Sorry for double post, but I like this thread
So i´ve been reading some more books about WW2 the last two weeks.
Guy Sawjer - The Forgotten SoldierA damn impressive book.
Many authors try to state only facts that "happened" and account for every day. Not like sawyer. He tells what happened from his subjective viewpoint and states not only emotionless facts. Sometimes this can be annoying when you don´t have a clue what his is talking about (geschnauz ?!) and you just wish that he would be more precise. Best compared to Willy Peter Reese "Stranger to myself".
Compared to the other eastern front books i´ve read, this one might give you a bit of a chaotic impression about the German army in Russia. From this book it seems to be very unorganized mostly. Reasons might be that he was serving in army group center from late 1942 and lived through the Stalingrad retreat and later in east Prussia were chaos was all around and his german wasn´t the best as well.
It´s unbelievable what humans can survive.
Wilhelm Johnen - Duell unter den SternenBiography of a German Night-fighter pilot who fought with his ME110 against british and american bombers during their attacks on german cities. Pretty interesting technical details about the devices they used and the development of the Night-fighter weapon in Germany.
Scary to imagine starting, landing and flying in pitch black nights with only the instruments to use. Closing in on the shadows of enemy bombers, shooting only regularly when less than 50 meters distance.
Climbing to 5000 or 6000 meters, they could see the fires from Berlin and Kassel and Duisburg and Leipzig for hundreds of miles. He said that in late 1944 Berlin was burning for several weeks. With the sky over Germany a constant deep red glow it must have been hard to go out night after night without the slightest hope of any meaning of this actions. He saw a lot of cities die as he fought a hopeless cause; 30 planes against 800 bombers ..
Very sad as to read about the enemy bombers exploding midair or crashing down as burning wrecks. On one occasion he tells of a british rear gunner who jumped out of his MG turret as he saw the plane appear out of the dark and went right into his propeller.
Of course this book tells of the knights spirit they had. Calling sea rescue for downed enemy planes over the north sea or how he tried to shoot the wings or engines of bombers only because he did not want to kill the enemy crew.
My WW2 book collection .. can review more books if anyone wants
http://books.google.de/books?uid=17350761908364432639&as_coll=1001&source=gbs_lp_bookshelf_list