Books listed alphabetically
by Author or
Biographical Subject
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Brinkley, Douglas and Michael E. Haskew,
THE WORLD WAR II DESK REFERENCE.
Harper Collins, 2004. NEW copy.
Hardcover with dust jacket. Maps, tables, photographs, 592 pages. ~~
"How many Soviets were killed in WW II? What was the code name for the German
operation to retake Kursk? Why was American General Richmond K. Turner nicknamed
“The Alligator” by the Japanese? ~~ From the momentous to the trivial,
The World War II Desk Reference covers it all. Besides being an
authoritative resource, the great strengths of this massive compilation of
facts, figures and all other things WW II are the book’s impeccable organization
and inviting-to-read presentation. Filled with maps and photos, it facilitates
readers who want look up specific facts, as well as browsers who want to just
flip through the pages and learn as they go.
With The World War II Desk
Reference in your library, anything you want to know about the war will be
an arm’s reach away. Maps. Tables. B/W photos. 592 pages. ~~ Inside
this unmatched reference on WW II, you’ll find nearly 600 pages of:
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Synopses of battles, atrocities and espionage missions
• First-hand accounts
from officers, soldiers and civilians
• Encyclopedic entries on weapons,
organized by country
• Bios of every major player in the war
• Lists of
quotes—famous, funny and inflammatory
• Tables detailing casualties, battles
and commando operations
$40.00
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Collins, Max Allan,
FOR THE BOYS.
Collectors Press Inc. 2000. First American Edition. Dust jacket missing.
Near Fine 10" X 13", 144 pages, 6-color foil hardcover, gatefold, over 500 4-color
images. "When he traveled to the front lines with his USO show, Bob Hope knew exactly
what the boys were fighting for: the girls back home. Hope always brought a fetching
songstress or actress along as a bittersweet reminder of the all-American good life
these GIs were fighting for. And when Glen Miller took his Army Air Forces Band to
airbases, he played a now-obscure song, "Peggy the Pin-up Girl," in tribute to
fighter-plane nosecone art"—those pleasantly garish, enthusiastically painted,
homemade pin-up girls that flew into combat with the boys.
In For the Boys. The Racy Pin-Ups of World War II, Max Allan Collins (co-author of Elvgren: His Life & Art), chronicles the story and influence of the pin-up girl in World War II. From such Hollywood movie goddesses as Betty Grable and Rita Hayworth, to the fabulous dream girls of calendar artists like George Petty and Alberto Vargas, and the cartoon cuties of Al Capp and Milton Caniff, these girls inspired the fighting men and provided them with sweetly seductive reminders of home.A lavishly
illustrated scrapbook of World War II memorabilia, For the Boys showcases pin-up
calendars, postcards, cartoons, matchbooks, and playing cards that were sent from
the home front to boost the morale of the men in the Armed Services. In addition,
the nosecone art and bomber jackets fashioned by GI artists themselves— as well as
many of the original source images by Vargas, Elvgren, and other pin-up greats—are
on display in this sexy sentimental journey."
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Lee, Ulysses,
SPECIAL STUDIES: THE EMPLOYMENT OF NEGRO TROOPS.
Washington, D.C.: Office of the Chief of
Military History, Department of the Army., 1966. First Printing. VG.
Very light foxing to outer edges of pages, interior pages
unaffected. Three pages crimped where someone marked a page with a
paper clip, leaving a little rust. Otherwise a clean, tight copy.
Bound-in pocket in rear of book with removeable folding map. Another
folding map inside book.. Part of the U.S. ARMY IN WORLD WAR II
series. Photographs, charts, index, appendices, 607 pages.
$50.00
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O'Donnell, Patrick K.,
OPERATIVES, SPIES AND SABOTEURS: THE UNKNOWN STORY OF THE MEN AND WOMEN OF WWII's OSS.
NEW copy. The Free Press, 2004. Hardcover with dust jacket, 363 pages.
From Kirkus Reviews: A lively recounting of America's shadow war against the Axis powers, fraught with peril, treachery, and bad decisions. William J. Donovan, a distinguished hero of the Great War, fought an uphill battle to establish a military intelligence unit that worked across service and agency boundaries, but he was vindicated by the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. In the aftermath, "Wild Bill's" fledgling unit was put under the authority of the Joint Chiefs, though given considerable leeway; Donovan used his relative freedom to emphasize an "integrated 'combined arms' of shadow war techniques" and to otherwise sharpen the Office of Strategic Service's skills in the fine arts of "persuasion, penetration and intimidation." Among OSS's specialties was a refined understanding of military logistics: its "bespectacled economists, historians, political scientists, and historians" were able to glean considerable intelligence from raw reports and economic data, making the first accurate estimates of such things as German tank production and orders of battle. But, as O'Donnell (Beyond Valor, 2001) writes, drawing on vivid oral histories by unit veterans, OSS types were not all bookworms; hundreds performed heroic and unlikely deeds behind enemy lines, organizing partisan resistance, committing acts of sabotage, and gathering critically important intelligence. One not untypical operative, writes O'Donnell, was a Russian prince who "emigrated to the United States, married an Astor, and became vice president of Hilton International"-and who helped organize the Allied invasion of Sardinia. OSS had its failings, O'Donnell acknowledges, especially in the Pacific Theater and in the Balkans, where operatives missedopportunities to land in Istria and arrive in Vienna before the Soviets-which would have changed the postwar era considerably. Even so, O'Donnell believes, the OSS did well to gather intelligence about the Soviets as well as the Axis, and in the end, he observes, OSS "may have made its greatest contribution, not to winning World War Two, but to winning the Cold War." First-rate reading for fans of cloak-and-dagger stuff, and for students of WWII history. Agent: Andy Zack/Zack Agency
$25.00
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