Fotografía de autor
48+ Obras 1,563 Miembros 16 Reseñas 1 Preferidas

Sobre El Autor

James Lucas fought with the British infantry in the Second World War. After the war he developed close contacts with German ex-servicemen, enabling him to undertake the extensive research that underlies the success of his many books. Lucas received international acclaim as one of the leading mostrar más experts on all aspects of German military conduct in WWII. mostrar menos

Incluye los nombres: Lucas James, James Sidney Lucas

Obras de James Lucas

Hitler's Mountain Troops (1992) 36 copias
Panzer Army Africa (1977) 31 copias
Panzer: The Armoured Force of the Third Reich (1976) — Joint Author. — 19 copias
Panzer Elite (1980) 8 copias
The British Soldier (1989) 4 copias
Death in Normandy (1999) 3 copias
Surrency 1 copia
Watchstar 1 copia
shoulder ARMS 1 copia
HITLEROVI ŽOLDNÉŘI (2007) 1 copia

Obras relacionadas

Hymns of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (1985) — Contribuidor — 277 copias
The Children's Own Treasure Book (1947) — Ilustrador — 2 copias
Sunstone - Vol. 20:1, Issue 105, April 1997 (1997) — Contribuidor — 1 copia

Etiquetado

Conocimiento común

Nombre legal
Lucas, James Sidney
Fecha de nacimiento
1923
Fecha de fallecimiento
2002
Género
male

Miembros

Reseñas

Very interesting and informative overview of the German special forces in WW2. Author split the book into sections per branch of the armed services - army, navy, air force - and additional chapter on German Werewolf program, underground partisan movement with goal to harass the Allied forces as they moved further into Germany (which backfired on an epic scale).

From all of the special forces mentioned it is clear that only army units had an actual effect on the battlefield. Brandenburgers, parachute forces and Skorzeny's commandos fought from the start of the war and were involved in some daring and (as end approached) some quite outrageous operations. They were the nucleus of the German special forces and had the necessary training and attitude for the dangerous mission they were sent into.

Navy midget-submarine units and majority of air force specialist forces acted very much like Kamikaze - fighting with inadequate and quite dangerous technology they were more danger to themselves than to the enemy. This was the first time I heard about the air force ramming squads - it just shows how desperate Nazi regime became at the end and how ready they were to spend the lives of their own people (if they could not rule then everything should go to dust).

Less said about the disaster called Werewolf the better.

Author gives a very detail picture how well trained, specialist force quickly degenerated through attrition and mad-supreme-command into a rag tag force tasked with the impossible.

I have to agree with author's final sentence in this book - Germans showed they were apt at unconventional warfare but due to internal Nazi party conflicts and lack of specialized equipment and weapons these forces did not fully develop. And thank God for that.

Recommended to all interested in WW2 and special forces.
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Denunciada
Zare | otra reseña | Jan 23, 2024 |
I picked this book up because I have recently read an account of the Nazi invasion of the Netherlands in May 1940 (Ryan Noppen's Holland 1940; the Luftwaffe's first setback in the West), which looked at Fall Gelb ('Case Yellow') from the point of view of the Dutch air defences. Noppen was a neutral author, and painted a picture of Fall Gelb that is rather at variance with the standard history of the Blitzkrieg in the West. I immediately looked to see what perspective this book offered on the same subject.

Lucas' book is written from a different perspective, using accounts from many of the German Fallschirmjäger (paratroops) themselves. It came as little surprise, then, to find that this gave an account of the campaign in the Netherlands that reinforced the German view that victory was achieved through the shock tactics of force projection and the rapid support of forward airborne forces by the timely movement of armoured forces in support.

Noppen's account suggests otherwise. The Dutch possessed an effective centralised air defence network which was able to alert airfields to Luftwaffe formation movements in the initial stages of the attack. This meant that air defences were alerted to the threat and were able to mount an effective defence. In the five days of Fall Gelb, 455 of the German aircraft deployed were put out of action by the Dutch, 69% of which were the Junkers Ju.52 transports that the Germans intended to rely upon for the insertion of the second wave of airborne assaults (let alone the subsequent invasion of Britain). Only 35% of the intended total of German troops were landed by the end of the day one of the operation, and many of those were out of position in relation to their objectives; more than 2,700 out of 3,500 of those troops became either casualties or prisoners of war. The PoWs were handed over to the British, who had facilities for handling captives; hence these troops were not returned to service after the Netherlands fell.

So this history, at least as far as the invasion of the Netherlands is concerned, is definitely written by those who survived the initial wave of the attack, who were quite happy to relate their account of their eventual victory and their part in it. The real reason for the Dutch surrender - that Goering threatened to reduce both Rotterdam and Utrecht to rubble through aerial bombardment if the Netherlands did not surrender - was way beyond the level of those who provided their account of the victory for this book. The surviving foot soldiers' view of victory or defeat is based wholly on what they saw, and only reinforced by what they are told later. So we get accounts of individuals seeing Ju.52s damaged by opposition fire - but they saw the ones that made it back to base, not the ones left burning on beaches.

As far as the invasion of the Netherlands is concerned, then, this is definitely history written by (or in this case, on behalf of) the winners. It simply reinforces the German propaganda of the invincibility of those who planned and carried out Blitzkrieg. It should be read with that in mind.

Be aware however, that this is my initial reaction based on the chapter I read because another account of the same action was fresh in my mind. A deeper review will follow my more detailed reading of the whole book.
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Denunciada
RobertDay | May 12, 2023 |
Autor se v této knize zaměřil na patnáct velitelů, kteří se významným způsobem podíleli na Hitlerově válečném úsilí. Líčí jejich úlohu v německé vojenské hierarchii i výkony, kterých dosáhli na strategické či taktické úrovni. Mezi vybranými osobnostmi jsou jednak proslulé kapacity (Kesselring, Manstein, Model, Rommel), jednak pro českého čtenáře velitelé méně známí, přestože sehráli významnou úlohu.
 
Denunciada
Hanita73 | Feb 19, 2022 |
Vojáci, jejichž zážitky naplňují stránky této knihy, vydrželi veliká utrpení se stoickým klidem. Hrdě přijímali vnucenou tvrdost, protože nosili edelwiess, odznak, který je odlišoval a zavazoval. Byli horskými myslivci, příslušníky Hitlerových horských jednotek.
 
Denunciada
Hanita73 | Feb 19, 2022 |

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Obras
48
También por
3
Miembros
1,563
Popularidad
#16,504
Valoración
3.8
Reseñas
16
ISBNs
130
Idiomas
8
Favorito
1

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