Simon Dunstan

Well, what can you think about the idea that Adolf Hitler never died in the Berlin Bunker as everyone seemed to believe?

My interest in this was sparked by a recent article in the Guardian here

When the Russians gave the skull fragments that they had for Mr H to the Americans for DNA testing and the results came back negative….. in other words it was NOT Mr H or Eva B, in fact it was the skull of a young woman.

It makes for very interesting reading and if you are gullible like me you will show more end up convinced that Mr H lived to an old age in Argentina where his children and probably grandchildren live to this day.

So I came into this book with a degree of scepticism but came away reasonably convinced.

On a more serious note, if you are super smart like me you would have been asking yourself this: “If this is true then how come it has never come out?” Well, in the beginning of the book there is a great deal of detail about money, as in where it came from, who profited by it and where it went to. Follow the old road called money and you end up with pretty much the same bunch of usual suspects. Multinationals. The war may have been a disaster for Europe but it was a bonanza for many American conglomerates. The Oil companies were supplying both sides with fuel, the Allies from the American office and the Axis from the Argentinian office. You get the idea? Try considering who was financing the war. It was a very expensive pastime then as now.

The problem with this book is that it is mostly documented sources of information including some FBI documents dated 3 months after Mr H’s death….and not casual word of mouth sources but bona fide documented sources.

If it was true, then great deal of collusion was at foot. It has been well documented that the Catholic Church aided the escape of many Nazis to Argentina to name but one colluder.

The “escape”, which took a long time, is painstakingly detailed in both the manner of the escape, the vehicles and the subterfuge left behind to make it all look like a happy ending in the bunker.

Read it, it is well written and he makes it very clear when his is quoting recorded facts and when he is making conjecture.

As I get older and read more about historical events it becomes very clear that Hitler myth is very black and white and it is no different in that history was never clear cut.

Everyone had dirty hands. The Hitler myth is convenient as it stands.

Why didn’t the Allies bomb the railway tracks leading to the camps? They certainly knew about them and had the capability to do so long before the war was over.

A good read and the authors list his sources in page after page of references. Make up your own mind if you can get over the fact that most of what passes for history is just plain lies and half truths. show less

I am not a huge fan of history books, because normally they are as dry and interesting as dust. Well, colour me impressed. This book grabbed me and held me captivated till the very last page. It was well researched and never read like a conspiracy theory. Actually, the more I think about the facts as presented in this book, the more inclined I am to believe the theories put forth.

I never by any means claimed to know a lot about the second world war, but things that are mentioned in this show more book, and not well known are just mind blowing. It is always a case of "follow the money."

The atrocities are just mind numbing. I cannot believe that these people got away and lived high lives in Argentina, with the knowledge of the Allieds. It is just plain disgusting. show less

The fall of Eben Emael 'twas a famous victory at the time, and while the German side of the equation has been written about at length Dunstan does what seems to be a fine job of examining the Belgian perspective. A sad story it is too, one of bad planning, bad leadership, and just generally screwing up by the numbers. Whether anything would have made a difference in really stopping the German offensive of 1940 is almost a moot question these days, but this action is symptomatic of so many show more mistakes of the time. Oh yes, you also get a good description of the actual technology that went into the complex. show less

My copy of this book was published by Presidio Press in 1982, unlike the later Osprey edition, and is an overview of the armor employed by the French, US Army and Marines, Australians and North Vietnamese in Vietnam during those thirty years. It is not an in-depth study of the subject but instead is a nice overview of both the types of vehicles involved and the issues and problems faced by the combatants. The descriptions of the vehicles is accompanied by numerous photographs, some in color, show more most of which in this edition are of excellent quality. The author seems quite knowledgeable about many little and obscure details which makes it a rather enjoyable read. The author also discusses the challenges of operating armor in the wide variety of terrain found in Vietnam, with interesting insight into the evolution of armored doctrine as the forces gained experience.

I would recommend this book to those with an interest in the use of armor in Vietnam and is equally enjoyable by the scholar and the more casual reader. The detail of the photographs will also appeal to those involved with armor miniatures. show less