The Secret War Against Hate: American Resistance to Antisemitism and White Supremacy - REVIEW

by Steven J. Ross

Americans today like to believe that the end of World War II brought a new era of tolerance in the United States. But antisemitism and racism went up-not down-after the war's end. Violence broke out in cities across the country, and the number of organized hate groups more than doubled from 1940 to 1946. In this shocking account of a resurgence of White Supremacy in America, celebrated historian Steven J. Ross reveals how four key leaders-Emory Burke, J. B. Stoner, James Madole, and George Lincoln Rockwell-worked together to “finish the job Hitler had begun,” launching deadly attacks on Jews and African Americans and building a network of terrorists across the U.S. In response to this “war of hate,” three men-Arnold Forster of the Anti-­Defamation League, George Mintzer of the American Jewish Committee, and James Sheldon of the Non-­Sectarian Anti­-Nazi League-along with dozens of men and women, launched a multipronged effort: They infiltrated, monitored, and undermined these hate groups, putting their own safety on the line and scoring important victories that, today, have been all but forgotten.

Tracing the extraordinary work of these unsung heroes, The Secret War Against Hate provides a groundbreaking reconsideration of the legacy of the “Good War,” and essential reading on how America today can beat hate once again and build a just and united nation.

Steven J. Ross is a Distinguished Professor of History at the University of Southern California and Director of the Casden Institute for the Study of the Jewish Role in American Life. He is the author of Hitler in Los Angeles, a Los Angeles Times bestseller and Pulitzer Prize finalist, Hollywood Left and Right, which received the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences' Film Scholars Award, and Working-Class Hollywood, named a Best Book of the Year by the Los Angeles Times. He lives in Southern California.

Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN-13: 978-1635578003

Forgotten Souls: The Search for the Lost Tuskegee Airmen - REVIEW

by Cheryl W. Thompson

In 1945, World War II ended one of the deadliest conflicts in history. Geared for battle were nearly 1,000 trailblazing Black pilots trained at the Tuskegee Army Air Field, an unrepentantly segregated facility in Alabama. Hailing from the Iowa cornfields to the Texas Gulf Coast to the tobacco plantations of North Carolina, the Tuskegee Airmen already proved, under the toughest circumstances, to be among the most resilient and defiantly patriotic men of the Army Air Corps.

27 of them disappeared during the final critical missions in Europe. So, too, would the government’s efforts to find them or help to bring closure to the loved ones that the valiant 332nd Fighter Group left behind.

In Forgotten Souls, award-winning investigative journalist Cheryl W. Thompson delves into the true stories of the Black combat pilots who faced unimaginable racism—before, during and after the war—from a military that told them they were less than, even as their courage and aviation prowess saved scores of White brothers-in-arms from the enemy and possibly death.

As cruel as war itself could be, the friends, family, communities and fellow Tuskegee Airmen who mourned the lost pilots never imagined how unforgivable it could get. After 80 years, Forgotten Souls honors the impact they made, and the sacrifices they endured on America’s behalf.

Cheryl W. Thompson is an award-winning investigative reporter for National Public Radio, an associate professor of journalism at George Washington University, and author of Forgotten Souls: The Search for the Lost Tuskegee Airmen. She is the recipient of more than 40 journalism awards, including an Emmy and 5 National Headliners, and served as reporting coach for the Pulitzer Prize-winning NPR podcast No Compromise. During more than 20 years as a reporter for The Washington Post, she was part of teams that won two Pulitzer Prizes for national reporting. She served as a Pulitzer Prize juror for the Investigative Reporting category in 2022 and chaired the jury in 2023. She is a member of the National Association of Black Journalists, Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc., and Investigative Reporters and Editors, where she was elected the first Black president in 2018 and served an unprecedented three terms. She is also a founding and current board member of the Center for Collaborative Investigative Journalism and a member of the advisory board for the Fund for Investigative Journalism. She is currently a member of the National Press Foundation Board and the Spotlight DC Board, and a two-time graduate of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. The daughter of a Tuskegee Airman, she is a Chicago native who lives outside Washington, DC, and can be found online at CherylWThompson.com.

Dafina

ISBN-13: 978-1496750778

The Confidante: The Untold Story of the Woman Who Helped Win WWII and Shape Modern America - REVIEW

by Christopher C. Gorham

As Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s special envoy to Europe in World War II she went where the president couldn’t go. She was among the first Allied women to enter a liberated concentration camp, and stood in the Eagle’s Nest, Hitler’s mountain retreat, days after its capture. Though Anna Rosenberg emerged from modest immigrant beginnings with only a high school education, she was the real power behind national policies critical to America winning the war and prospering afterward. Astonishingly, her story remains largely forgotten.

Rosenberg advanced from a career in public relations in 1920s Manhattan to become FDR’s unofficial adviser, and soon wielded enormous influence—no less potent for being subtle. Roosevelt dubbed her “my Mrs. Fix-It.” Her extraordinary career continued after his death as she fought tirelessly for causes from racial integration to women’s equality to national health care.

The Confidante explores who gets to be at the forefront of history, and why. Rosenberg’s position as “the power behind,” combined with her status as an immigrant and a Jewish woman, served to diminish her importance. In this inspiring, impeccably researched, and revelatory book, Christopher C. Gorham at last affords Anna Rosenberg the recognition she so richly deserves.

Christopher C. Gorham is a lawyer, educator, and acclaimed author whose books include Matisse at War and the Goodreads Choice Award finalist, The Confidante. With degrees in history from Tufts University and the University of Michigan, he served on the editorial staff of the Syracuse Law Review while earning his J.D. from Syracuse University College of Law. His writing has appeared in The Washington Post and in online journals. He lives with his wife in Watertown and Chatham, Massachusetts, and can be found online at ChristopherCGorham.com.

Citadel
ISBN-13: 978-0806542027

Building Bridges: Black GIs, Military Labor, and the Fight for Equality in World War II - REVIEW

by Douglas Walter Bristol Jr.

The previously overlooked story of how the labor of Black GIs helped win the war and advanced racial integration in the US armed forces.

More than 80 percent of Black GIs in World War II served behind the front lines. At the beginning of the war, segregation policies maintained physical separation of Black and white GIs and only allowed Black soldiers to do simple, menial work, maintaining a false sense of racial inferiority. But the mechanization of armed forces during World War II demanded more skilled laborers behind the front lines. The Army Service Forces, created in March 1942, turned to Black GIs to solve the serious manpower shortage and trained them for jobs previously done only by white GIs. In Building Bridges, author Douglas Bristol tells the story of how military necessity led to unprecedented changes in the employment of Black troops. These changes had unanticipated consequences. American military leaders adopted a new racial discourse that emphasized the rights and potential of Black GIs. The new opportunities also exposed racial discrimination, giving Black GIs and their allies more leverage to demand better treatment.

Black GIs built bridges, roads, and runways. They repaired engines and radios. They transported bombs, bullets, food, gasoline, and water to hard-pressed soldiers on the front lines. Their numbers, skills, and necessity only grew as the war continued. By the end of the World War II, Black GIs had cracked the glass ceiling in the racialized military hierarchy behind the front lines and became indispensable to keeping the American war machine running around the globe.

Douglas Bristol is associate professor of history and a fellow of the Dale Center for the Study of War and Society at the University of Southern Mississippi. He is the author of Knights of the Razor: Black Barbers in Slavery and Freedom and coeditor of Integrating the U.S. Military: Race, Gender, and Sexuality since World War II.

University Press of Kansas
ISBN-13: 978-0700639007

Family of Spies: A World War II Story of Nazi Espionage, Betrayal, and the Secret History Behind Pearl Harbor - REVIEW

by Christine Kuehn

A propulsive, never-before-told story of one family’s shocking involvement as Nazi and Japanese spies during WWII and the pivotal role they played in the bombing of Pearl Harbor.

It began with a letter from a screenwriter, asking about a story. Your family. World War II. Nazi spies. Christine Kuehn was shocked and confused. When she asked her seventy-year-old father, Eberhard, what this could possibly be about, he stalled, deflected, demurred, and then wept. He knew this day would come.

The Kuehns, a prominent Berlin family, saw the rise of the Nazis as a way out of the hard times that had befallen them. When the daughter of the family, Eberhard’s sister, Ruth, met Nazi leader Joseph Goebbels at a party, the two hit it off, and they had an affair. But Ruth had a secret―she was half Jewish―and Goebbels found out. Rather than having Ruth killed, Goebbels instead sent the entire Kuehn family to Hawaii, to work as spies half a world away. There, Ruth and her parents established an intricate spy operation from their home, just a few miles down the road from Pearl Harbor, shielding Eberhard from the truth. They passed secrets to the Japanese, leading to the devastating attack on Pearl Harbor. After Eberhard’s father was arrested and tried for his involvement in planning the assault, Eberhard learned the harsh truth about his family and faced a decision that would change the path of the Kuehn family forever.

Jumping back and forth between Christine discovering her family’s secret and the untold past of the spies in Germany, Japan, and Hawaii, Family of Spies is fast-paced history at its finest and will rewrite the narrative of December 7, 1941.

Celadon Books
ISBN-13: 978-1250344465

Half American: The Epic Story of African Americans Fighting World War II at Home and Abroad – REVIEW

by Matthew F. Delmont

The definitive history of World War II from the African American perspective, written by civil rights expert and Dartmouth history professor Matthew Delmont.

Over one million Black men and women served in World War II. Black troops were at Normandy, Iwo Jima, and the Battle of the Bulge, serving in segregated units and performing unheralded but vital support jobs, only to be denied housing and educational opportunities on their return home. Without their crucial contributions to the war effort, the United States could not have won the war. And yet the stories of these Black veterans have long been ignored, cast aside in favor of the myth of the “Good War” fought by the “Greatest Generation.”

Half American is American history as you’ve likely never read it before. In these pages are stories of Black heroes such as Thurgood Marshall, the chief lawyer for the NAACP, who investigated and publicized violence against Black troops and veterans; Benjamin O. Davis, Jr., leader of the Tuskegee Airmen, who was at the forefront of the years-long fight to open the Air Force to Black pilots; Ella Baker, the civil rights leader who advocated on the home front for Black soldiers, veterans, and their families; James Thompson, the 26-year-old whose letter to a newspaper laying bare the hypocrisy of fighting against fascism abroad when racism still reigned at home set in motion the Double Victory campaign; and poet Langston Hughes, who worked as a war correspondent for the Black press. Their bravery and patriotism in the face of unfathomable racism is both inspiring and galvanizing. In a time when the questions World War II raised regarding race and democracy in America remain troublingly relevant and still unanswered, this meticulously researched retelling makes for urgently necessary reading.

Viking
ISBN-13: 978-1984880390

The Fate of the Generals: MacArthur, Wainwright, and the Epic Battle for the Philippines – REVIEW

by Jonathan Horn

In the tradition of Ghost Soldiers, a “riveting” (The Wall Street Journal) World War II story of bravery, survival, and sacrifice—the vow Douglas MacArthur made to return to the Philippines and the oath his fellow general Jonathan Mayhew Wainwright made to stay with his men there whatever the cost.

For the doomed stand American forces made in the Philippines at the start of World War II, two generals received their country’s highest military award, the Medal of Honor. One was the charismatic and controversial Douglas MacArthur, whose orders forced him to leave his soldiers on the islands to starvation and surrender but whose vow to return echoed around the globe. The other was the gritty Jonathan Mayhew Wainwright, who became a hero to the troops whose fate he insisted on sharing, even when it meant becoming the highest-ranking American prisoner of the Japanese.

In The Fate of the Generals, bestselling author Jonathan Horn brings together the story of two men who received the same medal but found honor on very different paths. MacArthur’s journey would require a daring escape with his wife and young child to Australia and then years of fighting over thousands of miles to make it back to the Philippines, where he would fulfill his famous vow only to see the city he called home burn. Wainwright’s journey would take him from the Philippines to Taiwan and Manchuria as his captors tortured him in prisons and left him to wonder whether his countrymen would ever understand the choice he had made to surrender for the sake of his men.

A story of war made personal based on meticulous research into diaries and letters including boxes of previously unexplored papers, The Fate of the Generals is a vivid account that raises timely questions about how we define honor and how we choose our heroes, and is destined to become a classic of World War II history.

Scribner
ISBN-13: 978-1668010075

The Hiroshima Men: The Quest to Build the Atomic Bomb, and the Fateful Decision to Use It – REVIEW

by Iain MacGregor

An epic, riveting history based on new interviews and research that elucidates the approval, construction, and fateful decision to drop the atomic bomb on Hiroshima.

At 8:15 a.m. on August 6, 1945, the Japanese port city of Hiroshima was struck by the world’s first atomic bomb. Built in the US by the top-secret Manhattan Project and delivered by a B-29 Superfortress, a revolutionary long-range bomber, the weapon destroyed large swaths of the city, instantly killing tens of thousands. The world would never be the same.

The Hiroshima Men’s vivid narrative recounts the decade-long journey toward this first atomic attack. It charts the race for the bomb during World War II, as the Allies fought the Axis powers, and is told through several key characters: General Leslie Groves, leader of the Manhattan Project alongside Robert Oppenheimer; pioneering Army Air Force pilot Colonel Paul Tibbets Jr.; the mayor of Hiroshima, Senkichi Awaya, who would die alongside eighty thousand fellow citizens; and Pulitzer Prize–winning writer John Hersey, who traveled to Japan for the New Yorker to expose the devastation the bomb inflicted on the city and to describe in unflinching detail the dangers posed by radiation poisoning.

This thrilling account takes the reader from the corridors of power in the White House and the Pentagon to the test sites of New Mexico; from the air war above Germany to the Potsdam Conference of Truman, Churchill, and Stalin; from the savage reconquest of the Pacific to the deadly firebombing air raids across Japan. The Hiroshima Men also includes Japanese perspectives—a vital aspect often missing from Western narratives—to complete Iain MacGregor’s nuanced, deeply human account of the bombing’s meaning and aftermath.

Scribner
ISBN-13: 978-1668038048

Half American: The Heroic Story of African Americans Fighting World War II at Home and Abroad - REVIEW

by Matthew F. Delmont

More than one million Black soldiers served in World War II. Black troops were at Normandy, Iwo Jima, and the Battle of the Bulge, serving in segregated units while waging a dual battle against inequality in the very country for which they were laying down their lives. The stories of these Black veterans have long been ignored, cast aside in favor of the myth of the “Good War” fought by the “Greatest Generation.” And yet without their sacrifices, the United States could not have won the war.

Half American is World War II history as you’ve likely never read it before. In these pages are stories of Black military heroes and civil rights icons such as Benjamin O. Davis Jr., the leader of the legendary Tuskegee Airmen, who fought to open the Air Force to Black pilots; Thurgood Marshall, the chief lawyer for the NAACP, who investigated and publicized violence against Black troops and veterans; poet Langston Hughes, who worked as a war correspondent for the Black press; Ella Baker, the civil rights leader who advocated on the home front for Black soldiers, veterans, and their families; and James G. Thompson, the twenty-six-year-old whose letter to a newspaper laying bare the hypocrisy of fighting against fascism abroad when racism still reigned at home set in motion the Double Victory campaign. Their bravery and patriotism in the face of unfathomable racism is both inspiring and galvanizing. An essential and meticulously researched retelling of the war, Half American honors the men and women who dared to fight not just for democracy abroad but for their dreams of a freer and more equal America.

Matthew F. Delmont is the Sherman Fairchild Distinguished Professor of History at Dartmouth College. A Guggenheim Fellow and expert on African American history and the history of civil rights, he is the author of four books: Black Quotidian, Why Busing Failed, Making Roots, and The Nicest Kids in Town. His work has also appeared in The New York Times, The Atlantic, The Washington Post, and several academic journals, and on NPR. Originally from Minneapolis, Minnesota, Delmont earned his BA from Harvard University and his MA and PhD from Brown University.

Viking
ISBN-13 978-1984880390

Divisions: A New History of Racism and Resistance in America's World War II Military - REVIEW

by Thomas A. Guglielmo

Divisions offers a decidedly different view. Prizewinning historian Thomas A. Guglielmo draws together more than a decade of extensive research to tell sweeping yet personal stories of race and the military; of high command and ordinary GIs; and of African Americans, white Americans, Asian Americans, Latinos, and Native Americans. Guglielmo argues that the military built not one color line, but a complex tangle of them. Taken together, they represented a sprawling structure of white supremacy. Freedom struggles arose in response, democratizing portions of the wartime military and setting the stage for postwar desegregation and the subsequent civil rights movements. But the costs of the military's color lines were devastating. They impeded America's war effort; undermined the nation's rhetoric of the Four Freedoms; further naturalized the concept of race; deepened many whites' investments in white supremacy; and further fractured the American people.

Offering a dramatic narrative of America's World War II military and of the postwar world it helped to fashion, Guglielmo fundamentally reshapes our understanding of the war and of mid-twentieth-century America.

Thomas A. Guglielmo is Associate Professor and Chair in the Department of American Studies at George Washington University. He is the author of White on Arrival: Italians, Race, Color, and Power in Chicago, 1890-1940 (OUP, 2003), which won the Frederick Jackson Turner Award of the Organization of American Historians.

Oxford University Press
ISBN-13 978-0195342659

The Double V Campaign: African Americans Fighting for Freedom at Home and Abroad - REVIEW

by Lea Lyon

The rousing story of the Double V Campaign, started during World War II to encourage Black Americans to fight for freedom overseas and at home.

When the United States entered World War II, young African Americans across the country faced a difficult dilemma. Why should they risk their lives fighting for freedoms in other nations that they did not have at home? The solution: fight two wars at once—for freedom abroad and freedom for Black people in America. A Double Victory!

In The Double V Campaign, Lea Lyon details this fascinating, little-known part of American history. A young journalist, civil service employee, and aircraft plant cafeteria worker named James G. Thompson came up with the simple yet powerful Double V slogan to represent the fight for victory against the enemy abroad and the fight for victory against racial discrimination at home. Lyon shows how the popular Black-owned newspaper the Pittsburgh Courier, along with other Black newspapers, activists, the NAACP, and others, used the Double V Campaign to push for changes in the segregation and discriminatory practices in the military and defense industry, and how the campaign influenced and enhanced the Civil Rights Movement to come.

The Double V Campaign gave voice to African American communities throughout the war and inspired hundreds of thousands to continue speaking up against discrimination in the years that followed. It is a powerful story of fighting for what is right, of fighting for change and equality even when those in positions of power are telling you to stop, and the strength of a united voice to effect change.

Lea Lyon is an award-winning author and illustrator and a former Illustrator Coordinator for the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators (SCBWI) San Francisco chapter. Her most recent books include It Rained Warm Bread—a middle grade novella by Hope Anita Smith with Gloria Moskowitz-Sweet and developed and illustrated by Lyon, which garnered a starred review from Kirkus, a 2019 Best Nonfiction Book in Verse for Young Readers from Kirkus, and an ALA Notable book for 2020—and Ready to Fly: How Sylvia Townsend Became the Bookmobile Ballerina by Lyon and A. LaFaye which was picked up by Scholastic Book Club, a 2021 Bank Street Best Children's Book, and included in the Independent Bookstore Kids Next list.

Rowman & Littlefield Publishers
ISBN-13 978-1538184653

Hitler in Los Angeles: How Jews Foiled Nazi Plots Against Hollywood and America - REVIEW

by Steven J. Ross

No American city was more important to the Nazis than Los Angeles, home to Hollywood, the greatest propaganda machine in the world. The Nazis plotted to kill the city's Jews and to sabotage the nation's military installations: Plans existed for murdering twenty-four prominent Hollywood figures, such as Al Jolson, Charlie Chaplin, and Louis B. Mayer; for driving through Boyle Heights and machine-gunning as many Jews as possible; and for blowing up defense installations and seizing munitions from National Guard armories along the Pacific Coast.

U.S. law enforcement agencies were not paying close attention--preferring to monitor Reds rather than Nazis--and only attorney Leon Lewis and his daring ring of spies stood in the way. From 1933 until the end of World War II, Lewis, the man Nazis would come to call “the most dangerous Jew in Los Angeles,” ran a spy operation comprised of military veterans and their wives who infiltrated every Nazi and fascist group in Los Angeles. Often rising to leadership positions, they uncovered and foiled the Nazi's disturbing plans for death and destruction.

Featuring a large cast of Nazis, undercover agents, and colorful supporting players, the Los Angeles Times­ bestselling Hitler in Los Angeles, by acclaimed historian Steven J. Ross, tells the story of Lewis's daring spy network in a time when hate groups had moved from the margins to the mainstream.

Steven J. Ross is professor of history at the University of Southern California and director of the Casden Institute for the Study of the Jewish Role in American Life. He is the author of Hollywood Left and Right, recipient of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences’ Film Scholars Award and nominated for a Pulitzer; Working-Class Hollywood, nominated for a Pulitzer and the National Book Award; Movies and American Society; and Workers on the Edge. He lives in Southern California. http://scalar.usc.edu/works/hitler-in-los-angeles/index

Bloomsbury
ISBN-13 978-1620405628

The Wingmen: The Unlikely, Unusual, Unbreakable Friendship Between John Glenn and Ted Williams - REVIEW

by Adam Lazarus

The untold story of the unique fifty-year friendship between two American icons: John Glenn, the unassailable pioneer of space exploration and Ted Williams, indisputably the greatest hitter in baseball history.  

The friendship how, throughout various stages in their remarkable lives, a most unusual friendship formed, flourished, withered, then reinvigorated.

In 1952, celebrity outfielder Ted Williams was called up to active duty in the Korean War. Baseball's biggest name was already an ace pilot, as skilled in the cockpit as he was on the field. John Glenn, already an experienced fighter pilot during World War II, was commissioned with The Marine Corps and had gone through months of training when he petitioned for active duty in Korea. He was a superstar among the officers and pilots who knew him as a superior instructor and great guy.

While stationed in Korea for combat, Glenn requested Williams to fly on his wing. The reluctant, fatalistic, pugnacious Reservist and the eager, optimistic, unflappable active-duty regular Marine would go on to serve together, forging a friendship in battle that would last a lifetime and take them up into the stratosphere, literally and figuratively - from Earth orbit and a long political career for Glenn to world records and global fame as one of baseball's greatest hitters for Williams.

Author Adam Lazarus, who has written narrative nonfiction books on great American icons and the very essence of team successes on the field and off, has written a sweeping epic that pulls from an encyclopedic array of sources, from interviews, papers, military diaries, letters, archives, videos, and papers released through FOIA.

The connection forged between the great hitter and the great aviator would radiate out from their mutual respect. They also shared a keen understanding of their respective gifts, a fierce dedication to the success of the team (whether The Red Sox, the Mercury program, or a military unit), and their rabid pursuit of excellence. They wanted to contribute without any special treatment or fanfare. They also understood their gifts and drive came with a price - fame - and each would handle it differently. Each of them would earn a permanent place in the pantheon of American heroes and become titans in their own right.

They stayed friends right to the end, decades after they had flown together in Korea.

Adam Lazarus is the author of nonfiction books featuring iconic and compelling figures in American history. His previous titles include Chasing Greatness: Johnny Miller, Arnold Palmer, and the Miracle at Oakmont; Super Bowl Monday: The New York Giants, The Buffalo Bills, and Super Bowl XXV; Best of Rivals: Joe Montana, Steve Young, and the Inside Story Behind The NFL's Greatest Quarterback Controversy; and Hail to the Redskins: Gibbs, the Diesel, the Hogs, and the Glory Days of D.C.'s Football Dynasty. He received a bachelor's degree in English from Kenyon College in 2004 and a master's degree in Professional Writing from Carnegie Mellon University in 2006, specializing in journalism.

Kensington Publishing
ISBN: 978-0-8065-4250-8

Prequel: An American Fight Against Fascism - REVIEW

by Rachel Maddow

Rachel Maddow traces the fight to preserve American democracy back to World War II, when a handful of committed public servants and brave private citizens thwarted far-right plotters trying to steer our nation toward an alliance with the Nazis.

“A ripping read—well rendered, fast-paced and delivered with the same punch and assurance that she brings to a broadcast. . . . The parallels to the present day are strong, even startling.”— The New York Times

Inspired by her research for the hit podcast Ultra, Rachel Maddow charts the rise of a wild American strain of authoritarianism that has been alive on the far-right edge of our politics for the better part of a century. Before and even after our troops had begun fighting abroad in World War II, a clandestine network flooded the country with disinformation aimed at sapping the strength of the U.S. war effort and persuading Americans that our natural alliance was with the Axis, not against it. It was a sophisticated and shockingly well-funded campaign to undermine democratic institutions, promote antisemitism, and destroy citizens’ confidence in their elected leaders, with the ultimate goal of overthrowing the U.S. government and installing authoritarian rule.

That effort worked—tongue and groove—alongside an ultra-right paramilitary movement that stockpiled bombs and weapons and trained for mass murder and violent insurrection.

At the same time, a handful of extraordinary activists and journalists were tracking the scheme, exposing it even as it was unfolding. In 1941 the U.S. Department of Justice finally made a frontal attack, identifying the key plotters, finding their backers, and prosecuting dozens in federal court.

None of it went as planned.

While the scheme has been remembered in history—if at all—as the work of fringe players, in reality it involved a large number of some of the country’s most influential elected officials. Their interference in law enforcement efforts against the plot is a dark story of the rule of law bending and then breaking under the weight of political intimidation.

That failure of the legal system had consequences. The tentacles of that unslain beast have reached forward into our history for decades. But the heroic efforts of the activists, journalists, prosecutors, and regular citizens who sought to expose the insurrectionists also make for a deeply resonant, deeply relevant tale in our own disquieting times.

Crown
ISBN-13 978-0593444511

Derricks' Bridgehead: The History of the 92nd Division, 597th Field Artillery Battalion, and the Leadership Legacy of Col. Wendell T. Derricks - REVIEW

by Lt. Col. Major Clark

A vivid, first-hand account of a unique and significant World War II all-black U.S. Army unit-the 597th Field Artillery Battalion, 92nd Division.

The 597th Field Artillery Battalion, 92nd Division, was the first, last, and only all-black officered direct support field artillery battalion committed to combat in the history of the U.S. Army. It was the first all-black unit in a combat division and, together with the 600th Field Artillery Battalion, constituted the only all-black units in any combat division. Alongside impressive achievements on the battlefield in Italy in 1944–45, the unit provided more key command and staff positions exclusively for black field artillery officers than any other U.S. Army unit in combat, giving combat training and experience to more senior black field artillery officers than any of the other 16 black field artillery battalions during World War II.

Colonel Wendell Derricks worked to shelter his troops from the worst of the racism exhibited during the war and, due to his ability to envision an integrated postwar army, he provided unique leadership opportunities for his senior officers. The alumni of the 597th Field Artillery Battalion have an impressive record of success, many of them were inducted into the Field Artillery Hall of Fame; some served at the Pentagon, including Lieutenant Colonel Clark; and others forged successful careers in the civilian world.

Casemate
ISBN-13 978-1636242712

Better Days Will Come Again: The Life of Arthur Briggs, Jazz Genius of Harlem, Paris, and a Nazi Prison Camp by Travis Atria - REVIEW

Born on the tiny island of Grenada, he set sail for Harlem during the Renaissance, then to Europe in the after­math of World War I, where he was among the first pioneers to introduce jazz music to the world. During the legendary Jazz Age in Paris, Briggs's trumpet provided the soundtrack while Hemingway, Fitzgerald, and the rest of the Lost Generation got drunk. By the 1930s, Briggs was considered "the Louis Armstrong of Paris," and was the peer of the greatest names of his time, from Josephine Baker to Django Reinhardt. Even during the Great Depression, he was secure as "the greatest trumpeter in Europe." He did not, however, heed warnings to leave Paris before it fell to the Nazis, and in 1940, he was arrested and sent to the prison camp at Saint Denis. What happened at that camp, and the role Briggs played in it, is truly unforgettable. 

Better Days Will Come Again, based on groundbreaking research and including unprecedented access to Briggs's oral memoir, is a crucial document of jazz history, a fast-paced epic, and an entirely original tale of survival. 

Travis Atria is the author, with Todd Mayfield, Of Traveling Soul: The Life of Curtis Mayfield. His work has appeared in Rolling Stone, Vanity Fair, Billboard, Wax Poetics, and other publications. He lives in Gainesville, Florida.

Better Days Will Come Again: The Life of Arthur Briggs, Jazz Genius of Harlem, Paris, and a Nazi Prison Camp
by Travis Atria
Chicago Review Press
ISBN: 978-0-914090-10-6

The Black Cabinet by Jill Watts - REVIEW

Offering a compelling history of the evolution, impact, and ultimate demise of a New-Deal-era hidden "cabinet" to Franklin Delano Roosevelt on racial affairs, historian Jill Watts' THE BLACK CABINET: The Untold Story of African Americans and Politics During the Age of Roosevelt (Grove Press; May 12,2020; ISBN: 978-0-8021-2910-9) illuminates the progress of black citizenship between Reconstruction and the modem Civil Rights movement. 

In 1932 in the midst of the Great Depression, Franklin Delano Roosevelt won the presidency with the help of key African American defectors from the Republican Party. At the time, most African Americans lived in poverty, denied citizenship rights and terrorized by white violence. As the New Deal began, a black Brain Trust joined the administration and began documenting and addressing the economic hardship and systemic inequalities African Americans faced. They became known as the Black Cabinet, but the environment they faced was reluctant, often hostile, to change. 

"Will the New Deal be a square deal for the Negro?" The black press wondered The Black Cabinet set out to devise solutions to the widespread exclusion of black people from its programs, whether by inventing tools to measure discrimination or by calling attention to the administration's failures. Led by Mary McLeod Bethune, an educator and friend of Eleanor Roosevelt, they were instrumental to Roosevelt's continued success with black voters. Operating mostly behind the scenes, they helped push Roosevelt to sign an executive order that outlawed discrimination in the defense industry. They saw victories—jobs and collective agriculture programs that lifted many from poverty—and defeats—the bulldozing of black neighborhoods to build public housing reserved only for whites; Roosevelt's refusal to get behind federal anti-lynching legislation. The Black Cabinet never won official recognition from the president, and with his death, it disappeared from view. But it had changed history. Eventually, one of its members would go on to be the first African American cabinet secretary; another, the first African American federal judge and mentor to Thurgood Marshall. 

Masterfully researched and dramatically told, THE BLACK CABINET brings to life a forgotten generation of leaders who fought post-Reconstruction racial apartheid and whose work served as a bridge that Civil Rights activists traveled to achieve the victories of the 1950s and '60s. 

Jill Watts is the author of Hattie McDaniel: Black Ambition, White Hollywood, Mae West: An Icon in Black and White, and God, Harlem USA: The Father Divine Story. She teaches in the History department at California State University San Marcos. 

"A well-researched, urgent, and necessary history of black folks during the New Deal that excavates the too often ignored history of black female genius behind racial progress."
 - Michael Eric Dyson, York Times bestselling author 

THE BLACK CABINET: The Untold Story of African Americans and Politics During the Age of Roosevelt
by Jill Watts
Grove Press
ISBN: 978-0-8021-2910-9

The Splendid and the Vile by Erik Larson - REVIEW

New York Times bestselling author Erik Larson is known for expertly transporting readers to past worlds; even stories we think we know come to life in a different way in his hands. With his remarkable new work of nonfiction, The Splendid and the Vile, Larson once again turns history into a thriller, taking us into the heart of war-torn England for the period of May 10, 1940, through May 10, 1941 — Winston Churchill's first year as prime minister. 

The inspiration for The Splendid and the Vile came when Larson moved to Manhattan a few years ago. "It was only then that I came to understand, with sudden clarity, how different the experience of September 11, 2001, was for New Yorkers, since it was their city that was under attack," says Larson. Almost immediately, he wondered how Londoners could have endured Germany's aerial assault of 1940-41: fifty-seven consecutive nights of bombing, followed by an intensifying series of night time raids over the next six months. "In particular, I thought about Winston Churchill, who had to lead his country through such horror while aware that it was likely only a preamble to worse," Larson says. "I decided to look into how he, his family and advisors withstood it," Larson says.

The Splendid and the Vile is not meant to be a definitive account of Churchill, as that has been done. What it is instead is an intimate account of how Churchill and his inner circle went about surviving on a daily basis during the year when Churchill became Churchill, the cigar-smoking bulldog we all think we know. Drawing on diaries, original archival documents, and once-secret intelligence reports—some released only recently—Larson provides a new lens on London's darkest year through the day-to-day experiences of Churchill; his wife, Clementine; their youngest daughter, Mary, who chafes against her parents' wartime protectiveness; their son, Randolph, and his beautiful, unhappy wife, Pamela; her illicit lover, a dashing American emissary; and the cadre of close advisors who comprised Churchill's "Secret Circle," including his love-struck private secretary, John Colville; newspaper baron Lord Beaverbrook; and the Rasputin-like Frederick Lindemann. 
Like his monumental In the Garden of Beasts and Dead Wake, the result is a captivating book that is rich in atmosphere and personal stories. Thrillingly told and full of vivid character portraits, The Splendid and the Vile takes readers out of today's political dysfunction and back to a time when words mattered, courage prevailed, and everything was at stake. 

About the Author 
ERIK LARSON is the author of five national bestsellers; Dead Wake, In the Garden of Beasts, Thunderstruck, The Devil in the White City, and Isaac's Storm, which have collectively sold more than nine million copies. His books have been published in nearly twenty countries. 

THE SPLENDID AND THE VILE: 
A Saga of Churchill, Family, and Defiance During the Blitz by Erik Larson Crown
ISBN: 978-0-385-34871-3
eriklarsonbooks.com 

A conversation with Erik Larson, author of THE SPLENDID AND THE VILE 

Q: You often write about fascinating events in history that most of us have never before heard of, but much is already known about Winston Churchill. What made you decide to write about his first year—May 10,1940-May 10,1941—as prime minister? 
A: It wasn't so much the first year that drew me, but rather that the year coincided with Germany's bombing campaign against London. The city experienced in effect a succession of 9/11's—fifty-seven consecutive nights of bombing, followed by an intensifying series of nighttime raids over the next six months. I wanted to know how anyone could have endured that kind of ordeal, and decided the best way to tell it was through the daily experience of Churchill, his family, and his inner circle. By looking at the period through this window, I found all kinds of things that scholars writing more traditional histories and biographies tend to ignore. 

Q: What was the inspiration for the book's title? 
A: It was inspired by a diary entry made by one of my key characters, John Colville, a member of Churchill's cadre of private secretaries. Against all national-security regulations, Colville kept a detailed—and accurate—daily record of his time with Churchill, in which he proved himself to be both an astute observer of events and a writer of grace and wit. In one passage he described an intense air raid, which he watched from a bedroom window. It conjured in him a sense of awe. "Never." he wrote, "was there such a contrast of natural splendor and human vileness." 

Q: Reading the book, it's difficult not to compare the political climate of that time with our current political moment. What do you see as the primary differences? 
A: Well, the primary difference is that Churchill was a brilliant man who understood the necessity of bringing his country together in the face of an existential threat. He used his incredible oratorical skills not to divide, but rather to teach the British public the art of being fearless. Needless to say, we see something rather different at play now in Britain and in America. 

Q: Did spending so much time with Churchill—reading his words, examining his actions— make you think differently about leadership? What were Churchill's strengths and flaws as a leader? 
A: What struck me about Churchill was his gift for making Britons feel stronger and better about themselves. His best speeches combined sober assessment with an unshakeable confidence that Britain would not merely endure, but prevail. He had a rich knowledge of history, and this gave him perspective. He never underestimated the danger Britain faced, but likewise never lost sight of its strength. He also led by example—climbing to the rooftops to watch air-raids unfold; visiting bombed districts, despite the likelihood of fresh attacks; and ordering acts of defiance that persuaded allies, especially the United States, that Britain intended to fight to the end. He was not, however, a particularly good military strategist or tactician. And he was, apparently, a pain to work for: Impulsive, demanding, and inconsiderate—but his staff and ministers loved him all the same. 

Q: You bring key members of Churchill's inner circle to life, among them his seventeen-year ­old daughter, Mary Churchill, and his private secretary, John Colville. What resources did you call on to do that, and why did you see them as important to the story? 
A: To me, context is everything. Among the most powerful tools for capturing it are diaries, like those left by Mary Churchill and Colville and many others, which help place Churchill in a living landscape. I love, for example, that both Mary and her mother, Clementine, felt great anxiety about Churchill repeatedly flying to France in the spring of 1940 to meet with French leaders. Such anxiety about flying is something you don't find expressed very often in historical sources and yet it's something a lot of us routinely experience, me included. You would not have caught me flying to France in a twin-engine Flamingo aircraft, with the skies full of German fighters and cities along the French coast visibly burning, but Churchill did it—and, what's more, loved it. 

Q: This is your eighth book. Has your research and writing process changed over the years? 
A: As always I relied heavily on archival materials. That's the fun of it. I traveled to various far-flung locales, including archives in London, Cambridge and Oxford, where I spent many happy hours looking through old letters and records. This may sound odd, but I never really know what I'm looking for—until I find it. For example, I spent a good deal of time looking into the records on Churchill's prime ministerial country home. Chequers, which became for him a kind of secret weapon, and for me, almost a living character. I was delighted to find that a particular section of the estate, the "Long Walk Wood," was chronically overrun with rabbits — not exactly a world-shaking fact, but, nonetheless it's in the book. More often, however, my archival spelunking turned up tragic details and episodes, like the three-month investigation by Scotland Yard into the disappearance of an employee of a London architectural firm who, as it turned out, had been "blown to bits" by a German bomb. This, alas, did not make it into the book, but it was important to know it all the same. 

Q: What did you learn about Churchill that most surprised you? 
A: What most surprised me was Churchill's sense of fun. He would dance, solo, to martial tunes played on the gramophone at Chequers, and at least once engaged in a series of bayonet drills as he marched, while his dinner guests looked on. He loved listening to his favorite songs, among them "Run Rabbit Run" and tunes by Gilbert and Sullivan, and he adored movies, which he watched nightly in the home cinema at Ditchley, another country estate, where he stayed on weekends when the moon was full and air-raids thus more likely to occur. No matter how grave the events of the war, he was always able to compartmentalize his gloom and make room for laughter.

Q: The Splendid and the Vile is full of fascinating characters. Do you have a favorite among them? 
A: My favorite, hands down, is Mary Churchill, who when the action in the book begins is 17 years old. I was delighted to receive permission from her daughter, Emma Soames, to read and excerpt her diary, which is held by the Churchill Archives Center in Cambridge, England. Mary was a smart, charming raconteur, and her observations about her friends, her joyous life, and her frustration at not being able to take a more direct part in defending England, provide a rich and humane thread throughout the narrative—right down to episodes of "snogging" in haylofts and moments when young RAF pilots would buzz her and her friends at treetop altitude, thrilling them no end. 

Q: You sometimes included the German perspective in the book, most often Goring's, who was commander of the German air force (Luftwaffe), Why? 
A: I felt it was very important to convey how Germany's bombing campaign got started, and how it evolved in response to Churchill's open defiance. Also, Goring and Goebbels, like most Nazis, are spine-chilling characters. It was horrifying and illuminating to read Goebbels' diary entry that expressed his delight in his family and Christmas, while also reveling in the latest Nazi offenses against Jews. The Gennan narrative also helps ramp up the overall sense of foreboding and suspense as Goring plans each new aerial atrocity. I include the German fighter ace Adolf Galland mainly as a vehicle to describe the creation and evolution of the Luftwaffe and to present a nuanced, human element to the German side of the action. Galland loved the test of combat, but proved in the end to be a decent guy who won the respect of his opponents in the RAF. He also played an interesting role in one of the final events in the book, which I won't reveal here. 

Q: With so much written about Churchill, how did you manage to avoid drowning in so vast a sea of books and articles? And did you find it at all discouraging? 
A: My interest was very focused: How did Churchill and his circle endure Hitler's bombing campaign—how really? That was my lens, and it let me search in a more targeted way for anything that would help me tell the story. And, as I've found before, when you look at history through a new lens, you see things in a new way. Above all I wanted to present as rich a sense as possible of that awful time, so that readers could sink into the story and live it alongside the various characters. I did of course have to do a lot of advance reading to make sure I knew the fundamental history, but I resolved early on that I would not try to read everything. That's a fool's errand. As soon as I could, I began my archival research in hopes that my own personal Churchill would rise from the dust. I also made it a point to avoid watching all TV and movie portrayals of him, no matter how good they were said to be. I did not want someone else's vision clouding my own. 

Q: Suppose you had a time machine: In the course of your research, did you come across any particular moment that you would love to visit in real time? 
A: Many! I'd love to have been present for Hitler's July 19, 1940, "peace offering" speech in Berlin, just to see what it was like to be in that audience, and to sense the mad enthusiasm of those around me. I'd like to experience one of the major air-raids on London—provided my safe escape was part of the arrangement. But above all I'd love to be able to Join Churchill and company for one of those amazing dinners at Chequers or Ditchley, and savor the dazzling conversation, and maybe get a glimpse of Churchill in his gold-dragon dressing gown or his pale blue siren suit, as he danced to the strains of a Gilbert & Sullivan opera or to the score of the Wizard of Oz, another favorite. 

The Art of Resistance - My Four Years in the French Underground: A Memoir - REVIEW

The Art of Resistance - My Four Years in the French Underground: A Memoir 
by Justus Rosenberg 

     An unforgettable memoir written by a 98-year-old Jewish Holocaust survivor about his escape from Nazi-controlled Danzig in the 1930's and his adventures with the French Resistance during World War II In 1937, as the Nazi Party tightened its grip on the Free City of Danzig (now Gdansk, Poland), Justus Rosenberg's parents made the heart-wrenching decision to send their son to Paris, where he would have the hope of finishing high school and going on to university in safety. He was sixteen years old, and he would not see his family again for sixteen years more. When the Nazis pushed toward Paris in the spring of 1940, Justus was penniless, in danger, cut off from contact with his family in Poland, and forced to flee south. 

     A chance meeting led him to Varian Fry, an American journalist in Marseille who ran a clandestine network that helped thousands of artists and intellectuals escape the Nazis, among them Hannah Arendt, Marc Chagall, Andre Breton, and Max Ernst. With Justus' German background and fluency in several languages, including English, he became an invaluable member of Fry's network as a spy and scout. For the subsequent four years, Justus relied on his wits and skills to escape captivity, survive several close calls with death, and continue his fight against the Nazis, working with the French Resistance and later becoming attached with the United States Army. At the war's end, he emigrated to America and built a new life. 

     Featuring never-before-seen photographs from Justus' personal archives, THE ART OF RESISTANCE: My Four Years in the French Underground is a powerful saga of bravery, daring, adventure, and survival with the pacing of a spy thriller. As Justus writes, "I survived the war through a rare combination of good fortune, resourcefulness, optimism, and most importantly, the kindness of many good people." 

     Justus Rosenberg was born in the Free City of Danzig in 1921. When the Nazis rose to power there, he moved to France, where he joined an extralegal French-American network that helped to bring anti­-fascist intellectuals and artists from Vichy, France to the United States. He subsequently served with the United States Army, who awarded him a Bronze Star and a Purple Heart. For the last 70 years, he has taught at American universities, and is currently a professor emeritus of languages and literature at Bard College. He is the co-founder of the Justus & Karin Rosenberg Foundation, which works to combat antisemitism. In 2017 the French ambassador personally made Justus a Commandeur in the Legion d'Honneur, France's highest decoration. Professor Rosenberg lives in Rhinebeck, New York. 

THE ART OF RESISTANCE - My Four Years in the French Underground: A Memoir 
By Justus Rosenberg
304 pages Hardcover ISBN: 978-0062742193

"NORMANDY '44 D-DAY and the Epic 77-day Battle For France" by James Holland - REVIEW

D-Day, June 6, 1944, and the 76 days of bitter fighting in Normandy that followed the Allied landing, have become the defining episode of World War II in the West—the object of books, films, television series, and documentaries. The story is a familiar one—and yet, approaching the 75th anniversary of this epochal event, its traditional narrative is still driven by both myth and assumed knowledge that is often incorrect.

In NORMANDY '44, Holland has crafted a fresh chronicle that reframes our understanding of D-Day and the Normandy campaign: challenging the accepted views that Germany only lost because of the .Allies" material advantage; that the U.S. dominated the Allied effort; that air power was of lesser importance than ground power. Drawing on archives and testimonies of eye­witnesses—from foot soldiers, tank men, commanders, fighter pilots, as well as civilians caught in the maelstrom—Holland recreates the brutal campaign that, in terms of daily casualties, was worse than any in World War I. Field Marshal Sir Bernard Montgomery was in charge of Operation OVERLORD, whose main target was Caen, principal city in Normandy where rail, road, and river converged. Its capture took almost six weeks of bitter fighting from the bloody sea landing and chaotic air drop to the slog through the hedgerows and sunken lanes that were Normandy's landscape. Holland introduces characters such as Sgt. Curtis Curlin of the 2nd Armored Division who ingeniously devised saw-teeth to be added to the fronts of Sherman tanks, and Major General Pete Quesada, Commander of US IX Tactical Air Command, who developed crucial communication techniques between his planes and troops on the ground.

A stirring narrative by a preeminent historian, NORMANDY '44 sheds new light on one of history's most dramatic military engagements and is an invaluable addition to the literature of war.

James Holland is the author of Big Week, The Rise of Germany, and The Allies Strike Back in the War in the West trilogy, as well as Fortress Malta, Dam Busters, and The Battle of Britain. Holland regularly appears on television and radio and has written and presented the BAFTA shortlisted documentaries Battle of Britain and Dam Busters for the BBC, among others. A fellow of the Royal Historical Society, he has his own collection at the Imperial War Museum.

NORMANDY '44
by James Holland
Atlantic Monthly Press, $35.00 hardcover, publication date: 4 June 2019
ISBN: 978-0-8021-2942-0

Six Myths about the D-Day landings debunked by historian James Holland

1. The myth: German soldiers were better trained than Allied soldiers.

REALITY: The best German units might have been at the start of the war, but not by 1944. There were a few exceptions - such as the Panzer Lehr, for example, but for the most part, German units were nothing like as well trained as Allies. Some Allied units in Normandy had been training for the best part of four years, while many German troops had had little more than a few weeks'. The kampfgruppen - or battle groups - the ad hoc units that traditionally are seen to showcase their tactical flexibility, were borne of extreme shortages and desperation towards the end of the war. And even these units still kept counter-attacking, and exposing themselves to Allied firepower in the process.

The Fallschirmjager (paratroopers) were acknowledged to be among the very best trained troops in the German Armed Forces, yet one Fallschirmjager I spoke to recently had barely had any training at all, save a few route marches and practice at laying mines. He had never trained with a tank, had no transport at all, and when sent to the front from Brittany, marched 200 miles. His case was not untypical. More than 80% of German forces in Normandy were dependent on their feet and horses and carts for transport. He reached St Lo, a major Normandy town in the American sector, on 12th of June with a company of 120 men. When he was captured on 19th August, he was one of just nine still standing, the rest killed, wounded or captured.

Nor did the word aufstragstaktik- better known today as Mission Command - mean anything to him whatsoever. This doctrine, the ability to think on one's feet and use initiative, has been repeatedly hailed as what set the German soldier apart. Training had become so reduced it was simply impossible to implement.

2. The myth; The tactical skill of the Germans.

REALITY: The dogged determination of the Germans to fight has been confused with tactical skill. Recent post-war conflicts in Afghanistan, or even Vietnam a generation earlier, have proved that western forces can have the best trained troops, best kit, and most lethal weapons in the world, but still struggle to defeat a massively inferior enemy. As the Taliban have shown, it is very difficult to completely defeat your enemy if they don't want to be defeated. The only way is to kill them all.

This is why the Germans took so long to be defeated in Normandy and beyond: they were still a very dangerous and deadly enemy, with plenty of powerful weapons and a fierce determination to keep fighting. This was for a number of reasons: Nazi indoctrination, a profound sense of duty, and the threat of execution for deserters. In World War I the Germans executed 48 men for desertion; in World War II, that figure was 30,000.

3. The myth: D-Day was a predominantly American operation.

REALITY: For many people, D-Day is defined by the bloodshed at Omaha - the codename for one of the beaches where Allied forces landed - and the American airborne drops. Even in Germany, the perception is that D-Day was a largely American show; in the recent German TV mini-series. Generation War, there was a reference to the 'American landings' in France. But despite Band of Brothers, despite Saving Private Ryan, and despite those 11 photographs by Robert Capa taken in the swell on that morning of 6th June 1944, D-Day was not a predominantly American effort; rather it was an Allied effort, with, if anything, Britain taking the lead.

Yes, Dwight D. Eisenhower, the Supreme Allied Commander, was American, but his deputy. Air Chief Marshal Sir Arthur Tedder was British, as were all three service chiefs. Air Marshal 'Mary' Coningham, Commander of the tactical air forces - those directly supporting the ground troops - was also British. The plan for Operation Overlord - as D-Day was codenamed - was largely that of General Sir Bernard Montgomery, the land force commander: he was, of course, British. The Royal Navy was overall responsible for Operation Neptune, the naval plan. It might surprise many to know that of the 1,213 warships involved, 200 were American and 892 were British; and of the 4,126 landing craft involved, 805 were American and 3,261 were British.

Indeed, 31% of all US supplies used during D-Day came directly from Britain, while two-thirds of the 12,000 aircraft involved were also British, while two-thirds of those that landed in occupied France were British and Canadian (Canada was then a British Dominion and Canadian and British troops shared uniforms, equipment and weapons). Despite the initial slaughter at Omaha, casualties across the American, and British and Canadian, beaches were also much the same.

This is in no way meant to belittle the U.S. effort; rather it is meant to add context. It is not helpful to anyone to view their history through the narrow prism of their own experiences: rather a wider, 360-degree view, is far more instructive. History needs to teach us as well as entertain.

4. The myth: American forces were ill-disciplined amateurs.

REALITY: By the end of the war, the U.S. had the best armed services in the world bar none, and the 77-day Normandy campaign did a huge amount to help them reach that point. But repeatedly throughout the war, US troops showed their incredible ability to learn on the hoof, and then swiftly implement changes.

Normandy was a showcase for American tactical and operational flexibility At the start of the campaign, the Americans found themselves fighting through the Normandy bocage, an area of small fields lined with thick raised hedgerows and al the Germans would quickly retreat after a successful Allied landing. For the German troops, the bocage offered both cover and great ambush opportunities, with mortar teams and machine-guns hidden behind the hedgerows. To effectively break through the bocage US infantry needed the support of tanks to blast their way forward, but even thirty-ton Sherman tanks couldn't get through these hedgerows. The ingenious solution came from a lowly U.S. sergeant, who dreamt up the idea of attaching a hedge-cutting tool built from German beach obstacles to the front of a Sherman tank. Within a week, his prototype had been made and a few days after that he was able to demonstrate it in front of General Omar Bradley, the US First Army commander. He was so impressed with what he saw, he ordered the conversion of as many Shermans as possible, as quickly as possible. Within a fortnight the device had been fitted to 60% of all US Shermans in Nornmandy.

In no other army in the world would a solution created by a junior non-commissioned officer have been implemented quite so readily and swiftly. It showed the Americans' incredible tactical flexibility; and this was just one example. During the campaign huge strides were also made in the development of close air support, and in improving coordination between infantry, artillery and armor. Medical services advanced so much that one in four casualties returned to the battlefield after treatment. For 1944 this was remarkable.

5. The myth: The allies allowed themselves to get bogged down in Normandy.

REALITY: It's true that in the pre-invasion estimates for the campaign, the Allies expected to be roughly 50 miles inland. This was based on experience of German retreats in North Africa and Italy. But Hitler ordered his forces to fight as close to the coast as possible and not give an inch. On a map, it seemed the Allies weren't making much progress, but actually, the German policy worked to the Allies' advantage. By continuing to fight close to the coast, the Germans remained in range of Allied off shore naval guns and allowed themselves to be out-smarted by an enemy that had worked out how to defeat them.

By 1944, the Allies had realized that tactically, the Germans were rigidly predictable. The Germans were very proud of their military heritage and drew on doctrine established by men like General Carl von Clausewitz (1780-1831), who wrote the seminal pamphlet, On War. Part of their DNA in World War II was to always counter­attack - the idea was to strike back at the moment the enemy had over-extended himself.

But the Allies realized that this penchant for counter-attacking meant the Germans, previously well dug-in, then moved into the open and exposed themselves. The Allied trick was to probe forward, get the Germans to counter-attack - which they always did - then hammer them with a combination of devastating artillery, air- and off-shore naval fire. By the end of the Normandy campaign, the Germans had hemorrhaged men and machines and two entire armies were all but destroyed. It's true a handful escaped the attempted encirclement around Falaise, but it was still a massive Allied victory. In the rapid advance that followed, the Allies sped more miles more quickly than the Germans had done in the opposite direction back in May 1940 during the Blitzkrieg in France.

6. The myth: America and Britain got off lightly in World War II.

REALITY: Allied front line troops suffered horrifically in World War II. Democracies, such as Britain and America, quite rightly, were trying to achieve victory with as few casualties as possible. For the most part, they did this very successfully, using technology and machinery to shield lives as much as possible.

However, the hard yards still had to be won by the infantry, tank units and artillery, technology meant the Allies needed fewer of them than a generation earlier, but those in the firing line had pulled a very short straw, losses to front line troops were proportionally worse than on the Western Front during World War I. Over the course of the 77-day battle, the average daily casualty rate was 6,870, worse than the Somme. Passchendaele and Verdun, three battles usually viewed as a benchmark for wanton slaughter. Normandy was absolutely brutal.