Discussion of everything and anything World War II
bigtwils 
A tale of two non-historians writing history books. The first book is (As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases) Malcolm Gladwell’s Bomber Mafia: A Tale of Innovation and Obsession, and the second is Christopher McDougall’s Natural Born Heroes: The Lost Secrets of Strength and Endurance. Weirdly I fell into the latter book by … Read more
This is the first of Cornelius Ryan’s epic histories to be transferred to the big screen. The Longest Day film from 1962 makes a valiant attempt to deal with the extraordinary scope of Operation Overlord, The D-Day Landings. As well as using Ryan as the scriptwriter filmmakers used several participants from the battle. My favourite … Read more
One of the great Sunday movies, The Dam Busters was undoubtedly one of the first war films I watched as a child, and it was probably shown on a Sunday afternoon or in the Christmas holidays. The Dam Busters’ music, specifically the Dam Busters’ March is known by many. The music itself has become part … Read more
There have already been a few mentions of ‘my history’ regarding interest in the Second World War. However, another vested interest in studying it has dominated many of my thoughts this weekend. All my grandparents were alive during the war, my mother was born in 1944 and my father in 1945. My maternal grandfather was … Read more
I’ve probably learnt a hell of a lot of history whilst dog walking. Matos is my Collie and I walk many a mile with him and I listen to either podcasts or audiobooks on most walks. My podcast of choice is ‘We Have Ways of Making You Talk’ hosted by the historian James Holland and … Read more
I quickly realised that I do not want to discuss just books or even just books that have been made into films. I am interested in most things to do with the Second World War and films are an important part of that. Therefore, I am also going to have a section of the website … Read more
The second film discussed in my thesis is 1941’s The 49th Parallel. It is another adventure story where the main protagonists are actually German and its main focus is to demonstrate how terrible the Germans are. Its cast also includes many big names from the time. A bit about the film ‘Produced in 1941 The … Read more
SAS – Speed Aggression Surprise – Tom Petch This is undoubtedly one of the best SAS books I have read for a long time. (As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases) Tom Petch’s SAS Speed, Aggression, Surprise: The Untold Origins of the SAS considers the roles played by several men who often get … Read more
I would very much like this website to be where both old debates can be rehashed, or new debates begun. The website is named worldwariiwaffle.com as the debates should ideally be based upon the literature of the war to be well informed. I will hopefully spark the initial debates, but I welcome others’ contributions. As … Read more
This is a list of my top four favourite books about the Second World War. It is a list in progress but contains some of the titles which first got me into these books. There is a weighting towards Operation Market Garden and D-Day, explained away by my interest in airborne forces but also because … Read more