The John Batchelor Show

Saturday 15 September 2012

Air Date: 
September 15, 2012

 

(Photo: Battle of France, 1940: "We have been defeated; we have lost the battle:" French Premier Paul Reynaud, 15th May in telephone a call to British Prime Minister Winston Churchill.  In a six week lightning campaign German forces over-ran Holland, Belgium and Luxembourg, humiliating the British and defeating the French. A diversionary attack held some of the best Allied units in the north while the main German attack fell on French forces in and around Sedan. Having forced a crossing of the River Meuse the speed and ferocity of the German attack completely overwhelmed the defenders. The Panzers (German armoured tank divisions) then wheeled west and struck out for the sea. By the time the Germans reached the estuary of the River Somme the Allies realised that they could not save the situation and many British and French troops were evacuated to Britain from Dunkirk.

905P: Bevin Alexander, Inside the Nazi War Machine 1 of 2. "A thought-provoking study of a thinker, Manstein, a doer, Rommel, and a combination of both, Guderian, who together conceived, pursued and achieved a momentous victory despite the reticence, fears and obstructions of the German General Staff and Adolf Hitler himself. Bevin Alexander has compiled a telling testimonial to audacity, perspicacity and perseverance in the conduct of military operations that provides excellent lessons for the now and future leaders contemplating military action." -General Frederick J. Kroesen, former vice chief of staff of the U.S. Army and Commander in Chief of U.S. Army Europe

920P: Alexander continued 2 of 2

935P: Michael Palmer, The German Wars 1 of 2

955P: Palmer  2 of 2

1005P Jim Lacey, Keep from All Thoughtful Men, 1 of 2. Jim Lacey tells how a few obscure American economists guided the miracle of production that crushed the Axis. In 1940-1943 all-outer military chiefs and Roosevelt himself badly misjudged American capacities of labor, materials and finance. Their jumbled arms programs were out of touch with reality. Lacey persuasively describes how the economists, applying then-new statistical measure like gross national product, convinced them to recalibrate output to credible goals that assured a timely victory. --EDWARD S. MILLER, author of Bankrupting the Enemy: The U.S. Financial Siege of Japan Before Pearl Harbor

1020P: Lacey 2 of 2

1035P: Andrew Nagorski, Hitlerland 1 of 2 “Andrew Nagorski has written an entertaining chronicle…‘Hitlerland’ brings back to life some early delusions about Hitler’s rise that now seem unthinkable. Any reader trying to puzzle out today’s world will be unsettled by the reminder of how easy it is to get things wrong.” --The Economist

1050P: Nagorski 2 of 2

1105P: Danny Parker Fatal Crossroads 1 of 4.  "Danny Parker has written the most detailed and reliable account yet of the most notorious atrocity inflicted on U.S. forces in Europe during World War II. Using an impressive array of sources, including interviews with many survivors and witnesses, he has constructed a gripping narrative that is both evocative of the horror of the massacre and restrained and balanced in its conclusions. This is a book that deserves the attention of World War II aficionados."-James J. Weingartner, Southern Illinois University Edwardsville, and author of "Americans, Germans, and War Crimes Justice. Law, Memory and the "Good War."

1120P: Parker 2 of 4

On the second day of the 'Battle of the Bulge,' a truck convoy of Battery B of the 285th Field Artillery Observation Battalion was intercepted southeast of Malmedy by a regiment of the 1st SS Panzer Division of the Leibstandarte-SS, under the command of 29 year old SS Lt. Col. Jochen Peiper. His troops had earned the nickname "Blowtorch Battalion" after burning their way across Russia and had also been responsible for slaughtering civilians in two separate villages.

1135P: Parker 3 of 4

1150P: Parker  4 of 4

Lieutenant Lary points at number 14,Georg Fleps,the German soldier who is supposed to have fired the first shots.On 16 july 1945 the trial ended,43 Germans recieved the dead penalty,22 got live,2 got 20years and 5 got & 10 years each.Among those who got the dead penalty were Peiper and Fleps.However on 22-12-1956 Peiper was released from prison despite American objections.

1205A: Bevin Alexander, Inside the Nazi War Machine 1 of 2

1220A: Bevin Alexander, Inside the Nazi War Machine 1 of 2

1235A:  Cargill Hall Five Down No Glory 1 of 2. Richard K. Smith is the author of The Airships Akron and Macon and First Across! He died before completing the manuscript of Five Down, No Glory.  R. Cargill Hall is Emeritus Chief Historian of the National Reconnaissance Office of the Department of Defense. He is the recipient of the 2012 American Institute of Aeronautics & Astronautics History Manuscript Award. Previously he served in various history positions for the Air Force History and Museums Program and as historian at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. He lives in Arlington, TX.

1250 Exeunt. Cargill Hall 2 of 2