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The Great Anglo-Boer War by Byron Farwell Also seems to be in print with the name The Great Boer war, not sure what the difference between the two is. Very good overview of a war I've never known that much about, been fantastic so far.
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Aug 14, 2021 04:06
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Comrade Blyatlov posted:Mark of the Lion Picked this up and it is excellent, thanks for recommending! Late in battle for Crete had a bullet in his leg, dysentery, and an arm wound and still led a group to scale a cliff near the evacuation beach to rain bren gunfire on a German advance party to take out like 40 guys.
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Aug 14, 2021 20:58
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Are their any good books about the initial action in Afghanistan right after 9-11? I think I read “Kill Bin Laden” forever ago, but all the never forgetting today has made me curious and I’m out of anything fresh on my Kindle.
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Sep 12, 2021 01:52
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The book is much much much broader in scope but Ghost Wars by Steve Coll is great. My “senior project” in high school was a huge research paper about the aftermath of the Soviet-Afghan war and that book made it so much easier. Also now that I’ve stated reading abotut more current events in Afghanistan I get to be constantly horrified every time I recognize a name that we basically hired on almost all of the most corrupt and vicious warlords to be part of the national government except maybe Hekmatyar but we let him in anyway years after a deal. So that’s cool.
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Sep 13, 2021 16:18
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This sounds like a good read: https://twitter.com/hoyer_kat/status/1451225308527480834?s=20
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Oct 21, 2021 21:13
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Longshot request: does anybody have any recs for books by/about Civil Affairs types? Modern or historical Even longer longshot: any recommendations of ethnographic works about servicemembers?
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Oct 21, 2021 23:03
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Not specifically civil affairs, but I think it's about as close as I can think of, try Max Boot's "The Road Not Taken", about Edward Lansdale and his involvement in the Philippines after WW2, and his subsequent involvement with the South Vietnamese government before and during the American incursion of Vietnam. I have a specific interest in oral histories, and Donald Knox finished two before his unexpected death from a heart attack. Death March, about the American soldiers, sailors, and marines who were stationed in the Philippines at the start of WW2 and the short defensive battles they fought, along with their capture and the horrible treatment they underwent as prisoners of the Japanese army. The other is 2 volumes, Korea: Pusan to Chosin, being the initial entry of American soldiers into Korea in July 1950 up to General Walkers death around Christmas 1950. It continues in Korea: Uncertain Victory. Donald Knox died while putting this volume together, and it was finished by someone else so it feels a bit different from the other two books. Still worth reading though.
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Oct 22, 2021 05:22
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Speaking of oral histories, I'm reading The Good War. Its one of the most gripping things I can remember reading.
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Jan 1, 2022 20:26
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Ataxerxes posted:Poilu: The World War I Notebooks of Corporal Louis Barthas, Barrelmaker, 1914-1918 The notebooks of a very lucky and very angry French soldier who survived WW1. I have heard many, many recommendations of this. This book is excellent and a rare translation of the French perspective and experience of the First World War into English. The French experience of the war is a huge blind spot of the English language historiography of that conflict. If you like first person accounts from the FWW I would recommend: "There's a Devil in the Drum" by J.F Lucy Lucy was in an Irish regiment which went into action at Mons in 1914, and he fought until 1917 ultimately surviving the war. "In The Trenches 1914-1918" by Glenn R. Iriam Iriam was a sniper in the CEF and fought throughout the war. The writing in the book is crude but the experiences related in it are vivid. "A Rifleman Went to War" by Herbert W. McBride McBride was an American who volunteered with the CEF on the war's outbreak. He also ended up becoming a sniper, and returned to the US to train soldiers on the entry of America in the war. "Storm of Steel" has already been mentioned, but I would like to recommend Erich Maria Remarque's "The Road Back" as it deals with a group of German soldiers who return home from the trenches at the end of the war and their experiences attempting to transition back into civilian life. I feel like there are many parts of this book which would ring true with vets today. The book is fiction but Remarque was a German veteran who had served at the front. For Second World War first person accounts, my go to is "Daedelus Returned" by Baron von der Heydte von der Heydte was a German Fallschirmjäger officer who fought through the war. This book mainly deals with his experiences during the operation in Crete. He was also a literature professor so the writing is excellent and he works in some of the island's mythology into his narrative.
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Jan 15, 2022 03:46
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Comrade Blyatlov posted:Speaking of oral histories, I'm reading The Good War. Its one of the most gripping things I can remember reading. Oh for sure, one of the best war histories ever. Especially as it came out in the mid-80s so far more figures were still around to be interviewed. Working is another masterpiece from Terkel.
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Jan 16, 2022 01:28
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Yeah highly recommend The Good War. I think the thing I loved most about The Good War was that it did a really great job of hammering home that its easy to forget in hindsight how uncertain things were for the first year or two of the war. Terkel’s oral history on the Great Depression, Hard Times, is quite good as well. Japan at War by Haruko Taya Cook and Theodore Failor Cook is in a similar vein from the Japanese perspective and quite good as well.
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Jan 16, 2022 04:12
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Handsome Ralph posted:Yeah highly recommend The Good War. I think the thing I loved most about The Good War was that it did a really great job of hammering home that its easy to forget in hindsight how uncertain things were for the first year or two of the war. Terkel’s oral history on the Great Depression, Hard Times, is quite good as well. Oh for sure. Lots of political histories pre-war are fascinating when they discuss how strong the isolationist movement was or how FDR had to be clever about aiding the UK. I liked in the Truman book how they mention immediately after Pearl Harbor how one of the previously non-interventionist senators had a dismayed expression as he quickly voted in favor of all war legislation.
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Jan 16, 2022 04:32
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Tameichi Hara's Japanese Destroyer Captain, while noticeably self-serving, is a fascinating look at the other side of some of the big battles of the war.
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Jan 16, 2022 05:38
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Madurai posted:Tameichi Hara's Japanese Destroyer Captain, while noticeably self-serving, is a fascinating look at the other side of some of the big battles of the war. It is a great book. It's so interesting to see the perspective of somebody absolutely convinced that they are winning and he's serving in the baddest-rear end navy on earth, and slowly realizing that these Americans might know what they are doing and that we might be, uh oh now we definitely are, losing.
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Jan 16, 2022 06:04
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gohuskies posted:It is a great book. It's so interesting to see the perspective of somebody absolutely convinced that they are winning and he's serving in the baddest-rear end navy on earth, and slowly realizing that these Americans might know what they are doing and that we might be, uh oh now we definitely are, losing. I wonder if for a time like 39 to early 41 he could objectively have been considered to have been in the baddest-rear end navy. Overall I’d guess the Royal Navy was still stronger but I remember reading in Shattered Sword how for a time the Japanese navy’s carrier strike force was the strongest weapon around. Kinda related but a great thing about these forums is being able to drop in the military history thread in Ask/Tell and get expert answers without being made to feel stupid.
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Jan 16, 2022 06:48
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A short but fun book I just got through is Random Shots From A Rifleman by John Kincaid. Published in 1835, a collection of stories and anecdotes from the peninsular war by a rifleman.
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Jan 17, 2022 04:11
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SMEGMA_MAIL posted:The book is much much much broader in scope but Ghost Wars by Steve Coll is great. This book is really good especially when immediately followed up with the Afghanistan Papers.
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Apr 6, 2022 02:19
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I'm working my way through Ian W. Toll's Pacific War books and though they're very well-put together and readable, he keeps putting "the" in front of ships' names and it is ACTIVELY HARMING ME.
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May 5, 2022 22:22
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I’m a maritime expert for a living and I put “the” in front of boat’s names all the time.
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May 29, 2022 05:25
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FrozenVent posted:I’m a maritime expert for a living and I put “the” in front of boat’s names all the time. Which, in vernacular, is fine. You just don't write it that way.
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May 29, 2022 17:23
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Madurai posted:Which, in vernacular, is fine. You just don't write it that way. I do!
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May 29, 2022 19:43
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Jason Marks' Into Oblivion. It's not cheap but Marks is a really excellent researcher. He follows a LT in the 305th Bondsee Division from garrison duty in France to combat in Stalingrad. The guy he follows ends up living becasue of a wound and sets out post war to tell the sotry of his unit, all reservists, and trying to find the fate of survivors. Marks also has Island of Fire about a factory battle in Stalingrad. Both showcase the utter primeval hopelessness of urban combat. Both books are based on first person accounts.
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Jun 18, 2022 01:39
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Burning Beard posted:Marks also has Island of Fire about a factory battle in Stalingrad. Both showcase the utter primeval hopelessness of urban combat. Both books are based on first person accounts. $43 on Kindle???? It's an ebook! Come on!
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Jun 18, 2022 06:06
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gohuskies posted:$43 on Kindle???? It's an ebook! Come on! I know, not happy about it. PM if you want, I can.. help you. I bought the physical copy before it went out of print.
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Jun 19, 2022 01:40
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Coldest winter by halberstam is great. Best and brightest is also an absolute must read by him.
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Jun 19, 2022 23:31
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my morning jackass posted:Coldest winter by halberstam is great. Best and brightest is also an absolute must read by him. Coldest Winter is great because of the non stop dunking he does on MacAurthur
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Jun 20, 2022 17:55
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Burning Beard posted:Coldest Winter is great because of the non stop dunking he does on MacAurthur I just finished Ian Toll's Pacific Crucible and learned that despite having nine hours advance warning after Pearl Harbor, nearly all of MacArthur's air force in the Philippines was destroyed anyway as he was too disorganized/incompetent to take steps to prepare for the incoming Japanese. Also he went with a "repel them on the beaches" strategy which was absolutely the wrong call as they didn't have the set up for it and led to many defenders being wiped out.
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Jun 20, 2022 18:36
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Burning Beard posted:Coldest Winter is great because of the non stop dunking he does on MacAurthur Not to mention Ned Almond
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Jun 20, 2022 20:05
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my morning jackass posted:Coldest winter by halberstam is great. Best and brightest is also an absolute must read by him. I also second this. Bought the book for my dissertation.
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Jun 20, 2022 20:05
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Sad King Billy posted:Not to mention Ned Almond lol was about to quote and say the same thing  Currently reading through Ian Toll's Pacific War Trilogy, specifically The Conquering Tide right now, and it's really really good. It's on par with Rick Atkinson's Liberation trilogy.
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Jun 21, 2022 03:18
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Handsome Ralph posted:lol was about to quote and say the same thing Heck yeah “currently reading The Conquering Tide buddy” just got past the Battle of the Santa Cruz Islands.
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Jun 21, 2022 04:23
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Sad King Billy posted:Not to mention Ned Almond Reading about 10 Corps and how Almond nearly got the Marines trapped is blood boiling. OP Smith is a goddamn stellar example of a leader who knew his poo poo and ignored Almond completely.
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Jun 21, 2022 23:27
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Hyrax Attack! posted:Heck yeah “currently reading The Conquering Tide buddy” Just finished this one, highly recommended for helping make the events in the pacific easy to follow. A standout part was a summary of a major Japanese airplane factory not being built near an airfield or rail line so oxen had to haul planes dozens of miles, and when 20 of the 50 oxen died it caused slowdowns. Meanwhile the US mega fleet is having 80 or so planes make water landings after a successful night attack went beyond fuel limits, and nearly all pilots were recovered and quickly in fresh planes.
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Jul 5, 2022 14:21
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Defense of Duffer's Drift My old boss made us read this. It's a light read, demonstrates themes like "use what you have to your advantage," "learn from your mistakes" etc. Masters of the Air Great book about the US Air War over Europe, multiple perspectives and stories covered in this, similar to how Band of Brothers was written. The Ghost Mountain Boys Incredibly brutal retelling of the 32nd Infantry Division and the early jungle warfare waged by the US in Papua New Guinea during WW2. The battle was eclipsed by the Guadalcanal Campaign but even the Marines that fought there knew that they didn't have it as bad as the 32nd. Panzer Ace: The Memoirs of an Iron Cross Panzer Tank Commander This one is actually a very good read that covers Von Rosen's wartime career as a Panzer Commander. This retells how the German Panzers evolved throughout the war and his experience fighting in the West and Eastern Campaigns. His journey started from a trainer tank to the King Tiger. The History of the German General Staff Pretty hard to find in 'new' condition since these were taken out of old libraries, but it's a good read that covers the evolution of Germany's Officer Corps dating back to Frederick the Great and the events and personalities that shaped the German Military throughout its history. CabooseRvB fucked around with this message at 18:19 on Aug 12, 2022 |
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Aug 12, 2022 18:14
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I liked By Water Beneath the Walls: The Rise of the Navy SEALs by Benjamin H. Milligan. It's a good broad history of US special warfare in general and traces a clear path of Marine and Army screwups and failed opportunities that lead the SEALs to even exist. It stops at Vietnam, so nothing more recent then that is in the book. I learned a lot about the Navy's efforts in China during World War II. The author is a SEAL himself, so it's a big fawning over the Navy in general but I learned a bit I hadn't know before.
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Aug 12, 2022 18:19
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A while back, someone in one of the GiP threads posted a link to an account by (I think) a Wehrmacht combat engineer who was an eye witness to the Warsaw Uprising. The Dirlwanger assholes figure prominently. Anyone know what I'm talking about?
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Aug 11, 2023 21:05
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elsanto posted:A while back, someone in one of the GiP threads posted a link to an account by (I think) a Wehrmacht combat engineer who was an eye witness to the Warsaw Uprising. The Dirlwanger assholes figure prominently. Anyone know what I'm talking about? You may want to ask in this thread, they know everything: https://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3950461
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Aug 15, 2023 03:01
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It was here: https://www.warsawuprising.org/witness/schenk.htm
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Aug 23, 2023 23:38
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