What are you currently reading ?

[pierre the shy]

Thanks fsn 

I've already put together a FK&P scenario for Newburn Ford based on somewhat limited information
that I have been able to find online, though those sources vary widely as to who was there and what actually happened.

One of my regular opponents is keen to play and has very kindly made a couple of very nice looking star forts for the English defenders.

So if Reid's book has a full order of battle etc then I'll definitely get the book at some stage. 

[pierre the shy]

As for the new Furgol, I've seen some of it, but in an earlier guise. I think there must be a 'story' why it changed publishers...

I'm thinking that the €180 price tag is a bit steep, which is clearly a bonkers statement when I have all 3 volumes of the fairly new collection of Cromwell's Speeches and Letters. Would be good to hear your impression of it PTS.

The old Furgol SL&C armies book is practically identical to Reid's recent history of the SL&C armies (I've got both, Reid's will be considerably cheaper than a 2nd hand copy of Furgol's)

Not sure what the story is as to why the publisher changed, but it added an extra figure to the price!

I found a good deal through a well known third party seller that was offering free shipping, so that was fairly decisive in my decision to get Furgol's new book.

Release date is given as 16 Sept so I will report once it arrives.

If it's as good as his eariler volume (as I'm sure it is) then I will be in C17th Scots Royalist nivarna     

[Radar]

I see that said well known online seller has it for £153 (which probably translates to €180).

The bits that Ed presented at the Helion Conference were interesting. He admitted that he might have use wargaming miniatures for the illustrations.

I think I am slowly talking myself into buying it. I'm sure that the bald tyres on my car aren't really that bald. An overpriced academic imprint would be a much better use of my bank balance

[kipt]

Finished "Chesty: The story OF Lieutenant general Lewis B. Puller, USMC" by LtCol Jon T. Hoffman, USMCR.

A very well written book on Puller's life.  This book comes after Burke Davis's book "Marine" which was also about Chesty.  It corrects some of the wild stories and takes us to Puller's death.  An incredible warrior, entering the Marine Corps in 1917, too late for WWI; Puller, after Officer's Training Camp, was sent to Haiti and later Nicaragua.   He actually did not get commissioned until 1924.

5 Navy Crosses, but no Medal of Honor. He was a great leader, way out front with his men, no matter his rank.  He fought in the Banana Wars, WWII and Korea, but was retired before Vietnam.  He and his wife had a daughter and then twins, a boy and girl.  Puller was a devoted family man but told his wife he would always march to the sound of the guns.  The Marine Corps was his life.

His son, Lewis B. Puller Jr., did become a Marine Lieutenant.  However, after reporting in Vietnam in August 1968 as a platoon leader, he was wounded in October 1968 by stepping on a 105mm howitzer shell rigged as a land mine.  It blew off both legs, parts of both hands and other injuries.  He survived, but later in life committed suicide.

[kipt]

Finished "The Geographies Of War" by Jeremy Black, a very prolific writer.

The book is pretty dense and discusses more than physical geography.  He says the tactical level is more for the physical geography but strategy relates more to the human geography, as he defines it.  The customs, mores, beliefs and racial is included in the human geography.

Quite a bit on mapping and how that has progressed from land to the sea to the air and now to space.  I didn't realize that the US used drones for mapping in Vietnam - thought they were more recent that that.

I did not get what I wanted from this book, although Black is a gifted writer.  I was hoping it would discuss more tactical themes (always thinking about wargames) but that is not what this book is.

[pierre the shy]

I finally got a shipping update on Furgol's new book on the Scots Royalists, which should now arrive in a couple of weeks give or take.

  

[kipt]

Finished volume 1 and 2 of "Into The Endless Mist" about the Aleutian Campaign.  Vol 1 is June to august 1942 and Vol 2 is September 1942 to March 1943.  Both by Michal A. Piegzik, who does a great job using information from both sides.  Good pictures, maps and OB's.  He speaks and reads Japanese I believe so he can really get into the information.

Highly recommended.

[pierre the shy]

Yes, Piegzik is a brillant author Kipt.

I have his book about the Battle of the Coral Sea from the Japanese perspective....it explains how the Japanese fought their side of the battle extremely well.  

[kipt]

Finished "Remember Fontenoy! The 69th New York And The Irish Brigade In The Civil War" by Joseph G. Bilby.  A good account of the regiment and the brigade throughout their time in the Civil War.

A sympathetic discussion of General Meagher and his time with the regiment and brigade, and after he resigned. There is an appendix listing the small arms for each of the regiments in the brigade from 1862 to 1864. Notably Meaghers wanted the regiments to use smoothbore so they could use buck and ball as he believed the regiment and brigade would all be fighting at close quarters, just like at Fontenoy. Eventually, when at Richmond and Petersburg, and under a different brigade CO, they had the rifled weapons.

A good read, a bit outdated with new information; this book was written in 1995.