World War II: 4,139 Strange and Fascinating Facts (Strange & Fascinating Facts) [Hardcover]

Fred L. Worth (Author), Don McCombs (Author)

Book Description

Series: Strange & fascinating facts | Publication Date: February 26, 1994

4,139 entries covering the battles, backgrounds and players in the Allied and Axis powers. A cornucopia of unusual information to intrigue any World War II buff and a unique approach to learning history. 672 pages.

Editorial Reviews

From the Inside Flap

4,139 entries covering the battles, backgrounds and players in the Allied and Axis powers. A cornucopia of unusual information to intrigue any World War II buff and a unique approach to learning history. 672 pages.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 672 pages
• Publisher: Gramercy; REPRINT Edition edition (February 26, 1994)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0517422867
• ISBN-13: 978-0517422861
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.3 x 2.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 2.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,130,281 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

35 of 36 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Not worth the paper its printed on., December 17, 2002

By 

R. L. Henderson "Dick" (Port Orchard, Washington) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: World War II: 4,139 Strange and Fascinating Facts (Strange & Fascinating Facts) (Hardcover)

I'd rate this a zero except that the system won't allow it.
"Strange and Fascinating Facts" - my wife gave it to me for my birthday since I'm a WWII historian and the title sounds good.
It's laid out alphabetically like a dictionary. As such when they got to the V's it appears the authors needed filler; so we have "Van Dyke, Dick" a comedian actor who spent two years in the "Army Air Force" (sic) in WWII. This is an example of their idea of a "strange" and/or "fascinating" fact. Doesn't even say where he was or what he did. Now if it said something like he was a waist gunner on a B-17 and flew 23 missions over Germany then maybe (?) it could qualify for being fascinating.
Please don't waste your money; I'm sorry my wife wasted ours.

24 of 25 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Interesting book, but FULL of errors, December 6, 2000

By 

THOMAS J ADKINS (Broomfield, CO USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: World War II: 4,139 Strange and Fascinating Facts (Strange & Fascinating Facts) (Hardcover)

I bought this book based on the title and was very intrigued by it, but then... I started to notice errors. Once I started noticing the errors, I noticed more and more... I ended up compiling them, and will post on my homepage once my provider fixes their service to permit me to update it. homepages.address.com/atadkins under my page (tom) and then on a subpage. (I can't give direct link since it isn't working yet) The errors were blatant (Bismarck is called a pocket battleship in five entries), some are simple typos in name. The most frequent errors are in dates, especially those surrounding Stalingrad and the Bismarck Hunt.

I have compiled them into a document to send to the publisher. There are 123 errors, 15 internal contradictions, 31 questionable items, and I added on for good measure 80 updates and additions. That means at least 150 errors.

While I am not saying the book is bad (it contains many, many interesting tidbits and stories), the sheer magnitude of errors is irresponsible in my opinion, and reason to pause before buying.

19 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Bad, May 9, 2004

By 

Alex Salazar (Florida) - See all my reviews

This review is from: World War II: 4,139 Strange and Fascinating Facts (Strange & Fascinating Facts) (Hardcover)

This book is a waste of money. Not only does it contain numerous spelling errors, it also is historically inaccurate in several passages which leads me to be suspicious of the accuracy of the rest of the book. Although some of the "facts" may seem interesting, the factual errors are too numerous to count.