Wine and War
One of the most informative volumes I’ve run across about World War II, one that gives details history books omit, is Wine and War by Don and Petie Kladstrup. (Read about them on the Net.) These 279 pages, with an index, read as movingly as a novel. They tell how the French devoted as much tenacity to saving their vineyards and wine industry as they did to preserving the art treasures of the Louvre. One bit of information is that under the Occupation and with the order to send wine to German troops in Russia, the French sent some of their least desirable wines in their best bottles.
American planes did quite a bit of damage to vineyards in France, when flying at necessarily low altitudes, but as is the American spirit, we helped get those vineyards producing again by even transplants from America.
I had never heard of this book but when I saw it in a store, it had that enticing uniqueness I look for. I loaned it to a man who served in France in World War II and who has made several trips back there since. He enjoyed the reading and the enlightenment by additional facts of the war. And readers certainly learn more about Adolph Hitler. I highly recommend it.
Would this book be interesting enough for a 13 year old boy that is interested in World War II?
ReplyDeleteThe book is highly interesting reading, but I would not advise it for a 13-year-old boy unless he had read quite a bit about the war on an advanced level, several other "grown-up" books about it. Of course, his parents could read it first to make the decision. It's been a while since I read it, but I'm sure it's not rated X or XYZ, whatever they have for ratings of the questionable stuff. Try the library first, look the book over, then sink or swim. The whole family may go swimming.
ReplyDeleteHe has been reading several books on the history of WWII, and is very interested in it. I will look it up and see what information I can find.
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