Thank you, I will take a look at this books
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Picture reference hardcopy material are an invaluable resource 
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Finished Cabanatuan Prison Raid. Now starting, The Eighth Day
My reading pattern is Fiction, NonFiction, Fiction, NonFiction
I think this is a teen book or something like that. However, the title interested me because there are eight days in a Burmese culture week
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Somehow I’ve missed this bit of the site and I’ve just spent around 2 hours catching up; what an eclectic bunch us modellers are!
May I offer up my own choice:
: I found it by accident whilst Googling for pictures of Berlin in August 1961 (don’t ask). I promptly ordered it and it arrived yesterday courtesy of Mr Amazon. I feel I’ve stumbled over a real gem. I’d somehow missed any reviews (probably because I don’t take a Saturday paper anymore) and it was only published this year. Anyway, I’m already around a quarter of the way through it. After studying East Germany only from really an opposition point of view, obviously concentrating on the NVA during my time in the Army, this book really puts the flesh on the bones of the state itself, and how it came to be.
What I’ve discovered already was the naivete of the Communist Germans in the 30s who exiled themselves to the Soviet Union, many of whom ended up in the Gulag or perished as a result of Stalin’s occasional fits of paranoia. Those who did survive became the leaders of the East German state, with a thorough grounding in Marxist ideology and in the methods of establishing a police state. But this book also includes accounts from the ordinary people, who, at the end of the day were simply trying to get by, and even find some enjoyment in life.
What I found remarkable – and I must stress that I’m a fair way off from finishing it – is that Stalin himself initiated an offer of an almost no strings attached unified Germany in 1952; I had not heard about this before. Also, another interesting snippet: I didn’t know that the national flag remained the same as that of the FRG until 1959, when only then were the insignia of the hammer, dividers and rye added (admittedly, I could have found that out by Googling “East German flag” but didn’t(!))
Not essential reading for Cold War modellers by any means, but for those wishing for a different perspective beyond the normal narrative of a grey, faceless, repressive police state (which of course has no small truth) I would certainly recommend it – certainly so far.
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In the late 1990’s I had a girlfriend from Dresden, so I moved with her, because she wants to get home.
Her father was a Colonel in the NVA and his brother was a Stasi-Major. Both lived good in the new Germany but both are also sad about the end of the DDR. They told me that the 9th of November 1989 had could endend a different way, and for sure not a good way. They were standing in the barracks and waited for the order to safe the border, specialy in Berlin, but the Order never had come. If they had the Order, they both had followed it, in the worst case by using their weapons.
Maybe just two men from many, but the Story really had could end another way
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Marco,
It could indeed have ended very differently. From a NATO perspective (although I was long gone from the intelligence world by 1989) the NVA was deemed the prime military threat amongst the Warsaw Pact nations - after the Group of Soviet Forces Germany (later Western Group of Forces). If any Army was disciplined enough to use its weapons on its own people we certainly thought the NVA was more than capable of doing so.
History decided otherwise but it remains one of the most salient “What if” conundrums ever I feel.
As I admitted earlier, I haven’t finished the book yet, but would highly recommend it even at this early stage. The author is a former citizen of the DDR. I’m assuming there is a German language edition.
Brian
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That’s exactly what the Colonel told me about the NVA. To me the most surprising in Dresden was, how many people extremely right opinions had. You can see it in the success of right partys at elections actually. But its hard to understand for someone from west-germany, I can’t imagine how it was in the DDR. I met another high Stasi-Officer, we worked together and he became my best friend there, he was very different to my girlfriend’s father. In the DDR they supported the system but one of them changed his mind. My girlfriend’s father really does’nt liked me, just because I was from “the west”
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Now I start this one about the american civil war. As I remember right the theme is the first try of the north to reach Richmond and end the war. And the first victories of Robert Lee
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That’s the book I’m reading when I’m at my girlfriend. Stonewall Jackson’s last battle.
The first surprise in the book about the peninsula campaign is, that it was’nt Lee’s first victorys in Battle, the confederates lost nearly every Battle in this campaign, but in the end the feferals retreat. That’s a good book
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So, just finished this one; highly recommended as an insight to how both the intelligentsia and the normal population lived on a daily basis, from the fraught early beginnings to a certain stability in the 70s and early 80s; arguably before the stultifying aimlessness of existence and the shortfall of not just consumer goods but essentials such as spare parts for machinery etc began to bite. Of course, there were other working parts at play in those political impacts which prevailed in the Cold War (namely messrs Reagan and Gorbachev). One could also argue that the GDR needed to be better served by its politicians as the country developed (sound familiar anyone?), and that Honecker who actually achieved quite a bit, should have been replaced much sooner.
I found it an easy enough read and difficult to put down - it just rolls along; not as bleak as Anne Applebaum’s effort (see below) though perhaps one balances the other. There was scant mention of the impact of Soviet forces stationed within the GDR and I would have liked a bit more coverage of such co-existence; it was interesting to note that Honecker was never permitted to know the strength of the Soviet forces stationed in his country. He knew that SS-20s - a Cold War game-changer - were deployed but had no idea as to where.
Naturally, neither of these books is essential for any Cold War modeller but it’s always nice to be able to set one’s modelling efforts into context.
As I say, recommended – as is Applebaum’s (which I first read some years ago); if you elect to read hers, stand by for a grim time.
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In this book to the chancellorsville-theme I found some books that I like to get. Now I’m looking for a store, I think in the united states, who sends overseas. Anyone has an idea?
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Most of the big box stores should ship. Might be easier to tell us what books you’re looking for.
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I got some books about the american civil war from the US, now I"m looking for more. The books to the theme in german are not many and I think I got them. I really enjoy the books and like to get some more
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Check out The_Civil_War:_A_Narrative by Shelby Foote.
Ken Burns of PBS documentary fame interviewed Shelby in his Civil War special. Shelby gave a very accurate (as a Southern of his generation) commentary. Definitely true to the American south that I grew in (1960’s & 1970’s) and how the Civil War was viewed.
While Foote’s work was mostly well-received during his lifetime, it has been criticized by progressive academics in the 21st century.
I’d skip his book if you’re wanting to read watered down revisionist history that’s politically correct.
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An oldie but interesting.
First read this one in the late 90’s when I found a tatty copy in my school’s library. It was a good read, so when I saw a near mint copy going for a reasonable price on eBay I bought it. Published a year before I was born, it’s probably in better condition than me!
Much of the text has probably been improved upon by more recent research. It covers midget sub, explosive boats, piloted torpedoes and of course the Kamikaze.
I did find the diagram of the Fukuryo frogmen amusing. I doubt in reality that their kit looked this much like B-movie spacesuits!
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