What are you currently reading ?

[kipt]

Finished "The German Officer Corps: 1890-1914" by Martin Kitchen.  Written in 1968 it is a good expose of the officer corps.  Minor gripe that my book is missing pages 37 to 48, which is in the chapter concerning the issue of anti-semitism.  Book was printed that way.

There was a large gulf between officers and civilians, to the extent that the officer caste would typically consider them separate from the state and flout the laws.  They were the "Kaiser's personal support".  This got worse up to and including WWI.  They did not want the middle class in the combat arms and were barely tolerated in the technical arms (artillery, engineers, supply).

They kept the duel long after it was banned and outlawed in Germany,  Case were tried in Military Courts, not civilian, and officers could and were cashiered for refusing to fight a duel.  Also military attache's would bypass the civilian diplomats (ambassadors) and submit their reports directly to the chief of staff.

There was a strong push for defensive war (by attacking their neighbors, France or Russia) which the General Staff never got over.  But they had dire warnings for 15 years that Germany was about to be attacked.  Very insecure and out of touch.

[Leman]

FoGR rulebook and Trade and Treachery supplement. I recently bought a 10mm Spanish colunela army from my good friend Paul, and have planned out a corresponding French army for this early part of the Italian Wars using late medieval, Flodden and Landsknecht range figures. I am also planning an early Spanish Imperial (1580s) army using a mix of Elizabethan and Landsknecht figures, particularly the LK arquebusiers and the pikeman in the hat, both of which can easily pass as post-1540 landsknechts.

[d_Guy]

I must say that while the mechanics of FoGR remain inaccessible to me, I have purchased (on Mr. Lemmy's recommendation) most of the C. 16th & 17th supplements and find them very useful and informative.

[Leman]

It all falls into place once you have a few games with someone who knows what they're doing. From zero though the rulebook can be overwhelming. The thing I like particularly about FoGR is the way it is able to deal with the different pike formations of the period, and that  units actually exist as battle groups.

[fsn]

At the moment I'm stuck into The Rise and Fall of the French Air Force: French Air Operations and Strategy 1900-1940 by Greg Baughen. £9.90 on the Kindle.

This is a terrific book. Not a description of the organisation or equipment of the French Air Forces per se, but a discussion of how they ended up with what they had in 1940. It's a tale with more turns than a rabbit on a spit; "we want big bombers", "no we want multi-role aircraft", "fighters" ... "bombers" ... right up until after the 1939 war had started. It tells how French designs as delivered were usually not as good as advertised, and ends up being a story of what nearly was.

I'm not one to use hindsight to belittle the efforts or viewpoints of historical persons. Sucessive leaders genuinely held different views, but no single cohesive plan ever seemed to get delivered, and so the French Air Forces went to war in 1939 without a capable long range bomber force, emasculated recce, and fighters that were not quite as good as they should have been.  There were apparently a large number of obsolescent aircraft available in 1940 that the French didn't bring into play, even whilst they had Czech and Polish pilots available. I can see both points of view here. Either you concentrate on your newer models because you do want to divert resources de-mothballing older equipment, or you get as many aircraft into the air as possible. 

Few other points I found interesting:

• The French asked Britain to take 2000 Polish air force personnel as it couldn't integrate them
• the French respected the Bf110 more than the Bf109.
• The US supplied 1000 aircraft, which the French decided to assemble in North Africa .... where they didn't have the facilities required, so very few made it into action
• The French planned to build Merlin engines. Unfortunately the subcontrcated the manufacture to Ford and in Sept 1939 Henry withdrew all US personnel as he didn't want Ford to be involved in a European conflict. As I say, I don't like to judge historical figures like the Fascist Henry Ford.

[Terry37]

Took a break while waiting for my next order of PA books to arrive and am just finishing "Ramillies, Marlborough's Masterpiece" by Neil Litten. However, it's back to PA now that the order has arrived.

Terry

[Leman]

You're going to have to remind me what else PA stands for other than Pennsylvania.

[kipt]

Finished "Naval Warfare" by Vice Admiral P.H. Colomb.  This is the second edition printed in 1895, so not up to WWI.

In it he discusses the rules of Naval Warfare (at great length with all the examples - the book is 452 pages).  It comes down to command of the sea.

In the beginning of naval warfare it was really land combat on ships.  Then raiding territories with sometimes a naval battle.

Quite a bit of English/French in the early days as well as English/Dutch, in the Channel as well as the Caribbean and the Med.  The last examples, which evidently were added for the second edition, are the Peruvian War and the Japanese/Chinese war.

A bit of a long tedious read, but still interesting for all the combats.

[Raider4]

Been on hols, so had a chance to spend some quality time with the Kindle:

Red Storm Rising (Tom Clancy) - 'Cold war gone hot' techno-thriller, enjoyed this.
From Russia With Love (Ian Fleming) - The fifth Bond book, exciting read, and with few of the problems you get with other books like Live & Let Die in this day and age. In fact the worst bits are when Bond opens his mouth & speaks - his dialogue is very stilted.
Dr. Who & The Dinosaur Invasion - I had about 30 of these Dr. Who books when I was a lad, and recently 'found' a trove of them online. Read this to see how it stood up - not great really. The scrapes the characters get into (and out of) are obviously aimed at the cliff-hanger at the end of each episode. On a positive side, it only took about four hours to read.
Fatherland (Robert Harris) - Crime thriller set in a 'Germany won WW2' alternative history. Again, enjoyed this.
The Martian Chronicles (Ray Bradbury) - Currently still reading, about a third through. Interesting.

I'd read the first three books before, but Fatherland and The Martian Chronicles are new to me.

Cheers, M.
--

[Leman]

I seem to remember the Martian Chronicles being televised many years ago and starring ,of all people, Rock Hudson - or have I misremembered that?

[Ithoriel]

I seem to remember the Martian Chronicles being televised many years ago and starring ,of all people, Rock Hudson - or have I misremembered that?

A 1980 TV mini-series starring  Rock Hudson, Gayle Hunnicutt and Bernie Casey according to IMDb

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0080242/

[Last Hussar]

Unnatural Selection. Wasn't sure, but for any one interested in evolution, you'll be glad you did. Author is self taught biologist, but is an known expert on birds. The text shows this, as she explains evolution in easy to understand terms, using the breeding of domesticated animals to show how Darwin etc pieced it all together. Also visually it is stunning as it is illustrated with loads of drawings of skeletons of animals so you can see exactly what humans have done. Apparently these are all drawn from actual skeletons her husband prepares!

[Womble67]

Just finished Before Stalingrad: Hitler's Invasion of Russia 1941 by David Glantz thoroughly enjoyed reading it I just wish that they would include better maps.

Take care

Andy

[Cavillarius]

I'm currently reading:

Peter Flemming - Bayonets to Lhasa
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2351127.Bayonets_to_Lhasa

and I'm waiting for my secondhand copy of:
Brian Robson - The road to Kabul. The Second Afghan War 1878-1880
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/324566.The_Road_to_Kabul

for fairly obvious reasons...

[Terry37]

Started this week on a fun Weird WW2 book called "Tin Can Tommies". It's a little over the top, especially with the "...just in he nick of time" episodes, but I am enjoying it enough to finish it. My other issue with it is that I think the author took the same writing course that Radar did on MASH if anyone remembers that episode. It has also served as a great inspiration for rounding ut a WWI British army I'd been pondering.

https://www.amazon.com/Tin-Can-Tommies-Darkest-Hour/dp/1985399652/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1538577150&sr=8-1&keywords=tin+can+tommies

Terry

PS - the Tin Can Tommies are hi tech robots/.cyber-beings.