What are you reading at the moment?

He is one of my favorite authors. He inspired me to try writing the same genre.

 

Orwell you might have a try at this book since it is most and for all a pictorial book.

 

Which book is this, btw?

 

Yeah, they had O'Connor, good ground-air coordination, and enough control of the air/sea that they could use naval gunfire to support operations like at Bardia.

 

Massacre on the road to Dunkirk - Leslie Aitken. Finished this, an account written in the 70s of the massacre at Wormhout. The author interviewed the handful of survivors and was instrumental in getting a memorial stone by the location of the barn. Tough reading as you’d expect, especially as the perpetrators didn’t face justice. If anybody wants this one for the price of the postage PM me.

 

Thanks for the recommend
Sounds like it's going to go on the to by list along with this title from Lanasta

So I'll be using Google translate to puzzle out the Dutch

I'm a fan of the G.1

 

First Tango in Warsaw - Jack Blocki - 17 year old Jack escaped the invasion of Poland by getting to Romania and then on to France. From there he managed to get to England and was trained as a pilot, completing a tour on Wellingtons, followed by a second tour on a special duties squadron based in Italy. To me, this is one of those books that is a bit disjointed when it comes to reader priority. We get more text on camp conditions in Romania and post war sailing than we do on any of his war service, despite the subtitle 'memories of a Polish pilot in WW2'. It's a highly readable book which I've thoroughly enjoyed, it's just a shame that his ops barely get a mention! The title and front cover are also straight out of Mills and Boon territory, so I was lucky this was in the aviation bookshop as I'd never have found it browsing in my usual secondhand shops!

 

To start my adventure through the African theaters of war, I am already a few pages into the Indian Official History for North Africa, "The North African Campaign, 1940-43". Next in queue, "Tank Combat in North Africa", by Thomas Jentz.

 

Notice the slight difference in Wars-End dates Bought this T-Towel while there, also the programme of events for that Victorious Day. Sadly the same day we had to return home.

 

Continuing my dive into the Italian effort in WW2.

Next up:

 

Almost forgot this little Fridge Magnet

 

Off (at last) to Cambrai next March/April for a three day BFT ... so now delving into:







The Ironclads of Cambrai is a real good primer for the Cambrai Tank Battle (and not too expensive as a pocketbook). Vol. I of the Story of the 62nd (West Riding) Division covers the Cambrai Battle.


Lidell Hart spends a Chapter on the Cambrai Battle which contains a good analysis of the operation. In his opinion the Cambrai operation formed the blueprint for the tactics of the 1918 battles, with the British and French depending on the tanks and the Germans on the infantry (infiltration/stormtroops). Unfortunately Lidell Hart participates in the 'Uncle Harper bashing' (which started post-war in the early '30-ies) by blaming the lack of progress at Flesquieres to the improper deployment of the Highland Infantry by its GOC, Major General Harper. Based on his reluctance of tanks, according to the story, General Harper adopted a tank-infantry drill (infantry moving at a distance of 100 yards behind the tanks in lines of platoons) that differed from the one advocated by Fuller (infantry in single file close behind the tanks, aka 'worms'; a tactic that was adopted by the infantry divisions in the British III.Corps). This prevented the infantry from bunching up behind the tanks and would save casualties from the mass of fire attracted by the tanks. Harper's 'unwise tactic' would have caused the infantry to lose contact with the tanks and thus was responsible for the failure of the attack on Flesquieres, in critical center of the Cambrai attack. This 'myth' was only set right in an article by John Hussey, "Uncle Harper at Cambrai, A reconsideration.” which appeared in 2001 in "The British Army Review" No. 117 (and also in an issue of Stand To!). In his article Hussey poses that there was no trace of quirkiness on the part of Harper and he certainly was not opposed to the use of tanks. Hussey points out that the tank-infantry drill used by the 51st HD (infantry moving at a distance of 100 yards behind the tanks in lines of platoons) differed from the one advocated by Fuller, but that the 62nd West Riding Division (also under British IV Corps) used exactly the same infantry/tank tactic as the 51st HD. The West Riding, attacking at Havrincourt, made the most successful and deepest penetration on the first day of the attack.


The Deborah book is my latest purchase. The German book "Die Tankschlacht bei Cambrai 1917" edited by the Reichsarchiv, as Vol.31 of the series: Schlachten des Weltkrieges, has been ordered and is on the way. Looking forward to reading nearly 200 pages in ancient Gothic script. Note that it is not called Panzerschlacht, as might be expected for a German book (!).

I'm still looking for the book below, "Following the tanks" by Jean-Luc Gibot and Philippe Gorczynski, but thusfar to no avail. Can anybody be of assistance?

 

I'm re-reading Belton Y Cooper's ghastly, ghost-written Death Traps.

Or trying to, anyway.

It has not improved with the passing years since I last read it about 20 years ago.

So far it is a 1/10. But...it has room to improve, at least.

 

Read the first book before watching the new film adaptation: found it brilliant. The film, less so because of the modern dialogue and poor delivery.

As with last year when I watched William Friedkin's Sorceror for the first time, I was left wondering why on earth I hadn't come to it years earlier.

Second book: good, but with pacing issues and ocassional longeurs—too much introspection about the nature of prophecy, but a wonderful depiction of a theocratic empire.

This one: very much enjoying it so far, but might take a break and get back to the army afterwards.

 

The original four are good books, when you read past God Emperor of Dune things start to get a little woolly. The additional books by his son Brian and Kevin J. Anderson while OK, change some of the back story, and remove tension when reading those by Frank Herbert.

 

Blunder: Why Smart People Make Bad Decisions

by Zachary Shore

Read it a while ago and taking another look now as it provides insights for the present situation.


To quote one reviewer

"For anyone whose best-laid plans have been foiled by faulty thinking, Blunder shines the penetrating spotlight of history on decision making and the patterns of thought that can lead us all astray.


From colonialism to globalization, from gender wars to civil wars, or any circumstance for which our best solutions backfire, Shore demonstrates how rigid thinking can subtly lead us to undermine ourselves. In the process, he identifies seven cognition traps to avoid. These insidious yet unavoidable mind-sets include:


-Exposure Anxiety: fear of being seen as weak


-Causefusion: confusing the causes of complex events


-Flat View: seeing the world in one dimension


-Cure-Allism: thinking that one-size solutions can solve all problems


-Infomania: an obsessive relationship to information


-Mirror Imaging: thinking the other side thinks like you do


-Static Cling: the refusal to accept that circumstances have changed"

 

Something i look foreword to, delivered through the letter box at the beginning of every month, 'History of War', A twelve month subscription, brought as a Christmas present.
Graham.

 

Did you get their 'special' 100th Issue?

Special for the wrong reason.

 

I have been on an American Civil War binge, re-reading stuff. The most amusing is Meade's Army by Theodore Lyman, the chatty diary-memoir of George Meade's senior aide in the last year of the war. I've also re-read Lincoln's Lieutenants, a rather misleadingly titled study of the high command Army of the Potomac. It is gossipy, malicious, and well written by Stephen W. Sears. I have also looked at a bunch of books about the Chickamauga and Atlanta campaigns, of which Thomas Connelly's Autumn of Glory and Albert Castel's Decision in the West are the best written and most fun.

 

No mate i'm new to this magazine.
The issues i have posted are Jan no 103, Feb 104, Mar 105, of this year.

Graham.