I know it’s not micro armor per se, but for a lot of us it seems like books are an important part of the hobby. Sometimes I’m looking for specific info on unit organization or history, sometimes I’m trying to find out about tactics or operations, and sometimes I’m just interested in the subject. What have you guys got in the reading queue?
I was at a bookstore last night and looking for something on carriers in the Korean War, but what I found was this book on WW2 carrier operations. Seems pretty interesting, especially since I don’t know a whole lot about carrier ops. It promises to discuss things like fighter vs attack aircraft ratios, pros and cons of armored decks, carrier concentration vs dispersion in battle.
I recently finished With the Old Breed at Peleliu and Okinawa and it was pretty amazing. A first-hand account of those 2 campaigns in the Pacific that left me blown away by the hardships that these guys endured.
I am going to have to go back and watch The Pacific again. I think it was Leckie who gets a cab ride home and has the cab driver refuse his money with the quote:
"I might have jumped into Normandy but at least I got some liberties in London and Paris. You gyrenes, you got nothing but jungle rot and malaria. Welcome home."
Even some of the veteran marines of China and the Philippines were not prepared for just how ugly and deadly the environment itself was. Then they had the Japanese added in.
"It is a dangerous business, Frodo, going out your door. You step into the road and, if you do not keep your feet, there is no telling where you might be swept off to."
With the Old Breed is a harrowing but intriguing read.
I’m currently re-reading Robert Kershaw’s It Never Snows in September - great account of the German perspective of The Market Garden operation. It’s incredible how many ad hoc organizations were formed and responded immediately to the situation -his research is pretty deep.
Recently I read Typhoon of Steel about Okinawa (James and William Belote) and it was another great read. I was only slightly aware of how involved that campaign was.
Just finished “Desert Redleg” which is a personal account of Operation Desert Storm as seen by the Big Red One DIVARTY XO at the time . Pretty good read .
I just finished reading "Wildcats over Casablanca". originally published in 1943 by Little, Brown and Company, but now re-published by Eumenes Publishing.
It is told largely in the first person from accounts of the pilots of USN squadron VF-11, the "Red Rippers", who flew from CV-4 USS Ranger during Operation Torch. It gives accounts of life aboard the Ranger, the many characters of a fighter squadron and the ship's company, all the self-doubts of warriors heading for their first combat, the actual fighting (with accounts that track surprisingly well to what I have read in histories of the period), and even accounts of those pilots who were shot down and taken prisoner by the French. Of course it must be read with appreciation of the fact that it is a publication from 1943, with both the sensibilities of that era (no real nitty-gritty violence or terror) and a generous application of wartime patriotic coloring of events and observations. Still, as an avid reader of first-hand accounts I found it to be better than many, and an interesting read.
-Mark
-Mark 1 Difficile est, saturam non scribere. "It is hard NOT to write satire." - Decimus Iunius Juvenalis, 1st Century AD
I recently read The Red Army and the Second World War by Alexander Hill.
A great book that looks at the army more from 30,000 feet, talking more about how it was destroyed in the purges, rebuilt and finally able to defeat Germany. Really informative, but the style is academic so maybe not for everyone.
Available on Amazon and the other usual places.
Mark Severin
Owner, Scale Creep Miniatures
Author DeepFriedHappyMice.com
I usually rotate among military history & technology, mystery, historical military fiction, and science fiction.
Right now I'm reading a mystery, 'The Yard' by Alex Grecian. In a few days I should receive a large shipment from USNI Press, including 'The Kaiser's Cruisers, 1871-1918' by Aiden Dodson. This will be my next read.
BTW, I suggest anyone interested in naval warfare check www.usni.org/press/books. They are having a holiday sale with 50% off all titles and free shipping.
Don S.
"When a fire starts to burn,
here's a lesson you must learn:
something-something and you'll see
you'll avoid catastrophe."
D'oh!
Books … reading.
I just finished reading Bodyguard of Lies: The Extraordinary True Story Behind D-Day by Anthony Cave Brown, 1975, for the 3rd time.
Started reading for the 2nd time, No End Save Victory: Perspectives on World War II. It is a collection essays on WW2 by Ambrose, Keegan, etc.
The Cold War US Army, by Ingo Trauschweizer. Forging the Sheild from the Center for Military History.
All blessings flow from a good mission statement.
Pogo was right. So was Ike.
"A Gentleman is a man who is only rude intentionally." (Churchill)
Give credit. Take responsibility.
I am currently reading books by David Baldacci. My current series is his Memory Man series featuring Amos Decker. I enjoy Baldacci as one my favorite authors in the fiction genre.
I have a wide variety of historical books that I have read in the last few years. One series that I really enjoyed was the Liberation Trilogy by Rick Atkinson which started with "An Army at Dawn". Another great book was "Tank Warfare on the Eastern Front 1941-1942" by Robert Forczyk. Being a former tanker myself I found it very interesting. The author is also a former tanker as well.
Atkinson has a new trilogy on the Revolution. I've started the first one - "The British are Coming.". Unfortunately, it's a bit plodding. I really enjoyed his earlier trilogy. This latest seems a bit formulaic. I'm 100 books behind right now. They are stacked up in the basement. Waiting for new glasses after eye treatments the last three years.
All blessings flow from a good mission statement.
Pogo was right. So was Ike.
"A Gentleman is a man who is only rude intentionally." (Churchill)
Give credit. Take responsibility.
Atkinson has a new trilogy on the Revolution. I've started the first one - "The British are Coming.". Unfortunately, it's a bit plodding. I really enjoyed his earlier trilogy. This latest seems a bit formulaic. I'm 100 books behind right now. They are stacked up in the basement. Waiting for new glasses after eye treatments the last three years.
The British Are Coming was released a while ago wasn’t it, I feel like it’s been a while. I’d forgotten that was supposed to be here a trilogy, I’ll have to look into the second book, if it’s out or when it’s going to come out, I actually enjoyed the first one. Bruce Catton’s Army of the Potomac trilogy is getting rereleased in 2022, I’ve asked my wife to get it for me as a really late Christmas gift, my grandpa gave me his copies forever ago when I was in fourth grade, and I devoured them, that’s what started my love of history, especially the ACW.