Resistance Women

Resistance Women by Jennifer Chiaverini 591 pages

This was about a women resistance fighting against Nazi Germany. Highlighting the ordinary people who risked their own lives to fight for injustice during world war two.

The book had a lot of characters, and was sad, but overall an ok read.

Ardennes 1944 by Antony Beevor

Ardennes 1944: The Battle of the Bulge by Antony Beevor -451 pages

Beevor is an English historian who has written a very engaging account of the "Battle of the Bulge." As difficult and drawn-out as the fighting was for U. S. forces, the author demonstrates the battle had far worse consequences for the Germans, (and Belgian civilians). Massacres were carried out by both sides as the fighting became as desperate as that on the eastern front. The higher ranking Allied commanders seemed to have lost touch with the situation at the front lines as the German attack began, but quick reaction by field officers and enlisted men to control the few roads exasperated the Germans. This agonizing episode did benefit the winter advance of the Soviet forces to the east, as Hitler threw away much of his armored reserves in the Ardennes.

The Winter Fortress by Neal Bascomb

The Winter Fortress: The Epic Mission to Sabotage Hitler's Atomic Bomb -378 pages

In Nazi-occupied Norway, the Germans planned to exploit production of "heavy water" at  one of the few plants in the world that produced it in order to use it as a stabilizer in a nuclear reaction. This book follows several brave Norwegians who escaped to Great Britain and volunteered to train as commandos to attempt to destroy the Norsk Hydro facility where the isotope was generated. Hitler ordered any captured commandos to be shot, and the Norwegians also had to contend with ferocious winter weather in the region where their raid was to take place. Bascomb's book is well-written and clearly explains the technicalities of the heavy water isotope. The participants in this operation are considered heroes in Norway, and they clearly deserve that title.