What are you currently reading ?

[kipt]

Finished "The Atlanta Campaign: Volume 1: Dalton to Cassville, May 1-19, 1864" by David A. Powell.

This is the history of the start of Sherman's campaign to Atlanta.  Quickly passed over in much history, there were quite a few significant actions on the way.  As the book says "although the fighting at Resaca has thus far garnered curious little attention from historians, the clash was no minor skirmish. The confrontation involved 140,000 men - 80,000 Federals and at least 60,000 Confederates."

An interesting tidbit about Col. Hume R. Feild of the 1st/27th Tennessee, who was educated at the Kentucky Military Institute. He "disdained a sword and instead carried an unusual weapon called a Dryse Needle Gun...".  So at least someone knew about the Prussian military.

This is a good book and I am looking forward to the release of volume 2.  Released by Savas Beattie who do many books on the ACW and now the American Revolutionary War.

[kipt]

Finished "The Journal of Military History, Vol. 88, No. 3".  Publiched 4 times per year.

Articles include:
Lunacy, Soldering, and the Abrogation of Care in Nineteenth Century Britain,
Hybrid Logistics and Small War: The Chin-Lushai Expeditions along the India-Burma Frontier,
Double-Edged Sword: Indonesian Personnel in the Royal Netherlands Navy,
The great Offensive 1922: Prelude to blitzkrieg (this is a good read about the Turkish Offensive against the Greeks in Turkey),
and You Can Take It With You: U.S. Army Souvenir Weapon Regulations in World War II.

Also 77 additional pages of book reviews.  I always find other books I want through this section.

[kipt]

Finished "Armies in Retreat: Chaos, Cohesion, and Consequences" edited by Timothy G. Heck and Walker D. Mills.  This has 20 stories covering the above title.  But I found the title to be more promising than the contents.

If you want an army to stay together, whether in victory or defeat, it needs good leadership and organization.  Essentially this was a history book saying "See, the troops didn't have that and were defeated".
'Nuff said."

[FierceKitty]

You can make a career in academia out of redundancy and tautology. I read a book a few decades ago which claimed that the western Roman empire fell to bits not on account of a combination of economic, social, and cultural factors, but because the army wasn't properly maintained. The author went on to attribute this to "a combination of economic, social, and cultural factors". He plagiarised his illustrations from John Warry too.

Private Eye had an amusing parody Q. and A. page about the latest Desmond Morris (at the time). It ended with:

Q: Why does Desmond Morris keep writing books like this?
A: The layman might assume it is out of a desire to make money out of stating the obvious. Scientific study, however, reveals that the actual reason is a deep-seated desire to make money out of stating the obvious.

[kipt]

Finished an interesting booklet, "Memorandum On The Prussian Army IN Relation To The Campaign Of 1866" by Lieutenant Colonel W.E.M. Reilly, edited by Grenville Bird.  Reilly was an officer of the Royal Artillery and was sent to Prussia as the British Commissioner; his rank was Major at the time.  However he was not able to join until after the battle of Koniggratz.

His memorandum (report) consists of 6 articles, after a short description of the Prussian Army.  The articles are:
1. Artillery
2. Transport
3. Supply of Ammunition
4. Hospitals
5. Miscellaneous Arrangements
6. General Observations
and an appendix of 10 parts

Several drawings of Prussian equipment are included.

There is a part 2 entitled "On the Employments of Artillery", which is a translated memo from a General v. Hidersin. It relates the use of division artillery, horse artillery, reserve artillery and artillery in retreat.  And there is an Annex on the target practice of the Prussian field artillery with photos of equipment.

A nice little booklet.

[T13A]

Hi

Just finished 'Arnhem Black Tuesday' by Al Murray. Excellent telling of just one day at the battle of Arnhem virtually all from the British point of view. It went into the amount of detail that I like and perhaps will help to bust some of the persistant 'myths' around the battle. Interesting take on the battle and maybe a slightly different take on the events compared with his views on his podcast 'We have ways of making you talk' that he hosts with James Holland. Both recommended by the way.

Cheers Paul

[Ben Waterhouse]

Hi

Just finished 'Arnhem Black Tuesday' by Al Murray. Excellent telling of just one day at the battle of Arnhem virtually all from the British point of view. It went into the amount of detail that I like and perhaps will help to bust some of the persistant 'myths' around the battle. Interesting take on the battle and maybe a slightly different take on the events compared with his views on his podcast 'We have ways of making you talk' that he hosts with James Holland. Both recommended by the way.

Cheers Paul

I didn't take to him as a comedian, but Al Murray is turning into an excellent WW2 historian.

[Last Hussar]

James Holland.

Surely James Nederlands, especially given the subject?

[Steve J]

Very good Last Hussar     !

[kipt]

Finished the National Geographic "Atlas Of The Civil War".  39 maps with commentary. Good pictures, high level views.

[Chris Pringle]

Finished "The Atlanta Campaign: Volume 1: Dalton to Cassville, May 1-19, 1864" by David A. Powell.
This is the history of the start of Sherman's campaign to Atlanta.  Quickly passed over in much history, there were quite a few significant actions on the way.  As the book says "although the fighting at Resaca has thus far garnered curious little attention from historians, the clash was no minor skirmish. The confrontation involved 140,000 men - 80,000 Federals and at least 60,000 Confederates."

As it happens, I spent last week visiting half a dozen battlefields between Nashville and Atlanta, including Resaca. Indeed, a very neglected battle given its size. I suppose it's neglected because it wasn't a turning point so much as a stepping stone, just one in a series of alternating assaults/outflankings that inexorably forced the Confederate army back.

[kipt]

Finished "Di Di Mau: Tigers, Rock Apes, The Jungle... and War" by Darren Walton with Michael J Coffino.  Walton was a Marine in a recon unit and this was his 13 month experience in Vietnam.  Very interesting first person experiences in the jungle - hot, humid, leeches, kunai grass, mud and occasionally the enemy.  As recon, the unit was to avoid contact unless they were after a prisoner grab.

Usually the patrols were about 4 to 5 days apart, giving the men time to recuperate and get a new mission. Humping the boonies was exhausting work and the book really brings it to the front of each person's experiences. 

I heard Walton at a meeting of the San Francisco Commandery of the Naval Order a couple of months ago.  He is a native of Marin County and gave a very interesting talk.  A bit too modern for my taste as I was in the army during that time, but never had a tour ion Vietnam - was in Turkey instead.  I prefer Horse and Musket.

Good book however - detailed and interesting.

[fred.]

I've been fortunate to travel to Vietnam a few times with work, in the last few years. On one trip we went out to the hills near Da Nang to visit some 1000 year old temples. Just walking around that site, in shorts and t-shirts carrying no load, and nearly all on paths, or at least cleared areas, was hard work. The temples were surrounded by jungle. I can't imagine how hard it must have been to fight in this environment - just from having to deal with the environmental conditions let alone a committed guerrilla enemy. 

[Duke Speedy of Leighton]

Friend showed me a 60s US map of Nam once, actually seeing the scale really put it into perspective.
At points the middle of the country is only 10s of mile across, but mountainous jungle. The US had Corps operating in that!
Vis was often feet or yards, for an army trained to fight modern warfare across open or urban terrain, no wonder they suffered.