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World War II

I'm watching the excellent series Rise of the Nazis on iPlayer and one of the episodes is about Sophie Scholl and the White Rose anti-nazi movement. Something i already knew a lot about but i did think 'I'd like to read the leaflets they disrupted" and found the english translations...

White Rose documents

Nothing is so unworthy of a civilised nation as allowing itself to be governed without opposition by an irresponsible clique that has yielded to base instinct. It is certain that today every honest German is ashamed of his government.

The footnote also has an English translation of the transcripts from the White Rose trial court hearing and sentencing.

Fascination stuff.
 
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I love this part in the middle of The White Rose’s 2nd leaflet. They decide to have a dig at hitlers poor writing skills in Mein Kampf….

After all, Hitler states in an early edition of "his" book (a book written in the worst German I have ever read, in spite of the fact that it has been elevated to the position of the Bible in this nation of poets and thinkers
 
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I really recommend the books 'The Storm of War' by Andrew Roberts (looks like it may no longer be in print, but available on kindle or 2nd hand) The Storm of War By Andrew Roberts | Used | 9780713999709 | World of Books and Liberation: The Bitter Road to Freedom by William L Hitchcock Liberation: The Bitter Road to Freedom, Europe 1944-1945: Amazon.co.uk: Hitchcock, William: 9780571227730: Books

They both did a lot to form how I understand WWII The Storm of War demonstrates two things in particular: 1) Hitler was mostly a shit military commander 2) How much war turns on who can produce the most materiel, and perhaps the US's most valuable contibution to the Allies was the sheer amount of stuff it could produce, which ultimately. gave the Allies the edge,.

'Liberation' shows what a long, painful shitshow 'liberation' really consisted of and explains a lot about why, for better or worse, we ended up with Israel.
 
Kindle have got offer on this for 99p. ludicrous.

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I had the pleasure of having a chat with Mr Overy himself at a talk earlier this month... sounds like an interesting angle on it all.. though it's over 1000 pages long, so probably something for retirement..
 
Hollis said:
Kindle have got offer on this for 99p. ludicrous.

View attachment 323989

I had the pleasure of having a chat with Mr Overy himself at a talk earlier this month... sounds like an interesting angle on it all.. though it's over 1000 pages long, so probably something for retirement..
Click to expand...

Yoink.

Cheers. :)

Deal of the day: Blood and Ruins: The Great Imperial War, 1931-1945
by Amazon Media EU S.à r.l.
Learn more: Blood and Ruins: The Great Imperial War, 1931-1945 eBook : Overy, Richard: Amazon.co.uk: Books
 
It's on the way out now - it may even be online only these days, IIRC - but Maclean's Magazine used to be as important in Canada as Time magazine was among the poor lunatics who dwell south of the 49th parallel.

Anyway, almost all its back issues seem to be on archive.org, and that includes all the wartime numbers, like this one, which includes an interesting piece on Chiang Kai-Shek and his contribution to the allied cause:

archive.org

Macleans Magazine 1944-09-01 : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive

archive.org
 
My parents were born in the 1940s so didn't really experience the war, particularly as they were both in Ireland 🤣

But my father in law was involved , he was in the Canadian Air force , rear gunner , he did his 30 or so missions so could go home , but re-upped & did 30 more 😳

He mostly told me stories about crashing , which he did twice , both times in Africa. Once nose into the sand , they had to jump out . They were behind German lines , wondering how to get back to safety, when an English Officer turned up in a jeep, "in a spot of bother chaps?' He said, them drove off promising help , which did come .😎 He also once hitched a lift on one of the planes from the dam buster raid , it was something air crew did . He also claimed they used elephants to tow planes in some African airfields 🤔😄
 
My polish uncle fled Poland to France when the Germans invaded. Then he and his comrades escaped france to the uk by pulling a gun on the mayor of a french town and demanding his car. He then flew for the RAF during the battle of Britain. But not spitfires or hurricanes - but some old fashioned looking bi-plane bomber that i cant remember (I remember being disappointed by that as a kid).
My mum was evacuated from london to Exeter (which was then bombed) and hated it. My dad was evacuated to yorkshire - but was happy about it cos it got him away from his abusive step mum.
 
Good shout rubbershoes, I didn't suggest that as I always thought it was more a Fleet Air Arm machine but see now they did have some in the RAF as well.
 
spitfire said:
Good shout rubbershoes, I didn't suggest that as I always thought it was more a Fleet Air Arm machine but see now they did have some in the RAF as well.
Click to expand...

I didn't know it was more FAA. It's just the first WW2 biplane bomber that came into my mind
 
Watched the new documentary 'Lancaster' earlier this week - highly recommend. Other than (arguably) overstating the importance of the bombing campaign its got loads of brilliant interviews with veterans in it.. and some great footage taken from the surviving Lancasters.
 
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