Second stage of my Benghazi Handicap, even though this time a tad to the East: South Africans vs Rommel, by David Brock (already read in the first batch, together with the Indian Official History), The First Victory, by Andrew Stewart, And Springboks in Armour, by Harry Klein
Has anyone read this book yet your thoughts would be appreciated thought it looked interesting Nazi Billionaires: The Dark History of Germany’s Wealthiest Dynasties by David de Jong
Don't Tell My Mother - Peter Duggan-Smith. Coming to the end of this one. Superbly well written in an accessible style, but with plenty of place/people names for those who want to dig deeper. Starting out pre-war as an HMS Conway cadet, he jumped ship in NZ and then applied for a short service commission in the RAF, ending up in 18 Squadron on Blenheims during the Battle of France. He continued operations afterwards with a DFC awarded and eventually ended up shot down and wounded in May 1941. After this point he ends up on a succession of different posts, training and administrating from New York, to the Western Desert and Middle East, getting unsuccessfully involved with several women and more successfully in black market activity. Leaving the RAF he then joins the army and becomes an adjutant Captain in the occupying force in Japan. It's all very engagingly written, but does seem a bit overly long possibly as there's a lot of detail about fine dining and mess parties etc. Definitely not a Boys Own caper of a memoir, more a very honest account from somebody looking out for number one and embracing opportunities as they arose.
Not just a history of US Asiatic fleet but a good history of the formation and politicking of ABDA and the defence of the Malay Barrier. Uses Japanese and Allied sources. Just finished reading about the battle of Balikpapan. One of the sources the author uses in describing this action is a privately published memoir (2007) from the captain of a Japanese merchant ship lost in the action. Great for a view of what the other side was thinking.
When I'm not poaching current sources in Eastern Europe, I have a highly interesting study to read "on the side" (because - quite incidentally - it also fits very well with the current focus): BRITISH ARMY MANPOWER CRISIS 1944 https://kclpure.kcl.ac.uk/portal/files/2931337/313385.pdf I'm not even halfway through and already hooked.
I finished this just now. I would say... it's a cut above. Very well written, and also ... effective at conveying the remorseless losses to attrition through the campaign. The author was lucky to get pulled out and sent to be a battle instructor after Veritable. I think that saved his life. He was the only officer in his company who landed in Normandy and survived to the end. After Normandy the coverage does get progressively shorter but that feels sort of natural in this case. Not an instance of trying to write for what people are interested in, but maybe what the author could stand to write. I could be projecting my own feelings too much.
I have recently visited the Antietam battlefield so I am on an American Civil War jag, reading and re-reading many different titles. The following stand out: 1. Antietam, William Frassanito. A pioneering work of battlefield archaelogy, using Gardner's great photographs as a guide. 2. Lee's Lieutenants, Douglas Southall Freeman. The classic old multivolume study of command in the Army of Northern Virginia. Excellent in many ways, but at times too romantic and sentimental. (Freeman was a Southerner.) 3. The Fredericksburg Campaign, Francis Augustin O'Reilly. A much-needed modern account of a major campaign which historians had tended to neglect. Comprehensive and well researched and so useful, but not very well written. 4. Lincoln's Lieutenants, Stephen W. Sears. A voluminous and well written account of controversies and command politics in the Army of the Potomac, but not the really thorough nuts and bolts study of command and organization which the A o P still needs. I am also re-reading a couple of books about the Italian campaign, The Gothic Line by Douglas Orgill and Tug of War by Bidwell and Graham. Both are good, but I don't think B&G know the US Army quite as well as they think they do. For WWI, re-reading a grim and well-balanced book about Third Ypres, Passchendaele: the Sacrificial Ground, by Nigel Steel and Peter Hart. It contains many vivid soldiers' stories, and the military analysis is sound. Non-military stuff includes Volume I of Mark Twain's uncensored autobiography, released in 2010 as per his instructions. It is a huge, rambling, ill-organized book, but that's the way he dictated it and wanted it. It is often hilarious and always fascinating; it's like having Twain in the room with you, telling stories and spouting opinions.
After an impressive 4-day visit to the 1917 battlefield of Cambrai last week (will post pictures shortly) I picked up study on the 1918 battles and ordered the whole 1918-set of the Official History of the Great War (8 volumes; 3 vol. with maps and annexes incl.; 1993 hardcover edition) at a very reasonable price from a book-shop in NZ. Books will arrive in a couple of weeks. I probably have to change to another Forum .
Have you read Liddell Hart’s Sherman? I would like to know what you think, he continuously refers to it in The Tanks.
Dunkirk - John Harris Pretty standard run through of events through the eyes of several vets including well known ones like Jimmy Langley. Had a few bits I wasn't aware of like a private soldier smuggling his French bride home in khaki and one participant called Briggs who transferred to the RAF and was one of the towing pilots for the Pegasus Bridge assault. I've got several Dunkirk books from a box load I got a while back, which people are welcome to once I've read them. Arthur Bryants - The Turn of the Tide and Spears Fall of France (part 2) are up for grabs. I'll put more on here obviously as I read them.
On Cambrai, I would recommend Jack Sheldon's book 'The German Army At Cambrai' for the view from the other side of no-man's-land.