What are the Forum members reading (3 Viewers)

I just finished re-reading "The Kings Depart", about the Armistice, the German revolution and the Treaty of Versailles. And now, I decided it's time to re-read "The Lord of the Rings" again. I started last night and I'm up to "Shadows of the Past".

But I've bookmarked a couple of books on Amazon, and will gradually pick them up for my library:

"The Peace that Almost Was", by Mark Tooley
"The First Team and the Guadalcanal Campaign", by John Lindstrom (seems a natural followup to "The First Team")
"Mission at Nuremburg", by Tim Townsend
"In the Presence of Mine Enemies", by Harry Turtledove
"Forgotten Ally: China's World War II, 1937-1945", by Rana Mittler
"The Devil's Pleasure Palace: The Cult of Critical Theory and the Subversion of the West", by Michael Walsh (I heard an interview with the author yesterday)
"Plunder and Deceipt" by Mark Levin

Prost!
Brad
 
I just finished Wolfgang Faust's "The Last Panther." Not a very uplifting book.

Anyone else read it? Thoughts on authenticity or how revisionist it is?

There were a couple of Amazon reviews calling out the many errors that you would not think a veteran would make, and I noticed them as well. Most of its reviews were really good which is why I downloaded it to my Kindle, but came away wondering if I agreed more with the two 1 stars that called it fiction.

Wanted to get the forum member's thoughts on it.
 
theBaron said:
I just finished re-reading "The Kings Depart", about the Armistice, the German revolution and the Treaty of Versailles. And now, I decided it's time to re-read "The Lord of the Rings" again. I started last night and I'm up to "Shadows of the Past".

But I've bookmarked a couple of books on Amazon, and will gradually pick them up for my library:

"The Peace that Almost Was", by Mark Tooley
"The First Team and the Guadalcanal Campaign", by John Lindstrom (seems a natural followup to "The First Team")
"Mission at Nuremburg", by Tim Townsend
"In the Presence of Mine Enemies", by Harry Turtledove
"Forgotten Ally: China's World War II, 1937-1945", by Rana Mittler
"The Devil's Pleasure Palace: The Cult of Critical Theory and the Subversion of the West", by Michael Walsh (I heard an interview with the author yesterday)
"Plunder and Deceipt" by Mark Levin

Prost!
Brad
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Brad, I read Watt's book many moons ago and really enjoyed it. Watt is also the author of 2 other very interesting books that I have read. The first is "Bitter Glory: Poland and Its Fate, 1918-1939" and the other is "Dare Call It Treason: The True Story of the French Army Mutinies of 1917". Both are good reads, especially Dare Call It Treason, which is one of the very few English language works involving the mutinies. -- Al
 
I am currently reading William Fowler's "We Gave Our Today: Burma" about the WWII Campaign in Burma. So far, it's a fairly decent read but there are quite a number of typo errors, especially in an early chapter on summarising the Japanese early military successes. The accounts are also somewhat anecdotal, but overall, the text does move along quite well.

Rgds Victor
 
Am reading Long Tan - the start of a long battle by Harry Smith. Was released last week to coincide with 49th anniversary. Long Tan is also the official Vietnam Veterans Day in Oz.

Smith was the Company commander in this famous Australian battle where his company was attacked by a much larger Vietnamese force. Likened to Australia's Rorkes Drift although without the Victoria Crosses.

His title refers to the long battle he has had to get more recognition / medals / awards for those in the battle.

During Vietnam the Australian medals were still those issued by the UK (ie. the Imperial system of VC, MC, MM etc) and there was basically a quota system per battalion/unit. This meant that when the awards were put forward for Long Tan many were not submitted up the chain of command or were rejected or downgraded. They definitely deserved more than they got.

Smith received a Military Cross at the time but deserved something higher which would have been the Distinguished Service Order (DSO). However the Battalion CO and Brigadier both received DSO's and their citations mentioned command of the battle when they were not on the field and did little. It seems to be the case they claimed a role which they did not do which in turn affected the awards of those who were actually in the battle. After 40 years Smiths medal was upgraded as were two of his LT's.

I have skipped ahead to certain parts and Smith has mentioned some aspects that I know are the cause of much debate amongst those who were in the battle. In particular the role of the APC commander (Roberts) and the Infantry Captain (Mollison) who were bringing in reinforcements. Another is what Bob Buick said or did at the point he told his men to withdraw. Buick's platoon were attacked first and his Lt killed almost instantly. Buick subsequently received the Military Medal but some in his platoon have made comments about his actions that do not fit in with those of the officers and Buicks version.

There was quite a bit of talk about a movie but since many of the main participants are still alive I believe the script caused some problems which could not be resolved.
 
Terp152 said:
This site allows you to download all seven vol of US Army Air Forces In WWII by Craven and Cate, and others. Comes in PDF format. Would like to see if the US Army official histories are available as well. I have quite a few of those in book form but missing some volumes. http://www.afhso.af.mil/topics/factsheets/factsheet.asp?id=17871
Chris
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Those are important books and are very informative but they are some of the hardest books to read that I ever attempted. Never made it through any of them completely but ended up using them for spot reading info, when I owned them.
Chris, which of the US Army volumes are you missing? -- Al
 
I have started reading two fantastic books that are very little to nearly no nearly not having been explored or written in the English language....
These are extensive reseaches with history focus/research and data backedIMG_3629.JPGIMG_3625.JPG and packed with pictures of the French AVS, Tanks and Aromured vehicles between 1914 and 1940. So very little has been written about the French amoured due to the early colapse of France during WW2 that all that has been done between 1914 and 1940 has been excluded until now in the Anglo Press....And the other is about the mechanised troops the Brits had in the Middle East.....It does away with the just camel comcept and shows how the Ford model T and the Rolls Armoured car as well as other vehicles made a difference .......the books are cramed with pictures and history ...you need to read them...
Cheers
Luiz
 
Just listened to audio book of To Set a Watchman ( during a series of long car journeys ) the follow up to Kill a Mockingbird. It's caused some anger amongst readers apparently as the lawyer hero Atticus appears to be racist , or is it just to break his daughters obsession with him. Had a great line that went ( when describing how Britain and the Deep south had much in common during the American Civil war and after ) The British are sons of *****es ....but they're our sons of *****es! :salute::

Reese Witherspoon did a good job narrating this.

Rob
 
I finished "The Lord of the Rings" yesterday, and have started on Levin's "Plunder and Deceipt".

Prost!
Brad
 
Reading "In Bitterness And In Tears"Andrew Jackson's Destruction of the Creeks and Seminoles.
Mark
 
I just finished re-reading "The Big E" by Cmdr Edward Stafford. It follows the combat record of the Enterprise in WWII. I've started now on "Five Days in London - May 1940" by John Lukacs, a look in detail at the British cabinet's deliberations in the wake of the French collapse and surrender to Germany, to continue to fight without surrender, until Hitler was defeated or they were dead.

Next in the queue are a couple more of John Lundstrom's "First Team" series, on the US Navy's campaigns in the first half of 1942, and on the Guadalcanal and Solomons campaigns.

Prost!
Brad
 
marco55 said:
Reading "In Bitterness And In Tears"Andrew Jackson's Destruction of the Creeks and Seminoles.
Mark
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Just finished this and am now starting "The Victory with no Name" The Native American Defeat of the First American Army by Colin G. Calloway. St.Clair's defeat in 1791.
Mark
 
Just finished John Eisenhower's "Bitter Woods". Not much I didn't know on the battle of the Ardennes in this book, but you can never have too many books on The Bulge and I had always wanted to read this classic account. Also finished Max Hastings "Nemesis" Pacific War 1944-1945. Good strategic level account of the war and rejects many revisionist criticisms of fire bombing, atomic bombs, etc.

Very glad to start Ian Toll's "Conquering Tide, the Pacific War 1942-1944." Just released and begins with Guadalcanal. He won the Samuel Elliot Morrison naval history award for his first vol Pacific Crucible. I compare this trilogy to S Foote's Civil War Narrative and R Atkinson's three vol history of the US Army in WWII (Mediterranean and western European theaters). The only downside is the final vol will probably not be released for another 3-4 yrs.
Chris
 
Just got 2 new WW1 aviation goodies. First one is Vol.6 in Lance Bronnenkant's Blue Max series, 'The Blue Max Airmen: German Airmen Awarded the Pour Le Merite; Hoeppner, Thomsen, Voss'. Hoeppner and Thomsen were upper echelon officers in the air service and as a result only 37 pages are devoted to these two, so the real interest in this volume lies with Werner Voss who is the focus of 62 pages. Excellent bio info with many rare Voss related photos. Another great book in this excellent series. The 2nd book is a new biography by Alex Revell called 'The Happy Warrior: James Thomas Byford McCudden, VC'. This is a 304 page softcover with some 275 photos, published by Aeronaut Books. This is a labor of love by the author who has previously published 'High in the Empty Blue' which is a history of 56 Squadron. This is a very detailed study of McCudden from birth to death with all sorts of great photos, which, IMO, could benefit from better production values, ie., better paper, sharper reproduction, but well worth having anyway. Like many WW1 flyers, McCudden had many unofficial air-to-air victories that were, for whatever reason, uncredited to their official tally. According to his research Revell finds that McCudden had as many as 31 unofficial victories to go with his 57 official victories. I had no idea he had so many uncredited shoot-downs.
Both these books retail at $29.95. -- Al
 
R. W. Peake's "Marching with Caesar" series "Fraternitas" and "The Devil's General" about Der Panzer Graf, Count Hyazinth von Strachwitz
 
This was probably mentioned in an earlier post
just finished Ian Toll's second book on the Pacific War. It is a must read, although I have read at least fifty books on the same subject.
Start with Volume 1 if you can.
Harvey
 
I'm in the middle of Lundstrom's "The First Team and the Guadalcanal Campaign". I'm learning a lot of details to fill in what I previously knew about the naval side of the campaign, about both the US and Japanese navies' movements and actions. I can recommend Lundstrom very highly, to fans of the Pacific War.

Prost!
Brad
 
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