WWII aviation military history book – “Race of Aces” (Hachette Books, 2019) – John R. Bruning interview

John Bruning is a historian with a passion for WWII aviation. He’s written books on the subject and we spoke about his most recent book about the WWII race to be America’s top aviation ace Race of Aces. Check the book out here: https://amzn.to/2Rdem20

0:42 – John talks about how he got into writing on WWII army aviation.

2:47 – John talks about how he structures the story of the five airmen in the book.

4:44 – John talks about how he chose what parts of the story to tell.

7:27 – John talks about the personalities of these airmen.

11:13 – John talks about the Army’s concern with their aces getting shot down.

14:05 – John talks about the Aleutians campaign and its part in this ace race.

17:26 – John talks about the planes involved in the race.

19:21 – John talks about his favorite parts of the book including Gerald Johnson’s romance with his future wife.

24:41 – John talks about the documents he used for his research and who he interviewed.

36:32 – John talks about how his perceptions about General Kinney changed during research.

40:05 – John talks about the champagne prize for winning the ace race.

40:38 – John talks about pilot Charles MacDonald.

44:55 – John talks about the emotional impact researching the book had on him. He relates a story of being in a chinook in Afghanistan.

1:02:45 – John is on facebook at John R. Bruning at the website johnbruning.com and theamericanwarrior.com.

Links of interest

https://amzn.to/2Rdem20

https://www.hachettebooks.com/titles/john-r-bruning/race-of-aces/9780316508643/

https://theamericanwarrior.com/

For more “Military History Inside Out” please follow me at www.warscholar.org, on Facebook at warscholar, on twitter at Warscholar, on youtube at warscholar1945 and on Instagram @crisalvarezswarscholar. Or subscribe to the podcast on Apple Podcasts | Stitcher | Spotify

Guests: John R. Bruning

Host: Cris Alvarez

Tags: military, history, military history, conflict, war, interview, non-fiction book, corsair, marines, history, fighter groups, richard bong, tommy mcguire, neil kirby, charles macdonald, gerald johynson, tommy lynch, 475th, 348th, aleutians, 5th figher command, general kenney, general whitehead, 5th air force, alaska, kiska, P-38, P-39, P-40, planes of fame, 457th, 49th fighter group, hind, japan, das boot, afghanistan, detroit lake, WWII, world war two

Check the book out here.: https://amzn.to/2Rdem20

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Cold War military history book – “Divided Allies” (Cornell University Press, 2019) – Thomas Robb interview

Dr. Thomas Robb is a historian who studies and teaches British and US military history. We spoke about his latest co-authored book on how the ANZUS and SEATO treaties were developed. Check out the book here.

0:44 – Thomas Robb talks about how he got into writing on Cold War Asia-Pacific military relations.

4:03 – Thomas talks about how he begins the book with WWII and moves into the Cold War chronologically.

6:38 – Thomas talks about Australia’s strong concern about tPacific regional security.

8:25 – Thomas discusses France’s decline and Japan’s importance.

8:48 – Thomas talks about West’s concern with Japan’s resurgence economically.

10:04 – Thomas discusses China’s role in the region.

11:50 – Thomas talks about the Soviet role in the Pacific region.

14:12 – Thomas mentions Soviet pilots in the Korean War.

14:52 – Thomas talks about economic versus national needs of the four nations involved.

16:26 – Thomas mentions complaints about ANZUS.

18:38 – Thomas talks about the approach to nuclear weapons.

21:21 – Thomas discusses the US need for the treaty.

22:03 – Thomas talks about the relative military strengths of the four nations negotiating the treaties.

22:27 – Thomas says NZ and Australia were diplomatically punching above their weight.

22:45 – The Philippines not included in ANZUS.

24:57 – Thomas talks about how each nation could militarily contribute to the alliance.

26:01 – A cordon defense would go nuclear.

27:59 – Thomas talks about western concerns that Japan would become communist.

29:05 – Japanese reparations are discussed.

29:45 – Japanese strategic value was shown.

30:59 – Thomas talks about the payment of German reparations after WWI and compares that to the idea of having Japan pay reparations.

32:55 – Thomas talks about British strategic goals and aliances.

34:00 – The US prodded Britain to drop japan as an ally.

34:57 – Thomas talks about Churchill’s sentimentality.

35:54 – Thomas talks about how domestic politics impacted these treaty negotiations.

37:12 – The public used an excuse to not legitimize some treaty negotiations.

38:50 – The Eisenhower library just released a bunch of previously classified documents.

39:42 – Thomas talks about the archives he used for his research including various Presidential libraries.

42:23 – Thomas talks about going to the Truman library.

43:52 – The UK was angry that Australia and New Zealand went off without them and joined the US.

47:54 – Thomas talks about the interplay of racial ideas influenced policy.

50:44 – Thomas talks about how some of the American negotiators had very intense military ideas.

51:25 – Some of the Americans seemed bonkers to the Australians in their goals.

53:47 – The British met with press barons to impugn the character of a foreign minister over ANZUS negotiations.

1:00:19 – Thomas talks about a new project to study the political economy of the US Civil War.

Links of interest

Check out the book here.

https://www.cornellpress.cornell.edu/book/9781501741845/divided-allies/#bookTabs=3

https://twitter.com/obucoldwarrior

For more “Military History Inside Out” please follow me at www.warscholar.org, on Facebook at warscholar, on twitter at Warscholar, on youtube at warscholar1945 and on Instagram @crisalvarezswarscholar. Or subscribe to the podcast on Apple Podcasts | Stitcher | Spotify

Guests: Thomas Robb

Host: Cris Alvarez

Tags: military, history, military history, conflict, war, interview, non-fiction book, asia-pacific, australia, new zealand, cold war, wwii, world war two, great britain, united states, united kingdom, japan, france, communism, china, NATO, korean war, ANZUS, nuclear weapons, macarthur, truman, philippines, okinawa, malay, SEATO, dean acheson, Russian Empire, Churchill, france, Dulles, US Civil War

WWII history book – “No Forgotten Fronts” (Naval Institute Press, 2018) – Lisa Shapiro interview

 

Professor Lisa Shapiro holds masters degrees in literature and management and teaches at San Diego Mesa College. She has previously taught creative writing. She’s written a book based on thousands of archived letters sent by San Diego State students who were in WWII to their professor Dr. Post. I interviewed Professor Shapiro about the book titled “No Forgotten Fronts.”
1:54 – Professor Shapiro talks about her first historical project. It dealt with European medieval historical fiction. Her interest in WWII came out of her work with community college students in San Diego.
3:57 – She began studying war literature and got a second degree in that subject. In the school archives she found letters written to a professor during WWII.
5:46 – Professor Shapiro explains the basis and details of the book. It’s a collection of student letters written to their professor, Dr. Post. He turned the letters into a regular newsletter. He did this through the entire war.
10:16 – Several hundred students participated in writing to Dr. Post. This includes men and women and many wrote repeatedly. People also provided funds to support him. The original documents are in the San Diego State college archives.
12:16 – Professor Shapiro discusses how the US military censors worked with Dr. Post. He took care to keep out sensitive information out of his newsletters.
16:35 – Sometimes students wrote things only for Dr. Post and not the newsletter.
17:16 – Dr. Post was also able to connect two brothers, one of whom was a prisoner of war during the war. Dr. Post even visited their mother to provide reassurance about her sons. One student who was at Anzio wrote that he had lost his marbles and Dr. Post knew he needed some mental comfort. Dr. Post notified a nearby chaplain in Europe from San Diego State to visit this soldier and also gave comfort to the student’s father.
22:54 – Professor Shapiro explains how Dr. Post got information on killed or injured students and how he dealt with that information. Dr. Post would also update information he had published.
27:57 – Dr. Post didn’t have any children. Professor Shapiro discusses how Dr. Post met his wife in college. But both were active in the lives of their students. He also did trick roping and performed for his students. His wife was a singer. Dr. Post did have a nephew in the Marines who would write to Dr. Post.
30:36 – There don’t seem to have been any other people who collected letters from specific groups during WWII. Others have created letter collections after wars.
34:43 – The students loved getting the newsletters.
36:07 – Professor Shapiro focused on the letters that captivated her. The emotion of the letters touched her. She was able to track the stories of specific individuals.
40:28 – Professor Shapiro reads a letter from Herman Adelson who nicknamed himself Little Geronimo since he was a paratrooper. He and the others really believed in what they were fighting for. For good, freedom and democracy.
43:22 – A letter arrived for Dr. Post saying that Herman had died during D-Day and included a eulogy for him. San Diego State lost three members of their championship basketball team during the war. But the community found comfort in knowing what their loved ones had been doing.
48:29 – Professor Shapiro did a lot of reading to brush up on her knowledge of WWII and current events at the time the letters were written. She used Anthony Deevers’ history. She also read a lot of San Diego history. San Diego had a lot of women participate in the war. A lot of San Diego State students became pilots.
53:40 – Professor Shapiro had few problems getting the book published. She had to shorten the book since it was very long at first.
55:02 – Grif Williams was one of the students and was famous for being on the Doolittle Raid. He was taken prisoner eventually and he was eventually a cellmate with another San Diego State student who had been captured in Germany.
59:26 – The website for the book is NoForgottenFronts.com.

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: Lisa Shapiro
Host: Cris Alvarez
Tags: war, military, WWII, WWII history, san diego, san diego state, pacific war, d-day, north africa, europe, germany, doolittle raid, anzio