Customer Reviews

World War Ii Day By Day

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

 

 

World War II: Day by Day is a strikingly useful compilation of important events duing the second world war. It's unusual in two ways: First it focuses on ALL important events in those years, so you can find out, for example, when women started painting stocking seams on their legs as well as the date Rommel captured Tobruk. It's more than a list of important battles and important American political events--this book covers the various home fronts and the various battle fronts.

The second reason this book is invaluable is that it is organized by date, rather than subject. You can glance through the pages and have a decent thumbnail sketch of what happened in any month of the war. This makes the war years understandable without wading through a million books.

The layout is similar to news releases, so each page looks like a newspaper (although they are not authentic newspaper articles).

It must have taken years to compile this book. Serious students will find it useful as will those who just want a general snapshot of important events.

This is one of the most engaging and brilliant books I've ever read...and all of it true.

I used to read a few pages of this book before I went to bed, aglow with the comprehensive level of research and quality level of writing. From the disaster of Dunkirk to the siege of Leningrad, from the pivotal Battle of the Coral Sea to the systematic genocide of the Jews and other peoples, this book has it all. It remains as objective as possible in telling the facts without resorting to rationalization (e.g. there is no attempted mitigation of atrocities).

I honestly can say that I have read few more interesting books, and it is certainly the best non-fiction book I have ever chanced upon, telling one of the greatest stories the world has ever known with the utmost clarity. 10/10

Very interesting book for every person interested in World War II. You live through weeks of war again. The book is like a documentary and it doesn't paint everything black and white letting you create your own opinion about things happened.
This book is different from other books when author tells only about events he thought were significant. It's more like reading through someone's collection of clippings from years of war.
A must have!

This book is great. Instead of being a typical history book, it takes you through WW II by sharing newspaper articles of the day's events. Well worth the money.

I am researching for and writing a World War II novel. In collecting materials I had DREAMS about a book like this! When I found it, it was like a book just MADE for what I wanted: a detailed daily account of the war. I have read literally dozens of books about WW2, but I have never found a resource as invaluable as this one. There are stories and information in it that I have never seen anywhere else.

Although doing somewhat decent job in describing the war itself and concentrating mostly on military events it is surprising that some very well known campaigns are not even mentioned. For example whole Battle for Moscow is not even mentioned, even though it was one of the first most important military operations on the territory of USSR in fall/winter of 1941 and Germans were stopped just 30km from their goal. Winter comes after summer (no fall in 1941 in this book :-) Chapter on Stalingrad does not describe even remotely the true proportions of that battle and author's own analysis of these events are strange to say the least. Siege of Leningrad is mentioned, but so briefly. I mean c'mon, 1 500 000 people starved to death but did not surrender...
Also I find it almost offensive how cold the author talks about sufferings and hardship of civilian population. This whole war was such a horrible tragedy and should be presented like one. To understand better history and horror of WWII I recommend "The Unknown War" movie if you can find a copy together with some better book to follow chronology. Almost completely put together from documentary pieces from war time archive this movie will show you real people going through real events. You will not be able to look at World War II as "another war" anymore or think about military action without understanding how much suffering was behind every and each one of them.
All in all some material is presented very well, but with huge gaps authors left uncovered I find it hard to recommend. If they care enough to produce another/better edition of this book, it has the potential to be great though.

I remember this being a time travelers delight. To relive that era as an armchair historian or better still to imagine being a citizen in the free world being informed of world events through newspaper stories as WWII progressed, not knowing the outcome. If one want to learn about the evolution of WWII, the approach that this book takes gives the reader a worthwhile perspective.

Any serious student of World War II as well as casual World War II buffs will enjoy this book. It provides a chronology of all the significant events and battles for nearly every day of World War II. Organized by date, it includes events, politics, and all major land, sea and air battles,

The treatment of each event is somewhat superficial as one would expect in a "day-by-day" account of the War but that does not detract from the thoroughness of the research that created such a fine book. If the reader is curious to delve more deeply into an event, they are free to do further research on their own in other media.

There are numerous photographs on every page that embellish some of the events and the handful of maps aid in understanding certain battles.

The book is fully indexed and easy to read in multiple sittings. It's not great literature and it is devoid of pathos and opinions but rather it is a straight shot of information for those thirsty to learn more about the war.

John E. Nevola
Author of The Last Jump - A Novel of World War II

I was surprised and a little disappointed when my book arrived. I was expecting an operational chronology on the order of books by Keith Dickson, Bud Hannings, Raymond Bluhm or Mary Williams where specific troops movements are discussed, battle plans are described, objectives achieved, analysis given etc but it wasn't meant to be.
However after studying this almanac, it was quickly discovered that it was very good and cleverly assembled to simulate a layout of a newspaper, having articles in a column format with different sized fonts to distinguish priorities. Most pages also include sidebars where less critical facts are mentioned. Every page has at least one photo of a key person or event that will be associated with an article. There are surprisingly a good number of maps as well. On every two page section, which depicts one week of the war is a monthly calendar showing which week is being covered. A minor but nice touch. If you wondered which day of the week the D-Day landings occurred or when Paulus surrendered at Stalingrad or our Marines landed on Tarawa, you'll have an easy way to look it up.

The book begins with a brief introduction, setting the stage for the start of the war. The tabloid format begins on Sept 1, 1939 when the Germans invaded Poland and will run through to August 31, 1945. Generally speaking every two pages covers a week of the war and will cover general purpose stories of the war on the ground, on the sea and in the air. This coverage is not complete but it does mention many key events. There are also many human interest stories of a international or national interest. There is also a brief post war summary. The book closes with a small Who's Who and an extensive Index which make it fairly easy to find your point of interest. Though the Pacific Front is covered, the European and Russian Fronts are predominant.

This is another quality product from DK and anyone who is looking for an overview of the war years that includes battle field results on all fronts, international events and insight as to what was happening at home should enjoy this volume.

This is an excellent source for anyone interested in WWII. The book covers more than just the major events of the war, but goes into great detail about other smaller things. This book is by far the best book in my large WWII collection and I highly recommend it to all.