What are you currently reading ?

[Steve J]

A few books finished recently. Firstly '1945' by Peter Caddick-Adams, focusing on the NWE front rather than the more familiar Eastern one. A brilliant book, full of lots of detail and snippets of info I'd never heard of before. It certainly reinforces my view that it is not a period that offers much for the gamer.

Then 'A Wargamer's Guide to the Crusades' by Ian Heath. A real gem of a book that provides a succint overview of this period. Perfect background info for a potential Lion Rampant II series of games and forces.

[kipt]

Finished "British Pacific Fleet 1944-45: The Royal Navy in the Downfall of Japan" by Brian Lane Herder, illustrated by Paul Wright.

A good history of the latter part of the Pacific War when the British sent a fleet to work with the US (who did not always want them due to different supply methods and also did not want to share the "glory" of defeating Japan).  However, Halsey came to appreciated them.

Good descriptions of the areas involved as well as the ships and commanders.

[kipt]

Finished a fantastic book, "A World on Fire: Britain's Crucial Role In The American Civil War" by Amanda Foreman.

Political action, volunteering for both the North and the South by British officers, Irish workmen, younger sons, blockade runners, Frenchmen, commissioners both North and South buying warlike materials form Britain and France, all very well explained.

The south thought that "King Cotton" would mean Britain HAD to break the blockade, but the government wanted to remain neutral.  Seward plays a big part both antagonizing and calming the British Consul, Lord Lyons.  The American consul from the north in Britain was Charles Adams, who went though the same emotional roller coaster as did Lord Lyons.

The book is long, 807 pages with 104 pages of end notes.   It was one of the 10 Best Books in 2011 in the New York Times Book Review.  Highly recommended.

[kipt]

Finished "Leavenworth Papers No. 12; Seek, Strike, and Destroy: U.S. Army Tank Destroyer Doctrine in World War II" by Dr. Christopher R. Gabel.

A history of the TD and the various doctrines that were proposed to show the need for a TD.  In actual combat doctrine was not followed.  However, the TD in its various forms carried a bigger gun than the Sherman, so was welcomed in the front lines.

Doctrine had proposed a maneuvering mass of TD's to blunt the German Blitzkrieg of masses of tanks.  However, the Germans used combined arms and not so many tanks at once (other than some in Africa and the Ardennes offensive).

All in all, a waste of resources when Ordnance should have mounted a larger gun in the tank (as eventually happened).

[fred.]

You get through a lot of books, kipt!

Given the overall rapid development of tanks in WWII, and the constant need to put bigger guns on existing hulls (examples by most protagonists) do you think that the US TDs where a practical way of getting heavier mobile guns in the field, even if the overall doctarine behind them was flawed?

It generally seems to have been harder to get heavier guns in a fully armoured turret - eg PzIV managed to get to 75mm L/48 in a turret, but in SPG guns they got 75mm L/70 in armoured superstructure and 88mm in open superstructure. 

[kipt]

Heavier guns in TD's were a great help to the PBI on the front lines.  Doctrine called for TD's to be massed at company, battalion or greater.  Battalions were almost permanently assigned to divisions but never used en masse.  Companies assigned to RCT, platoons to battalions and so on down.

I usually have 2, sometimes 3 books going at once.  I have a large library.

[fsn]

I don't know if "reading" is the right word. It implies starting at the beginning, then going to the end when you stop. However, with "The British Army against Napoleon: Facts Lists and Trivia" you get what it says on the cover.

I am gratified to learn that shipping costs from Plymouth to the Peninsula was a mere 1s 0d for up to 250lb, that only 1% of hospital entrants in the Peninsula were suffering from wounds, and that whereas the garrison of the Leeward Islands was 10,500, only 8,000 were deemed necessary to protect Canada and Nova Scotia. 

This is my kind of book!

[kipt]

Finished "Pacific Air: How Fearless Flyboys, Peerless Aircraft, And Fast Flattops Conquered The Skies In The War With Japan" by David Sears.

Similar to the other book I read a bit ago on the fighter pilots in the Pacific.  This has information on the companies that made the planes, primarily Grumman.  Individuals snapshots of US pilots and quite a bit on Saburo Sakai, Japanese Ace.

Very good read.

[kipt]

Finished "The Union Soldier In Battle: Enduring The Ordeal Of Combat" by Earl J. Hess.

Discusses the motivation to enlist, support from the home front, the experience of the first combat, defining courage, holding on, the psychology of the battle line and memories.  Quotes from letters, diaries and newspaper articles.

Interesting look into how and why the soldiers fought, endured and their patriotism.

[T13A]

Hi

'The Making of Oliver Cromwell' by Ronald Hutton, the first volume of a planned three volume biography of Cromwell (I think the second volume was published in August).
Excellent read and particularly good at separating the 'facts' and the 'fiction' (or at least what some other historians have assumed) regarding Cromwell's life up until just after the end of the first civil war (1647). Hutton really brings out the seeming contradictions of Cromwell's character.

Cheers Paul

[kipt]

Finished "The Atlanta Campaign: Volume 1: Dalton to Cassville, May 1-19, 1864" by David A. Powell.

This is the history of the start of Sherman's campaign to Atlanta.  Quickly passed over in much history, there were quite a few significant actions on the way.  As the book says "although the fighting at Resaca has thus far garnered curious little attention from historians, the clash was no minor skirmish. The confrontation involved 140,000 men - 80,000 Federals and at least 60,000 Confederates."

An interesting tidbit about Col. Hume R. Feild of the 1st/27th Tennessee, who was educated at the Kentucky Military Institute. He "disdained a sword and instead carried an unusual weapon called a Dryse Needle Gun...".  So at least someone knew about the Prussian military.

This is a good book and I am looking forward to the release of volume 2.  Released by Savas Beattie who do many books on the ACW and now the American Revolutionary War.

[kipt]

Finished "The Journal of Military History, Vol. 88, No. 3".  Publiched 4 times per year.

Articles include:
Lunacy, Soldering, and the Abrogation of Care in Nineteenth Century Britain,
Hybrid Logistics and Small War: The Chin-Lushai Expeditions along the India-Burma Frontier,
Double-Edged Sword: Indonesian Personnel in the Royal Netherlands Navy,
The great Offensive 1922: Prelude to blitzkrieg (this is a good read about the Turkish Offensive against the Greeks in Turkey),
and You Can Take It With You: U.S. Army Souvenir Weapon Regulations in World War II.

Also 77 additional pages of book reviews.  I always find other books I want through this section.

[kipt]

Finished "Armies in Retreat: Chaos, Cohesion, and Consequences" edited by Timothy G. Heck and Walker D. Mills.  This has 20 stories covering the above title.  But I found the title to be more promising than the contents.

If you want an army to stay together, whether in victory or defeat, it needs good leadership and organization.  Essentially this was a history book saying "See, the troops didn't have that and were defeated".
'Nuff said."

[FierceKitty]

You can make a career in academia out of redundancy and tautology. I read a book a few decades ago which claimed that the western Roman empire fell to bits not on account of a combination of economic, social, and cultural factors, but because the army wasn't properly maintained. The author went on to attribute this to "a combination of economic, social, and cultural factors". He plagiarised his illustrations from John Warry too.

Private Eye had an amusing parody Q. and A. page about the latest Desmond Morris (at the time). It ended with:

Q: Why does Desmond Morris keep writing books like this?
A: The layman might assume it is out of a desire to make money out of stating the obvious. Scientific study, however, reveals that the actual reason is a deep-seated desire to make money out of stating the obvious.

[kipt]

Finished an interesting booklet, "Memorandum On The Prussian Army IN Relation To The Campaign Of 1866" by Lieutenant Colonel W.E.M. Reilly, edited by Grenville Bird.  Reilly was an officer of the Royal Artillery and was sent to Prussia as the British Commissioner; his rank was Major at the time.  However he was not able to join until after the battle of Koniggratz.

His memorandum (report) consists of 6 articles, after a short description of the Prussian Army.  The articles are:
1. Artillery
2. Transport
3. Supply of Ammunition
4. Hospitals
5. Miscellaneous Arrangements
6. General Observations
and an appendix of 10 parts

Several drawings of Prussian equipment are included.

There is a part 2 entitled "On the Employments of Artillery", which is a translated memo from a General v. Hidersin. It relates the use of division artillery, horse artillery, reserve artillery and artillery in retreat.  And there is an Annex on the target practice of the Prussian field artillery with photos of equipment.

A nice little booklet.

[T13A]

Hi

Just finished 'Arnhem Black Tuesday' by Al Murray. Excellent telling of just one day at the battle of Arnhem virtually all from the British point of view. It went into the amount of detail that I like and perhaps will help to bust some of the persistant 'myths' around the battle. Interesting take on the battle and maybe a slightly different take on the events compared with his views on his podcast 'We have ways of making you talk' that he hosts with James Holland. Both recommended by the way.

Cheers Paul

[Ben Waterhouse]

Hi

Just finished 'Arnhem Black Tuesday' by Al Murray. Excellent telling of just one day at the battle of Arnhem virtually all from the British point of view. It went into the amount of detail that I like and perhaps will help to bust some of the persistant 'myths' around the battle. Interesting take on the battle and maybe a slightly different take on the events compared with his views on his podcast 'We have ways of making you talk' that he hosts with James Holland. Both recommended by the way.

Cheers Paul

I didn't take to him as a comedian, but Al Murray is turning into an excellent WW2 historian.

[Last Hussar]

James Holland.

Surely James Nederlands, especially given the subject?

[Steve J]

Very good Last Hussar     !

[kipt]

Finished the National Geographic "Atlas Of The Civil War".  39 maps with commentary. Good pictures, high level views.