Being there . . . . to witness the horrors of one of the final battles that ended Hitler’s glorious
Third Reich, the 52-day-long siege of Budapest, Hungary; then, hop-skip-jump over to New
Guinea to watch American forces and Australian defenders take on elite Japanese troops in
uniquely demanding jungle heat, teeming rain, and long, fat snakes, and beat hell out of them
in agonizingly-patient three month-long fights; then, conclude your brief excursions into,
“Famous But Long-Forgotten Battles of World War II” by climbing back into your B-24 and
flying up to northern Norway to enjoy the good will between the Western Allies and the Soviet
Union as they strategize defeating the German Kriegsmarine seeking to inundate the life-saving
Allied convoy routes in the treacherous Barents . . . .
Part Three of OSPREY’s Christmas Package of WW II Books
THREE NEW BOOKS DETAILING ALLIED DEFEATS OF THE AXIS ARRIVED IN TIME TO PURCHASE
AS EXCELLENT CHRISTMAS GIFTS – THAT IS, AFTER YOU CURLED UP AND READ THEM YOURSELF
Reviewed and Highly Recommended by Don DeNevi
“SIEGE OF BUDAPEST 1944-45 –The Brutal Battle for the Pearl of the Danube”, by Balazs
Mihalyi, Illustrated by Johnny Shumate. OSPREY PUBLISHING-Bloomsbury Publishing Plc; 2022,
96 pages with full color battle scenes, Illustrations, 3-dimensional ‘bird’s eye-views’, maps; $24.
Visit, www.ospreypublishing.com.
“COMBAT SERIES: JAPANESE SOLDIER VERSUS US SOLDIER – New Guines 1942-1944”, by Gregg
Adams. OSPREY PUBLISHING-Bloomsbury Publishing Plc; 2022, 80 pages, Innovative split-screen
artwork, Expert analysis combined with gripping battle accounts, Strategic and tactical maps,
Insights into the realities of front-line combat; $22. Visit, www.ospreypublishing.com.
“BARENTS SEA 1942 – The Battle for Russia’s Arctic Lifeline”, by Angus Konstam, Illustrated by
Adam Tooby. OSPREY PUBLISHING-Bloomsbury Publishing Plc; 2022, 96 pages with full color
battle scenes, Illustrations, 3-dimensional ‘bird’s-eye-views, maps; $24. Visit,
www.ospreypublishing.com.
The “SIEGE OF BUDAPEST 1944-45 – The Brutal Battle for the Pearl of the Danube” narrates,
cogently and expertly, the two-month siege of once beautiful Budapest, one of the most
destructive urban battles in world warfare history. The city not only led directly to Berlin and
the Fuhrer’s Chancellery bunker, but also guarded access to the Transdanubia region,
strategically vital to Nazi Germany for its raw material and the bridgehead it allowed into
Austria. As a result, Der Fuhrer declared Budapest a fortress city in early December of 1944. The
fight that followed pitted almost 100,000 German and Hungarian troops against double the
number of Soviet and Romanian attackers. This detailed study minutely explores every exact
and phase of the operation to take the city, from the initial Soviet approach to Budapest
commencing in late October 1944 through the encirclement of the city first on the Pest side of
the Danube, then on the Buda side. Huge numbers of combatant and civilian casualties
resulted. The serious WWII buff, of course, knows all about it, but not in this kind of research,
solid writing, and illustrative presentation. He or she will cherish “SIEGE” as a wonderful,
enjoyable Christmas gift.
In the superlative Osprey series simply referred to as “Combat”, we are presented with
“JAPANESE SOLDIER VERSUS US SOLDIER – New Guinea 1942-1944”, an absorbing study of the
role of the US Army National Guard units and their Japanese opponents in three important
battles. They are the Buna-Gona (November 1942 -January 1943) ; the Biak Island (May-August
1944), and the Driniumor River, (July-August 1944). Author Gregg Adams assesses and compare
the combat effectiveness of both sides, paying particular attention to each side’s tactics,
weaponry, logistics, leadership, and communications in the challenging mountain jungle setting
of New Guinea.
“BARENTS SEA 1942 – The Battle for Russia’s Arctic Lifeline” describes in detail and
accompanying illustrations the Arctic convoys that passed through the cold, dangerous waters
of the Barents Sea which served as Russia’s crucial, nay, vital lifeline-strategic link for tanks,
supplies, aircraft, even nonperishable foods, and, above all, goodwill between the Western
Allies and the Soviet Union. In December 1942, under Operation Regenbogen (Rainbow), the
Germans needed desperately to sever, or at least cripple, this all-important sea route.
Renowned naval expert Angus Konstam, the respected first-rate sea-battle historian,
documents the fate of the Allied Convoy JW-51B as it came under attack from some of the
Kriegsmarine’s most powerful surface warships – a pocket battleship, a heavy cruiser and six
destroyers. This 96 page highly illustrated masterpiece explores the David and Goliath struggle
between the Allied ships defending the convoy and the powerful German force, until the arrival
of two ship-saving British cruisers arrived to tip the balance of power. Fighting in the darkness
and blinding snowstorms will excite the enthusiastic reader beyond any books he or she has
read about that encounter. Even for the purchaser’s library, it is a must-have addition.
