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World War II #32
The Home Front: Germany
Book 32 of the Time-Life World War II series.
208 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1982
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About the author
Charles Whiting
256 books52 followersCharles Whiting was a British writer and military historian and with some 350 books of fiction and non-fiction to his credit, under his own name and a variety of pseudonyms including Ian Harding, Duncan Harding, K.N. Kostov, John Kerrigan, Klaus Konrad, and Leo Kessler.
Born in the Bootham area of York, England, he was a pupil at the prestigious Nunthorpe Grammar School, leaving at the age of 16 to join the British Army by lying about his age. Keen to be in on the wartime action, Whiting was attached to the 52nd Reconnaissance Regiment and by the age of 18 saw duty as a sergeant in France, Holland, Belgium and Germany in the latter stages of World War II. While still a soldier, he observed conflicts between the highest-ranking British and American generals which he would write about extensively in later years.
After the war, he stayed on in Germany completing his A-levels via correspondence course and teaching English before being enrolled at Leeds University reading History and German Language. As an undergraduate he was afforded opportunities for study at several European universities and, after gaining his degree, would go on to become an assistant professor of history. Elsewhere, Whiting held a variety of jobs which included working as a translator for a German chemical factory and spells as a publicist, a correspondent for The Times and feature writer for such diverse magazines as International Review of Linguistics, Soldier and Playboy.
His first novel was written while still an undergraduate, was published in 1954 and by 1958 had been followed by three wartime thrillers. Between 1960 and 2007 Charles went on to write over 350 titles, including 70 non-fiction titles covering varied topics from the Nazi intelligence service to British Regiments during World War II.
One of his publishers, Easingwold-based Rupert Smith of GH Smith & Son said he was a quiet man and prolific writer.
"He's one of a band of forgotten authors because he sold millions of copies and still, up to his death was doing publishing deals.He was the kind of man who was very self-effacing, one of Britain's forgotten authors, still working at 80 years of age, with his nose down and kicking out books."
Charles Henry Whiting, author and military historian died on July 24 2007, leaving his wife and son.
Born in the Bootham area of York, England, he was a pupil at the prestigious Nunthorpe Grammar School, leaving at the age of 16 to join the British Army by lying about his age. Keen to be in on the wartime action, Whiting was attached to the 52nd Reconnaissance Regiment and by the age of 18 saw duty as a sergeant in France, Holland, Belgium and Germany in the latter stages of World War II. While still a soldier, he observed conflicts between the highest-ranking British and American generals which he would write about extensively in later years.
After the war, he stayed on in Germany completing his A-levels via correspondence course and teaching English before being enrolled at Leeds University reading History and German Language. As an undergraduate he was afforded opportunities for study at several European universities and, after gaining his degree, would go on to become an assistant professor of history. Elsewhere, Whiting held a variety of jobs which included working as a translator for a German chemical factory and spells as a publicist, a correspondent for The Times and feature writer for such diverse magazines as International Review of Linguistics, Soldier and Playboy.
His first novel was written while still an undergraduate, was published in 1954 and by 1958 had been followed by three wartime thrillers. Between 1960 and 2007 Charles went on to write over 350 titles, including 70 non-fiction titles covering varied topics from the Nazi intelligence service to British Regiments during World War II.
One of his publishers, Easingwold-based Rupert Smith of GH Smith & Son said he was a quiet man and prolific writer.
"He's one of a band of forgotten authors because he sold millions of copies and still, up to his death was doing publishing deals.He was the kind of man who was very self-effacing, one of Britain's forgotten authors, still working at 80 years of age, with his nose down and kicking out books."
Charles Henry Whiting, author and military historian died on July 24 2007, leaving his wife and son.
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
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September 24, 2023Read this in 1977 and I still remember bits and how wonderfully vivid his writing was. went on to read Another Part of the House which I also thoroughly enjoyed,
November 24, 2021
The Time-Life Books series on WWII is always researched and presented well. This particular one does an excellent job of keeping the focus on what the German civilians faced. There are chapters / photo essay chapters about the Germans Jews and Germans who resisted the Nazis that round out the perspective decently. Certainly there is a plethora of books on this history, but I find the Time-Life series to be great areas at least to start on a particular WWII topic. This one is certainly that case.
February 27, 2021
Fascinating stories I'd never heard before from the German home front during WWII. My one ick factor is how admiring the book / editor is of the German people during the war; I know there is a Holocaust volume in this series and that this volume was published before "Hitler's Willing Executioners" and all that, but...damn.
May 10, 2021
The account of World War II from the perspective of the average German citizen. This volume takes the reader into the heart of Germany throughout the war and tells the story of the trials and privations suffered by the German people during the war.
June 27, 2012
Shattering book about Germany's home front during World War II. The German people were not as thrilled to find out they were in another world war in 1939 as we have been led to believe, but bolstered by early successes in Poland and France, rallied enthusiastically to the Nazi cause; this enthusiasm was taxed over the next four and a half years as rationing, shortages and other extreme hardships followed. This book in the excellent Time-Life World War II series has chapters about propaganda, the use of women and children to replace manpower on farms and factories, resistance to the Nazi regime at home, (including a very moving chapter about the White Rose resisters and courageous students at the University of Munich) and Church opposition to the euthanasia campaign which caused the Nazis to back off from gassing people with developmental disabilities. Longer chapters deal in detail with the horrendous effects of the Allied bombing campaign over Germany which killed over 600,000 people. It started in Lubeck in March, 1942 and continued until the end of the war. Special emphasis is given to the bombings of Cologne in 1942, Hamburg in 1943 and Dresden in 1945, of which Kurt Vonnegut wrote about in "Slaughterhouse 5". A secret report on the bombing of Hamburg wrote, "An ordinary imagination cannot comprehend the scenes of terror." Good at describing the sense of disgust but powerlessness that many Germans felt after 1943, and a good sobering lesson about letting governments get too tyrannical out of apathy or greed. Well illustrated with numerous rare photographs, paintings and drawings. Interesting chapter on Nazi feature films that were supposed to stiffen the resolve of the people with historical dramas from Germany's past.
March 4, 2015
Bought this Life Time series in the early 1980's on WWII, a volume came to the house every 2 or 3 months so I could take my reading. It was very informative and enjoyable read, I still use it for reference.
April 20, 2012
The book tells the story of Germany's civilian struggles with the war and does so without being over-technical or complicated and in a such a way that it held my attention through each chapter.
November 4, 2014
I really don't know where the description of the book came from. This is Germany during WWII and is a well told book.
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews