(Part 2) Best wwii biographies according to redditors

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We found 617 Reddit comments discussing the best wwii biographies. We ranked the 219 resulting products by number of redditors who mentioned them. Here are the products ranked 21-40. You can also go back to the previous section.

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Top Reddit comments about WWII Biographies:

u/effortlessnetinho · 105 pointsr/hapas

Estelle and Arthur met at the Otis Art Institute in Los Angeles during the 1920s, where she studied illustration. Arthur, a second generation Nisei born in San Francisco, studied theater and had moved to Southern California starstruck and had dreams of becoming a movie star... which ironically might have been easier for someone of Asian descent back then compared to now, since Sessue Hayakawa was one of the biggest movie stars in silent movies at the time. Our aspiring actor worked as a chauffeur to support himself and his artist girlfriend.

In 1929 they married in Mexico since it was illegal in California at the time for an asian man to marry a white woman. After which Estelle was disowned by her very well-to-do upper-class parents from the Bay Area, Estelle's mother was a concert singer and her father was a portrait and landscape artist.

Here is their marriage certificate (in Spanish): http://media.discovernikkei.org/articles/4279/ishigo1.jpg

They made their home in the Japanese-American community of Los Angeles until the December of 1941. The day after Pearl Harbor, Arthur was fired from his job at Paramount Studios and two weeks later Estelle was also fired from her own job teaching at the Hollywood Art Center because she was married to a Japanese man, and most damningly had taken his Japanese last name.

On February 19, 1942, President Roosevelt signed into law Executive Order 9066, and the Government forced all people of Japanese racial descent, regardless of citizenship, on the west coast to leave their homes and lives behind to be placed into "protective custody." More than 110,000 Japanese-Americans including the Ishigos were commanded to report to various "Assembly Centers," where they were ordered to await transportation to Japanese internment camps further inland.

Here is a correspondence from one of Estelle's friends:

https://i.imgur.com/quoJOcQ.png

In Estelle's memoirs she recounts a young Japanese American girl experiencing a "heart attack" amidst the fear, chaos and uncertainty at the center, the girl's parents were allowed to return to the city to seek medical help for their daughter, who died shortly after. The couple were ordered back to the Assembly Center.

Estelle writes: “Some have wondered why I went to that camp with my husband and also what it was like being married to a Japanese before the war and in the camp. In a time of hostility and danger, if one is in love the greatest desire is to stay close to one’s own.”

Many Japanese women who had married white men and had taken on their husbands surnames could claim that they were of a non-Japanese Asian descent and many were simply overlooked for internment. Not a single Japanese woman with an American surname has ever been recorded as interned in any these camps.

No such internment policy exists for Americans of German or Italian descent.

And of course, my dear hafu's, there were many hapas amongst the interned, as those with as a little as 1/16 Japanese ancestry would be placed in the camps. Colonel Karl Bendetsen, who despite being of Jewish ancestry, would become the architect of the Japanese Concentration Camps, going on to say in 1942: "I am determined that if they have one drop of Japanese blood in them, they must go to camp."

To this day, this remains the singular piece of American legislation that targets a racial ethnic group regardless of citizenship. With many official documents denoting the "ethnic Japanese" as "totally unassimilable."

General John L Dewitt states: "A Jap's a Jap. It makes no difference whether the Jap is a citizen or not."

And in the August of 1942, Estelle and Arthur were put on a train and took the 1,000 mile trip to the Heart Mountain Relocation Center in Wyoming, beneath the imposing edifice of Heart Mountain, the camp was especially desolate and had "one of the harshest living environments of all the camps, especially for those who had come from the California coastal areas."

Estelle, now the only white prisoner among twelve thousand Asians, wrote, I think quite stirringly: "We were gathered close into ourselves and imprisoned at the foot of the mountain as it towered in silence over the barren waste, we searched its gaunt face for the mysteries of our destiny: and some spoke its name with the same ancient reverence..."

Here she is with the camp and the distinctive mountain peak in the background:
https://i.imgur.com/s7vnegt.jpg

http://www.javadc.org/heart_mountain_relocation_center.htm

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UjJ2Q2PnlSg

These are also the very same concentration camps from which many men of the 442nd Infantry Regiment would hail from. Despite them and their families being interned by the very government they sought to serve, many Japanese Americans whether through sheer patriotic instinct or in an attempt to prove their loyalty or American-ness perhaps would go on to form the almost entirely Japanese American Regimental Combat Team, which would become "the most decorated unit for its size and length of service in the history of American warfare."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/442nd_Infantry_Regiment_(United_States)

In fact there was a little TIL thread on the reddit front page this morning detailing the heroic exploits of Daniel Inouye who served in the 442nd, which was the actual impetus for me to do this little write up for y'all in the first place.

https://np.reddit.com/r/todayilearned/comments/7w4gy5/til_while_attacking_a_series_of_machine_gun_nests/

This small regiment which was self sufficient consisted of 3 infantry battalions, an engineer company, an anti tank company, a artillery support company, service, medical attachment, headquarters company, as well as an Army Band.

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/69/442nd_Regimental_Combat_Team_Organizational_Chart_%E7%AC%AC442%E9%80%A3%E9%9A%8A%E6%88%A6%E9%97%98%E5%9B%A3%E7%B7%A8%E5%88%B6%E5%9B%B3_%28ja%29.svg

Originally it totaled about 4000 Japanese Americans from Hawaii and the Internment camps and would be deployed to the European theater seeing extensive action in France, Italy and Germany, The small fighting force was often pushed into the front-lines where the fighting was fiercest, many times leading the assault uphill against fortified machine gun positions, in the end accruing a total of 9,486 Purple Hearts, 8 Presidential Unit Citations and twenty one Medals of Honor. The unit would have to be reinforced nearly 2 times over (read: they got shot the fuck up) by the end of the war, despite their original number of 4,000, over 14,000 Japanese American men will have fought, bled and died for the very same country where they are being rounded up into Concentration Camps and in which their own families would remain in captivity during their service. And despite their heroism and sacrifices, they were not allowed to celebrate with the other companies after Italy was liberated, the Japanese-American soldiers were ordered to garrison the surrounding region, while the companies of white men paraded into Rome to the sterling plaudits of a very grateful Italian populace.

https://i.imgur.com/oXDiwH2.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/K3vL4Vy.jpg

https://www.amazon.com/Letters-442nd-Correspondence-Japanese-American/dp/0295987456

u/WorkingHapa · 31 pointsr/hapas

(All courtesy of u/effortlessnetinho)

Estelle and Arthur met at the Otis Art Institute in Los Angeles during the 1920s, where she studied illustration. Arthur, a second generation Nisei born in San Francisco, studied theater and had moved to Southern California starstruck and had dreams of becoming a movie star... which ironically might have been easier for someone of Asian descent back then compared to now, since Sessue Hayakawa was one of the biggest movie stars in silent movies at the time. Our aspiring actor worked as a chauffeur to support himself and his artist girlfriend.

In 1929 they married in Mexico since it was illegal in California at the time for an asian man to marry a white woman. After which Estelle was disowned by her very well-to-do upper-class parents from the Bay Area, Estelle's mother was a concert singer and her father was a portrait and landscape artist.

Here is their marriage certificate (in Spanish): http://media.discovernikkei.org/articles/4279/ishigo1.jpg

They made their home in the Japanese-American community of Los Angeles until the December of 1941. The day after Pearl Harbor, Arthur was fired from his job at Paramount Studios and two weeks later Estelle was also fired from her own job teaching at the Hollywood Art Center because she was married to a Japanese man, and most damningly had taken his Japanese last name.

On February 19, 1942, President Roosevelt signed into law Executive Order 9066, and the Government forced all people of Japanese racial descent, regardless of citizenship, on the west coast to leave their homes and lives behind to be placed into "protective custody." More than 110,000 Japanese-Americans including the Ishigos were commanded to report to various "Assembly Centers," where they were ordered to await transportation to Japanese internment camps further inland.

Here is a correspondence from one of Estelle's friends:

https://i.imgur.com/quoJOcQ.png

In Estelle's memoirs she recounts a young Japanese American girl experiencing a "heart attack" amidst the fear, chaos and uncertainty at the center, the girl's parents were allowed to return to the city to seek medical help for their daughter, who died shortly after. The couple were ordered back to the Assembly Center.

Estelle writes: “Some have wondered why I went to that camp with my husband and also what it was like being married to a Japanese before the war and in the camp. In a time of hostility and danger, if one is in love the greatest desire is to stay close to one’s own.”

Many Japanese women who had married white men and had taken on their husbands surnames could claim that they were of a non-Japanese Asian descent and many were simply overlooked for internment. Not a single Japanese woman with an American surname has ever been recorded as interned in any these camps.

No such internment policy exists for Americans of German or Italian descent.

And of course, my dear hafu's, there were many hapas amongst the interned, as those with as a little as 1/16 Japanese ancestry would be placed in the camps. Colonel Karl Bendetsen, who despite being of Jewish ancestry, would become the architect of the Japanese Concentration Camps, going on to say in 1942: "I am determined that if they have one drop of Japanese blood in them, they must go to camp."

To this day, this remains the singular piece of American legislation that targets a racial ethnic group regardless of citizenship. With many official documents denoting the "ethnic Japanese" as "totally unassimilable."

General John L Dewitt states: "A Jap's a Jap. It makes no difference whether the Jap is a citizen or not."

And in the August of 1942, Estelle and Arthur were put on a train and took the 1,000 mile trip to the Heart Mountain Relocation Center in Wyoming, beneath the imposing edifice of Heart Mountain, the camp was especially desolate and had "one of the harshest living environments of all the camps, especially for those who had come from the California coastal areas."

Estelle, now the only white prisoner among twelve thousand Asians, wrote, I think quite stirringly: "We were gathered close into ourselves and imprisoned at the foot of the mountain as it towered in silence over the barren waste, we searched its gaunt face for the mysteries of our destiny: and some spoke its name with the same ancient reverence..."

Here she is with the camp and the distinctive mountain peak in the background: https://i.imgur.com/s7vnegt.jpg

http://www.javadc.org/heart_mountain_relocation_center.htm

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UjJ2Q2PnlSg

These are also the very same concentration camps from which many men of the 442nd Infantry Regiment would hail from. Despite them and their families being interned by the very government they sought to serve, many Japanese Americans whether through sheer patriotic instinct or in an attempt to prove their loyalty or American-ness perhaps would go on to form the almost entirely Japanese American Regimental Combat Team, which would become "the most decorated unit for its size and length of service in the history of American warfare."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/442nd_Infantry_Regiment_(United_States)

In fact there was a little TIL thread on the reddit front page this morning detailing the heroic exploits of Daniel Inouye who served in the 442nd, which was the actual impetus for me to do this little write up for y'all in the first place.

https://np.reddit.com/r/todayilearned/comments/7w4gy5/til_while_attacking_a_series_of_machine_gun_nests/

This small regiment which was self sufficient consisted of 3 infantry battalions, an engineer company, an anti tank company, a artillery support company, service, medical attachment, headquarters company, as well as an Army Band.

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/69/442nd_Regimental_Combat_Team_Organizational_Chart_%E7%AC%AC442%E9%80%A3%E9%9A%8A%E6%88%A6%E9%97%98%E5%9B%A3%E7%B7%A8%E5%88%B6%E5%9B%B3_%28ja%29.svg

Originally it totaled about 4000 Japanese Americans from Hawaii and the Internment camps and would be deployed to the European theater seeing extensive action in France, Italy and Germany, The small fighting force was often pushed into the front-lines where the fighting was fiercest, many times leading the assault uphill against fortified machine gun positions, in the end accruing a total of 9,486 Purple Hearts, 8 Presidential Unit Citations and twenty one Medals of Honor. The unit would have to be reinforced nearly 2 times over (read: they got shot the fuck up) by the end of the war, despite their original number of 4,000, over 14,000 Japanese American men will have fought, bled and died for the very same country where they are being rounded up into Concentration Camps and in which their own families would remain in captivity during their service. And despite their heroism and sacrifices, they were not allowed to celebrate with the other companies after Italy was liberated, the Japanese-American soldiers were ordered to garrison the surrounding region, while the companies of white men paraded into Rome to the sterling plaudits of a very grateful Italian populace.

https://i.imgur.com/oXDiwH2.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/K3vL4Vy.jpg

https://www.amazon.com/Letters-442nd-Correspondence-Japanese-American/dp/0295987456

u/joggle1 · 31 pointsr/todayilearned

If you want to know the details, I would highly recommend this book "At Dawn We Slept."

The answer is complicated. Some in the military were more suspicious than others. The primary reason they weren't too worried at Pearl Harbor was because the harbor is relatively shallow and protected. They believed any torpedoes dropped from the air would get embedded in the mud before they could climb back to the surface and propel themselves to the ships. This was the belief held in Japan too, until someone had the idea to modify them so that they wouldn't sink as much after the drop.

One US military officer had the idea to install torpedo nets just in case, but he somehow got on the bad side of FDR (on something completely unrelated) and was transferred before the nets could be installed. I wish I had more details, but I'm going from memory. I'll come back later to edit this with some details (such as names/rank).

In regards to the original post, one thing that's interesting about Pearl Harbor is the guy who formed the plan had received some of his education at Harvard years before the attack. He believed it was foolish to attack America (with the belief that Japan could not keep up with America in military industry), but that was what the politicians decided upon so he made the best plan that he could.

u/AntediluvianEmpire · 27 pointsr/gifs

Not even remotely.

This dude is obviously pretty war hardened, he doesn't even flinch when the explosion goes of. I just recently started reading Blood Red Snow and this first couple of chapters illustrate this kind of hardened mentality that you come into after your first couple of weeks in a combat zone.

u/rustyschneids · 15 pointsr/WWIIplanes

Read the book “Flyboys” by James Bradley. It talks specifically about the war on Chichi Jima. Flyboys

u/fromthedepthsofyouma · 14 pointsr/TankPorn

Read this book. More accurate then Fury and really goes into late WW2 German and American military tank tactics.

Someone in this sub recommended it to me and it was awesome.

u/zetaraybill · 14 pointsr/todayilearned

Flyboys is a pretty good book on the subject. Written by James Bradley, the author of Flags of Our Fathers.

It's slightly romanticized, but still a good insight into what happened. He interviewed veterans of both sides of the conflict, which is interesting.

u/TOM_THE_FREAK · 11 pointsr/CombatFootage

I have read this a few times. Really enjoyed it, Sniper One by Dan Mills http://www.amazon.co.uk/Sniper-One-Blistering-British-Battle/dp/0141029013

u/jjkauffman · 10 pointsr/HistoryMemes

There are plenty of memoirs from the German perspective that have been translated into English. However when compared to the number of sources that were written originally by English speakers, the number of German memoirs is puny. After years of reading the accounts of allied soldiers, airmen, and sailors, I became interested in reading the opposite point of view and have collected and read about 30 different accounts of German Soldiers, but I have yet to find any from the perspective of a child serving in the Hitler Youth or that of a pensioner pressed into service with the Volkstrumm.

Though I do not know of any, I highly suspect that they are out there, but more than likely the works are still in their native tongue, and have yet to be translated to English, etc.

Edit: Here's my Top 5 memoirs, for those looking to get into in a first person German perspective.

​

  1. Blood Red Snow by Guenter Koschorrek
    1. (Memoirs of a German Machine Gunner with the 24th Panzer Division in Stalingrad & on the Eastern Front. What I believe is the best, most well organized, and most thrilling account that I have ever read set in the Second World War.)
  2. Sniper on the Eastern Front: Memoirs of Sepp Allerberger by Albrecht Wacker
    1. (Memoirs of a German Sniper serving in Army Group South. The account is just astonishing, but I'm afraid its also incredibly graphic; It is not for the faint of heart.)
  3. At Leningrad's Gates by William Lubbeck
    1. (Memoirs of a German Forward Observer in the 58th Infantry Division of Army Group North. What is extraordinary about this account is that Mr. Lubbeck recalls and tells the story of his entire life, including his experiences during the rise of the Nazi Party in the 1930s.)
  4. Duel under the Stars by Wilhelm Johnen
    1. Memoirs of a Luftwaffe Pilot, serving in a night fighter wing tasked with defending German Cities from the British Night-time bombing raids.)
  5. Tigers in the Mud by Otto Carius
    1. (Memoirs of Germany's second most decorated Tiger Ace, Otto Carius. However his account felt too short and incomplete to me. Still would recommend based on his unique posting as a Tank Loader, then Tank Commander of Germany's feared Tiger Tank.)
u/Gadgetman53 · 8 pointsr/WorldOfWarships

Read James D. Hornfischer's books:

Neptune's Inferno - About Guadalcanal

The Fleet at Flood Tide - The Pacific campaign later in the war. I'm currently reading this.

The Last Stand of the Tin Can Sailors - About Taffey 3 and battle off Samar

u/MorningPlasma · 8 pointsr/serbia

Stvarno žalosno, vidio sam na hr vijestima danas. Ne možeš ni shvatiti tako nešto, a opet, kad si stavio link na psihopate sjetih se da zaista postoje ljudi koji su u stanju tako nešto napraviti i onda uopće ne RAZUMIJETI što su napravili. Niti suosjeća sa žrtvom, niti s njenom familijom koja sad više i nema normalan život, niti se time uopće zamara. Kao kad razbiješ čašu, počistiš i dalje ideš svojim poslom.

Nedavno sam čitao The Nazi and the Psychiatrist i ovaj glavni lik, američki psiholog je kasnije pedesetih godina radio za policiju, imao je slučaj jednog uhvaćenog masovnog ubojice i ocijenio ga je za najvećeg egocentrika nakon Goeringa. U njegovoj glavi postoji on, donekle još njegova žena i dijete i unutra više nema niti trunke brige ili osjećaja za bilo kog drugog na ovom svijetu.

edit - The Frozen Ground, tu je Cusack baš ledeno vjerodostojan kao jedan takav lik.

u/cstross · 7 pointsr/printSF

If you want the background, I'd recommend three sources:

  1. Most Secret War by R. V. Jones, chief scientist to Winston Churchill during WW2 -- a bit dated (it was published in the early 1970s, before the ENIGMA crypto was declassified) and he has some axes to grind, but it gives a very readable insight into the "wizard war", the technological conflict between Britain and Germany during the war and the various secret weapons programs.

  2. The Codebreakers: The Comprehensive History of Secret Communication from Ancient Times to the Internet by David Kahn, which is pretty much what the title says -- it starts with the US breaking of the PURPLE code and the decrypt of the Japanese Declaration of War on December 7th, 1941, then flashes back to give you a comprehensive history of codes and cryptographer.

  3. Mother Earth, Mother Board by Neal Stephenson -- an insane journalistic essay (published sprawling across 96 pages in WIRED in 1996!) that describes the construction of the FLAG undersea fiber-optic cable, the history of intercontinental cables, and, and ... let's just say, Neal got WIRED to pay him for nine months to go all over the world with a photographer and write this essay about stuff that interested him, and I'm pretty certain it's the main body of his research project for Cryptonomicon!
u/aldenrower · 6 pointsr/korea

My brother in law used to be a commercial diver with the helmet and hoses going to the surface. He loaned me a book once that was written by a US Navy diver who was stationed in Pearl harbor during the Japanese attack. He told tales of fleshless finger bones rubbing against the wreck making a scraping sound. Stuff of ptsd for sure. The Koreans probably have a Critical Incident Stress Management team set up for the divers.

Edit: The book is called Descent into Darkness. Here's an amazon link:http://www.amazon.com/Descent-Into-Darkness-Harbor-Divers/dp/0891415890/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1398275566&sr=8-1&keywords=descent+into+darkness

u/mookiemookie · 6 pointsr/history

> Naval blockades (which are themselves an act of war) tend to do that, particularly to an island nation like Japan.

Source on this? As far as I know there was no naval blockade of Japan prior to the U.S. entry to the war. I'm in the middle of At Dawn We Slept and there's no mention of that.

u/vshawk2 · 6 pointsr/history

Pacific Theater:

Ghost Soldiers

Flyboys

u/BMinsker · 5 pointsr/AskHistorians

I don't have the link either, but in Webster's autobiography, his return to the unit was clearly welcomed. Most of the ribbing he reports was of the "Hey, Webster, where the hell have you been?" variety.

u/slavik262 · 5 pointsr/HistoryPorn

It was common when using live prisoners for bayonet practice to order trainees not to aim for the heart, lest the prisoners die "too quickly".

Source

u/Bigglesworth_ · 5 pointsr/Warthunder

Or broadcast interference, or even their own beams; R V Jones' Most Secret War is an excellent read about the battle of the beams and other scientific aspects of the war.

u/Maine_Fluff_Chucker · 4 pointsr/WarshipPorn

Ship of Ghosts is an awesome read

u/Taldoable · 4 pointsr/drydockporn

I think I've read it in several places, but the first one that comes to mind is "At Dawn We Slept", a book I highly recommend if you want a detailed look at the events at Pearl Harbor. It's now known to have some really minor things wrong, but it's exceedingly detailed and well done given the information Prange had.

https://www.amazon.com/At-Dawn-We-Slept-Untold/dp/0140157344

u/ResearcherAtLarge · 3 pointsr/WarshipPorn

It entirely depends on circumstances. Shallow depth in warm water would tend to cause a faster breaking down. In the case of Oklahoma and Arizona, salvage was soon enough that there would have been remains, and it would have been down right nasty and creepy. Descent into Darkness is an excellent read into what the salvage divers had to deal with. I would cause it a nightmare.

u/SavageHenry0311 · 3 pointsr/AskHistorians

I would also like to recommend Clear the Bridge by Richard O'Kane.

This book is written by the famous skipper of the USS Wahoo, and covers his time as the XO (second in command) of the USS Tang. It's a great look at the submarine war in the Pacific, and deals quite a bit with "the human experience".

If you read it, please let me know what you think.

u/bad-monkey · 3 pointsr/todayilearned

I really enjoyed this one. It was originally released as a serial article in one of Japan's larger newspapers, later turned into a book. It's a pretty good start to finish narrative that starts before 12/7/41 and takes them through their epic story.

https://muse.jhu.edu/book/8273

This is a more personal foray into the minds of these men. Intimate and a really unique look into the minds of Hawaiian-Japanese Americans:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0295987456/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1

u/motorpike · 3 pointsr/todayilearned

If you want to know more about the subject in general or are just for interested, the engagement where he's injured is described in Sniper One by Sgt. Dan Mills. I read it not long ago and as someone who's never seen any form of combat I feel it gives a great insight into the armed forces were dealing with during the Iraq occupation.

u/FelixCat6 · 3 pointsr/WarshipPorn

Quite an interesting story with this one. I would recommend this book, written by Dick O'Kane, her Exec at one time. He went on to captain USS Tang, an equally interesting ship. there's also a book by him about his experiences on the Tang, which I also recommend.

Source - http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:USS_Wahoo_(SS_238)_is_launched.jpg

u/dr_rainbow · 2 pointsr/AskReddit

Books:

The book I read on Bundy is called The Stranger Beside Me written by one of Bundy''s close friends. She was in contact with him before he was caught, right through to his death. He considered her a sister, one of the few people who really understood him. I would reccomend it. The book on Mengele is Children of the Flames. I will check out the columbine book, thanks for the mention.

I've not read too many books at the moment, but I can link you to some interesting (free!) stuff I've read on the net.

Internet articles:

  • Issei Sagawa killed and ate one of his fellow classmates when he was studying in France. He was jailed and after serving time, returned to Japan and became something of a celebrity. There is a pretty interesting interview with him by Vice magazine. The reason I cite him is because he has written a few books, I have not read any of them though.

  • Another person of interest is Simo Hayha, a Finnish sniper who killed over 500 people during war. There's an interesting article on him here. The reason I cite Hayha is because I find it interesting a person can be classified a serial killer in one situation and a hero in another. (not a serial killer, just interesting)

    Films & Documentaries:

  • Zodiac (fairly accurate for the first half or so, pretty interesting)

  • Monster about Aileen Wuornos, it's ok, but not great in my opinion.

    A good documentry on Dennis Raider, the BTK killer:

  • Part 1

  • Part 2

  • Part 3

  • Part 4

  • Part 5

    In fact, that youtube channel has a lot of full length documentaries on different serial killers.

  • Richard Franklin Speck
  • Green River Killer
  • The Boston Strangler


    Things I am planning to read about:

  • John Wayne Gacy
  • Harold Shipman
  • High School Shooters
  • "Going Postal"
  • Jim Jones and Jonestown

    If you have any books you would recommend, I'd like to hear them. :)


    edit: formatting

u/bmunichman · 2 pointsr/AskReddit

Several other airmen were shot down around the island and captured by the Japanese. As this was late in the war, the islands were not being supplied and were starving. Some of the airmen were killed and eaten by the defenders.

From: Flyboys: A True Story of Courage by James Bradley

u/gray-pixel · 2 pointsr/Warthunder

I just read this book, I bought it because I was always and admirer. The truth is, when the engine failed he had to bail out. He jumped but hit the stabilizer, leaving him unconscious or killing him instanly. It was sad to end that way.

Here is a very good photo gallery of Marseille.

u/klystron · 2 pointsr/ThingsCutInHalfPorn

This thread in a World War 2 forum discusses the effectiveness of anti-aircraft fire.

One person quotes a German flak officer as saying approximately 4000 x 88 mm anti-aircraft shells were needed to down one aircraft. Another comment quotes the British general in charge of Anti-Aircraft Command, Sir Frederick Pile, as having a kill ratio of one aircraft per 6000 shells during the Blitz. In both cases these are standard anti-aircraft shells with a timed fuze set by a predictor.

In Most Secret War by Dr Reginald Jones a figure is quoted of 77 proximity-fuzed shells needed to shoot down a V-1 flying bomb. (Also published as The Wizard War in the USA. Jones was head of Scientific Intelligence for the RAF in WW2 and his book about his experiences is fascinating.)

While this is a 2-orders-of-magnitude improvement there are a few things to take into consideration:

  • By the time the proximity fuze was available to the Allies they also had effective gun-laying radar and predictors working together.

  • The Germans didn't have effective anti-aircraft radar and used sound detectors at night (or in bad weather,) and optical rangefinders in daylight. These were much less accurate than radar.

  • The Germans didn't develop a workable proximity fuze. (Jones mentions an agent report which says they were trying to do so.) The best they could do was to set up box barrages which the bomber streams would have to fly through, as the whole mass of bombers on a mission was too unwieldy to fly around them without losing formation

  • The V-1s flew at a low altitude in a straight line without taking evasive action. This made them an easy target. Allied low-altitude attack aircraft which were constantly strafing German "targets of opportunity" were a much more difficult target as they could take evasive action.
u/Phippz · 2 pointsr/WarshipPorn

Dick O'Kane's (XO for Wahoo's first few patrols) book is a great read. His book about his time as commander of the USS Tang is even better.

u/Blainesapain · 2 pointsr/books

You may be interested in Eichmann in Jerusalem: A report on the banality of evil by Hannah Arendt. Arendt uses Eichmann (considered by some to be one of the cruelest men in the Third Reich) to show the Holocaust was brought on by complacency more than evil intent.
http://www.amazon.com/Eichmann-Jerusalem-Banality-Penguin-Classics/dp/0143039881

You may also like The Nazi and the Psychiatrist. I haven't read this one, but it seems pretty cool.

http://www.amazon.ca/The-Nazi-Psychiatrist-Hermann-Douglas/dp/161039156X

u/dpyn016 · 2 pointsr/WarshipPorn

Just ruined O'Kanes book for me. I made it to the 5th patrol chapter yesterday. What an awesome read it is.

Kidding though, I unfortunately found the wiki article a while back.

u/Jamboro · 1 pointr/booksuggestions

Descent Into Darkness

Navy Divers performing rescue and salvage immediately after the attack on Pearl Harbor.

u/YoungZeebra · 1 pointr/videos

If you are interested, a few members of Easy company also wrote books:

David Webster

Dick Winters

Lynn Compton

William Guarnere and Edward Heffron

Don Malarkey Author, Bob Welch

u/PHRiSCo · 1 pointr/AskReddit

Flyboys: A True Story of Courage
<br>
Amazon

No this has nothing to do with the shitty WW1 movie with James Franco.

u/Im_just_saying · 1 pointr/todayilearned

Good book about it: Flyboys.

u/Scoreback · 1 pointr/creepy

If anyone is after a good/creepy read on the subject

http://www.amazon.com/Children-Flames-Mengele-Untold-Auschwitz/dp/0140169318

u/LayinScunion · 1 pointr/Warthunder

Star of Africa

Sakai's exploits

Boyington's exploits

Just a few books that say otherwise. But I guess I'll take your word over there's.

u/unreqistered · 1 pointr/videos

> Parachute Infantry: An American Paratrooper's Memoir of D-Day and the Fall of the Third Reich

http://www.amazon.com/Parachute-Infantry-American-Paratroopers-ebook/dp/B005O1BYS2/ref=tmm_kin_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&sr=&qid=

u/Doc_Wyatt · 1 pointr/videos
u/Giant_Slor · 1 pointr/WarshipPorn

[Ship of Ghosts] (http://www.amazon.com/Ship-Ghosts-Houston-Legendary-Survivors/dp/0553384503) is well worth a read if you want a firsthand account of the godawful situation faced by ABDA forces in SE Asia and the DEI area in early 1942. The account of the Houston and HMAS Perth's final battle is truly gripping reading.

u/awkwardlittleturtle · 1 pointr/Random_Acts_Of_Amazon

I don't mind used books at all (actually prefer them... they just have somewhat of a magical feel <3 )

A few that I really would love to read are Ella Minnow Pea, Children of the Flames and Relic (Pendergast series)

u/somercet · 1 pointr/YoujoSenki

> In WWII Germany, the US engaged in indiscriminate bombing of Dresden

In WWII, all strategic bombing was "indiscriminate," thanks. If the Germans wanted to be precision bombed, why did they put up AA? No pilot will fly down to the deck if you put up tons of that stuff.

Also, you left out the United Kingdom, thanks.

I will never tire of pointing out that the Allied strategic bombing campaign happened for two reasons:

  1. The British refused to invade France even by 1943, and
  2. Stalin was screaming for a second front.

    Putting aside Stalin's guilt over the Molotov-Ribbentrop pact, he had a point. Clearing North Africa and the Mediterranean Sea in 1942 was undoubtedly a good idea, since Britain could ship to and from the BMI theater, which relieved American forces in the Pacific. You could make a case for taking Sicily to box in Italy (which should never have been invaded), as well.

    Churchill had a good idea about using the Ljubljana Gap to invade Mitteleuropa without having to muck all across France but, sadly, no one took him up on it. An Allied invasion into Trieste and environs in 1943 would have meant Operation Tidal Wave, against the Ploiești oil fields, would have had a round trip ~2000 km shorter than from their actual base in the Mandate of Palestine. That would have crippled Germany.

    > to clear a route for the red army to invade.

    The Battle of Berlin began before the Battle of Dresden. Dresden was a shipping hub to the Wehrmacht and SS, not the path to Berlin.

    As for indiscriminate civilian casualties, I was unaware that Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Ernest J. King, no one's idea of a soft touch, had visited Saipan until I read Hornfischer:

    > “Saipan was filled with horror, but it was during these securing days that we came upon the worst of the nightmares,” Robert Graf wrote. The Fourth Marine Division history records that “Mothers and fathers stabbed, strangled, or shot their screaming children, hurled them into the sea and leapt in after them, all in view of Marines on top of the cliffs. Surrender pleas were largely in vain. Many who wished to do so were prevented by Japanese soldiers.” — Hornfischer, James, The Fleet at Flood Tide, ch 24.

    "A true man would rather be the shattered jewel (gyokusai), ashamed to be the intact tile."

    > What the top commanders saw at Marpi Point shocked them. Preserved on the rocks below the cliffs was “the crowning horror of Japanese lunacy,” King would write: the bodies of hundreds of civilians, “egged on by the military, [who] had cast themselves from the cliffs…in an orgy of self-destruction.” They drove south to Garapan, past the cliffs where Saito and Nagumo had taken their lives. Two realities were made clear to the U.S. Navy brain trust: A great victory was at hand in the Central Pacific, and far worse lay ahead. — ch 25.

    Then:

    > Likewise, the American firebombing of Tokyo fit many definitions of indiscriminate.

    The B-29 was immune to Japanese AA, but being so high put the bombers into the jet stream, making bombing even more imprecise over Japan than over Germany. LeMay then made the decision to switch the B-29s to incendiaries, using, as horrible as it sounds, the cities to burn down the factories:

    > Curtis LeMay would continue the high-altitude precision raids for another forty-nine days, to no better result. At that point he resolved to change dramatically the nature of the effort. A firebombing campaign just might be the fix. LeMay was about to change the way the XXI Bomber Command waged war. — ch 29.

    LeMay ordered leaflets dropped over 5-6 cities, noting that one of them would be flattened by the USAAF soon, in an attempt to eliminate civilian casualties without giving the Japanese military a target.
u/asydquiz64 · 1 pointr/writing

My hero, and 95-year-old one and only living grandpa, wrote a book back in 1999 about his experiences as a navigator/bombardier in World War II. He wrote it before the power of social media was a thing, I would just like to try and expose it to as many people as I can over the internet. Not surprisingly I find it very interesting, this book gives you a very personal perspective of an individual accepting the fact that he will not return home alive, as well as morally conficting decisions he and his crew were forced to complete.

This is his story.

DADDY, WHAT DID YOU DO DURING THE WAR? https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00EB3FBBA/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_UEGWzbEG3W2FT

u/taho_teg · 1 pointr/WWII

I'm loving the lists others have put up.

I have to add O'kanes Wahoo and Clear the Bridge

And a few of the europian air war: The Dam Busters and Reach for the Sky

u/ewiethoff · 1 pointr/books

How about Fur, Fortune, and Empire: The Epic History of the Fur Trade in America. It's not military history per se, but it does cover several colonial battles, fort building, Indian wars, etc.

Right now I'm reading The Fires: How a Computer Formula, Big Ideas, and the Best of Intentions Burned Down New York City--And Determined the Future of Cities and finding it very fascinating.

u/PickleInDaButt · 1 pointr/army

Parachute Infantry

I've already read it but any fan of Band of Brothers should get this one. It is written by one of them, PFC David Webster, and gives an excellent perception from a guy who wanted to fight but not achieve military success/career. His writing is extremely insightful and humorous at times. Great writer in which I actually have a tattoo of one of his letters from Band of Brothers in which he was writing his mother and showing his dissatisfaction of her opinion concerning her son being infantry and airborne.

Fantastic portion of it shows that the airborne units' hatred of fucking beanies or skull caps is well vetted even in WW2.

u/Randay1 · 1 pointr/Warthunder

I cannot recommend enough Star of Africa

It is the story of Hans-Joachim Marseille who was a German ace in North Africa. Would drop notes to the British letting them know the status of their downed comrades, played jazz in front of hitler, and just be an all around fascinating individual.

u/Sle · 1 pointr/AskHistorians

As an addition to your comment, I recommend anyone particularly interested in this phase of Goering's life read The Nazi and the Psychiatrist. I just finished it and it really gives an insight into how these people, especially Goering, actually were in reality.

u/Zinjifrah · 1 pointr/history

There is a decent bit about the Pershing's early engagements in

Spearhead: An American Tank Gunner, His Enemy, and a Collision of Lives in World War II

It's about Clarence Smoyer and his crew in the 3rd Armored.

​

You can hear about the book (and the Pershing engagement) on the Art of Manliness podcast:

https://www.artofmanliness.com/articles/podcast-494-the-inspiring-story-of-one-of-wwiis-greatest-tank-gunners/