This large and fine illustrated history of WWII through the participants' eyes is far above the conventional nostalgia piece. Personal accounts cover an amazing variety of experiences: the Blitz and the Battle of the Atlantic as seen through children's eyes; Operation Barbarossa from a German tank officer's point of view; the last fight of the Bismarck
as seen from the British battleship Rodney; and an Australian soldier fighting the Japanese in the swamps of New Guinea. And that just skims the surface. The accounts are remarkably well balanced between American and British, less so between the Atlantic/European theaters and the Pacific. Germany is well represented, Russian and Japan less so. Short sections provide clearly written studies of special topics, such as the Battle of Britain, jet fighters, the Navajo code talkers, and the U.S.'s Japanese internment camps. Even more outstanding is the quantity and quality of the photographs, managing to be comprehensive and comparatively free of overdone chestnuts. On three successive (early) pages one finds wounded civilians in Warsaw; Winston Churchill on the day he became Prime Minister and in a classic bulldog pose; and a British magazine cover of French soldiers in physical training. Such visual riches shine throughout the book, and the finished package (not seen by PW) will include an audio CD of live eyewitness accounts. (Sept.)
