Not for serious WWII buffs....
930883
Wow. This movie was a big disappointment. Acting was shallow and overall very poor, even with otherwise fine actors such as William Macy and Thomas Kretschmann (starred as German officer in "The Pianist"). One does not gain any insight into the German or American crewmembers lives or personalities, despite a few very brief segways into the backgrounds & mindset of the German captain and U.S. crew chief, acting was stiff and superficial. Special effects were poorly done, mostly computer generated sequences that gave the movie's combat scenes a kind of video-game quality. Moreover, several ridiculous historical inaccuracies served to spoil the movie even more: crewman smoking on the submerged subs, German U-Boot officers serving in full dress uniform on sub duty w/swastika flags flying in the background, devious Nazi crewmen vs. heroic Americans, etc. At one point it even appears that one of the U-Boat crewman was wearing a uniform/tunic of the modern German army.

If one enjoyed movies such as "U571" or "Pearl Harbor," this might be fun to watch - but if you're looking for a serious war movie and gain a new perspective on the war in the Atlantic or sunmarine warfare in general, this isn't it.
1502405
Decent documentary for military history buffs.  Not my niche.
3090332
I wanted this to flesh out my understanding from MILITARY SOURCES of what happened on the ground in the June war in France. I've read Churchill and other British and American authors on this topic. They do not talk military as their audience is a general reader.  Biased, yes. I do not think anyone could write a completely dispassionate account of this terrible world calamity in the middle of the twentieth century.
1383072
This novel explores a neglected subject in WWII history; however, it is poorly written and has none of the qualities of a good novel such as "All the Light I Cannot See" or  "The Narrow Road to the North..."  The author was hampered by basing his work literally on a real human being and was caught between two genres, biography and fiction.  It would have worked better as a memoir "as told to.....". But it is certainly a look into an undercovered subject, the horrors in Italy during the war.  Like many skeletal novels, it  will probably make a good and informative movie and I'm glad to have read it for what I learned about the Italian people caught in the clutches of both a Fascist leader and  Hitler. Read it for the plot and info, but don't expect literary merit.
4071169
I chose 2 stars, out of guilt for having not read the earlier books in this series.  I suppose those books would have made the large number of characters, races, countries and thier complex relationships easier to track, but I somehow don't think it would have mattered that much.  The book seemed to be a very successful exercise in writting about WWII under the fantasy fiction genre, but it didn't grab me or entertain me at all.  It didn't say anything new about WWII.  If looking for a new take on the war, look elsewhere, there are hundreds of great works on WWII.  There were so many countries and characters that it all got watered down, and I ended up not caring about any.  Since it is a WWII fantasy-historical fiction novel it also has an understandably predictable ending.  I will look for another Turteldove novel, but would not reccomend this one, especially if you have not read the other in the series.
1601852
Somewhat entertaining until I researched the author and found this to be a fictional character based on the historical breakout of the German Army from the invading Russian forces in March/April 1945.

It had an overall cartoonist description of tank warfare with the very detailed accounts of kills and carnage all from within a very limited field of view, its seems hard to believe at some points.  I would have only given the book one start, but it did move along with the story line.

I plan to research these so called battlefield war memoirs more before shelling out even $3....
1703139
I did not actually finish the book.  Just sorta got bogged down.  But it was interesting and was not aware of the whole concept.  I knew there were bunkers and that our men were slaughtered on D Day.  I've lived on military bases with old WWII bunkers out in the boonies.  The parts about Hitler covering his ignorance with memorized data I found interesting.  It was a bit repetitive which is probably why I felt bogged down reading the book.
3880097
It was entertaining - and for these who are WWII buffs - it is not battle of the budge or Patton -
1048274
I first saw this series many years ago and taped most of the episodes on VHS. This series is now on DVD
by the way.  I always thought the footage and Morton Gould's music were far and away the best features of
this series, which tended to be depressed, not without reason,I might add. But if you want to learn
about the war, this series barely scratches the surface and is rather misleading in much of its oversimplified
dialogue.  Also, none of the major actors (the Generals) are drawn in anything other than very broad strokes -
they're more or less cartoon figures here. The major mystery of this war is why so many of the military leaders
were so wrong for so long in their choice of strategy and tactics. This series doesn't even attempt to
answer that question, which is THE major lesson provided by this war. You might almost characterize this series as "World War One for Dummies."  A relatively short text that will both enlighten and occasionally amuse (there was humor in this war, believe it or not, although of the dry, deadpan variety)then I can recommend no better text than S.L.A. Marshall's one volume history : World War 1. Marshall was not a New York scriptwriter who was given less than a week to produce each of these CBS episodes. He was a bona fide military officer and army historian who knew all the brass of WWII and was familiar with the military activities of WWI and in a position to make valid judgments - he never is biased in these - he clearly explains the situation faced by the military leaders, giving the reader insight as to the reason for many of the really dumb mistakes made by the Generals in WWI. One can say, however, that the
major military leaders in this war are most aptly characterized as mediocre. However, the very same thing can be said about the high commanders so the following war. Neither war produced Generals (at the highest level) that had the ability to impress the following generation to any great extent. Having said that, this series is worthwhile and awfully cheap.
626231
I have read quite a few books on WWII, the Nazi organization, Hitler's rise to power, etc.  As a result, this book really had nothing to offer me.  It would be an adequate book for someone new to the history of WWII.
3550113
This book is probably good for someone who knows very little about WWII. I wish the author was at least a little bit historically correct. Example - there was no such country as 'Russia' during that time, although she keeps referring to Russia and Russian invasion. She also keeps saying that Russian soldiers were as bad for her as fascists which is sad to read as Soviet Union (that she refers to as Russia) lost more than 10mln military lives and more than 20million in total to wipe out the fascism from the Earth that includes Poland and her own well being.
546935
This book outlines the invasions, battles and destruction of the 7. Panzer-kompanie 1. SS-Panzer Division Leibstandarte.  I believe you must have a definite interest in the German Army in World War II to enjoy this book because it is technical in nature.

The young men who volunteered for the Leibstandarte were the top young men of Germany at that time. Their leaders were men of high character and as fine an officer corp. as any that served in WWII. Most of these fellows died in the war.

However, these men did not understand how really terrible their military contributions were to ordinary people. The men of the Leibstandarte were complicit in the destruction of millions of lives.

If you have a real interest in the German Army in WWII you will find this book  interesting.
680470
Perhaps better as an introduction for younger readers with little knowledge of WWI or racism. Not recommended for those looking for a detailed insight into the Harlem Hellfighters.
4763623
Without any disrespect to the author, this book is nowhere near the caliber of others I've read (Band of Brothers, Citizen Soldier, etc...) regarding the ground war in Europe after D-Day.  It just didn't draw me in and capture my interest.

Again, no disrespect to the gentleman who wrote it.  Thank you for your service.
370638
The level of detail regarding specific units and so forth was a little overwhelming and at times even burdensome to try and keep track of, but it has the effect of legitimizing the information as historically accurate. That in itself makes Monty's vindication by this author as 'not as much of a dick as you thought' more believable. After reading it, I can see how communication amongst the Allied commanders was muddled and subject to misunderstanding as well as egos that fed the idea Monty should be hated because he was so pompous. He wasn't as this book will show, and we are given a better look at who Monty was - someone who we can respect, and dare I say it, even like (and this coming from a Yank).

I do fault the author though for misspellings (and no, not because of British spelling differences) and possibly some grammatical errors within the text (run on sentences, shoddy punctuation, etc.) that suggest sub-standard proof reading by the editor, whoever that may have been (or not been).
3988823
Might be good for someone who has not read much military history, but for me -- it was most old stuff and I had read before. The chapters are like short magazine articles about the battles: so OK but I do not recommend.
522255
The title of the book is a misnomer.  One would think that it was a personalized story of the three officers that served and commanded the PT109.  That's why I bought it in the first place.  But alas, not to be.  The book is not very long - 264 pages.  There are 34 photographs in the centre of the book.  Five of them are of one of the subjects of the title; the PT109 and none of these photos are rare.  And there are another five photos of the other subjects the book, the three commanding officers of the boat.  The other 24 are generic wartime photos of the PT boats.  Right there that will give you an idea to the extent of detail that author devotes to the boat and the officers.  Most of the content focuses on the PT boat battles.  At Guadalcanal some involve the 109 crew, most do not.  And when writing about the battles, the author spends too much time describing the overall strategy involved.  He writes about the Japanese sailors' experiences.  He writes about air battles.  He really doesn't devote a lot of space to the main characters of the book.  I was disappointed.  I truly do admire the men and women who served during WWII.  Their sacrifices were great and many.  But after reading this book, it was plainly obvious that the wartime naval careers of the three men who commanded the PT109 is not extensive enough to fill a book.  So the author included a lot of "fluff" to fill the pages.  I personally found his writing style to be flat and unimaginative.  The book couldn't hold my interest and I found myself skimming ahead very quickly.  There are many, many other PT boat related tomes that have told this story first and so much better.  I hate it when a book's title misleads the reader and this is most certainly the case here.  After I finished reading it, I gave it to the Secondhand Store.  It doesn't belong in my library.