What are you currently reading ?

[kipt]

Finished "The Conquest of Morocco: The bizarre history of France's last great colonial adventure, the long struggle to subdue a medieval kingdom by intrigue and force of arms, 1903-1914" by Douglas Porch.  this is the same author who wrote about the French Foreign Legion that I finished some time ago.

A lot about General Hubert Lyautey (royalist, strategist, homosexual), as it says on the intro.  Lots of little combats, politics, intrigue and descriptive history.

As the author says "The story of the conquest...is a story of people, of chaos, villainy, glory, misery, violence, greed, avarice and maladministration.  It is not a story for those who like their history neat."

[Steve J]

Re-starting 'The Art of Warfare in the Age of Marlborough' and trying not to get distracted by anything else until this is finished.

[kipt]

Finished "The Pacific War and Contingent Victory: Why Japanese Defeat was not Inevitable" by Michael Myers.

The author's premise, as noted above, is that the Japanese were not necessarily doomed top defeat because of the industrial might of the US and Allies.  However, his case for making that statement uses possible allied missteps, mistakes and war fatigue by the general population.  He does not attribute these same problems to the Japanese other than in minor items.

It has some good history but I felt he was really flogging a dead horse and has left me entirely unconvinced.

[paulr]

The main Japanese hope of victory was a peace agreement after their early victories, similar to the Treaty of Portsmouth that ended the Russo-Japanese war

The American reaction to the attack on Pearl Harbour, particularly given the delay in delivering the declaration of war, made this extremely unlikely

[KTravlos]

Currently reading "Mobilization" book 5 in the Legend of Galactic Heroes series. Great stuff as always. Quote for you

"Politics is like the sewer system of a city. You need it for the city to work, but most people do not want to get anywhere the smell".

Still wrestling with Embree's "Radzestky's Marches". A great book but too detailed.

Began "The Three Funerals of Hasan Tahisn Pasha", in Greek, a biography of the ottoman general who fought against the Greeks in Macedonia in 1912, and had to surrender the city of Thessaloniki.

I wish you all a Happy New Year, with joy, health and wealth for you and yours.

[kipt]

Finished "Designated Targets" by John Birmingham, which is the second book in the series "the Axis of Time".  I reviewed the first book here earlier.

The premise is that a UN battlegroup from 2021 was transported back in time to the battle of Midway, intersection (sometimes physically) with the USN group on the way to Midway.  In the first book the allies are coming to terms with the new technology, not knowing that the axis has also acquired some of the new ships (random displacements of the UN battlegroup).

In this book the technology is being used by both sides, so the allies know know that the Germans and Japanese have something.  Russia has made a cease fire with Germany; both allies and axis are working frantically to make the first A-bombs, and the action continues.

Good quick read.

[Lord Kermit of Birkenhead]

Good series that..

[kipt]

And finished the last one in the series "Axis of Time".  "Final Impact" by John Birmingham.  This finishes the war, with several nukes and gas being thrown around.

The story of the Russians (and Stalin and Beria in particular) is interesting.

Japanese kamikazes have a twist, or I should say a jet assist, and take out a Russian fleet.

I forgot to mention that the USN uptime carrier is the USN Hillary Clinton, which is a hoot for a book written in 2007.  So much for prophesy.

It does leave the cold war open, perhaps another series, as Russia now has Italy and parts of France.  No one has Berlin, as it doesn't exist anymore.

Fun read.

[Terry37]

Starting the third book in the Extinction Cycle - Age. Really like Nicholas Smith's work - captivating and most unpredictable!

Terry

[KTravlos]

I finished Tanaka's "Mobilisation" and Bruno Mungai's collected articles on the Venetian Army of the Great Turkish War in the History and Uniforms magazine. In general both were great, but both also suffered from some unpardonable translation mistakes. Both publishers need to step up.

Break is over so back to work reading. Diving into Dionysios Tsirigiotis "He Helliniki Strategeke stin Mikra Asia 1919-1922 (The Greek Strategy in Asia Minor 1919-1922) for "Salvation and Catastrophe". At the same time I will slowly continue reading "The Three Burials of Hasan Tahsin Pasha". My hope is to get out a article for the Foreign Correspondent from it.

With Respect
KTravlos

[kipt]

Finished "Napoleon in Italy: The Sieges of Mantua, 1796-1799" by Phillip Cuccia.

This is a very interesting book, discussing all the moves and sorties of the first siege by Napoleon.  Most books about the Italian campaign only discuss the siege in passing.  This book corrects that.

The second siege is by the Austrians (and Russians) and while having similar descriptions of the sorties etc,. it focuses on the French commander, Foissac-Latour, who, even though he was the author of a book on engineering/sieges, was more of a theoretical rather than an active commander.  Even thought the jury is still out, he may have "sold out" the city to the Austrians.  the city had supplies for 2 years, but surrendered after 3 months.

There were calls for his court-marshal but Napoleon stopped that.  Foissac-Latour was banned from wearing the French uniform and Napoleon also said he never wanted to hear about the siege again, it being a stain on the French military and honor.

Very interesting and gives a lot of insight into sieges.

[Leman]

Have had the dreaded Aussie flu since New Years Eve. Now on antibiotics to keep pneumonia at bay. I have been kept company by Douglas Fermer's France at Bay. I have also been using other sources to plan a 10mm crack at Villers-Bretonneux, later to be followed by Poupry, so will have to paint my Bavarians, and also the Wurttemburgers at Champigny. Reckon that will keep me busy for the next 6 months at least.

[Duke Speedy of Leighton]

Get well soon

[Leman]

Cheers Lem, it does make the common cold feel like a stroll in the park.

[paulr]

Get well soon & enjoy the planning in the meantime

[KTravlos]

I wish you a fast and full recovery.

[Steve J]

Get well soon old chap. SWMBO and I have been fighting off a cold the past few days, praying it doesn't turn into said Aussie flu. We've been consoling ourselves by binge watching 'Line of Duty' whilst alternating between being too hot or too cold.

[Leman]

Binge watching when not sleeping is quite a good way to cope. I use my Amazon Kindle Fire in bed, which has a superb HD picture. What's been getting me through? The Crown, Travellers, Upstart Crow, the Good Place, Lucifer, Vikings and anything with Bruce Willis in, plus the resumption of the new Startrek. On the mend, but this is definitely the worst illness (not counting muscle injuries) I've had since glandular fever in 1971.

[Steve J]

Glad to hear that there's light at the end of the tunnel.

As for reading, going through 'Uniforms of the American War of Independence' by Digby Smith et al. Very informative and with some good overviews of the conflict.

[kipt]

Finished "Destroyer Captain" by Roger Hill.

Roger Hill was a British naval officer who was in command of a destroyer in WWII.  He was on the PQ17 convoy, convoy to Malta and D-Day to list a few of his deployments.

A very interesting book with great descriptions of his ship(s) and crew.  He had the HMS 'Ledbury', the 'Grenville' and the 'Jervis'.

The introduction has an interesting but sad commentary about his looking for work after the war.  He says "The English post-war world had no use for damaged destroyer captains, which was fair enough - no-one owed us a living; but some took it a bit far.  One oil company personnel manager said to me when I sought any kind of work, 'You boys have got to find out the facts of life. You have had all the glamour of the war whilst we were being bombed in London...' and so on.  I knocked him right out of his beautiful leather chair: (I did not get the job).

He ended up moving to New Zealand and got work as a 'seagull' which is casual labour on the wharf, loading and unloading ships.  Sad this.