The European Theater Anthology of World War II
Unique, Unknown and Interesting Information for Those Familiar With the Second World War
Copyright © 2013 Ostfront Publications, LLC
By Ken Weiler
QUESTIONS:
Click on a question to reveal Ken’s Answers:
This is an unusual book, why did you write it?
Who will want to read such a book?
What you wrote about could be pretty dry stuff, was it?
Why is the book important to have?
Question: This is an unusual book, why did you write it?
Ken’s Answer: I have been studying and researching the Second World War since I was in high school, a long time ago. After my first book, Why Normandy Was Won, Operation Bagration and the War in the East 1941 – 1945 was published in 2010, I had a wealth of material that never made into that book for various reasons; did not fit the subject area, too esoteric, too obscure for the general readership. However, there was a lot of, to me and I’m certain other World War II scholars, material that was fascinating as well as pertinent to fully understanding the back story of the war, the rest of the story, as such it became its own book and not an appendix to my earlier work.
Question: Who will want to read such a book?
Ken’s Answer: With writing the text completed in late 2012, I set about pulling out all the already understood and common knowledge of the war and began to shape it into the book it is today, namely, an advanced look at the European Theater from a perspective less taken; logistics, intelligence, supply, inter-Allied cooperation, supreme command politics and the like. I wanted a read that was a 500 level course and not a 100 level account of the prosecution of the conflict and I think I have succeeded with Anthology.
Question: What you wrote about could be pretty dry stuff, was it?
Ken’s Answer: I’ll be the first to admit pouring over endless charts and tables of convoy shipping movements, fright loadings, hospital admissions and the gallons of POL delivered was not the most exciting work I’ve ever done. What I’ve done differently is to put this vital data in context as to how it was important to the front line soldier, airman and sailor, how it affected the movement of whole armies and how it affected command decisions that shaped the final outcome of World War II in Europe. For example, I compiled the deaths of all U.S. Army soldiers, by rank, from general to private, and the results were not what one would expect. Another was the vast number of horses the German army needed to conduct its war of movement, called the blitzkrieg, something one would not connect with the lightning fast war they became known for.
Question: Why is the book important to have?
Ken’s Answer: For the established military historian of the European Theater, this is work will provide the underpinnings for everything else that happened on the battlefields, in the conference rooms and on the bridges of ships. This is the book that will fill in the blanks and empty corners and answer the many questions of how and why the war was fought and why decisions were taken and who made them. This book will also assume the reader is familiar with the basic storyline of the war in Europe and as such many fundamental explanations and definitions have been omitted. However, the last third of the book is one vast reference work for what I hope will be the source of endless consultation and research, seeking answers to questions that I devoted years to discovering.