vikingBerserker
Lieutenant General
"The White Rose of Stalingrad"
by Bill Yenne
Osprey Publishing - 2013
ISBN: 978-1-84908-810-7
This book came out a few months ago and is written by the same author of Aces High so I was really excited about this being published. Having first seriously read about Lidiya Litvyak (aka The White Rose) in Bruce Myles Night Witches: The Amazing Story Of Russia's Women Pilots in World War II I was looking forward to reading more about her.
The book is 319 pages divided into 20 Chapters, various other sections and 31 pictures and line drawings. About half of the book is devoted to the back ground of Mother Russia with the various "programs" since the founding of the Soviet Union that saw a significant number of Russians liquidated, one of the unfortunates being Lidiya's own father.
While it was good to have the background it almost became more of a history of the Soviet Union than a book on Lydiya. The second half of the book concentrated on her and was very interesting. One item of note, the flower painted on the side of her aircraft that the Germans took as a White Rose was actually a White Lilly.
The second half of the book was the most interesting to me, however there was one major issue that makes me question the author. At the end of the book it talks about her final flight in which she was shot down and killed. After her final take off she did not talk to anybody up until the time she disappeared yet somehow the author is able to tell us what she was thinking and feeling during her final combat mission. When something like this happens, it makes me wonder what else the author has taken "liberty" with.
It was not as good as I was expecting and I have to wonder about the "facts" stated.
I give it 2 White Lilies.
by Bill Yenne
Osprey Publishing - 2013
ISBN: 978-1-84908-810-7
This book came out a few months ago and is written by the same author of Aces High so I was really excited about this being published. Having first seriously read about Lidiya Litvyak (aka The White Rose) in Bruce Myles Night Witches: The Amazing Story Of Russia's Women Pilots in World War II I was looking forward to reading more about her.
The book is 319 pages divided into 20 Chapters, various other sections and 31 pictures and line drawings. About half of the book is devoted to the back ground of Mother Russia with the various "programs" since the founding of the Soviet Union that saw a significant number of Russians liquidated, one of the unfortunates being Lidiya's own father.
While it was good to have the background it almost became more of a history of the Soviet Union than a book on Lydiya. The second half of the book concentrated on her and was very interesting. One item of note, the flower painted on the side of her aircraft that the Germans took as a White Rose was actually a White Lilly.
The second half of the book was the most interesting to me, however there was one major issue that makes me question the author. At the end of the book it talks about her final flight in which she was shot down and killed. After her final take off she did not talk to anybody up until the time she disappeared yet somehow the author is able to tell us what she was thinking and feeling during her final combat mission. When something like this happens, it makes me wonder what else the author has taken "liberty" with.
It was not as good as I was expecting and I have to wonder about the "facts" stated.
I give it 2 White Lilies.
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