America's School for War: Fort Leavenworth, Officer Education, and Victory in World War II (Modern War Studies) Review

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America's School for War: Fort Leavenworth, Officer Education, and Victory in World War II (Modern War Studies) ReviewI was very pleased to see my copy of Dr. Schifferle's work arrive. First, I note that the author has outstanding credentials for this topic. Here, the biographical information is understated for the general reader, but speaks volumes for people who know anything about the School of Advanced Military Studies. Clearly, Dr. Schifferle is an accomplished historian and an expert in his field. Second, I appreciate both the bibliography and footnotes; I used both to gain insight into the scope and depth of the author's research. For example, I surveyed the sources that he used for the discussion on doctrinal development in the 1920's and found that material to be very interesting, to include the origins of the FM 100-5 manuals most professionals are so familiar with. Third, the text is well written prose with excellent analytical structure and substantive support for his arguments. In essense, I learned a lot about the Army as a "learning institution" in the inter-war years, showing the intellectual growth of officer corps as a whole (as opposed to the "intellectual leaders" that we so frequently read about). This book gave me a deeper appreciation for the relationships between experience (i.e. WWI), a flowering intellectual discourse (i.e. in professional journals), experimentation leading to new theory, resulting in new doctrine disseminated through the school system, and subsequently adjusted by new experience (i.e. WWII). This book clearly demonstrates the value of professional military education, illustrating many important concepts and innovations that reached fruition in WWII.America's School for War: Fort Leavenworth, Officer Education, and Victory in World War II (Modern War Studies) OverviewWhen the United States entered World War II, it took more than industrial might to transform its tiny army--smaller than even Portugal's--into an overseas fighting force of more than eight and a half million. Peter Schifferle contends that the determination of American army officers to be prepared for the next big war was an essential component in America's ultimate triumph over its adversaries. Crucial to that preparation were the army schools at Fort Leavenworth.Interwar Army officers, haunted by the bloodshed of World War I's Meuse-Argonne Offensive, fully expected to return to Europe to conclude the "unfinished business" of that conflict, and they prepared well. Schifferle examines for the first time precisely how they accomplished this through a close and illuminating look at the students, faculty, curriculum, and essential methods of instruction at Fort Leavenworth. He describes how the interwar officer corps there translated the experiences of World War I into effective doctrine, engaged in intellectual debate on professional issues, conducted experiments to determine the viability of new concepts, and used military professional education courses to substitute for the experience of commanding properly organized and resourced units.Schifferle highlights essential elements of war preparation that only the Fort Leavenworth education could provide, including intensive instruction in general staff procedures, hands-on experience with the principles and techniques of combined arms, and the handling of large division-sized formations in combat. This readied army officers for an emerging new era of global warfare and enabled them to develop the leadership decision making they would need to be successful on the battlefield. But Schifferle offers more than a recitation of curriculum development through the skillful interweaving of personal stories about both school experiences and combat operations, collectively recounting the human and professional development of the officer corps from 1918 to 1945. Well crafted and insightful, Schifferle's meticulously researched study shows how and why the Fort Leavenworth experience was instrumental in producing that impressive contingent of military officers who led the U.S. Army to final victory in World War II. By the end of the book, the attentive reader will also fully comprehend why the military professionals at Fort Leavenworth have come to think of it as the "Intellectual Center of the Army."This book is part of the Modern War Studies series.

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Eleanor Roosevelt: Transformative First Lady (Modern First Ladies) Review

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Eleanor Roosevelt: Transformative First Lady (Modern First Ladies) ReviewThis book includes a number of anecdotes and facts that were new to me despite the fact that I'd read much about Eleanor Roosevelt before--and all those details were well integrated into a good overview of her life. What I found especially interesting was the author's insight into Mrs. Roosevelt's attitudes towards what might be regarded as women's issues and women's role in society. She was an active advocate for social reforms without overtly challenging what the author describes as "the ideology of separate spheres" for men and women. In short, this book offers some new perspectives on this much-written-about woman.Eleanor Roosevelt: Transformative First Lady (Modern First Ladies) Overview

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American Airpower Strategy in Korea, 1950-1953 Review

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American Airpower Strategy in Korea, 1950-1953 ReviewWell written, and I agree with the first reviewer: not for novices. The book will be more meaningful to a reader who is already acquainted with the Korean War. The book is wide-ranging, succinct enough to keep you turning the pages, but with enough depth to get a solid handle on the evolution and dilemmas of airpower in the Korean War.American Airpower Strategy in Korea, 1950-1953 OverviewThe Korean War was the first armed engagement for the newly formed U.S. Air Force, but far from the type of conflict it expected or wanted to fight. As the first air war of the nuclear age, it posed a major challenge to the service to define and successfully carry out its mission by stretching the constraints of limited war while avoiding the excesses of total war.Conrad Crane analyzes both the successes and failures of the air force in Korea, offering a balanced treatment of how the air war in Korea actually unfolded. He examines the Air Force's contention that it could play a decisive role in a non-nuclear regional war but shows that the fledgling service was held to unrealistically high expectations based on airpower's performance in World War II, despite being constrained by the limited nature of the Korean conflict.Crane exposes the tensions and rivalries between services, showing that emphasis on strategic bombing came at the expense of air support for ground troops, and he tells how interactions between army and air force generals shaped the air force's mission and strategy. He also addresses misunderstandings about plans to use nuclear, biological, and chemical weapons in the war and includes new information from pilot correspondence about the informal policy of "hot pursuit" over the Yalu that existed at the end of the war.The book considers not only the actual air effort in Korea but also its ramifications. The air force doubled in size during the war and used that growth to secure its position in the defense establishment, but it wagered its future on its ability to deliver nuclear weapons in a high-intensity conflict-a position that left it unprepared to fight the next limited war in Vietnam.As America observes the fiftieth anniversary of its initial engagement in Korea, Crane's book is an important reminder of the lessons learned there. And as airpower continues to be a cornerstone of American defense, this examination of its uses in Korea provides new insights about the air force's capabilities and limitations.Conrad C. Crane is professor of history at the United States Military Academy and the author of Bombs, Cities, and Civilians: American Airpower Strategy in World War II.

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The Long Night: William L. Shirer and the Rise and Fall of the Third Reich Review

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The Long Night: William L. Shirer and the Rise and Fall of the Third Reich ReviewThe Long Night is a very powerful nonfiction book. The plot concerns Hitler's rise to power and the destruction that ensued after. Shirer, the main character, was the only reporter who reported every brutal event. He was one of the few not to fall for Nazi propaganda while still remaining (for a little while) in Germany and among the soldiers and Nazi elite. The author has the ability to make the events appear as if they are occurring right when the reader is reading about them. The atmosphere and permeating fear and horror is tangible, as is the desperation. Shirer is an admirable character to read about. He reported his findings accurately, much to the chagrin and impending threats by the Nazi party. He advocated early warnings about the true intentions of the Nazi party and he stayed for as long as possible in the heart of the chaos. The reader will grow close to Shirer while reading this novel and share his hopelessness and need for the truth to be known. Shirer and the reader both will feel increasingly disparaging towards powerful leaders and the people who should have listened and taken into consideration Shirer's reports. A history buff and the average nonfiction reader will devour this novel.
*I received a copy to review-this in no way altered my opinionThe Long Night: William L. Shirer and the Rise and Fall of the Third Reich OverviewThe story of legendary American journalist William L. Shirer and how his first-hand reporting on the rise of the Nazis and on World War II brought the devastation alive for millions of AmericansWhen William L. Shirer started up the Berlin bureau of Edward R. Murrow's CBS News in the 1930s, he quickly became the most trusted reporter in all of Europe. Shirer hit the streets to talk to both the everyman and the disenfranchised, yet he gained the trust of the Nazi elite and through these contacts obtained a unique perspective of the party's rise to power.Unlike some of his esteemed colleagues, he did not fall for Nazi propaganda and warned early of the consequences if the Third Reich was not stopped. When the Germans swept into Austria in 1938 Shirer was the only American reporter in Vienna, and he broadcast an eyewitness account of the annexation. In 1940 he was embedded with the invading German army as it stormed into France and occupied Paris. The Nazis insisted that the armistice be reported through their channels, yet Shirer managed to circumvent the German censors and again provided the only live eyewitness account. His notoriety grew inside the Gestapo, who began to build a charge of espionage against him. His life at risk, Shirer had to escape from Berlin early in the war. When he returned in 1946 to cover the Nuremberg trials, Shirer had seen the full arc of the Nazi menace. It was that experience that inspired him to write The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich—the magisterial, definitive history of the most brutal ten years the modern world had known—which has sold millions of copies and has become a classic.Drawing on never-before-seen journals and letters from Shirer's time in Germany, award-winning reporter Steve Wick brings to life the maverick journalist as he watched history unfold and first shared it with the world.

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Through the Maelstrom: A Red Army Soldier's War on the Eastern Front, 1942-1945 (Modern War Studies) Review

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Through the Maelstrom: A Red Army Soldier's War on the Eastern Front, 1942-1945 (Modern War Studies) ReviewDoubtfully will we find memoirs and recollections of the Second World War which won't have something of interest to share with a reader. There is no real list of "best sellers," but if there was, Boris Gorbachevsky's memoirs would surely hold a high place on it. The Second World War can and is told from a plethora of perspectives, including frontline soldiers and officers, civilians, politicians, etc. Each has their own story to share but, more often than not, the narrative is clouded by omitted facts and figures, candor is often missing, and self-serving intentions are readily evident. Gorbachevsky seems to have gone out of his way to avoid the aforementioned and, relying on memory, published works (primary and secondary), has seen fit to weave a narrative of events which will leave many speechless in its unadulterated sincerity, heartfelt openness, and uninhibited candor. A perfect example is the author's recollection of the problems Red Army officers had with desertion in 1942. Something one hardly hears about in Red Army memoirs but it is quite well known today that 1 million Red Army men served the Wehrmacht in one capacity or another. We regularly read about Soviets leaving the Germans and coming back to the Red Army, in the latter period of the war, but almost never do we get a chance to hear about who the deserters were.
This account is not full of battles and frontline action on the part of the Red Army, although in the end what Boris experienced is enough for ten lifetimes. Reading how his friends died in his hands during the first encounter and battle with the Germans in the Rzhev area will be hard to forget. From time to time this is anything but an easy read, it can be a quick read if you have the time to devote to all that the author has to share (and at over 400 pages, this is one of the larger Red Army memoirs you'll find for sale today). At least two recollections forced me to put this book down and step away from it for a few hours as I tried to put into perspective what I just read. The first battle, described in great detail and imagery, pitted a brand new division against dug-in German troops and the gruesome results that followed. According to the author, half the division was killed or wounded in the battles they would participate in outside Rzhev. The second occurred closer to the end of the war, when the division the author belonged to had been encircled and their rear area service and supply location was destroyed and the personnel massacred by German troops, in a variety of ways.
This book will give the reader a realistic view of the Red Army through a soldier who rose through the ranks and served on both the frontlines and within the political department of the Red Army. What did political officers do? What were soldiers in the Red Army like? What did they talk about? What did they do in their time between battles? Gorbachevsky shares all of this with us and more. In the end, Gorbachevsky is regularly critical of many of the officers he served under and with and offers enough reasoning as to why. Similarly, he gives due credit to those officers and NCOs who deserved it and took the time to talk to their soldiers, ensure their comfort and attend to their needs and treat them as men and not simply cannon fodder. At times their actions were downright reckless and pointless, but orders were orders, and war is war. At least one of his friends, a battalion commander, after refusing an order to attack which would undoubtedly have left the majority of his men dead, committed suicide. Also, within this book was the first time I read of how officers were afraid of their men! I had never encountered the regular punishments that were meted out to officers who had lost men to desertion.
This book is a learning experience from the first page to the last. The language used throughout the book is not the simple soldier's language many have grown accustomed to when reading memoirs of the Second World War. What we have here is a literary personality who writes with passion, experience, imagery, and most importantly, honesty. The forward by David M. Glantz is an excellent introduction to this memoir and what it means to have such a recollection available for today's generations and, more importantly, a western audience. Thus, I would be remiss if i did not point out that this is Stuart Britton's third translation/editing of a Red Army soldier's memoir. He should be commended as with each memoir he has done a fantastic job in regards to both the flow of the narrative and in helping to explain various Red Army and Soviet jargon for the western reader. Hardly any grammatical or spelling mistakes will be found. For the few that he did miss, they hardly take away from the overall reading and will surely be fixed in future editions/printings, of which I'm more than sure there will be.Through the Maelstrom: A Red Army Soldier's War on the Eastern Front, 1942-1945 (Modern War Studies) OverviewThe monumental battles of World War II's Eastern Front--Moscow, Stalingrad, Kursk--are etched into the historical record. But there is another, hidden history of that war that has too often been ignored in official accounts.Boris Gorbachevsky was a junior officer in the 31st Army who first saw front-line duty as a rifleman in the 30th Army. Through the Maelstrom recounts his three harrowing years on some of the war's grimmest but forgotten battlefields: the campaign for Rzhev, the bloody struggle to retake Belorussia, and the bitter final fighting in East Prussia. As he traces his experiences from his initial training, through the maelstrom, to final victory, he provides one of the richest and most detailed memoirs of life and warfare on the Eastern Front.Gorbachevsky's panoramic account takes us from infantry specialist school to the front lines to rear services areas and his whirlwind romances in wartime Moscow. He recalls the shriek of Katiusha rockets flying overhead toward the enemy and the unforgettable howl of Stukas divebombing Soviet tanks. And he conveys horrors of brutal fighting not recorded previously in English, including his own participation in a human wave assault that decimated his regiment at Rzhev, with piles of corpses growing the closer they got to the German trenches. Gorbachevsky also records the sufferings of the starving citizens of Leningrad, the savage execution of a Russian scout who turned in false information, the killing of an innocent German trying to welcome the Soviet troops, and a chilling campfire discussion by four Russian soldiers as they compared notes about the women they'd raped. His memoir brims with rich descriptions of daily army life, the challenges of maintaining morale, and relationships between soldiers. It also includes candid exposés of the many problems the Red Army faced: the influence of political officers, the stubbornness of senior commanders, the attrition through desertions, and the initial months of occupation in postwar Germany.Through the Maelstrom features the swiftly moving narrative and rich dialogue associated with the grand style of great Russian literature. Ultimately, it provides a fitting and final testament to soldiers who fought and died in anonymity.This book is part of the Modern War Studies series.

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