, Slim and LeMay, Rommel and Eisenhower; an unusual but worthy assortment.
There were also twenty black and white maps. They were modest but still helpful. They included coverage of the Poland Invasion, the French Invasion at Sedan, Bataan, Operation Mars, Stalingrad, Falaise, Crossing the Rhine, Burma, Okinawa, Operation Olympic.
The articles weren't always operational in nature but rather had a personal or tangential perspective from within the larger event.


I rated this book five stars for the quality of the essays as well as the assortment chosen. It gives the reader information and a perspective that's not always discussed in other books. All the essays have merit in their own right but taken collectively the reader may see the war in a more informed manner.

I don't have much reading time, but I like the stories of personal trials during battles. That is the best parts of the book.

I'm always ready for more military history and have been since a boy for some reason. This was a great series to listen to and I like the format of selected essays.

Just to let you know: this volume II has only 9 of the total 44 essays. Other reviewers have covered essays that just aren't included in this one. Here is a list of the essays in this volume II (I provide it only because the Product Description does not):

Undaunted by the Odds, William Manchester
The Turning Points of Tarawa, Joseph Alexander
The Day the Hornet Sank, Alvin Kernan
The Last Picture Show, George Feifer
Beachhead Labrador, W.A.B. Douglas
Gott Mit Whom?, David Balme
Patrolling Guadalcanal, William Whyte
Peppermint and Alsos, Ferenc Szasz
The Myth of the Saipan Suicides, Haruko Cook

I think the best essays are the ones that you remember most vividly long after listening to them. The leadoff, Undaunted by Odds, was longer than the others but incredibly memorable. The essays concerning the fight in the Pacific islands were all riveting in my opinion. The Last Picture Show is also very good and completely bizarre. These are all great essays. Each gives both descriptions of the action at hand along with background commentary to give meaning. I feel certain I will love the entire series if I am fortunate enough to collect it.