Thank you Pteranadon for your valuable opinion.
As a young squaddie I bought both of the first two volumes of, Hitlers War on Russia, late 60's early 70's for edition two. The third volume was never published, but I would have been in BAOR by it's expected due date.
A couple of years ago I tried to buy old copies but silly prices where asked.
Strangely I can remember parts of what I read back then, yesterday and five mins ago are a mystery to me, getting old I will suggest.
Spin Doctors where not a known to factor to a young man back then and I do consider the books to be well written with extensive bibliography.
Still we live and learn.
john
John,
No problem. I have enjoyed reading his books. (I used to buy Landser occasionally as well when in BAOR) It is just when I think about the accuracy of , say, the dialogue he reports between German soldiers on Omaha beach that the alarm bells start to ring. He was a journo writing copy with more interest in telling a good yarn in the service of the Fuehrer than in the truth.
You raised a bigger point in the original post about the defence of Singapore. I don't think Singapore fell for want of ground troops. The key element was control of the air. In 1941 RAF Fighter Command adopted a policy of "Leaning into France". This was a replay in reverse of the Battle of Britain, but with the odds in the Germans favour. The RAF convinced themselves that they were winning an attrition battle with the Luftwaffe which, in fact they were losing 2-3:1 in aircraft and 6:1 in pilots. The aircrew included many of the survivors of the Battle of Britain, such as Stanford Tuck and Bader, both shot down before Singapore fell. Had the 450 modern fighter and bomber aircraft and crews lost over France in 1941 been available in Malaya in December 1941 there would have been no loss of Singapore nor of the capital ships of Force Z. The Japanese would have had a very bloody nose, and Britain would not have been humiliated in front of its Asian subjects.
In fact there is a damned good chance that these corners of the world would still be part of the British Empire.