What are you currently reading ?

[Chris Pringle]

The piece about relating maps to text is an interesting one.
I think our world of modern gadgetry offers a solution.
Provide the modern name (subject to change) and grid reference - probably in a footer under each page.
This allows the avid reader to fire up public mapping software and locate the site of the events.

Ideally you'd want to link to a contemporary map. For a lot of C19 (or indeed C18) conflicts in Europe, I highly recommend the maps here:
https://maps.arcanum.com/hu/map/europe-19century-secondsurvey/?layers=osm%2C158%2C164&bbox=2057197.0902563662%2C5901668.9719951805%2C2469651.294883177%2C6042618.852153046

Names 'subject to change' is a big deal. In what used to be the Austrian empire, it is common to find a place has three names: the German one; the Hungarian one (if it was in the Kingdom of Hungary); and the local Rumanian, Croat, Czech etc one. In my Hungary books I had to put multiple pages of name index in the front to give readers a chance of following the action. (Plus putting a lot of effort into creating clear maps that tell the story on their own.)

Agree and "Hungary 1849" is in my pile to read.

Thanks, Kip. At ~550 pages, that should take you what, a morning to read? 

[tony of TTT]

Trying to do some 'what if' scenarios for an Austrian intervention in Wallachia I had major difficulties with maps of the area (both contemporary and modern) seeming to give places random names that appeared to have no linguistic link between them. Even using 5 maps I found little consistency and a rather casual attitude to those parts of a map that allow you to compare them. If both were to be accurate the course of the Danube seems to have changed by about 30km between 1849 and 1880 according to 2 maps.

[Duke Speedy of Leighton]

The Danube has changed course a lot since 1800
See below
https://www.icpdr.org/main/publications/historical-patterns-along-danubes-course

[kipt]

Finished "Tarawa" by Charles T. Gregg, a very detailed account of this battle.  Another hard fought combat against the Japanese during the"still learning" period of the Pacific War by the US Marines.

Good read.

[PedroSwift]

Just started reading The Memoirs of General the Baron de Marbot. Quite an entertaining story so far.

[fsn]

Just started reading The Memoirs of General the Baron de Marbot. Quite an entertaining story so far.

Great read.

Apparently Marbot was the inspiration for Brigadier Gerard.

[kipt]

Finished "The Chindit War: Stilwell, Wingate, and the Campaign in Burma:1944" by Shelford Bidwell.

A book about the "irregular" columns acting as guerillas  against the Japanese in the north of Burma, while Slim was fighting in the southwest and Stilwell was using two Chinese divisions in the north.  Reading this makes you wonder at the stamina of humans - marching up and down high mountains, little food, bad water if any, high humidity in the jungle and cold up high, only forest tracks, terrible communications between the columns.  But they did harass the Japanese.

Wingate was the driving force for the Chindits.  But a very determined officer who would not hesitate to go above his commander(s) and appeal directly to Churchill (who was always amenable to offensive warfare and strange ideas). 

The 70th British Infantry Division commander, General Symes, had this to say about Wingate:
"fanatical, ruthless,, supremely self confident, a master of duplicity,arrogant,argumentative,untidy, unorthodox...the magnitude of his plan in conception and in detail was amazing...he was essentially a 'doer' and was satisfied that he could do anything better than anyone else...He knew everyone [in his force], had their confidence and demanded implicit faith from his subordinates.  He lacked administrative and organizational knowledge, and knowing it, had an inferiority complex on the matter.  [He displayed] impatience and ill-temper when he construed any question as an obstruction to his ideas...He appeared deliberately to make enemies...".

But his men believed in him.

The other person in the book is the American general Stilwell, often known as Vinegar Joe.  He answered to Mountbatten on one side, Chiang Kai-Shek on another and also the Joint Chiefs of Staff.  He absolutely hated the British, calling them cowards who wouldn't move.

The author says this: "Unfortunately the acidulous qualities, so amusing in a major, proved to be disastrous in a general who was his country's military representative with the Chinese on the one hand, and the British on the other.  As Stilwell grew older his tongue became more barbed, his judgements harsher and his manners, bad at the best of times, abominable.  Like Wingate, he was verbally aggressive, and could never forego the pleasure of being rude, especially to some unfortunate prevented by military discipline from answering back."

So a cast of characters (Wingate was killed in a crash of his B-25 when visiting his troops), and hard working columns of British, Indians, Gurkas, West Africans, and Americans (Galahad Force, also known as Merrill's Marauders).  The author also gives the Japanese their due; short anon rations, equipment, support, but full of dedication to the Emperor and willing to die).

Almost a fatiguing book to read concerning all the hardships the soldiers went through, but good.

[DecemDave]

Mammoth book of Soldiers at War first hand accounts of warfare from the age of Napoleon edited Jon e lewis

Better than I expected although there is a lot of we went over here then we were ordered over there and back again. And other such realities like the endless search for food and water. Grattan's account of cuidad rodrigo and Badajoz is pretty stomach churning.

Worth reading these memoirs in some form and here there are 14 excerpts in the one book.

Biggest surprise for me is that several of the infantrymen accounts refer to taking their packs off for action and leaving them in the rear "organised by companies and under guard"

So perhaps Leon could kindly redo all the Brit action poses without packs and a new scenic item of a heap of packs.   

[Heedless Horseman]

I think I've read that most British Infantry at Waterloo were without Packs... presumably some other battles too. Certainly an assault on a breach would require mobility.
In one of the Sharpe novels, Harper is 'framed' by having a stolen item 'planted' in his pack.
I do not know if French or others also removed packs for combat but would imagine so.
ACW, packs often piled too.

[hammurabi70]

The German Invasion of Norway April 1940
GH Haarr
ISBN 978 1 84832 032 1

A detailed examination of (only) the naval aspects of the invasion that covers all the initial German landings, including Stavanger and the Sola airfield landings.  This gives ALL the details, including which forts were manned and what guns they had, what picket boats were on station and where these were located, what submarines were where, what people did over 8/9 April. A very detailed book covering all the different locations and naval craft; a must read for anyone wanting the naval angle on the invasion.  I certainly learnt a lot.  Very little coverage of what happened once the German troops were ashore but a great deal about how they got ashore.  After this, it is all arithmetic history!  Excellent for naval history.

[toxicpixie]

Just finished 'You have to die in Piedmont' by Giovanni Cerino Badone about the Battle of Assietta 19 July 1747.

Basically the French assaulted a fortified camp in the Alps and were defeated with heavy casualties.

It's a good book in my view though the events are sometimes interpreted through the lens of modern military thinking.  A lot of primary sources are used - French, Italian and some Austrian, which are interesting to read. The maps are diagrams as opposed to maps - a proper map would have been helpful.  The annotated photographs do help visualise parts of the action and the terrain imposed limitations on the French manoeuvring. 

I have to stop reading this thread again, between this and carrier talk I'll end up spending money

Just started "Snow Ice and Sacrifice" on the Italian army on the Ostfront. Once past the intro it seems pretty good.

[hammurabi70]

Just started "Snow Ice and Sacrifice" on the Italian army on the Ostfront. Once past the intro it seems pretty good.

Many thanks; very helpful.  A hot topic for me at the moment, as I am looking at Operation Uranus & Operation Saturn.

Try borrowing rather than buying. I suppose publicising this will make it harder for me to get hold of the books!

[toxicpixie]

Many thanks; very helpful.  A hot topic for me at the moment, as I am looking at Operation Uranus & Operation Saturn.

Try borrowing rather than buying. I suppose publicising this will make it harder for me to get hold of the books!

I try not to borrow other peoples books these days, takes me so long to read them they've moved planet by the time I finish!

I should get to the library but I barely get chance

[Heedless Horseman]

When younger, Local Library higlhy valued resource. Demolished now... just a room in sports center. Uni same.
BUT...realised that Borrowed books had been sneezed, eaten, over... or other activities... and 'went off' the idea!
Not Keen on 2nd hand, now! 

[flamingpig0]

When younger, Local Library higlhy valued resource. Demolished now... just a room in sports center. Uni same.
BUT...realised that Borrowed books had been sneezed, eaten, over... or other activities... and 'went off' the idea!
Not Keen on 2nd hand, now! 

Have you tried kindle?