What are you currently reading ?

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

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mmcv

Quote from: Scorpio_Rocks on 19 March 2020, 01:49:47 PM
Thank you sir!
This innocuous link led me to look at more from the incredible Vintage Postmodern Jukebox and ultimately to the masterpiece that is their cover of Creep featuring the vocal talent of Haley Reinhart ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m3lF2qEA2cw ) - dat girl can sing!

They put on a good show if you ever get the chance to see them on tour.

FierceKitty

19 March 2020, 06:18:20 PM #3226 Last Edit: 19 March 2020, 06:20:21 PM by FierceKitty
Quote from: Ithoriel on 19 March 2020, 03:14:16 PM
... or possibly something from this millennium! :)

If I hear anything that doesn't leave me wondering what went wrong, I'll happily puff it.
I don't drink coffee to wake up. I wake up to drink coffee.

fsn

I've just started reading "British Anti-Tank Warfare" by John Plant.

In fact I'm on page 4 and have a question.

"On 29th September 1918 during the battle of the St Quentin Canal, some American crewed tanks were destroyed by an old British minefield. Ten out of the 12 tanks were destroyed. The minefield consisted of 2-inch mortar bombs, each containing 50lbs of ammonal."

2-inch mortar bombs containing 50lb of explosive? Sounds wrong. Can anyone clarify ... or should I just stop reading the book because I can't trust it?

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!

Lord Kermit of Birkenhead

In that case they will have been from a spigot mortar, I think known as the Toffee Apple.
.
FOG IN CHANNEL - EUROPE CUT OFF
Lord Kermit of Birkenhead
Muppet of the year 2019, 2020 and 2021

Ithoriel

21 March 2020, 12:18:35 PM #3229 Last Edit: 21 March 2020, 01:37:55 PM by Ithoriel
From Wikipedia

"The 2 inch medium trench mortar, also known as the 2-inch howitzer, and nicknamed the "toffee apple" or "plum pudding" mortar, was a British smooth bore muzzle loading (SBML) medium trench mortar in use in World War I from mid-1915 to mid-1917. The designation "2-inch" refers to the mortar barrel, into which only the 22-inch bomb shaft but not the bomb itself was inserted; the spherical bomb itself was actually 9 inches (230 mm) in diameter and weighed 42 lb (19 kg), hence this weapon is more comparable to a standard mortar of approximately 5-6 inch bore."

So, 50lbs is a bit of an exaggeration/ rounding up (take your pick) but not outrageously so. EDIT: I suspect they've taken the weight of the whole shell rather than the explosive itself. Sloppy, but understandable.

Apparently, as technology moved on the British used stocks of the, by then obsolete, "toffee apple" mortar bombs as mines but they didn't mark positions particularly well which lead to casualties when they retook the ground late in the war and also lead to the deaths of several French farmers right up into the 1930s.

Keep reading :)
There are 100 types of people in the world, those who understand binary and those who can work from incomplete data

fsn

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!

kipt

Finished Vol 83, No. 4 of "The Journal of Military History".

Articles and book reviews (which is one place I find books I want - 4 this time).

Articles this time include

Determining Early Modern Army Strength: The Case of Electoral Saxony

War as It Might Have Been: British Sea Power and the First World War

"Visionary Battle Scenes": Reading Sir John Hackett's The Third World War, 1977-85.

pierre the shy

Just passing this on as they might have something that interests someone here:

From DBMM io group today:

As many of us are going to be stuck at home for a while, Osprey are releasing up to 5 free eBooks every week.



https://ospreypublishing.com/blog/Free_eBooks_week_1/



Add the PDF or ePub copy to your basket, and when you get to checkout, just put FREEBOOKS1 in the coupon field. The cost will be reduced to £0.


Cheers
Peter
Though much is taken, much abides; and though
we are not now that strength which in old days
moved earth and heaven, that which we are, we are.

fsn

This lockdown just gets better and better!   :D

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!

Lord Kermit of Birkenhead

FOG IN CHANNEL - EUROPE CUT OFF
Lord Kermit of Birkenhead
Muppet of the year 2019, 2020 and 2021

mmcv

That's fantastic, grabbed the lot!

paulr

Quote from: ianrs54 on 26 March 2020, 08:01:32 AM
I cant get it to work....

Make sure you click the Apply Coupon button, I missed it the first time I tried #-o
Lord Lensman of Wellington
2018 Painting Competition - Runner-Up!
2022 Painting Competition - Runner-Up!
2023 Painting Competition - Runner-Up!

Lord Kermit of Birkenhead

FOG IN CHANNEL - EUROPE CUT OFF
Lord Kermit of Birkenhead
Muppet of the year 2019, 2020 and 2021

Shedman

I'm rereading Rising Sun And Tumbling Bear by Richard Connaughton but this time on the Kindle

It's an excellent one volume book on the Russo-Japanese War

As some of you know I have impaired vision after a stroke so I can no longer read printed material such as books.

I contacted the publishers back in October 2019 with regards to publish it as an e-book and they replied that it would get done for February 2020

Anyway it is now available on the Kindle at https://www.amazon.co.uk/Rising-Sun-Tumbling-Bear-PAPERBACKS-ebook/dp/B07YMY9QRK/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=tumbling+bear&qid=1585069682&s=digital-text&sr=1-1

I am now contacting other publishers about issuing various tomes as e-books

Alan

Steve J

Wargaming in History: The Peninsular War by D. Featherstone. Not a bad overview of the tactics of the time and why they developed as they did.