WWII – Page 2 – The Spine View

Title: The Circumstantial Enemy
Author: John R. Bell
Pub. Date: 12-Oct-2017
Rating: 4.5 Stars

Many kudos to John R. Bell for writing this wonderful historical fiction book loosely based on his father-in-law’s experiences during WWII. There is much to love about it and I especially enjoyed that the main character was from Croatia. Most WWII novels I have read are set somewhere in Western Europe or Great Britain. We tend to forget about those countries that were eventually swallowed up by the USSR.

The main character, Vlatko Anton “Tony” Babic, is a one of the few pilots in the region with experience (though very limited) and he has great value to the Germans in the new Croatian Air Force Legion. As his choices are presented, he finds he is left with no other option but to join and serve the Germans.

Continue reading “The Circumstantial Enemy by John R. Bell”

Title: Beneath a Scarlet Sky
Author: Mark T. Sullivan
Pub. Date: 1-May-2017
Rating: 5 Stars

A friend of mine, knowing I love books with a historical setting, highly recommended Beneath a Scarlet Sky by Mark T. Sullivan. Hands down, this is the best historical nonfiction book I have read in several years. Mr. Sullivan takes us through the incredible true story of Pino Lella, as a young man, living in Milan through the last two years of WWII.

At the age of seventeen, Pino Lella is sent by his parents to a Catholic camp for boys in the Italian Alps, near the Swiss border, in order to escape the allied bombing of Milan. Drawing upon his mountaineering skills, he assists the priest in guiding Jews across the Alps into Switzerland and to safety. Upon his eighteenth birthday he will be faced with the draft. Therefore, his parents recall him home to Milan and insist he enlist in the Germany Army. They feel this is the only way he will remain safe, since youths enlisting in the Italian Army are sent directly to the Russian front. Continue reading “Beneath a Scarlet Sky by Mark T. Sullivan”