What are you currently reading ?

[kipt]

And finished "Craven's War: Against All Odds", book 3 by Nick S Thomas.  After Talavera Craven is given a task to take an arms convoy across Spain, creating havoc, to supply the guerillas with arms.  Then when he gets to the coast in Northern Spain, pick up an arms shipment and return. Little fights and description of swordplay (as well as descriptions of the swords.

Not planning to get any more of these.  Ok but not gripping.

[kipt]

Finished "Motivation In War: The Experience of Common Soldiers in Old-Regime Europe" by Ilya Berkovich.

An interesting book with many first person examples of common soldiers.  It tends to refute the thinking that common soldiers were not patriotic and were only ruled (disciplined/sent into battle/prevented of deserting) by draconian measures.  As more time has gone by more first person accounts of private soldiers have been found and explored, leading to realizing soldiers then (early to late 1700's, early 1800's) had similar motivations to soldiers later.  Not much difference between old regime and French revolutionary soldiers according to the book.

There is honor, patriotism, allegiance to king and country and to mess mates, all shown in the narrative.

[petedavies]

"Tank Men" by Robert Kershaw.

I am enjoying it a lot, and also finding it useful food for thought. It has some issues which I won't go into here – as a summary I tend to agree with most of the 3 & 4 star reviews on Amazon and think the 1 and 2 star reviews are unfair.

2 points in particular stand out:

1) I can't shake the feeling that no set of rules I have seen in the past 40 years capture anything like what I'm reading (although the more abstracted approach in BKC comes closest to some of it). Maybe there is something that could be done to address that... but given my second point maybe that's not a bug but a feature!

2) There is some very grim stuff indeed described – it does give me pause to think about why I have been obsessed with tanks and tank warfare ever since I built my first Airfix kit...

[kipt]

Finished "Brute: The Life f Victor Krulak, U.S.Marine" by Robert Coram.  This is a well written book.  Krulak was only 5'-4" and got his nickname when he was at Annapolis.  He liked it (it fit his personality) so kept using it.  He retired as a LTG but did not get to be Commandant of the Marines, having ticked off LBJ by telling him LBJ's Vietnam scenario was getting people killed and would not win the war, as well as he said LBJ would lose the next Presidential election.

Krulak was instrumental in the development of the Higgins boat through working with Higgins.  Krulak had been in China when the Japanese attacked China and landed at Shanghai.  He chartered a boat, went to watch the landing and and personally sketched and took pictures of the Japanese landing craft.  He was very up to date on all the marine tactics for amphibious landings and was very wary of the army and navy attempts to curtail the Marine Corps.  Truman was also against an expanded Maine Corps and said they were only the Navy's policemen.

Krulak was involved in the banana wars, WWII, Korea and Vietnam. He also was one of the first to utilize the helicopter for assault landings.  He had three sons, two in the Marines and one who washed out of boot camp and became a priest.  That son, his oldest, eventually became a Navy chaplain with the Marines. One of his sons did become Commandant.

[fred.]

"Tank Men" by Robert Kershaw.


1) I can't shake the feeling that no set of rules I have seen in the past 40 years capture anything like what I'm reading (although the more abstracted approach in BKC comes closest to some of it). Maybe there is something that could be done to address that... but given my second point maybe that's not a bug but a feature!

It's a while since I read this book - which bit of what the book describes, do you feel rules fail to pick up?


In my view most rules make tanks too good as they focus on the hard technical stats, and tend to fail to account for the practical issues and the crew - and the challenges of the crew interacting with the hardware. 

[kipt]

Finished a little booklet "Civil War Small Arms" an NRA American Rifleman reprint which looks as though it was done ion the 1950's.

Union revolvers, with pictures, number manufactured and factory location.  A small article on John Brown's Colt revolver.  A short piece on explosive bullets, an article of carbines and two articles by Jac Weller. In these articles in fires the various Confederate shoulder arms to test their accuracy.  I remember buying and really appreciating his books on Wellington in India, the Peninsula and Waterloo.  At the time (early to mid 60's) they were very informative. 

[hammurabi70]

The Persians? 

Just bought it on your recommendation

Hah! So what did you think of it?

I prefer to use the library service for reading copies.

[flamingpig0]

Hah! So what did you think of it?

I prefer to use the library service for reading copies.

Got it on kindle
I found it a bit of a hard read but thought the general conclusions sound. A good recommendation.

[kipt]

Finished "Cruisers of World War Two: An International Encyclopedia" by M. J. Whitley.

Just as it says, all cruisers in the world during WWII; many photos and deck plans.  Got me to pull out my 1:2400 ships to see how many I needed to paint still (a bunch).  But not yet.

[steve_holmes_11]

Returning to Rebels and Patriots (Osprey Games).

[kipt]

Finished "Decisions Of The Seven Days: the Sixteen Critical Decisions That Defined the Battles" by Matt Spruill.  Interesting in the author's pick of the decisions by the various generals and leaders - Davis, Lee, Jackson, Halleck, Lincoln, McClellan and others.  Maps and quotes form the Official Records.

The author, a retired US Army colonel, has written several other "Decision" books on the ACW.  Recommended if you are interested in the seven Days battles.

[Steve J]

Hail Caesar 2nd Edition. Just a quick flick through so far, but it looks very good and is nicely laid out. So far I spotted that the Break test table for Close Combat is different in the main book compared to the QRS and Run Through section at the end . Other than this minor but annoying issue, very happy with my purchase.

[fred.]

So what does HC2 bring to the table over v1? 

[Steve J]

From what I've gleaned so far Fred is that there has been clarification and simplification on some areas of the rules, the rules for terrain have been expanded, the rules cover up the the War of the Roses rather than stopping c1250AD and sort of siege rlated rules added too.

The army lists have all but gone, bar a good WotR section and a simple Roman and Gaul guide, with the aim being the you buy the relevant supplement. Not a problem for me as I will be doing a sort of ImagiNations appraoch for the time being. No battle reports either but I can't remember if the original rules had them in or not as I sold my copy years ago.

Hope this helps?

[kipt]

Finished "General Sterling Price And The Civil War In The West" by Albert Castel. Price was a charismatic leader in Missouri, but initially did not want to secede.  This earned him the doubts of other Confederate leaders, including Jefferson Davis.

Price's overriding ambition was to free Missouri from the Yankee hordes.  However, he really never got a good chance nor the troops to do so.  In addition he wasn't a very good general, even though his Missouri troops adored him.

After the war he went to Mexico, along with other Confederate leaders and generals.  He returned to Missouri in 1867, but died shortly after his return.

[kipt]

Finished "The Lion of The South: General Thomas C. Hindman" by Diane ward and Thomas W. Kremm.  Hindman, like Price, was a Western (west of the Mississippi) man, from Arkansas.  He was short, but a great orator.  Because of his skills and his almost rabid devotion to the South and its "peculiar" institution, he raised a regiment but was rapidly promoted.

He had an aptitude for war and was aggressive.  He, like others, left the US after the war and went to Mexico, but eventually returned.  He was later assassinated in his living room while reading a newspaper by someone firing through the window.  No one was ever caught but there were suspicions that it had been done by the Republicans, as Hindman constantly opposed their politics and carpet bagging in Arkansas.

More engaging than the book on Price that I reviewed above.

[kipt]

Just reread "The Battle Of New Market: Shenandoah Valley, May 1864: battleground of two great armies - and 258 young V.M.I. cadets" by William C. Davis.  Good book, tactical with OB's and maps.  I reread this because we are setting up the battle this weekend (pictures of the battlefield sometime next week) and fighting the battle on Feb 25 - which will also generate the Batrep and more pictures.

[kipt]

Finished "The Journal of Military History" Vol. 86, No. 3.  Published 4 times a year it includes 5 or 6 main articles and, in this volume, 69 pages of book reviews.

Articles in this volume are:

Celebrating "Bloodless Victories" in the Roman World,
Husbands, Sons, Brothers, and Neighbors: Eighteenth-Century Soldiers Efforts to Maintain Civilian Ties,
The Royal Navy's Psyche on Lake Ontario: A British Experiment with Prefabricated Warships in the War of 1812,

and 3 others.

always interesting articles.

[toxicpixie]

"Tank Men" by Robert Kershaw.

I am enjoying it a lot, and also finding it useful food for thought. It has some issues which I won't go into here – as a summary I tend to agree with most of the 3 & 4 star reviews on Amazon and think the 1 and 2 star reviews are unfair.

2 points in particular stand out:

1) I can't shake the feeling that no set of rules I have seen in the past 40 years capture anything like what I'm reading (although the more abstracted approach in BKC comes closest to some of it). Maybe there is something that could be done to address that... but given my second point maybe that's not a bug but a feature!

2) There is some very grim stuff indeed described – it does give me pause to think about why I have been obsessed with tanks and tank warfare ever since I built my first Airfix kit...

I really enjoyed that - good book, and the heavy focus on the men driving the machine and on "soft stats" is excellent - I think the 1 & 2 star reviews are from Panther apologists unhappy their tank & crews's are assessed fairly

[Steve J]

Redcoat by Richard Holmes. All about the British soldier during the age of Black Powder, but really covering mid 18thC to the Crimea. An excellent read and lots of titbits of info.