What are you currently reading ?

[Terry37]

Am well into "Operation Zhukov", and am really enjoying it. Not limited to just Germany and Russia, but involves all of Nato. If modern war is of interest, this is a good read, along the lines of Team Yankee, and blends nicely the big picture with the detail (this latter primarily from the British viewpoint so far).

Terry

[kipt]

Finished "The Lessons of History" by Michael Howard.  Great writer and these essays were mainly written when he was the Regius Chair of Modern History at Oxford.

Some of his chapters are:
Prussia in European History
The Edwardian Arms Race
Men Against Fire: The Doctrine of the Offensive in 1914
1945 - End of an Era?
War and Social Change
Military Experience in European Literature

What he says in several of the essays is very relevant now, particularly for our current President - too bad he won't read.

Any way, good book.

[kipt]

Finished "Admirals in Collision" by Richard Hough (of British Battleships fame).

During Victorian times there was a collision between the HMS Victoria and the HMS Camperdown as thry were going to tie up in Tripoli.  Admiral Tryon was commander in the Med in the Victoria and Admiral Markham was his second in the Camperdown.  Tryon was big and bluff but very competent, even brilliant.  Markham was reserved and competent, but not brilliant.

The accident occurred when the Victoria, leading the starboard column, signaled an unusual order for the two columns to turn 16 points (180 degrees) towards each other.  Markham was leading the port column.  The problem was the columns were only 6 cables apart (a cable is approximately 200 yards) and the turning radius of the battleships was a minimum of 4 cables.  The Camperdown cut into the starboard bow of the Victoria which immediately took on water.  Both ships had tried to reverse, but too late.  When the Camperdown did pull back it caused more water to enter and in a short time the Victoria capsized and went down - with Admiral Tryon.

Besides the subsequent court-martial (the second half of the book), there was world wide speculation on Tryon's order as well as the capsizing and sinking of a modern British battleship.  Tryon had been heard by his flag lieutenant to have said "it is all my fault" but whether it was to the order or to expect Markham to know what to do (the port column could have been outside of the starboard column if Markham had not turned so sharply).

However, the only fault found by the court-martial was in Tryon's order.  Markham was not found guilty (important to obey your commander) but the navy quietly set him aside, for which he was forever bitter.  As a matter of interest, John Jellicoe, was on the Victoria as a Commander.  He was sick at the time (Malta fever), but obviously was able to escape the sinking ship.

A quick read and very interesting.

[Westmarcher]

Reminds me of .....
<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=elRWXMZ_A0g" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=elRWXMZ_A0g</a>
p.s. Seriously, an interesting, albeit tragic, story.

[Westmarcher]

Recently finished reading “Achtung Schweinhund!” (or Aching Swine Hound as my auto correct would prefer) by Harry Pearson. Born in 1961, Pearson is a sports journalist, author and one of us, growing up playing with toy soldiers and still doing so. This book is a humorous tale of obsession with comics, glue and plastic kits, Airfix figures, metals and Action Men (GI Joe), etc., interspersed with humour and fascinating snippets regarding the history and aspects of our hobby in general. If you are looking for a light read, humour, nostalgia and more than a modicum of shared experience, I thoroughly recommend you get a hold of this one. Thanks Steve (Holmes) for lending me it. 

[Ithoriel]

I'll second "Achtung Schweinhund!"

[fsn]

Thirded.

[Ithoriel]

I'd also recommend "Wiffle LeverTo Full" by Bob Fischer to those who liked "Achtung Schweinhund!"

[kipt]

Finished volume 2 of "Maritime Operations in the Russo-Japanese War; 1904 - 1905" by Julian S Corbett.

This includes Tsushima; what a disorganized battle that was.  Ships all over the place, multiple destroyer and torpedo boat attacks at night (maybe 3 hits out of 87 or so launches), collisions on both sides.  Almost a free for all.

The book also includes the prior Chinese-Japanese naval war, but not in great detail.  As all of Corbett's writing, an enjoyable read.

[kipt]

Finished "Wars And Soldiers In The Early Reign of Louis XIV: Volume 1 - The Army of the United Provinces of the Netherlands, 1660-1687" by Bruno Mugnai, a Helion book.

I wanted to learn more about this (these) army.  I did but the book jumps about a bit so it was confusing to me - probably as I didn't have much history with the period.  Some labored sentences and bad proofing but a lot of information and good illustrations.

[Steve J]

War Game Campaigns by Featherstone. A very enjoyable read with some great ideas that I hope to use in the future.

[paulr]

Japanese ‘offical’ history of “ The operations of the Navy in the Dutch East Indies and the Bay of Bengal” translated into English by the Dutch Liden university

A fascinating view from ‘the other side of the hill’, lots of detail but a very fragmented style

It can be downloaded here https://openaccess.leidenuniv.nl/handle/1887/65910

Thanks Pierre the Shy, a really great find, I’m on page 280 of 785

[fsn]

War Game Campaigns by Featherstone. A very enjoyable read with some great ideas that I hope to use in the future.

Good man!

[kipt]

Finished "U.S. Aircraft Carriers: An Illustrated Design History" by Norman Friedman with ship plans by A.D. Baker III.

As it says, a design history, so very technical.  But I'm an engineer so enjoyed it.  I did not know that some carriers had catapults on the hanger deck, although I didn't get a sense of how often they were used.  I also didn't know that carriers could steam backwards at 20 knots so planes could land over the bow.  The bow also had arrestor wires so this could be done.  This was not used after 1943 and may have stopped before then.

The book was published in 1983 so no carriers after that date.  Several interesting appendices: Catapults, Arresting Gear, Magazine Loads.  The discussion about trade-offs between air group size, armor, speed, fuel capacity, length (speed and takeoff distance) vs width (going through the Panama Canal and storage) is interesting.

Not a war history, other than how lessons learned from combat were applied.  It goes through the different classes of the US carriers and does talk about lessons learned from the British experience.

[Matt J]

Talking of carriers, was surprised when watching a documentary on our new one, HMS Queen Elizabeth, that the F-35 could not land with a full weapon payload so any weapons not used on mission would have needed to be jettisoned into the sea beforehand, £100,000's of ordinance heading for the sea bed!

Took some test pilots to work out how to do it, would have been a major oversight if not possible!