On the air in World War II

by John MacVane

Book Overview

Here he reveals for the first time that he and several other correspondents were actually in Berlin while the mopping-up of that city was still in progress-an example of enterprise at one with the... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0688035582
• ISBN13: 9780688035587
• Release Date: January 1979
• Publisher: Morrow
• Length: 384 Pages
• Weight: 1.70 lbs.

Customer Reviews

On the Air in World War II

John MacVane had a unique perspective on the North Africa and European theaters of operation during the war. As an accredited journalist and "assimilated captain", he was frequently in areas before the army arrived. He had access to many leading political and military figures.His book is really a recounting of the course of the war, and not so much a treatis on radio, as the cover of the book would have you believe. He writes in an easy, informal style and the reader is carried along on words to some of the most major events of the war.MacVane and his wife lived in London during the blitz. They suffered personal tragedy during that time. He was in Tunis and witnessed first hand the brutality of the Vichy government toward the Free French. He waded ashore at Omaha Beach on D-Day and spent the next year wandering around various battles. Particularly poignant is his description of the liberation of the concentrations camps and prisons. And I had never before heard about the "personal slaves" assigned to ordinary German citizens and the harsh conditions under which they were kept and worked in homes and farms.His description, maps and pictures all help to bring the war into focus very clearly.Aside: I have a first edition of this book and there is what appears to be an error in it. In the dedication, MacVane writes in part: "...to Louis Weintraub, whom I first met as a young combat photographer on Omaha Beach, Normandy, France, in June 1941..." It is highly unlikely MacVane or anyone else was wandering around that strip of beach in 1941. It would have been enemy held territory. And it would not have been called Omaha Beach in 1941. That term was used by the planners of Operation Overlord in 1944. I'm sure it should read "June 1944". Oddly enough there is no mention of Weintraub anywhere in the text of the book, despite MacVane's dedicatory statement noting that his "encouragement has been of great value to me."