Category: World War II

WWII history book – “Flying With The Fifteenth Air Force” (University of North Texas Press, 2018) – David Snead interview

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Dr. David Snead is a professor of history at Liberty University. He has edited or written a number of books on US history including WWII history. We discussed his latest project, an edited version of the memoirs of Tom Faulkner, a B-24 pilot in WWII.

1:03 – David talks about how he first got into history.

3:30 – David talks about how he went about editing this WWII memoir.

5:23 – David talks about Tom’s time piloting a B-24 for the 15th Air Force.

12:50 – David talks about Tom’s training and the attitudes of the B-24 versus the B-17.

19:15 – David talks briefly about the Tuskegee airmen.

20:27 – David talks about the facilities the pilots used.

25:06 – David talked about problems Tom might have dealt with because of how young a pilot he was compared to others.

28:36 – David talks about the documents he used to support the things discussed in Tom’s memoirs.

33:58 – David talks about the usefulness of oral histories for this book.

Links of interest

https://untpress.unt.edu/catalog/3816

http://www.liberty.edu/academics/arts-sciences/history/index.cfm?PID=7112

For more “Military History Inside Out” please follow me on Facebook at warscholar, on twitter at Warscholar, on youtube at warscholar1945 and on Instagram @crisalvarezswarscholar

Guests: David Snead

Host: Cris Alvarez

Tags: military, history, military history, conflict, war, interview, non-fiction book, WWII, world war 2, US Air Force, B-24, Europe, Switzerland, missions, Texas

WWII and Vichy France history book – “Deposition 1940-1944” (Oxford University Press, 2018) – David Ball interview

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David Ball has studied the French language and French life for many years and has taught it as a Professor. We talk about the book he recently translated, a memoir by Jewish Frenchman and acclaimed author Leon Werth about his life hiding in occupied France.

1:04 – David Ball talks about how he got into translating French and translating this work.

4:11 – David talks about he edited a 700 page diary down to elements English readers would be interested in. He focuses on daily life in Vichy France.

6:00 – David compares this work to a memoir titled “The Dark Years.”

8:40 – David talks about participation in the French Resistance.

10:32 – David talks about how Leon Werth ended up in the village in which he was hiding.

14:20 – David talks about leon’s attitudes towards the crushing defeat in 1940.

18:54 – David talks about the language used in the diary and how he translated it.

23:45 – David talks about what kind of man Leon Werth was.

31:05 – David talks about Leon’s experiences and writings in WWI.

32:24 – David talks about how Leon recorded the Battle of Stalingrad.

39:03 – David talks about how Leon was worried about Hitler’s New World Order. He was also worried about a post-war civil war in France.

46:54 – David talks about Leon’s early awareness of the existence of the concentration camps.

58:13 – David talks about the passages on the liberation of Paris and reads them. The Germans and the Vichy government called the Resistance fighters terrorists.

Links of interest

https://global.oup.com/academic/product/deposition-1940-1944-9780190499549?cc=us&lang=en&

https://global.oup.com/academic/product/diary-of-the-dark-years-1940-1944-9780199970865?cc=us&lang=en&

For more “Military History Inside Out” please follow me on Facebook at warscholar, on twitter at Warscholar, on youtube at warscholar1945 and on Instagram @crisalvarezswarscholar

Guests: David Ball

Host: Cris Alvarez

Tags: military, history, military history, conflict, war, interview, non-fiction book, leon Werth, Vichy France, Occupied France, Germany, WWII, World War 2, de Gaulle, concentration camps, Liberation of Paris

How Soviet Russia prepared for WWII with Mark Harrison

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The Industrialization of Soviet Russia

How Soviet Russia prepared for WWII with Mark Harrison

Check out this book here   https://amzn.to/3eIEmvT

Interview Timeline

Mark Harrison has been a historian studying the Soviet Union and the Soviet economy for many decades. We talked about his latest project, a book about the Soviet economy just prior to WWII which he co-authored. The Industrialization of Soviet Russia Volume 7 (Palgrave Macmillan, 2018)

0:51 – Mark talks about how he got into studying Soviet history and its economic history and how it pertains to WWII.

3:07 – Mark talks about how the book breaks down the subject and its place in a book series on Soviet history.

10:45 – Mark talks about how few people in the Soviet system wanted to make final decisions.

13:43 – Mark talks about how much control the central authority had over outlying areas of the Soviet Union.

18:45 – Mark talks about how a good harvest in the Soviet Union at this time hurt Stalin’s plans.

21:07 – Mark talks about how the Politburo decided how many armaments to make.

26:15 – Mark talks about how the Soviets were planning for massive future war. Stalin was also very worried about the fifth column and the “unconscious” enemy.

30:09 – Mark talks about Soviet strategy for future war.

34:05 – Mark talks about allied support to the Soviet Union and what the Soviets had expected.

39:15 – Mark talks about the various archives used for the research.

44:09 – Mark talks about Soviet and German record keeping and differences between Hitler’s and Stalin’s leadership styles.

49:18 – Mark talks about the Lithuanian KGB and archives about it.

53:29 – Mark talks about jet propulsion in the 1930s.

1:09:35 – Mark can be found by googling “Mark Harrison Warwick”. He also has a blog which can be found by googling the previous phrase and adding the word “blog.”

Links of interest

https://amzn.to/3eIEmvT

Book’s home page – www.palgrave.com/9781137362377

For more “Military History Inside Out” please follow me on Facebook at warscholar, on twitter at Warscholar, on youtube at warscholar1945 and on Instagram @crisalvarezswarscholar

Guests: Mark Harrison

Host: Cris Alvarez

Tags: military, history, military history, conflict, war, interview, non-fiction book, Soviet Union, Germany, KGB, purges, agriculture, industrialization, WWII, world war two, Stalin, Hitler, Politburo, strategy

Check out this book here   https://amzn.to/3eIEmvT

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