THE VICTORS: EISENHOWER and HIS BOYS: THE MEN of WORLD WAR II (abridged audiobook) by Stephen E. Ambrose

Originally published by Simon and Schuster Audio in 1998.
Read by Cotter Smith.
Duration: 4 hours, 20 minutes.
Abridged.

I don't know how many books historian Stephen E. Ambrose (1936-2002) wrote about the D-Day Invasion, but they all a little different and they are all quite enjoyable to read. Ambrose is perhaps most famous for writing the history that inspired HBO's excellent Band of Brothers, which was also based on the same theme.

Ambrose had a gift for writing histories that were informative, entertaining and, at times, quite moving - and this one was no exception. The focus was on the D-Day invasion, the immediate aftermath, the Battle of the Bulge and the final push into Germany. There is no discussion of how the war started and little of how it ended, but almost everyone who would read this book knows all of that anyway.

The audiobook was read by Cotter Smith who did a nice job.

I rate this audiobook 4 stars out of 5 and it can be found on Amazon.com here: THE VICTORS: EISENHOWER and HIS BOYS: THE MEN of WORLD WAR II (abridged).

THE GENERALS: PATTON, MACARTHUR, MARSHALL and the WINNING of WORLD WAR II (audiobook) by Winston Groom

Published in November of 2015 by Blackstone Audio, Inc.
Read by Robertson Dean
Duration: 16 hours, 2 minutes
Unabridged

Winston Groom, forever associated with his iconic character Forrest Gump, has written an interesting and solid history of three equally iconic World War II generals: George Patton, Douglas MacArthur and George Marshall. 

Groom's triple biography format works quite well as all three of these men's life stories were on parallel tracks once they entered World War I and they all knew one another and had worked with one another in one capacity or another through the years (the story of Patton and MacArthur meeting up and working together on the front lines of World War I is a great one).

The histories of these men during peacetime only served to reinforce my impression that both of these men were eccentric, sometimes to the point of being bizarre - especially Patton. But, in wartime these men all shined, despite some controversies. I never had much of a positive opinion about MacArthur. He always seemed to me to more of a strutting peacock than he was a competent general - more good PR than real talent. But, this book has changed my opinion of the man's talents as a general. Still a strutting peacock, though...

This was an enjoyable and informative read. Winston Groom weaves the three biographies together in an interesting way, generally using their parallel lives to reinforce each other's stories. The reader, Robertson Dean, gave distinctive voices to each of the three generals and his reading enhanced an already strong text. 

I rate this audiobook 5 stars out of 5.

This audiobook can be found on Amazon.com here: The Generals: Patton, MacArthur, Marshall and the Winning of World War II. 

Omar Bradley: General At War by Jim DeFelice

Published in 2011 by Regnery History

Regnery Publishing's newest imprint, Regnery History has found something new to tell about one of the most written-about parts of World War II: D-Day. You may ask yourself, what else can be said about D-Day that hasn't been said? We have had powerful, visceral movies like Saving Private Ryan, The Longest Day and Patton and the famed HBO series Band of Brothers. Article after article and book after book have been written about D-Day, the Battle of the Bulge and the final days of Nazi Germany but somehow we have failed to have had a serious biography of one of the invasion's central planners and one of the men who engineered the entire campaign from the beaches of Normandy until the defeat of Germany: American 5 star general Omar Bradley.



The problem with Omar Bradley and historians is that he is not Patton. Patton is brash, daring and iconic. Bradley did not chase headlines and did not wear fancy pistols. He was daring, but not as daring as Patton. He knew that he should keep his mouth under control and he was too humble for his own historical reputation. But, one could seriously doubt if Patton could have been the remarkable general he was without the support of Omar Bradley - a man who kept Patton supplied (no small task) and innately understood and supported the battlefield tactics and strategy that Patton espoused so loudly.

Omar Bradley

Jim DeFelice's Omar Bradley: General At War tells the complete story of Bradley's life, from his humble beginnings in rural Missouri through the war and on to being the chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff after the war, but mostly focuses on the campaigns in North Africa, Sicily (where he worked under Patton) and France (where Patton worked under him). He paints a sympathetic picture of a likable man who never shirked his duty and who pioneered a number of innovations such as a mobile command center (in the back of a truck) and joint land and air operations with coordinated air strikes during the breakout from Normandy.

While DeFelice clearly admires Bradley (Ernie Pyle practically gushed over the man which is about as good of a character reference as you can get in my book), he does not cover up his mistakes and shortcomings. Bradley never concerned himself with the larger world scene (he was shocked when the possibility of a post-war rivalry with the Soviets was pointed out to him). The "bulge" in the Battle of the Bulge happened in his zone due to a calculated risk on his part. But, he was quickly able to adapt himself to the situation and turn a momentary retreat into a larger victory.

In the end, the lesson of Omar Bradley may be that the nice guy, the guy that works hard and does not demand special attention sometimes can win, and win big.

This is a solid entry as Regnery History's first book. It is well-researched and an enjoyable read. If the rest of their catalog is as solid as Omar Bradley: General At War, this will be a welcome addition to the history section of your favorite bookseller. That being said, Regnery History did make a rookie mistake with the maps. They are all located in an appendix at the end of the text and there are simply not enough of them. This book screamed for maps and lots of them and there were just not enough. I have never heard any history lover complain that a book had too many maps.

I rate this book 4 stars out of 5.

This book can be found on Amazon.com here: Omar Bradley: General at War

Reviewed on September 13, 2011.

Note: This book was provided at no charge by the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

The Rising Tide: A Novel of World War II by Jeff Shaara

Originally published in 2006.

The Rising Tide: A Novel of World War II is the first book in Jeff Shaara's series about World War II. It is the weakest in many ways. Shaara approaches most of his books with the docudrama format - a little bit of narrative history, a lot bit of historical fiction. His narrative history is quite well written and flows nicely.

The historical fiction in this book is its weak point. The action is very good, but there is not a lot of action - just a few pages in the Africa Campaign and some very solid stuff from the Sicily campaign. The majority of the historical fiction part of the book, among the Allied characters at least, is Shaara's characters putting themselves into place to fight Rommel and setting the scene for the second book. It would have moved more briskly if Shaara would have reverted to the historical narrative form, but it would severely limit the fictional aspects of the book.

Jeff Shaara

On the Axis side, Rommel is the compelling figure of the book. Clearly Shaara builds him up to be the ultimate professional officer of the war - not a Nazi, just a man fighting his country as he has always done. Shaara skirts around the issues that Rommel must have surely considered when those orders come from thugs like the Nazis. Perhaps he just assumed that Rommel chose to mostly ignore the uncomfortable aspects of taking orders from people like the Nazis. Perhaps Rommel was just as afraid of the Communists and just as angry at the Allies as Hitler was - we just don't know from this book. What I did not get from this series was a sense that Rommel was a real "super general". After all, for the layman he is the only battlefield German General with a "name brand" recognition. What I got from this portrayal of Rommel was a sense that he could have defeated two particular British commanders with ease if he had the resources and that he could see that Germany was extending itself too far.

There are plenty of great maps in this series, but especially in this book.

I rate this book 4 stars and it can be found on Amazon.com here: The Rising Tide: A Novel of World War II by Jeff Shaara.

Reviewed on November 16, 2010.

Patton: The Pursuit of Destiny by Agostino Von Hassell and Ed Breslin

Gives a solid background on one of America's iconic generals

Published in 2010 by Thomas Nelson

There have been thousands of generals that have served in the United States Military. Very few officers ever get "name" recognition. Washington, Grant, Pershing, MacArthur, Eisenhower. Patton stands right there with them, unique in the group of generals that I named because he was the only one that was always a subordinate officer, meaning that he was never in charge of an entire theater of war.

But, Patton inspires images of a general of action - impulsive, moving, always pushing, leading from the field. Modern tank warfare may have been perfected by Patton in the sense that he truly understood the need to coordinate air, naval, armor and GI's. He did more than understand it in theory - he actually did it on the ground in real life.

Patton: The Pursuit of Destiny is an attempt to dig behind the image to find out a little about the real Patton - a romantic family man (also a philanderer), the little boy that dreamed of the battlefield, the frustrations that accompanied his slow climb up the officer ranks (but helped by excellent connections), his fear of being afraid.

Von Hassell and Breslin are mostly successful in their attempt, although they are often repetitious in some of their points. For example, they tell the reader multiple times in the section on World War II that Patton's reputation as a glory hound was mitigated by the fact that he shared the glory so well with his men.

At times, the facts are written to make them seem more dramatic. For example, on page 117 they note that the U.S. army "had captured or killed more than 100,000 enemy troops"(p. 117) in the Sicily campaign (Operation Husky). Technically true but the numbers are 29,000 dead, missing or wounded Axis troops and 140,000 captured soldiers. Yes, it is common to include the captured in with the figures for the casualties, but this statistic seems written to inflate the death total.

At another point they just get facts wrong - not facts about Patton but about another general. They were trying to make the point that Patton did not squander his men, even while he was pushing them forward as fast as possible. The compare him to " 'Butcher Joe' Hooker, the Union general who to be relieved of command by President Lincoln early in the Civil War due to the appalling losses of life and limb incurred under his leadership." (p. xiii). Hooker's nickname was "Fighting Joe" and, ironically, he was dismissed due to tentative fighting in the latter part of the Battle of Chancellorsville and his lack of desire to chase down Robert E. Lee's army that was invading Pennsylvania and on its way to Gettysburg. Lincoln might well have excused a "Butcher Joe" on the grounds that at least he confronted the enemy. Ulysses S. Grant was the general with the nickname "Butcher". 

In many ways, Patton: The Pursuit of Destiny apologizes for Patton by denigrating his colleagues. Many times the reader is told that Montgomery and Eisenhower were too tentative in Patton's eyes. What we don't get is an historian's unbiased view about Patton's opinions. Were they? In Citizen Soldiers: The U.S. Army from the Normandy Beaches to the Bulge to the Surrender of Germany, June 7 1944-May 7, 1945 Ambrose asserts that Patton's tanks were out of gas, his men were low on supplies while he was advocating pushing forward into Germany - this might have created a "bulge" into Germany with the same results the Germans experienced with their bulge. A discussion of all sides would have been appropriate.

The book has many pictures of Patton, ranging from his childhood all the way through his World War II years. What the book also needed was maps - describing a map is so much less effective than just showing the reader why, for example, why the Battle of the Bulge was such a threat to the allies.

In sum, a good overview of the his life, but do not let this book be your only source about the complicated European Theater in World War II.

I rate this book 3 stars out of 5. It can be found on Amazon.com here: Patton: The Pursuit of Destiny by Agostino Von Hassell and Ed Breslin.

Reviewed on August 12, 2010.

I reviewed this book in conjunction with Thomas Nelson's BookSneeze program. I was not compensated for this review. The opinions expressed are mine.