Men of WW II: Fighting Men at Ease Hardcover – April 1, 2007

I had wanted to add this to my collection for some time. The provider was Kazoo books. They really shipped this out to me in great condition and took extra care to protect it so I received it undamaged.

Great collection of historic and unique works of art

I ordered this book concurrent with Bachner's first book of what I hope will be a larger series, At Ease: Navy Men of World War II and am so glad I did. If you finished that volume and wanted it to go on for another 160 pages, that's what this is. Quality, subjects, etc. equal to the first volume. The images are really charming and sweet - these were beautiful, brave boys - heroes all of them and the photos the author selected are well chosen. as with Navy Men, I'm charmed by how many of the fellows are pictured reading, and the little personal details that show up in these sharp photos, such as many of the boys are wearing their class rings, ID bracelets, wedding rings, watches, etc. Highly recommend.

The subjects rarely look like they are posing. It seems to be white American navy men and navy pilots at sea but mostly on shore in the South Pacific. It seems fairly complete as to relaxation activities from suntanning, calisthetics on the deck and card games to swimming, theatre performances and showering showing a few backsides, but also deck and weapons maintenance and flight readiness. No battle photographs. You get an idea of the cameradery in their downtime. I didn't find it as striking as another book in the same series and a few of the same photos as the earlier book, like maybe two or three. But maybe you get a fairly decent depiction of time spent mostly on shore but no contact shown with island natives- I wonder how accurate that was! A modestly pleasant book- no text except at front and back.

I finally decided to buy a copy of this book. The men are beautiful. Fighting men in their prime and many of them never made it home. The camaraderie and sense of belonging come across in these photos. All they had was each other. They swept differences aside and did the job at hand. I see something new every time I look at it.Very fast delivery and the book is in great shape. I would definitely buy from this seller again.

Arrived so fast and the book was awesome! It is so cute to see the time back them~I would definitely recommed to this book!~~~~~~~~~

Pictures taken by the Naval Aviation Photographic Unit capture the fighting men during their time of just being men who are away from home and loved ones. Men who form bonds of friendship while putting their lives on the line for their country. The majority of the shots taken were of the men during their own time. Experiencing what ease and down time they could get. A great montage of men relaxing together, playing, exercizing, taking their meals. A wonderful collection of photos showing the individuals dealing with their circumstances in the best way they could.This book as well as it's predecesor AT EASE are wonderful books.

My partner and I had just watched BAND OF BROTHERS & THE PACIFIC series by HBO ,so we were wondering about the gay feeling aroundethe times of the WWII, so we purchased this book . I was amazed with the pictures that show this brotherhood between them , it almost make you feel uncomfortable not because they are sexual , but because they are so innocent and sweet at times . It's almost sad since you do not know how many of this soldiers made it . You have just this fragment of time put on paper (picture) wich represents that specific moment in time were they were at ease and that the last thing they were thinking is who was going to be killed next or if you were going to see the face of your next victim.

The human side of military service. Great book!

It's bitter-sweet going through this book with the knowledge that most of the guys featured are dead, either of old age or in the war. I wish that there were a lot more books out there like this that would immortalise the huge amount of photos out there like this. Hopefully more of these books will pop up into print. Excellent quality reproduction of the photos. Worth every penny.

I enjoyed this, theres something rather moving about looking into the eyes of men who must surely be dead by now when they were young and vibrant and full of life- despite the death all around them. Not so much erotic as enchanting. its a BIG book mind, doesnt fit on any shelf in my house