Forgotten Voices of World War II A New History of World War II in the Words of the Men and Women Who Were There

In order to assemble all the narratives for Forgotten Voices of World War II, editor Max Arthur and his team of researchers were given unlimited access to the complete collection of World War II audiotapes accumulated by the British Imperial War Museum. These are the almost-forgotten voices of an entire generation of civilian and military survivors of some of the most mundaneor horrendousepisodes of the war. Their simple, often rough words cut straight to the heart. As Able Seaman Bob Tilburn tells us: We were on three separate little rafts. . . I actually tried to go to sleep on this thing that was tossing up and down. I thought, if I'm going to die, I might as well die in my sleep. And then Dundas shouted, "What's that?" and I woke up a bit and looked behind me, and there was this destroyer coming, the Electra. What a beautiful sight. Then it went straight past us. Tilburn, Dundas, and their fellow sailor Briggs were the only survivors of the sinking of the HMS Hood by the Bismarck, while 1,415 of their comrades went down. Tilburn's narrative, and those of thousands of othersAmericans, Australians, British, Canadians, French, Germans, Japanese, Russians, and moregive us an unvarnished picture of the true cost of war for its survivors, as well as an incomparable tribute to the many who did not make it.Arthur, Max is the author of 'Forgotten Voices of World War II A New History of World War II in the Words of the Men and Women Who Were There', published 2004 under ISBN 9781592285860 and ISBN 1592285864.