Jeff Shaara's The Steel Wave

[Taltarzac]

Been reading Jeff Shaara's new book The Steel Wave. This is the second one in his WWII trilogy. It is about D-Day-- June 6, 1944-- and the events and thoughts of military leaders just before and after this fateful day.

Worth a look for people who like historical novels with a military theme.

He does focus on the leaders a lot. Leaders like Dwight Eisenhower, Erwn Rommel, Omar Bradley, and Bernard Montgomery. Adolf Hitler is painted as a military tactician and strategist who is something of an idiot or a raving lunatic.

[Fourpar]

Taltarzac,

I just got The Rising Tide. I think it is the first of his WWII series, and The Steel Wave is next. I'll be looking for it in a week or so.

BTW, Jeff also ahas done a great series of Civil War historical novels, if that interests you. Like The Steel Wave, it too focuses on the leadership of both sides of the "War of Northern Aggression" as some down this way call it ::).

[SteveFromNY]

Taltarzac,

I just got The Rising Tide. I think it is the first of his WWII series, and The Steel Wave is next. I'll be looking for it in a week or so.

BTW, Jeff also ahas done a great series of Civil War historical novels, if that interests you. Like The Steel Wave, it too focuses on the leadership of both sides of the "War of Northern Aggression" as some down this way call it ::).




Actually, the Civil War novels were done by both Michael & Jeff Shaara. Michael wrote "The Killer Angels", a sort of historical-fiction novel detailing the three day Gettysburg campaign. I found it to be fascinating! I've read it multiple times and visited the battlefield as well. It is a great companion to that trip. The movie Ted Turner made called "Gettysburg" is an incredibly accurate adaptation of the "The Killer Angels". By the way, Ted Turner does a cameo in "Gettysburg" as one of the soldiers crossing the field in Pickett's Charge. The book has created some minor stir about its historical accuracy, and it certainly glorified Joshua Chamberlain as a huge hero of the battle and the war (not inaccurately).
Jeff (who I met at Gettysburg where he was signing his new book about Civil War battlefields) is Michael's son. He followed in his father's footsteps and wrote "Gods and Generals" and "The Last Full Measure", historical novels that precede and follow the Gettysburg campaign. Both are similar in approach to "The Killer Angels", but each covers multiple years whereas "Angels" covers only 3 days. So the level of detail about people and events is quite different. Still worth a read though.
I look forward to reading the WWII books!
:bigthumbsup:

[Muncle]

Steve, I have to agree with you strongly about "The Killer Angels". I didn't read it until the late 90's and found it one of the most interesting and easily read books on the War of Northern Aggression. I'd been to Gettysburg a couple times and kinda knew my Civil War history. And I was quite familiar with the area from Chambersburg, PA to Hanover (home of Utz chips and Snyders pretzels) and on down to DC. Anyway, the book reminded me of a cross between a Cornelius Ryan WWII book and "Red Storm Rising" and "Team Yankee" on the fiction side. So easy to read, so exciting, so hard to put down. You actually found yourself telling the characters to do or not do stuff because you knew the outcome, like a Saturday morning serial.

Yeah, without doubt, Chamberlain came across as the hero. I thought I knew history, but to be honest, I'd never heard of him. But to me, the real hero -- no, not hero, certainly not villain, and not really a "tragic hero" is the traditional sense, I guess hero does best fit --- was James Longstreet. I found in him all the honorable traits one romantically imagines in such a character, only to be done in by his own sense of honor, loyalty, and obedience.

When I read this book, two of my best friends at work (in DC) were retired Army guys from the south who had extensive knowledge of the Army and that conflict. I asked one afternoon what happened to Longstreet. We have a Ft. Lee, Ft. Pickett, Ft. Stuart, Ft. Hood, Ft Early, Ft. Gordon, but not Fort Longstreet. In 1863, he was arguably #2 behind Lee in the pantheon of Confederate military. And nothing he did at Gettysburg was his fault or could be blamed on him. Any objective analysis would show it was Lee's fault with a heavy dose of Stuart. My friends pointed out that objectivity had nothing to do with it, that no aspersions could be cast up Robert E. Lee, and that James Longstreet took full blame. It turns out that it was years before most Confederate military men accepted that Longstreet was not the villain, well too late to salvage his reputation.

[SteveFromNY]

But to me, the real hero -- no, not hero, certainly not villain, and not really a "tragic hero" is the traditional sense, I guess hero does best fit --- was James Longstreet. I found in him all the honorable traits one romantically imagines in such a character, only to be done in by his own sense of honor, loyalty, and obedience.




As the result of having read "Angels" I followed up by reading quite a bit more about Longstreet. He really took the rap for failing Lee in Gettysburg. Your friends are quite right - Lee was a paternal figure who was revered. He was untouchable. And even though he made some mistakes there, Longstreet was the fall guy. Quite the warrior though, and had it been it to him, the battle could have turned out differently.

And I agree, it is one of the most fascinating books I've ever read (and read, and read) Really brought those folks to life and although as I read it I knew Shaara had no way of knowing exactly what they said, he really made it all fit well with history and made it very credible at the same time. I remember standing at the left flank of the Union line right where the 20th Maine was stationed and imagine Longstreet's Alabama unit coming up the hill. Quite moving, and something I would not have really appreciated unless I read the book.

[Muncle]

I remember standing at the left flank of the Union line right where the 20th Maine was stationed and imagine Longstreet's Alabama unit coming up the hill. Quite moving, and something I would not have really appreciated unless I read the book.


I think one thing that struck me after reading this book and revisiting G-burg was how small an area it was. I'd visited before and seen a ton of movies about it. I'd seen the dioramas/light shows that they have in so many battle sites but you really don't appreciate how close the opposing forces were. There were over 150,000 guys there in an area really smaller than TV between 466 and 466A, certainly 466 and 44. Literally 3 days of hell that could well have changed the world.

Manassas was the same way. The history books and the Errol Flynn type movies make it seem like these guys were miles apart when actually their camps were within a few hundred yards of each other at times. This was really up close and personal.