Michael Kiehn

Not really about General Rose

Revisado: 01-14-25

While the story being told is superb and adds new color to the well known story of the conquest of Nazi Germany this book could just have easily been called "Why I hate Omar Bradley and the senior allied leadership". All too often the author strays into childish attacks on generals that don't have his favor: Bradley, Eisenhower, Montgomery, etc. All too often the author snarks about Bradley not being able to read maps (first I have heard of it) and then segues into eulogising Patton. I felt that I had learned more about the author than about Rose by the end of the book and what I learned about the author I didn't like.

If you want to read a book about the Spearhead then Adam Makos's book is better. If you a looking for a book about General Rose then you will be disappointed by the book. If you hate Bradley and Ike you are in for a treat. Cavat Emptor.

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Simply Superb

Revisado: 12-18-24

What a story and so well told! Heartwarming, tragic, heroic, and yet humble. This is an audiobook where in the days of cassette tapes it would be with great sadness that the tape finally gave up after many listens.

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Fast paced and engaging with superb narration

Revisado: 11-27-24

James Holland has written a superb book that manages the difficult task of giving the high level story and the human level story. Al Murray is engaging and perhaps most importantly has a pleasant voice to listen to, something which when absent ruins an audiobook!

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Perhaps a little scholarly

Revisado: 11-14-24

I listened to this expecting a tale of daring do, brought to life through the dramatic actions of the participants. It didn't quite live up to this and was instead a review of the fleet sizes, high level tactics etc. Extremely interesting but certainly not a casual listen as other WW2 Pacific books are. I enjoyed it and would listen again but if you are thinking of buying this it is worth being aware of what it is.

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Superb!

Revisado: 07-20-24

This book is excellent. It is fast paced and gives a very human, first hand view of the events of the Vietnam War. I strongly recommend it. I found the narrator hugely engaging.

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Fantastic book

Revisado: 01-30-24

A fantastic book bringing new details to a well trodden subject... BUT... if you are going to narrate a book about a 'well trodden subject' at least get the pronunciation right!! It made me wonder whether he had ever heard anyone else say the place names or if he had simply read them from the page! Aside from that it was an excellent engaging performance and I would listen to a book read by Mr Ganser in the future.

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Great story, terrible narration

Revisado: 07-19-23

The narrator speaks way to slowly and what is with the shouting? As someone else noted it is much better at 1.4x speed. I found the way he pronounced the word 'doughs' extremely irritating... and he says it a lot.

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Adds a new dimension to a well known story

Revisado: 05-25-23

Well done to James Holland! It's a story that everyone knows but Mr Holland has brought something new. New facts, new perspectives! What a great story. Congratulations are also due to the narrator who is an absolute pleasure to listen to. One of the best audiobooks I have listened to so far this year.

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Too much irrelevant information

Revisado: 03-28-23

I found that the early stages of the book had far too much random information. The author flitted from subject to subject, all broadly related to WW2 but utterly irrelevant to the North Africa air campaign and even less relevant to the Ploesti mission. I found myself rolling my eyes as he disappeared off on another dead end. There is a huge amount of repetition in the book, I lost count of the number of times that Colonel Smart was introduced, it was akin to a TV program that knows that it will have huge commercial breaks and so has to remind everyone of where the story is up to each time it returns. We also had a number of false starts on the actual mission itself. I would say around 10% of this book actually covers the events of August 1st 1943, the mission itself became something of an afterthought. Enough about the book, let's talk about the narration... the narrator was clear and easy to understand. He had a warm voice which enabled me to get through the book at all as it took on the experience of listening to an elderly veteran describing their war stories as a stream of consciousness. Where this fell down was the authors use of flowery language which seemed to send the narrator off into a wistful whispered reverence which frankly drove me insane! I would also say that for a book about WW2 someone should have picked him up on his repeated use of the word "luftwaff" rather than "luftwaffe", it may seem a petty point but it is wrong and he should have done better as the word was used repeatedly during the book. All in all I would recommend finding another choice for this subject matter.

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Much more than 'The Few'

Revisado: 03-03-23

I went into this book expecting it be the story of Fighter Command and 'The Few'. This book is so much broader than that dealing with the entire background to the 'invasion attempt'. It considers the German side as well as the British side and leaves the jingoism to one side for a considered history. It highlights heroism on both sides along with the full range of human emotions. The author has achieved something very special with this book. Having just finished it I immediately want to listen to it again. I cannot recommend it highly enough.

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