QuoteA problem that doesn't get the attention it should. Heavy volumes and low evening energy levels are an uncomfortable combination.

Glad its not just me! I have largely moved to ebooks for fiction (on iPad or iPhone) but for non-fiction I still tend to prefer paper. 

I've finished "Ancient Egyptian Warfare: Tactics, Weaponry and Ideology of the Pharaohs" by Ian Shaw and have found it fascinating. Nice to find any work about Ancient Egypt that doesn't start with the New Kingdom, especially a military history one. A very useful background.

Good article.  Thanks for posting.

Quote from: Steve J on 02 November 2022, 04:20:58 PMThe subtitle is 'The half-forgotten history of Europe'. In a nutshell he takes a look at oft forgotten kingdoms that existed in history that today have largely been forgotten about, as they became swallowed up by larger Nations etc.

Thanks for that.  Was it a 'good read'? 

So far I'm enjoying it John, but then I'm always a sucker for snippets of history, bits on info etc that I wasn't aware of.

Finished an Osprey "Lincoln's 90-Day Volunteers 1861" by Ron Field and illustrated by Adam Hook.

Typical Osprey and if I was to do ACW at the skirmish level there would be some very interesting uniforms to paint.  But I won't.

Still liked it.

And finished another Osprey, "Flags of the Civil war (1) Confederate" by Philip Katcher and illustrated by Rick Sollins.  Good history of the flags of the Confederacy and battle flags.

Finished a most interesting book, The Blind Strategist: John Boyd And The American Art Of War" by Stephen Robinson, who is an officer in the Australian Army Reserve and an author of other WWII books.

The author starts with a description of the O-O-D-A loop and how Boyd developed this from fighter tactics.  Boyd then wanted to expand it to show that it was the key to victory even in ground warfare.  He, and his acolytes, used the writings of Liddell-Hart and the writings of the German Generals after WWII.

However, this thesis says that Liddell-Hart, trying to regain his influence after saying that defense would stop the Germans at the start of WWII, went through gyrations to show that the Germans took his previous writings and essentially were his pupils.  The German Generals, after the war, were eager to maintain the professionalism of the German officer corps and to distance their failures by blaming Hitler, as well as t cast all the atrocities blame onto the Nazis, rather than the Wehrmacht.

The author refutes both the Liddell-Hart and the German recast of history.

He goes through the various army FM 100-5's and the Marines Warfighting manual and the US generals that wrote and influenced them as part of his discussion of "Maneuver Warfare".

His conclusion is that Boyd and his students, were mislead by the wrongly written history, but did not want to dispute it, even though there were others, including some of the German Generals, who said it was wrong.

Thought provoking and while I don't totally agree with some of the author's arguments, it was very well done.  Boyd was an interesting person and I recommend this book and others about him; I have at least two others.

Quote from: kipt on 08 November 2022, 03:51:30 PM"The Blind Strategist: John Boyd And The American Art Of War" by Stephen Robinson

Thanks for that.  Very interesting.  The OODA Loop has always struck me as a 'knock-off' one of a number of similar decision making cycles, like the Intelligence Cycle used in the military and business, to mention just one of many, rather than something new and original.

Finished "The Cornfield: Antietam's Bloody Turning Point" by David A. Welker.  A very good book, obviously Cornfield-centric.  It describes the various and many combats in the Cornfield and the disruption in the North and South regiments.  It has a lot of maps with each on a specific part of the action but only showing those units involved.  This I don't really like because other units are left off to make the action clearer.  I needed to refer to other books (maps) to see who was where, when.

The author has an interesting take on McClellan, who in my opinion would have done better as a chief of staff, but needing a very strong commander over him.  The author says of McClellan, "A man possessed of a great intellect who was deliberate and calculating, but who was unable to innovate or to think and cat outside of his preselected linear approach."  He had trouble reacting to changes on the field of battle.

Very interesting view of the Battle of Antietam.

Finished "Okinawa 1945: The Lat Battle" by Gordon L. Rottman and illustrated by Howard Gerrard.  Part of the Osprey Campaign Series.  Beaucoup information and maps.  I hadn't realized just how big the invasion was.  Hard fought and finished after Germany surrendered.

Well done.

QuoteI've finished "Ancient Egyptian Warfare: Tactics, Weaponry and Ideology of the Pharaohs" by Ian Shaw and have found it fascinating. Nice to find any work about Ancient Egypt that doesn't start with the New Kingdom, especially a military history one. A very useful background.

Interesting, looks like it's part of a series of "short history" books focused on warfare. Grabbed a few samples.

Quote from: kipt on 15 November 2022, 01:14:02 PMI hadn't realized just how big the invasion was.  Hard fought and finished after Germany surrendered.

And helped to persuade Truman to drop the atomic bomb rather than have to fight "an Okinawa from one end of Japan to the other."
https://www.vqronline.org/essay/okinawa-harry-truman-and-atomic-bomb

An interesting essay

I'm biased, my father would have been one of the British infantry landing near Tokyo if the atomic bombs hadn't been dropped. And I probably wouldn't be here.

I've just finished reading James Holland's Brothers In Arms which tells the story of one of Britain's great tank regiments, the Sherwood Rangers, from D-Day to VE-Day.  I had already read the memoirs of at least one of the troop commanders, David Render, so was slightly wary that there might not be too much more to tell. But on that score I needn't have worried; there was loads of new stuff and stories and thanks to Holland's excellent story telling skills, I enjoyed it so much that I didn't want the book to end.  Like Band of Brothers, there was also a good Postscript recounting what some of the survivors did after the war.

The copy I bought claims to be a limited edition with extra material exclusive to Waterstones (a UK book shop) but I'm not fully sure what the 'extra' material is.  Included within the Appendices are a number of sketches and diagrams of both inside and outside of the Sherman and the Firefly illustrating a myriad of features and equipment, medals won by members of the regiment, an illustrated establishment of a standard British Armoured Regiment in 1944 and a list of all of the commanders who served in that eventful 11 months down to squadron level.

One of the many facts that stuck out for me is that some 50% of the casualties occurred outside the tanks with, interestingly, "making tea" (22%) being the prime reason for being outside(!)  - immediately you have to wonder if that was the main consideration for fitting the Centurion with an internal Boiling Vessel!