01st September 1939. Led by Adolf Hitler, Nazi Germany declares war on Poland in response to Polish attacks on German border outposts. These attacks were staged by the Germans themselves to justify their invasion of Poland. Poland in 1939 was home to more than 3.5 million Jews. The Pianist is an autobiographical survival account of […]
Wars and armies, even now for the most part are male dominated. Though there have been women not only fighting but proving instrumental in turning the tides of battle, they are either classified as exceptions or simply overlooked. This misogynistic sentiment is echoed through time, but that hasn’t stopped women from stepping up and donning […]
06th August 1945. The US drops an atomic bomb on the Japanese city of Hiroshima. Three days later, on 09th August, a second bomb is dropped on Nagasaki. The devastation of these two cities is followed by the unconditional surrender of Japan on 15th August 1945. War in Europe began in 1939, with Germany invading […]
The Angry Hills is Leon Uris’ second novel, coming on the heels of his much-appreciated Battle Cry. As with most of his books, this too has a personal connection; his uncle – a Jewish Pioneer who migrated to Palestine – was a soldier in the Palestinian Brigade, part of the British Expeditionary Forces in Greece […]
This was the first time I reviewed a series as long and elaborate as this (and I’m sure it won’t be the last!). While I was posting it at my usual schedule of one every 15 days, there’s no reason for you to have to go to every post individually; you can check all of […]
The opening of Empire & Honor takes the reader into the holds of a German submarine, the U-405, hiding in the South Atlantic Ocean. Mentioned in Victory & Honor as one of the few submarines that has not complied with Admiral Dönitz’s surrender order, it has on board SS Brigadeführer Hoffman, 15 SS officers and […]
Victory & Honor picks up the tale of Cletus and his team almost two years after the events of The Honor of Spies, just after the unconditional surrender of Germany. In those two years, the leadership of Argentina has changed hands twice, with President Rawson being deposed by General Ramirez who in turn has been […]
The beginning of The Honor of Spies overlaps with the ending of Death & Honor. Where the last book has Enrico describing the assault that takes place on the fly, the beginning chapter here gives a blow-by-blow account of it. The reader gets a front row seat as Enrico plans the ambush with military precision, […]
The scale and number of twists and turns World War 2 had over a span of a few years has been fodder for multiple generations of historians and conspiracy theorists alike. Not the ones to be left out, many writers too have successfully utilized the ‘What if?’ trope of writing (popularly known as Alternate History […]
Once in a while, you come across a story that is extremely simple on the surface, but as you read it and finish it, it keeps tugging at your memory with its subtle layers. Then you pick it up and read it again, and slowly the layers all become visible simultaneously and you see it […]
War Crows 