David Irving (1) (1938–2024)

The last somewhat decent work from a Holocaust denier. Irving hides his pro-Nazism a bit in this one, as his more overt historical inanities and racialist politics would come out soon after he published this one. Irving's reputation as a historian collapsed in the decade after this book was published. He was still considered a quirky, if usable historian when he published this work. Irving's storytelling is great and his research is rigorous in this book. Once you know his biases towards the show more Nazis, or certain Nazis, you can find where he tries to whitewash history or make Göring look better. (All while making sure dumb generals and even Göring get the blame for losing the Second World War, not his vaunted Hitler.) The most glaring stupidity is where he translates "Endlösung der Judenfrage" not as "final solution to the Jewish question" abut the innocuous-sounding "final unraveling of the Jewish question." Still, it is a serviceable biography of Göring, and would be the best if you didn't know of Irving's later downfall and his ever-present biases. So, as a citable, reputable source, it probably should be used in small, judicious citations, not leaned on in any meaningful or heavy way. As such, it means that Leonard Mosley's The Reich Marshal: A Biography of Hermann Goering must still reign supreme as the best English language biography of Hermann Göring still around. show less

I read this before professor Irving had been revealed as a researcher, who had on at least one occasion, made up a manuscript that he then quoted as part of an historical argument. A real historian, or a responsible journalist does NOT DO THIS! So I record having read it, but will never use it in an argument or illustration. I generally like a good contrarian hypothesis, but Irving went too far. His prose is workmanlike. I think he describes the British in this stage of WWII as more show more war-weary than they really were. show less

Apr23: Just acquired this book at a used book sale. Went to enter in LT, but every available title includes, "...Inside the Allied Command". My book makes no reference anywhere about this suffix added at the end. So I ended up manually adding the book to my Library. I noted during past collection reviews that LT mentioned that I had several duplicate books in my Library, but the titles were different. After opening the respective books, yes, the content was same but cover and/or titles were show more different. Maybe a tool to entice buyers or when they change publishers for subsequent editions, the title gets modified. Very confusing. Resulted in thinning my collection some.

I thought this was an interesting book. The title says it all. The relationship between WW2 ETO Allied land generals was all over the place. Brits vs. American. French vs. everyone. American vs. American. Air generals against each other. Focus of various prolific personalities like Monty vs. Ike. Ike vs. Devers. Patton vs. Monty and so on. Seems like William Simpson of the US 9th Army was the only general who seemed to get along with anyone on a regular basis. I have read various general officer biographies so there was not a lot of new information for me. But, enough to capture my interest.

I noted the author, David Irving, is fairly prolific himself. Quite the writer. Upon reviewing his background on Wikipedia, he seems to a Holocaust denier so his track record might be slightly tainted (in my view). But the book was still good with no apparent wandering into his 'other' background. show less

Well-laid account of the February, 1945 raid by the Royal Air Force and the U.S. Army Air Force that destroyed Old Town Dresden. The author works forward from previous raids (such as Kessel and Hamburg), looking at the on-going debate regarding area versus precision bombing, and then goes in-depth as to the Dresden raid itself, including why the raid was so devastating. The raid comes in for some heavy (but measured) criticism, including the aftermath, in which Allied propaganda did a poor show more job of countering German propaganda. The book is fairly old (1965), and it's quite possible certain parts have been made obsolete by revelations since then. Still, a highly readable account; as noted above, it seems fairly balanced. show less