Review of "Unexplained Mysteries of World War II," by William B. Breuer

 Review of

Unexplained Mysteries of World War II, by William B. Breuer ISBN 9780785822530

Four out of five stars

Overstated title, good information

 The title of this book is clearly overstated. From the statement it appears that the stories in this book will be bizarre occurrences that seem to have no rational explanation. However, many of the short stories are based on coincidence. Given the fog of war, where thousands of men and their machines go missing without a trace, there will always be events where there is imprecise knowledge of the outcome.

 Approximately 16 million Americans served in the armed forces during World War II, so the are tens of millions of possible coincidental happenings. Therefore, while an individual instance might generate some surprise, the fact that many will happen should not. Furthermore, while some of the events can be considered strange, they were the consequence of a deliberate and knowledgeable choices of the participants.

 That aside, these short stories remain interesting. They are short descriptions of events that happened during the war. Some of them are statements of great bravery against great odds while others are just the consequences of what war on the ground is all about. Fighting and killing the other side before they do it to you.

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