The John Batchelor Show

Saturday 1 December 2012

Air Date: 
December 01, 2012

(Photo: August 1944: Troops of the 2nd Armored Division en route to Paris, August 1944. Credit: France’s Ministry of Defense.)

JOHN BATCHELOR SHOW

Saturday 905P Eastern Time:   The Liberator: One World War II Soldier's 500-Day Odyssey from the Beaches of Sicily to the Gates of Dachau by Alex Kershaw; 1 of 4.  “Kershaw has ensured that individuals and entire battles that might have been lost to history, or overshadowed by more ‘important’ people and events, have their own place in the vast, protean tale of World War II....Where Kershaw succeeds, and where The Liberator is at its most riveting and satisfying, is in its delineation of Felix Sparks as a good man that other men would follow into Hell — and in its unblinking, matter-of-fact description, in battle after battle, of just how gruesome, terrifying and dehumanizing that Hell could be.” – Time.com

Saturday 920P Eastern Time:   The Liberator: One World War II Soldier's 500-Day Odyssey from the Beaches of Sicily to the Gates of Dachau by Alex Kershaw; 2 of 4  “A literary tour de force.  Kershaw brilliantly captures the pathos and untold perspective of WWII through the eyes of one of its most courageous, unsung officers – a great leader, who always put his men first.  The Liberator is a compelling, cinematic story of the highest order." – Patrick K. O’Donnell, combat historian and author of Dog Company

Saturday 935P Eastern Time:  The Liberator: One World War II Soldier's 500-Day Odyssey from the Beaches of Sicily to the Gates of Dachau by Alex Kershaw; 3 of 4  “Alex Kershaw's gripping account of one man's wartime experiences has both the intimacy of a diary and the epic reach of a military history.  The Liberator reminds us of the complexity and moral ambiguity of the Second World War.” – Amanda Foreman, author of A World on Fire

 Saturday 950P Eastern Time:    The Liberator: One World War II Soldier's 500-Day Odyssey from the Beaches of Sicily to the Gates of Dachau by Alex Kershaw; 4 of 4

 

Saturday 1005P (705P Pacific):  The Blood of Free Men: The Liberation of Paris, 1944 by Michael Neiberg; 1 of 4  “Michael Neiberg’s talents as a scholar and storyteller brilliantly present the complex realities underlying the liberation of Paris in 1944, when the City of Light regained its freedom through the risks and sacrifices of its people. ” Kirkus Reviews“Neiberg’s taut narrative explains how the liberation played out…. An evenhanded, efficient account of one of World War II’s signature moments.”

Saturday 1020P (720P Pacific):  The Blood of Free Men: The Liberation of Paris, 1944 by Michael Neiberg; 2 of 4.  Andrew Roberts, author of The Storm of War “‘Paris will be transformed into a heap of rubble,’ ordered Adolf Hitler in August 1944. The heroic story of how that crime against civilization was prevented is grippingly told in this diligently-researched and extremely well-written book. You can almost hear the bullets ricocheting across the boulevards.”

Saturday 1035P (735P Pacific):  The Blood of Free Men: The Liberation of Paris, 1944 by Michael Neiberg; 3 of 4.  

Booklist  “In his engrossing and stirring narrative, [Neiberg] reveals how the city was liberated through a combination of heroism, ignoble acts, and the machinations of politicians, resistance fighters, and even hardheaded diplomats. Although Neiberg doesn’t avoid the more unsavory aspects of the saga, his descriptions of the courageous acts of ordinary Parisians roused from their slumber make for one of the most remarkable and inspiring episodes of the war.”

Saturday 1050P (750P Pacific):  The Blood of Free Men: The Liberation of Paris, 1944 by Michael Neiberg; 4 of 4

The Malmedy massacre was a war crime in which a hundred American prisoners of war were murdered by their German captors during World War II. The massacre was committed on December 17, 1944, by members of Kampfgruppe Peiper (part of the 1st SS Panzer Division), a German combat unit, during the Battle of the Bulge.   The massacre, as well as others committed by the same unit on the same day and following days, was the subject of the Malmedy massacre trial, part of the Dachau Trials of 1946.

Saturday 1105P (805P Pacific):   Fatal Crossroads: The Untold Story of the Malmedy Massacre at the Battle of the Bulge by Danny S. Parker; 1 of 4.  Kirkus Reviews: “A sharply focused look at a grisly 1944 incident, the massacre of more than 80 American prisoners outside Malmédy, Belgium. Assembling a massive amount of data (the back matter alone consumes more than 120 pages), the author views the tragedy from the perspectives of survivors, the Germans and the Belgian civilians, some of whom aided the wounded, some of whom did not…Comprehensive, definitive, grim and gripping.”

Saturday 1120P (820P Pacific):  Fatal Crossroads: The Untold Story of the Malmedy Massacre at the Battle of the Bulge by Danny S. Parker; 2 of 4 World War II History:   "It was near the village of Malmedy, Belgium on December 17, 1944 that one of the worst atrocities of World War II took place against American soldiers...Historian Danny S. Parker gives a riveting account of that awful winter day from those who miraculously survived the horrendous ordeal."

Saturday 1135P (835P Pacific):   Fatal Crossroads: The Untold Story of the Malmedy Massacre at the Battle of the Bulge by Danny S. Parker; 3 of 4.  "Danny Parker has written the most detailed and reliable account yet of the most notorious atrocity inflicted on U.S. forces in Europe during World War II. Using an impressive array of sources, including interviews with many survivors and witnesses, he has constructed a gripping narrative that is both evocative of the horror of the massacre and restrained and balanced in its conclusions. This is a book that deserves the attention of World War II aficionados."

Saturday 1150P (850P Pacific):  Fatal Crossroads: The Untold Story of the Malmedy Massacre at the Battle of the Bulge by Danny S. Parker; 4 of 4

Saturday/Sun 1205A (905 Pacific):  The Liberator: One World War II Soldier's 500-Day Odyssey from the Beaches of Sicily to the Gates of Dachau by Alex Kershaw; 1 of 4.  From July 10, 1943, the date of the Allied landing in Sicily, to May 8, 1945, when victory in Europe was declared – the entire time it took to liberate Europe – no regiment saw more action, and no single platoon, company, or battalion endured worse, than the ones commanded by Felix Sparks, who had entered the war as a greenhorn second lieutenant of the 157th “Eager for Duty” Infantry Regiment of the 45th “Thunderbird” Division.  Sparks and his fellow Thunderbirds fought longest and hardest to defeat Hitler, often against his most fanatical troops, when the odds on the battlefield were even and the fortunes of the Allies hung in the balance – and when the difference between defeat and victory was a matter of character, not tactics or armor.

Saturday/Sun 1220A (920 Pacific):   The Liberator: One World War II Soldier's 500-Day Odyssey from the Beaches of Sicily to the Gates of Dachau by Alex Kershaw; 2 of 4.  Drawing on extensive interviews with Sparks and dozens of his men, as well as over five years of research in Europe and in archives across the US, historian Alex Kershaw masterfully recounts one of the most inspiring and heroic journeys in military history.  Over the course of four amphibious invasions, Sparks rose from captain to colonel as he battled from the beaches of Sicily through the mountains of Italy and France, ultimately enduring bitter and desperate winter combat against the diehard SS on the Fatherland’s borders.  Though he lost all of his company to save the Allied beach-head at Anzio and an entire battalion in the dark forests of the Vosges, Sparks miraculously survived the long bloody march across Europe and was selected to lead a final charge to Bavaria to hunt down Adolf Hitler.

Saturday/Sun 1235A (935P Pacific): The Liberator: One World War II Soldier's 500-Day Odyssey from the Beaches of Sicily to the Gates of Dachau by Alex Kershaw; 3 of 4

Saturday/Sun 1250A  (950P Pacific):  The Liberator: One World War II Soldier's 500-Day Odyssey from the Beaches of Sicily to the Gates of Dachau by Alex Kershaw; 4 of 4

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Music (using New York City broadcast times)  

9:00 hour:    Valkyrie

10:00 hour:    The Good German

11:00 hour:    Defiance

midnight hour:   The Gray