Overview / 简介: |
| From 1939 to 1945, an estimated 50 million people died. This book tells you why the Second World War exacted such a bloody toll. Find out about huge battles and mighty weapons, the bombing of cities and the treatment of occupied nations, the Holocaust and D-Day. Discover how Adolf Hitler led his once-unbeatable armies to annihilation, and why Pearl Harbor was the greatest mistake of the war. Stunningly illustrated with dramatic contemporary photographs, and useful maps, this is an accessible and thought-provoking introdution to the most destructive conflict the world has ever known. |
Foreign Customer Review / 国外客户评价: |
| After reading the very critical reviews, I felt compelled to give my opinion. I think this is a well illustrated introduction for the young reader. Historians rarely agree on every detail, especially when politics enters the discussion. I didn't care for the oft mentioned internet link that is supposed to be so helpful, but the book includes a glossary and index to help the student wade through the big story of WWII.
As for the myth of the Polish cavalry charging German tanks, the author picked a poor example for the new way of fighting called Blitzkrieg, I'll agree. This myth has been around a long time but here's the detailed story.
I quote from Military History Online: "At 2:00 P.M. on September 1st, 1939, Colonel Kazimierz Mastelarz, commander of the 18th Regiment of the Pomorska Cavalry Brigade, spotted a badly exposed battalion of German infantry in the woods near the Polish village of Krojanty. He hurriedly assembled his troopers for a sabre charge and fell upon on the unsuspecting enemy, easily overrunning them. For the Colonel, the short but brief action must have seemed a fortuitous start to the war for he and his men. Their first encounter with Hitler's vaunted Wehrmacht had proven a tactical success at negligible cost. However, his victory would prove short lived. Before the Poles could reorganize, a column of German tanks and motorized troops appeared from around a bend and unleashed a devastating hail of fire. Some twenty troopers, including the Colonel himself were killed before the Poles could turn their horses and retreat, abandoning the recently won field to the advancing Germans. The next day, Italian war correspondents were brought to the scene and told that the Polish cavalrymen had charged the German tanks."
"It was in this way that one of the most enduring myths of the Second World War, and the defining image of the September Campaign, was born. The German General Heinz Guderian wrote in his memoirs that "The Polish Pomorska Cavalry Brigade, in ignorance of the nature of our tanks, had charged them with swords and lances and suffered tremendous losses." Winston Churchill wrote that the Poles "charged valiantly against the swarming tanks and armoured cars, but could not harm them with their swords and lances." Even today, some seventy years later, the myth remains widely believed even in military circles. A 2005 submission to the Canadian Army Journal, written by a Major in the Canadian Army recounts how Polish troopers "with little more than courage and lances" were "slaughtered" when they charged German armoured cars and tanks. How is it that such a blatant historical inaccuracy can perpetuate to this day? The answer lies in the various contexts through which the myth has been interpreted and disseminated. That is to say, that while the image of a Polish cavalryman charging a tank has been used to denigrate the Poles and the interwar Polish state, so too has it served as an important national symbol of self-sacrifice and romantic tradition." Read more of why this myth has persisted at the online site mentioned above.
|
 |
报告错误、缺书登记 |
如果您发现关于本书的任何错误，请点这里报告。
如果您在本站没有发现您想要的书，想要团购这本书，或者有其他方面的意见、建议，请点这里留言，
我们将认真考虑您的要求。
|
| 上传内页照片或者 mp3 音频 |
如果您有本书内页的图片，或者有语音的 mp3, 安妮非常感谢您登录后上传，与全体会员分享！
|
京公网安备11010802030648号