Time for two book reviews, I finished one while still reading the other (managed to smash out a book on famil in WA).

First up we have:

Band of Brothers by Stephen E Ambrose. I won’t talk to much about this one as I have already read this one a few times, but only really bought it to finish off the collection with the more modern covers. This is a very famous book as it is the one that the HBO Mini Series was based on. Stephen Speilberg & Tom Hanks put that series together and it is one of my favourite. This book is also one of my favourite war books. It is fantastically well written and deserving of much praise.

To give you a brief run down it follows 1 unit during their time in World War 2. Easy Company of the 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 101st Airborne Division. From their creation at Camp Taccoa in Georgia, through their lead in training in both the United States and in England, through their combat jumps in France, Holland and their time in Belgium, Germany & Austria.

This is a fantastic read and in my opinion a must read for anyone.

Next Up we have:

Tobruk by Peter Fitzsimons. This book was given to me for Christmas (see how long it takes me to read books at the moment). But was something that I was highly interested in. The reason I wanted it was because I had never really read anything about the famous “Rats of Trobruk” and figured that if this book was as good as the one he wrote on Kokoda then this would be worth it.

This is a thick book, very hefty and weighed me down for almost a month. I didn’t even take it with me to WA on Famil as it was going to weigh me down way to much. Now that I am finished it, my bag was considerably lighter this morning. But in saying that, it was disappointing to finish this book because it was just so well written. I felt like I was living with the troops in Tobruk, holding the line with them. Not only that but also with the families of the troops, back home in Australia.

For those that have not read one of Peter Fitzsimon’s books before, he is a fantastic author and his style is great. You feel like your on the ground with the troops or at home with their families. He can transport you back to a time when life was very different for everyone involved. In saying that, it does make the books fairly large as both Kokoda and Tobruk are very indepth books, thoroughly researched and detailed but so well written it does not feel boring.

Tobruk for those that don’t know or have not heard of the “Rats of Tobruk” was fought during the early African campaign of WW2. The 9th Division AIF was sent into Tobruk along with some British Artillery and Royal Army Tank Corp to hold this area from the German Afrika Corps (yes that’s the right spelling I did not misspell Africa).

They held this area for near on 7 months, with attack after attack by the german’s repulsed. With limited supplies and replacements. It was something that when they finally were replaced by British & South African troops later in the Campaign, they were over run quite quickly by the Afrika Corp. This showed the tenacity and resolve of Australian troops who back then were often treated like 2nd class troops by the British Generals/Politicians.

If you have a chance you should read this book. With the 70th Anniversary