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War literature
10 years 3 months ago - 10 years 3 months ago #19
by Nikita
A recent book (2010) about the story of " The man who never was ".
Very pleasant to read, at least in the French translation, and very interesting by including pictures and declassified MI5 and MI6 intelligence.
Replied by Nikita on topic War literature
A recent book (2010) about the story of " The man who never was ".
Very pleasant to read, at least in the French translation, and very interesting by including pictures and declassified MI5 and MI6 intelligence.
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10 years 3 months ago - 10 years 3 months ago #20
by Nikita
This book is maybe not a book of history, in the usual sense. Its composition can seem a little strange, a little unstitched, mixture of story and testimonies. This book has not the objective coolness which his often the one of the historian, it has the pride and the blazing passion which is often the one of the Spaniard. Because this book is a shout, against the forgetting, against the injustice, against the ostracism which too often suffered these men, these olvidados of the fight against the Hitlerism, which France was very satisfied to find by her side during the dark hours and which she after forgot, in the name of a historiography which, in mind of the Gaullist policy of Frenchifying of the liberation, could be only national.
Even today, there are many historians who persist in minimizing the importance of the contribution of these men for the final victory against the tyranny. In the René Clément's famous movie Paris brûle-t-il?, we look for the track of these fighters, Spanish republicans of the column Dronne, the first ones to enter Paris, the first ones to take the Meurice hotel, HQ of Von Cholditz, the first ones to aim at him at the end of their machine gun, until a French officer arrives to make him prisoner. In his movie, René Clément makes tell to a Parisian seeing arriving the troops: "French soldiers!" No, man, their unit, the 2nd DB, was French, their officers also, their equipment was American but they, they were Spaniards.
Survivors of the Republican defeat in Spain, after being abandonned by the western democracies, after all that France of Daladier and Pétain had made them endure, in the camps of Argelès or Colomb Béchar, they had chosen to continue the fight against Hitler, beside free France. From Narvik to Kufra, from North Africa to Alsace-Lorraine, it was La Nueve. They were 146 who arrived on the Normandy beaches. One year later, in Berchtesgaden, they were no more than 16 to penetrate, the first, into Hitler's eagle's nest.
Because the things have to be said, even when they disturb, this book tells the things very clearly.
And personally, that doesn’t disturb me…
"They needed to understand the reasons of what we asked them. It was necessary to take the time to explain them the why of things. They had no military spirit, some were even antimilitarist. But they were magnificent soldiers, brave and experimented warriors."
La Nueve
The Spaniards who liberated Paris
Evelyn Mesquida
ISBN: 978-84-9872-365--6
Replied by Nikita on topic War literature
This book is maybe not a book of history, in the usual sense. Its composition can seem a little strange, a little unstitched, mixture of story and testimonies. This book has not the objective coolness which his often the one of the historian, it has the pride and the blazing passion which is often the one of the Spaniard. Because this book is a shout, against the forgetting, against the injustice, against the ostracism which too often suffered these men, these olvidados of the fight against the Hitlerism, which France was very satisfied to find by her side during the dark hours and which she after forgot, in the name of a historiography which, in mind of the Gaullist policy of Frenchifying of the liberation, could be only national.
Even today, there are many historians who persist in minimizing the importance of the contribution of these men for the final victory against the tyranny. In the René Clément's famous movie Paris brûle-t-il?, we look for the track of these fighters, Spanish republicans of the column Dronne, the first ones to enter Paris, the first ones to take the Meurice hotel, HQ of Von Cholditz, the first ones to aim at him at the end of their machine gun, until a French officer arrives to make him prisoner. In his movie, René Clément makes tell to a Parisian seeing arriving the troops: "French soldiers!" No, man, their unit, the 2nd DB, was French, their officers also, their equipment was American but they, they were Spaniards.
Survivors of the Republican defeat in Spain, after being abandonned by the western democracies, after all that France of Daladier and Pétain had made them endure, in the camps of Argelès or Colomb Béchar, they had chosen to continue the fight against Hitler, beside free France. From Narvik to Kufra, from North Africa to Alsace-Lorraine, it was La Nueve. They were 146 who arrived on the Normandy beaches. One year later, in Berchtesgaden, they were no more than 16 to penetrate, the first, into Hitler's eagle's nest.
Because the things have to be said, even when they disturb, this book tells the things very clearly.
And personally, that doesn’t disturb me…
"They needed to understand the reasons of what we asked them. It was necessary to take the time to explain them the why of things. They had no military spirit, some were even antimilitarist. But they were magnificent soldiers, brave and experimented warriors."
Captain Raymond Dronne
Commanding officer of La Nueve
Commanding officer of La Nueve
La Nueve
The Spaniards who liberated Paris
Evelyn Mesquida
ISBN: 978-84-9872-365--6
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10 years 2 months ago - 10 years 2 months ago #21
by Nikita
Why did the war last for so long? How to explain the incredible resistance of the Nazi regime in the middle of rubble?
My opinion:
An interesting topic but a plodding and finally boring book, where Ian Kershaw repeats again and again in the course of pages. By reading this book, we have the feeling to shuffle along, to be stuck, and we want to tell the author: "C'mon, Kershaw, it's ok, we understood, move forward now, move forward, proceed, proceed." It's tiring and discouraging, so much Kershaw keeps harping due to wanting to demonstrate. We arrive at the end of these almost 600 pages (with more than 100 pages of notes!) exhausted, with the feeling that 300 pages would have been amply sufficient.
Of course, it's obvious that Kershaw masters his topic, to say the opposite would be simply stupid and conceited, and one is not professor of contemporary history at the Shefield university by chance. No, the problem of Kershaw, in this book, is not about not knowing the history, it's about not knowing how to tell it.
Ian Kershaw
The end. The defiance and destruction of Hitler's Germany 1944-1945
ISBN : 9781594203145
Replied by Nikita on topic War literature
Why did the war last for so long? How to explain the incredible resistance of the Nazi regime in the middle of rubble?
My opinion:
An interesting topic but a plodding and finally boring book, where Ian Kershaw repeats again and again in the course of pages. By reading this book, we have the feeling to shuffle along, to be stuck, and we want to tell the author: "C'mon, Kershaw, it's ok, we understood, move forward now, move forward, proceed, proceed." It's tiring and discouraging, so much Kershaw keeps harping due to wanting to demonstrate. We arrive at the end of these almost 600 pages (with more than 100 pages of notes!) exhausted, with the feeling that 300 pages would have been amply sufficient.
Of course, it's obvious that Kershaw masters his topic, to say the opposite would be simply stupid and conceited, and one is not professor of contemporary history at the Shefield university by chance. No, the problem of Kershaw, in this book, is not about not knowing the history, it's about not knowing how to tell it.
Ian Kershaw
The end. The defiance and destruction of Hitler's Germany 1944-1945
ISBN : 9781594203145
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10 years 2 months ago #22
by Juanma66
not fear the enemy that attacks you,
be afraid of the false friend that hugs you
Replied by Juanma66 on topic War literature
Bernard this book if you know Spanish version? 
not fear the enemy that attacks you,
be afraid of the false friend that hugs you
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10 years 2 months ago #23
by Nikita
Well Juanma, i don't find any Spanish version of this book on the web, sorry m8
Replied by Nikita on topic War literature
Well Juanma, i don't find any Spanish version of this book on the web, sorry m8
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10 years 2 months ago - 10 years 2 months ago #24
by Nikita
Of course, we know that history is not an exact science and that the work of the historians evolves, over time and as archives open.
We also know that, when we speak about history, we have to pay attention to that we assert and to the myths which, consciously or unconsciously, are conveyed in the collective memory. In this particular domain of the knowledge, nobody possesses the absolute truth and we have to recut information sources if we want to make a simply honest work.
Here is a book which is a part of this work. A book which demolishes certain preconceived ideas and which gives another vision of things. Far from the image, too often advanced, of the French soldier who runs away at the first cannon blow, this book tries to set the clocks to the right time and to pay tribute to these 100 000 French soldiers who, from May 10th till June 25th, 1940, were killed on the spot to defend their country in front of the nazi aggression.
Of course, this book will not prevent mister Donald Rumsfeld and his friends from continuing to vomit their garbage, but it will allow, maybe, those who look for the truth and the historic honesty, to make their own opinion...
100 000 morts oubliés (100 000 forgotten deaths)
The battle of France May 10 - June 25, 1940
Jean-Pierre Richardot
Ed Le cherche midi
ISBN 978-2-7491-0644-1
Replied by Nikita on topic War literature
Of course, we know that history is not an exact science and that the work of the historians evolves, over time and as archives open.
We also know that, when we speak about history, we have to pay attention to that we assert and to the myths which, consciously or unconsciously, are conveyed in the collective memory. In this particular domain of the knowledge, nobody possesses the absolute truth and we have to recut information sources if we want to make a simply honest work.
Here is a book which is a part of this work. A book which demolishes certain preconceived ideas and which gives another vision of things. Far from the image, too often advanced, of the French soldier who runs away at the first cannon blow, this book tries to set the clocks to the right time and to pay tribute to these 100 000 French soldiers who, from May 10th till June 25th, 1940, were killed on the spot to defend their country in front of the nazi aggression.
Of course, this book will not prevent mister Donald Rumsfeld and his friends from continuing to vomit their garbage, but it will allow, maybe, those who look for the truth and the historic honesty, to make their own opinion...
100 000 morts oubliés (100 000 forgotten deaths)
The battle of France May 10 - June 25, 1940
Jean-Pierre Richardot
Ed Le cherche midi
ISBN 978-2-7491-0644-1
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