Anthony Beevor's new book

[Johnny Canuck3]

Got to be honest I really don't get Beevor as a serious historian. His right wing politics shine through but he hasn't got the self-awareness to acknowledge them and he never seems to explain anything - it's just a long, often rambly, narrative. I mean they are OK reads as a journalistic time-passers but often they are just junk.

I didn't see any right wing agenda in The Fall of Berlin or The Spanish Civil War.

 

[Kaka Tim]

Just read Stalingrad which was quite good.
I found his D-Day book hard work tbh - it too picaresque, lots of detail but no real overall narrative. You quickly lose track of which particualr regiment, brigade etc is doing what where. His mostly relies on quotes from participants to describe the events rather then describing the overall picture himself- which doesn't always work.
Cornelious Ryans Bridge Too Far is still the best account of a battle I've read - gripping, well paced and detailed and with a clear narrative thrust.

 

[JimW]

Read his Stalingrad and the one of the Fall of Crete with special interest as that's where my Grandad taken POW, though the latter wasn't quite as good as the Stalingrad book I reckon.

ETA: "It takes three years to build a ship; it takes three centuries to build a tradition"

 

[Random]

Read his Stalingrad and the one of the Fall of Crete with special interest as that's where my Grandad taken POW, though the latter wasn't quite as good as the Stalingrad book I reckon.

ETA: "It takes three years to build a ship; it takes three centuries to build a tradition"

Crete was one of his earlier ones iirc. Have you read Waugh's Sword of Honour books? One of them describes exactly the same events as Beevor's Crete, and the history book shows that at least one of Waugh's characters was clearly based on a real incompetent commando officer. What service arm was your grandfather in? Mine was a RAF navigator, btw.

 

[JimW]

Crete was one of his earlier ones iirc. Have you read Waugh's Sword of Honour books? One of them describes exactly the same events as Beevor's Crete, and the history book shows that at least one of Waugh's characters was clearly based on a real incompetent commando officer. What service arm was your grandfather in? Mine was a RAF navigator, btw.

I've not but I've read a few reviews etc. and been told they are worth it (or maybe something else - Crete then seemed chock-a-block with future literati types up to derring-do). My grandad was a Royal Marine gunner assigned to airfield protection, at the one (names escapes me) where the main thrust hit IIRC. By the time they'd marched across the island to the evac beach-head there were no ships left, so he got caught there.

 

[Pickman's model]

Crete was one of his earlier ones iirc. Have you read Waugh's Sword of Honour books? One of them describes exactly the same events as Beevor's Crete, and the history book shows that at least one of Waugh's characters was clearly based on a real incompetent commando officer. What service arm was your grandfather in? Mine was a RAF navigator, btw.

no surprise that waugh based his characters on soh on real people, cos he did exactly the same with his 30s book scoop.

 

[JimW]

Got me thinking on grandad's war again so had another of my perennial googles and found something I'd not seen before, load of recordings at the Imperial War Museum's site of various soldier's reminiscences, including a couple who sound like they may well have been in his company, turns out was the Mobile Naval Base Defence Organisation; this lad also ended up as a POW and escaped (as my grandad did) and mentions working in rail yards, which is where grandad lost half one of his fingers:
http://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/80024109

but sadly audio on that one not working at the minute. Here's a couple of others also from MNBDO who were at Suda Bay:

http://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/80024161

http://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/80024162

More if you search and all good listens, including pre-war reminiscences. Sure everyone else knew about it already but great to find it mostly all online, as my grandad died before I was old enough to ask him much detail myself.