What are you currently reading ?

Started by goat major, 03 November 2012, 06:40:05 PM

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Raider4

About halfway though 'Small Unit Actions during the German campaign in Russia'.

Published by the US Army in the early 50's, it's a collection of AAR from the German point-of-view about fighting the Soviets. Presumably so that US officers can get a handle on the way the Russkies might fight in the event of the Cold War warming up.

Must say, it's very interesting reading so far. Some terrific potential scenarios in there. A lone Soviet tank holding up a German advance for almost 48 hours. A German dash for a couple of bridges before the Soviets can blow them up, using captured Soviet trucks as a disguise. A Soviet attack across open ground against prepared German defences, with the unarmed third wave of troops expected to pick up weapons from the dead of the first two waves, and Soviet political officers shooting anyone who retreats (think opening battle of Enemy at the Gates). Etc, etc.

Available in PDF format in five parts from here.

I'd suggest anyone starting up WW2 using Blitzkrieg Commander IV have a good read of this.

steve_holmes_11

Plato's Republic.

Parts of it have aged well - in the sense that we see the same ideas being served up as fresh today.
I find Plato's exposition of the "Socratic Method" - "Ahh so if you prefer [Thing A] then you must be a supporter of [Terrible thing that nobody would countenance]", very tiresome.

It is however an interesting read, and always difficult to discern how much of the annoying dialogue has been fluffed up by the translator.
As with Elvis, I'm willing to cut these guys some slack as they were pioneers in their field.

FierceKitty

It was with Plato that I first concluded (and I stand by the opinion four decades later) that most philosophers were just squabbling about the meanings of words, and needed a good dictionary and a course of linguistics, not a symposium.
I don't drink coffee to wake up. I wake up to drink coffee.

fsn

Still on the Peter Scott book.

It's not often military history books make me laugh out loud but ...

"... but this time they saw us at about a mile and kept up a fairly accurate fire for about 10 minutes which left us feeling rather exhausted but with only superficial damage. This seemed like a good moment for a cup of tea."

"... before Peter Liddell ... said over the radio in a resigned tone of voice that he could now see the enemy pretty well on the whole, and he didn't know whether anyone else could, or indeed whether we were at all interested, but if we were, the enemy was bearing Red thirty.* This, I may say was quite a normal occurrence in the 13th Flotilla."

Fantastic book. I didn't realise that US PT boats were engaged in the Channel after D-Day.




*I hear this in a Marvin, the Paranoid Android voice.

Lord Oik of Runcorn (You may refer to me as Milord Oik)

Oik of the Year 2013, 2014; Prize for originality and 'having a go, bless him', 2015
3 votes in the 2016 Painting Competition!; 2017-2019 The Wilderness years
Oik of the Year 2020; 7 votes in the 2021 Painting Competition
11 votes in the 2022 Painting Competition (Double figures!)
2023 - the year of Gerald:
2024 Painting Competition - Runner-Up!

DaveL

The new Osprey book, Macedonian Phalangite versus Persian Warrior.
A nicely presented book, but it has caused me (and others on another forum) a lot of confusion.

This is because the Persian Warrior is shown with the early Achamenid large rectangular shield (spara) instead of what I'd expected to see - namely a crescent shield. I was under the impression that the rectangular shield had long since disappeared before Alexander's time.

Battle details and battle summaries look ok at a quick glance

Fenton

Just received Saga 2 and Age of Magic. Rulebook is really well laid out and probably and  the best written I've read in a while as us the Age of Magic supplement


Will of course be using 10mm for the project
If I were creating Pendraken I wouldn't mess about with Romans and  Mongols  I would have started with Centurions , eight o'clock, Day One!

steve_holmes_11

Quote from: FierceKitty on 19 May 2019, 01:40:57 PM
It was with Plato that I first concluded (and I stand by the opinion four decades later) that most philosophers were just squabbling about the meanings of words, and needed a good dictionary and a course of linguistics, not a symposium.

Yeah, but who's going to object to a free piss-up.

50 pages in and I suspect I'd have voted for the hemlock.


Perhaps it was an original ideal at the time, but "Hello I'm a [Insert career choice here/Philosopher] - the ruler must be a [Insert career choice here/Philosopher]" has some fascinating echoes throughout the ages.

* Wealthy Roman with a Greek education.
* Germanic Warlord.
* Italian Cardinal.
* Norman Genocidist.

Plenty of more recent and controversial examples.

FierceKitty

I'd be risking my liberty if I spoke indiscreetly about my country of residence, which is a pity, since there's much that could be said.
I don't drink coffee to wake up. I wake up to drink coffee.

kipt

Finished Vol. 83, No. 1 of "The Journal of Military History".

Articles include:
There is Power in a Cohort: Development of Warfare in Iron Age to Early Medieval Scandinavia

The Battle of Ain al-Mallaba, 19 June 1157

Guibert vs. Guibert: Competing Notions in the "Essai general de tactique" and the "Defense du Systeme de guerre moderne"

The Great Silence of Robert E. Lee

as well as several others and many pages of book reviews.  The Journal comes out quarterly.


kipt

Finished "Europe's Steppe Frontier, 1500-1800" by William H. McNeill.  Five chapters:
Chapter One, Introduction
Chapter Two, Ottoman Advance to 1570
Chapter Three, Time of Troubles, 1570-1650
Chapter Four, The Victory of Bureaucratic Empire, 1650-1740
Chapter Five, The Closure of the Frontier, 1740-1800

and then a bibliographical essay, discussing his sources.

This is a scholarly work and more of a sociological theses, giving the history and interplay of the areas (essentially what became Austria, Russia and the Ottoman Empire).  Backgrounds for the wars over the time periods, but no discussion of same.  Not my normal read, but informative.

Duke Speedy of Leighton

Finally started 'Like Hungry Wolves: Culloden Moor 16th April 1746' by Stuart Reid, via Ithorial.  :D
Must be half term...
You may refer to me as: Your Grace, Duke Speedy of Leighton.
2016 Pendraken Painting Competion Participation Prize  (Lucky Dip Catagory) Winner

Ithoriel

Glad it's finally getting an airing :)
There are 100 types of people in the world, those who understand binary and those who can work from incomplete data

mollinary

2021 Painting Competition - Winner!
2022 Painting Competition - 2 x Runner-Up!

kipt

Finished "The Principles of War" by General Ferdinand Foch.  this one printed 1918.  Foch's lectures to the French war college prior to WWI.  Some great discussions of Saalfield and Nachod.  The book references 9 maps, none of which are unfortunately in this translation.  Would have been nice.

It ends with his description of the modern battle, which, during WWI unfortunately ran up against barbed wire and machine guns.  C'est la guerre...

Still enjoyed the battle discussions as he breaks them down to individual units and actions.

John Cook

Quote from: mad lemmey on 30 May 2019, 05:37:05 PM
Finally started 'Like Hungry Wolves: Culloden Moor 16th April 1746' by Stuart Reid, via Ithorial.  :D
Must be half term...

When you've finished it, have a look at 'The Myth pf the Jacobite Clans - The Jacobite Army in 1745' by Murray Pittock.