Does anyone have any tips for searchign for e-books? I really want to find Guy Sajer's 'The Forgotten Soldier'.

Well, at least part of it is on Google Scholar, as long as you have a gmail address or something like that.

Actually, that only has 3 pages. However, that particular book is in the Auckland Uni general library. Call number 940.548144 S15Y.

I thought our university library doesn't have works of fiction.

The call number indicates its a Biography of sorts.

Yeah, it seems to be an autobiography. However, the Library has lots of fiction, although its usually of the literary kind.

Chiang, have you read Osmar White's The Conqueror's Road? It's a journalistic account of the first few weeks in ally-occupied Germany. He was an Australian journalist, who followed the conquering army into Berlin. It's an excellent read.

That book's authenticity has been questioned by military historians for years. It's about an Alsatian German sympathizer who managed to join the Wehrmacht at the age of 16 with the Grossdeutschland Division in the East and the experiences of war through his eyes. The were a number of factual and historical errors about the unit that makes military historians wonder whether this Guy Sajer (obviously not a real name) was actually part of the fighting. The author could not be located as it was written under an assumed name and he fears persecution as a surviving collaborator. Libraries are thus unsure whether to file it as a novel or an autobiographical work.

O.K., I'll read that after I've finished off Sajer's work and Beevor's Stalingrad. How did White manage to hitch a ride with the Russians?

My mistake. He followed the American forces into Germany, and was in Berlin soon after the Russians took it.

That's quite a common thing for some biographical material, e.g. Angela's Ashes by Frank McCourt is more of a memoir than an accurate historical account yet I think I see it in the 900s in most libraries.

Even memoirs have to have accuracy. There are some things in Sajer's work that simply isn't true. Like the famous Grossdeutschland cuff title issued to the unit as an example, in Sajer's work, he mentioned it's location on the tunic in the wrong place. Many Grossdeutschland veterans also find some of accounts of his experiences questionable.



In his book, he mentioned that he wanted to become a Stuka dive pilot initially. Maybe he would have been shot down in that life and left GrossDeutschland's real veterans to write some real histories.

Tim O'Brien's Vietnam books - which actually combine real with invented events, and biography with history - sometimes turn up in the 950s, though most are in the 813s with other American novels. His If I Die in a Combat Zone is pure autobiography, however, and because of its historical content it is a 959 (with other non-fiction works on Vietnam).

'Nam is one war where I find only the weaponry (and nothing else) interesting.

You're missing a lot.

Do you know how heavily China was involved in both Vietnam wars?

Edit: Two contrasting reviews of "The Forgotten Soldier" here.

Of course I know how bloody heavily the fools were involved and in the end got nothing out off Vietnam. Tell ya what, I sometimes have fantasies where I'm one of those men who crossed in 'Nam in '79 as a part of a Blitzkrieg that was aborted when the PLA was only 100km from the Hanoi. Vietnam's arse was only kicked by China.

http://www.china-defense.com/history/sino-...ino-vn_1-1.html




That was the link I first visited after reading about the book on Wiki. I'm more convinced by the historians that Sajer's work has more fiction than fact.

Hmm... I was under the impression that in 1979, waves of Chinese soldiers got utterly owned by toughened Vietnamese units with Soviet weapons. The website you linked to says that:

Which is just like the American argument that the Vietnam War was a success because even though they got their asses handed to them, they succeeded in "containing communism" in the long term - despite the fact that the domino theory was pretty much discredited even by then.

This Wiki entry provides a pretty good summary.

Bah! A trip to the uni library proved to be a waste of time since the book is either missing or misplaced (it was last on loan in 2003).

I'll debate about 'Nam III on another day.