What are you currently reading ?

[Steve J]

The subtitle is 'The half-forgotten history of Europe'. In a nutshell he takes a look at oft forgotten kingdoms that existed in history that today have largely been forgotten about, as they became swallowed up by larger Nations etc.

[kipt]

Finished "The Darkest Hour: Volume 2: The Japanese Offensive in the Indian Ocean 1942 - The Attack against Ceylon and the Eastern Fleet" by Michal A. Piegzik.  the title says it all.  Lots of pictures, maps, airplane colors, etc.

Very interesting.  I read Volume 1 some time ago.

[fred.]

The subtitle is 'The half-forgotten history of Europe'. In a nutshell he takes a look at oft forgotten kingdoms that existed in history that today have largely been forgotten about, as they became swallowed up by larger Nations etc.

How are you getting on with it? I started a few years back, and put it down. In part as it was quite heavy going and in part because it was just quite heavy. Neither of which made it a great bed time read. But I do keep seeing on the book shelf - not least due to it being about 4" thick!

[Elliesdad]

Vanished Kingdoms by Norman Davies.

FWIW - you might also want to try:

An Atlas of Extinct Countries: The Remarkable (and Occasionally Ridiculous) Stories of 48 Nations that Fell off the Map by Gideon Defoe.

An Atlas of Countries That Don't Exist: A Compendium of Fifty Unrecognized and Largely Unnoticed States by Nick Middleton.

Nowherelands: An Atlas of Vanished Countries 1840-1975 by Bjørn Berge.

Cheers,

Geoff

[Steve J]

I'm enjoying it Fred, but have only just started and dip in and out of it during the day and at night.

Geoff, thanks for those recommendations, all of which sound very, very tempting!

[Heedless Horseman]

WW1 air novel. 'Winged Victory'. V M Yeates. Classic tale of Sopwith Camel pilot, combat and disintegration.
LOL! Some editions have SE5 on cover! Read several times.

[pierre the shy]

Finished "The Darkest Hour: Volume 2: The Japanese Offensive in the Indian Ocean 1942 - The Attack against Ceylon and the Eastern Fleet" by Michal A. Piegzik.  the title says it all.  Lots of pictures, maps, airplane colors, etc.

Very interesting.  I read Volume 1 some time ago.

OK these could definitely be worth a look.....Its a very interesting campaign which I have gamed previously: https://betweenthelines10mm.blogspot.com/2021/01/operation-c-japanese-carrier-raid-on.html

Considering that the IJN was near the top of its game in April 1942 Sommerville did a pretty good job of keeping most of his fleet intact.

 

 

[hammurabi70]

OK these could definitely be worth a look.....Its a very interesting campaign which I have gamed previously: https://betweenthelines10mm.blogspot.com/2021/01/operation-c-japanese-carrier-raid-on.html

Considering that the IJN was near the top of its game in April 1942 Sommerville did a pretty good job of keeping most of his fleet intact.

Yes.  What would be really interesting to know, as alt-history, is what would have happened if Somerville's attempt to ambush the Japanese Carrier raid on Ceylon through a night air attack had resulted in a battle and what conclusions the Japanese would have had, whatever the outcome, as another piece of evidence of a security breach became evident. Would the British have been overwhelmed or would they have got a sneak attack in first that put half the Japanese carriers at the bottom of the ocean before they realised what hit them.  What would the ramifications have been for the Coral Sea, Midway and the Aleutians?

[FierceKitty]

How are you getting on with it? I started a few years back, and put it down. In part as it was quite heavy going and in part because it was just quite heavy. Neither of which made it a great bed time read. But I do keep seeing on the book shelf - not least due to it being about 4" thick!

A problem that doesn't get the attention it should. Heavy volumes and low evening energy levels are an uncomfortable combination.

[pierre the shy]

Yes.  What would be really interesting to know, as alt-history, is what would have happened if Somerville's attempt to ambush the Japanese Carrier raid on Ceylon through a night air attack had resulted in a battle and what conclusions the Japanese would have had, whatever the outcome, as another piece of evidence of a security breach became evident. Would the British have been overwhelmed or would they have got a sneak attack in first that put half the Japanese carriers at the bottom of the ocean before they realised what hit them.  What would the ramifications have been for the Coral Sea, Midway and the Aleutians?

Have a look at this article about Operation C which talks about the above scenario: https://www.armouredcarriers.com/battle-for-ceylon-hms-indomitable-formidable

Its a really good site that goes into painstaking detail about British (mainly armoured) carrier design and operations.  

[fred.]

A problem that doesn't get the attention it should. Heavy volumes and low evening energy levels are an uncomfortable combination.

Glad its not just me! I have largely moved to ebooks for fiction (on iPad or iPhone) but for non-fiction I still tend to prefer paper. 

[Ithoriel]

I've finished "Ancient Egyptian Warfare: Tactics, Weaponry and Ideology of the Pharaohs" by Ian Shaw and have found it fascinating. Nice to find any work about Ancient Egypt that doesn't start with the New Kingdom, especially a military history one. A very useful background.

[kipt]

Good article.  Thanks for posting.

[John Cook]

The subtitle is 'The half-forgotten history of Europe'. In a nutshell he takes a look at oft forgotten kingdoms that existed in history that today have largely been forgotten about, as they became swallowed up by larger Nations etc.

Thanks for that.  Was it a 'good read'? 

[Steve J]

So far I'm enjoying it John, but then I'm always a sucker for snippets of history, bits on info etc that I wasn't aware of.

[kipt]

Finished an Osprey "Lincoln's 90-Day Volunteers 1861" by Ron Field and illustrated by Adam Hook.

Typical Osprey and if I was to do ACW at the skirmish level there would be some very interesting uniforms to paint.  But I won't.

Still liked it.

[kipt]

And finished another Osprey, "Flags of the Civil war (1) Confederate" by Philip Katcher and illustrated by Rick Sollins.  Good history of the flags of the Confederacy and battle flags.

[kipt]

Finished a most interesting book, The Blind Strategist: John Boyd And The American Art Of War" by Stephen Robinson, who is an officer in the Australian Army Reserve and an author of other WWII books.

The author starts with a description of the O-O-D-A loop and how Boyd developed this from fighter tactics.  Boyd then wanted to expand it to show that it was the key to victory even in ground warfare.  He, and his acolytes, used the writings of Liddell-Hart and the writings of the German Generals after WWII.

However, this thesis says that Liddell-Hart, trying to regain his influence after saying that defense would stop the Germans at the start of WWII, went through gyrations to show that the Germans took his previous writings and essentially were his pupils.  The German Generals, after the war, were eager to maintain the professionalism of the German officer corps and to distance their failures by blaming Hitler, as well as t cast all the atrocities blame onto the Nazis, rather than the Wehrmacht.

The author refutes both the Liddell-Hart and the German recast of history.

He goes through the various army FM 100-5's and the Marines Warfighting manual and the US generals that wrote and influenced them as part of his discussion of "Maneuver Warfare".

His conclusion is that Boyd and his students, were mislead by the wrongly written history, but did not want to dispute it, even though there were others, including some of the German Generals, who said it was wrong.

Thought provoking and while I don't totally agree with some of the author's arguments, it was very well done.  Boyd was an interesting person and I recommend this book and others about him; I have at least two others.

[John Cook]

"The Blind Strategist: John Boyd And The American Art Of War" by Stephen Robinson

Thanks for that.  Very interesting.  The OODA Loop has always struck me as a 'knock-off' one of a number of similar decision making cycles, like the Intelligence Cycle used in the military and business, to mention just one of many, rather than something new and original.

[kipt]

Finished "The Cornfield: Antietam's Bloody Turning Point" by David A. Welker.  A very good book, obviously Cornfield-centric.  It describes the various and many combats in the Cornfield and the disruption in the North and South regiments.  It has a lot of maps with each on a specific part of the action but only showing those units involved.  This I don't really like because other units are left off to make the action clearer.  I needed to refer to other books (maps) to see who was where, when.

The author has an interesting take on McClellan, who in my opinion would have done better as a chief of staff, but needing a very strong commander over him.  The author says of McClellan, "A man possessed of a great intellect who was deliberate and calculating, but who was unable to innovate or to think and cat outside of his preselected linear approach."  He had trouble reacting to changes on the field of battle.

Very interesting view of the Battle of Antietam.