Books

This book tells the story of soldiers of Jewish heritage who fought for the Germans in WWII.

The author visited dozens of WWII German military veterans and had them tell him their story. They were Jewish, had one Jewish parent or one or more Jewish grandparents, but still joined the German Armed Forces in WWII. Some were in the Army, the Navy, the Luftwaffe and strangly enough, even in the SS.

Bryan Rigg found evidence of hundreds and perhaps hundreds of thousands, of Jewish WWII German soldiers. While this may seem strange to us now, remember that many Black American soldiers went into combat for the USA without the full rights of citizenship in two World Wars. Some of these Jewish soldiers were hiding from the Nazis, some hoped they could prove themselves "worthy" of being Germans and others were even dedicated Nazis themselves. A strange and interesting book. It is fully footnoted, it could have been edited a bit more to avoid some of the repetition but certainly it is filled with information you are unlikely to find elsewhere.

Hitler's Jewish Soldiers, the Untold Story of Nazi Racial Laws and the Men of Jewish Descent in the German Military, by Bryan Mark Rigg, University Press of Kansas, Lawrence, Kansas, 2002

ISBN 0-7006-1178-9

Trees

Another useful set of Toobs, this one is trees.

Most of them are green but there is some autumn color.

These trees will work well for domestic trees in cities, along streets and in people's yards.

This odd little palm tree is going to join my prehistoric trees, it just looks strange.

The full set together. I plan on getting a half dozen or so sets to liven up my city scapes.

Rocket

The underside of the base of the Wasserfall rocket has a pocket that I wanted to remove.

Using my vast arsenel of tools I removed the rocket pocket. Kit is HO scale from ArsenalM, purchased from Randy at Fidelis Models.

These are the rocket bits. No flash and also no locating pins. It's a model for the advanced modeller but not as difficult as some of the other resin kits.

The launch pad is PE and rather fragile when done.

The men from the propaganda ministry are here take photos Dr. Von Braun.

Unmeasured Strength

Unmeasured Strength, Lauren Manning, Henry Holt and Company, LLC, New York, NY 2011, ISBN 978-0-8050-9463-3

http://www.LaurenManning.com/

www.us.macmillan.com/unmeasuredstrength

I got a free copy of this book to write a review. When I study a battle I like to look at it from different perspectives. What is the strategic value in the battle, what did the generals plan? How did the technology function, how was the battle from the point of view of the company commander, the squad leader and even the individual soldier. Lauren Manning was an individual soldier involved in the Battle of September 11, 2001.

She worked at the World Trade Center and was in the lobby when the plane hit. The fire came down the elevator shafts and set her on fire and knocked her down. She was burned over 80% of her body and spent years recovering from her wounds. We read statistics that so many were killed and so many were wounded. We often don’t realize what wounded means. Lauren Manning had wounds that required years of surgery, physical therapy and pain and disfigurement.

My wargame rules include rules for wounded soldiers. The wounded take large amounts of resources to evacuate and care for after they are hit. This book gives a very personal view of these attacks. It gives greater insight about what it means to be a casualty of a terror attack. A good book that shows us another aspect to the War Against Radical Islam.