What are you currently reading ?

[Steve J]

The Anarchy: The Relentless Rise of the East India Company by William Dalyrymple. Still in the 1600's at present but a fascinating read and highly recommended.

[toxicpixie]

The Anarchy: The Relentless Rise of the East India Company by William Dalyrymple. Still in the 1600's at present but a fascinating read and highly recommended.

That's next on my pile! I've been meaning to get a copy for ages and finally did, just need to finish McKinstry's Op Sealion reread first

[kipt]

Finished "Challenge For The Pacific:The story of the incredible hundred days in which the Americans seized the offensive from the Japanese at Guadalcanal" by Robert Leckie.  Long time since I read any of his books, too long.

Great story, great writing.  Leckie was with the First Marine Division during the war at all the battles except Okinawa.

Makes me want to do the Pacific ground war, but I am resisting.

[kipt]

Finished "On Operations: Operational Art and military Disciplines" by B.A. Friedman.

The book is a discussion regarding Operations being called a level between strategy and tactics, which this book says is false.  The US picked it up from the Russians, who however, had operations as a discipline not a level.  The American translation of the Russian had errors and so operations was miscast.  The operational level of war was conceived by Russian officers to be able to discuss strategy without the risk of disagreeing with Marxist-Leninist doctrine (which could be fatal).

Both Peter Paret and Michael Howard erroneously inserted the words "operations" and "operational" in their translations of Clausewitz's On War, when Clausewitz never used it.

What the author puts forth is that operations is what the staffs do while the commanders command.  People trying to define it as a level between strategy and tactics sometimes mesh into one or the other.

Friedman presents a good case and I will not look at Operations in any other sense that it is what the staff does.  Good book, along with his other "On Tactics".

[kipt]

Finished "Les Artilleries Francaises de la Revolution et du Premier Empire" by Ludovic Letrun and Jean-Marie Mongin.

History of the uniforms, guns and equipment of the foot artillery (supposed to be a tome 2 for the horse artillery).  About 500 uniform illustrations, over 100 pages of cannon, howitzers, mortars, siege guns, caissons, limbers, pontoons and wagons.  All in color.  Very thorough.

[kipt]

Finished "the Darkest Hour: Volume 1: The Japanese Naval Offensive in the Indian Ocean 1942 - The Opening Moves" by Michal A. Piegzik.  Very good layout of what, why and where.  Many pictures and tables of ships and aircraft sorties (including the pilot's name).

This is the setup for the offensive.  Volume 2 is the combat.

[kipt]

Finished "On Tactics: A Theory Of Victory In Battle" by B.A. Friedman.  Obviously similar to his book "On Operations" that I listed earlier.

The Principals of War change depending on when they are listed and on who lists them.  Friedman has an overarching umbrella called the Tactical Tenets which he uses to "fix" or "reattach" them to where we interact with the enemy: the physical, the mental, and the moral.

"The physical means at the tactician's disposal are mass, maneuver, firepower and tempo."

"The mental effects that physical means can inflict on the enemy are deception, surprise, shock, and confusion."

The moral cohesion is essentially doing moral acts; obeying the laws of war, have a guide for the end of the battle, abstain from abhorrent acts.

As the author says, the first precept is that tactics are subordinate to strategy.  And strategy is subordinate to policy, tactics are in turn the servant of strategy.

He criticizes the US Army and the Marines for their evident inability to develop good feed back loops (he does discus Boyd and his OODA loop qite a bit).

A good thought provoking book. 

[Dragoon]

Rally Once Again I'm reading it once again I've also read a booklet from an ACW computer game Battle Tactics in the Civil War but I believe there is a hardback but ami looking at the same books with different titles?
Anything by Paddy is worth studying.
As my last ACW game was from London Wargames Section in 1973 but the rules were from around 1970. As I'm a Napoleonic gamer I tended to use Napoleonic tactics.
It goes to show that rules should be different for olmost every year of the wars because every campaign was fought differently by different generals.
General Lee had Jackson and Wellesley had his Picton.

[kipt]

Also finished "How Carriers Fought" by Lars Celander.  All about the how it was done.

Part I is Carrier Operations, with 9 chapters; Navigation and Communication, Flight Operations, Aircraft Carried, Finding the Enemy, Detecting Incoming Strikes, Aerial Attacks, Defending Against Aerial Attack, Fighter Direction, and Logistics (interesting statistic here; the IJN consumed over 12 million tons of oil during the war, which was the US production of 2 weeks).

Part II is Carrier Battles of World War II, with 9 chapters; Early Scouting and Raiding by Carriers, Battle of the Coral Sea, Battle of Midway, Operation Pedestal, Battle of the Eastern Solomons, Battle of the Santa Cruz Islands, Battle of the Philippine Sea, Battle of Leyte Gulf, and Carrier Operations in a Larger Context.

Part III is The art and Evolution of Carrier Operations, with another 9 chapters; Combat Models, Concentration vs. Dispersion, Fighters vs. Bombers, Battleships vs. Carriers, Armored Flight Deck vs. Size of Air Group, Effectiveness of Heavy AA Guns, World war II Carrier Design Revisited, The Art of Carrier Operations, and Evolution of Carrier Operations.

Highly recommended for this group.

[Ithoriel]

Highly recommended for this group.

OK, you got me hooked!

Ordered from Amazon, due here tomorrow.

[kipt]

Just got a reply on the Old Dominion Game Works forum that said the Mark Stilles book, "Pacific Carrier War: Carrier Combat From Pearl Harbor to Okinawa" is better in that person's opinion.. So I just ordered it.

[pierre the shy]

Lots of WW2 related naval interest on the forum lately with Sam Mustafa's new rules and these carrier books.
I got both volumes of "The Darkest Hour:The Japanese Offensive in the Indian Ocean 1942 - The Attack against Ceylon and the Eastern Fleet" by Michal A. Piegzik based on your earlier review in Nov 2022 of Vol 2 Kipt. As l said then they are very good.
Might see a mention of them a little bit later in the year but got to find the time to get some stuff done first 🙂

[Heedless Horseman]

Currently, for a long while. George  R R Martin: 'Fire And Blood'... just while eating. To keep up with TV!
BUT that bloke is Very 'Twisted'! 2-3 pages is usually enough!

Thought early G o T books were excellent... but slowed. This just seems a bit 'sick'.

[flamingpig0]

Currently, for a long while. George  R R Martin: 'Fire And Blood'... just while eating. To keep up with TV!
BUT that bloke is Very 'Twisted'! 2-3 pages is usually enough!

Thought early G o T books were excellent... but slowed. This just seems a bit 'sick'.

I found the more I read him the more depressing I found his writing.

[Heedless Horseman]

I started on the 'Game Of Thrones books while awaiting release of DVDs and...wow...perfectly paced for TV.! And early books were! later books wandered. TV series 'rushed' far too much, later and Disliked conclusion.
'House Of The Dragon is 'drawn' fron bits of 'Fire And Blood' book but does not closely follow. Good enough... will watch on DVD. Book... yep, depressing and, to me, a bit twisted. there are some recurring 'themes' in GRR Martin... well!

However. Being near Scottish Border...with history of region... and one parent was from Croatia... and history of THAT region...! Much of 'life' for many did NOT have much Jollity! Just no Dragons!