Currently Reading

[pmaidhof]

Hi guys,

 

Perhaps in either shore leave or here in Military History you can create a "Currently Reading" subfolder where participants can enter what they are reading, how it relates to Harpoon, Naval Warfare, Warfare, or History in general.

 

I just finished a very interesting book on the First Battle of the Marne by Robert B. Asprey, and am currently reading From Normandy to the Ruhr: With the 116th Panzer Division in World War II by Heinz Günther Guderian.

[Silent Hunter UK]

Winston Churchill's The Second World War- just finishing the second volume.

[CV32]

I'm still reading John B. Lundstrom's The First Team: Pacific Naval Air Combat from Pearl Harbor to Midway.

 

Haven't been making much progress with it lately. Need to spend more time reading good books.

[TonyE]

Reading Seduced by Hitler and it relates greatly to understanding government in all forms from how a business works to how the world's governments interact and capture or fail to capture the support of the citizens/workers. Not to mention an excellent look at the mechanics of morality.

[pmaidhof]

First Battle of the Marne

provided an interesting contrast/comparison between the French and German command structures.

 

As I believe that it was the final 1904 Schlieffen Plan, or possibly the after-actions descussions from the 1871 Franco-Prussian War, that even described how in the "next" war command could no longer be exercised, as it had become accepted from the Napoleonic Wars, where a commanding general would find high ground to direct the battle in his full view. A commanding general had to be back further away from the front, with a large map, and plenty of staff and messengers/dispatch riders in order to effectively command. Joffre exhibited this while von Moltke the younger did not.

 

It was also interesting in that incompetent leadership of German High Command, OHL, could not effectively coordinate and control the dynamic personalities of von Kluck and von Bulow, German First and Second Army commanders respectively. These generals essentially would blow off von Moltke and do their own thing whether or not it negatively impacted on their neighboring forces.

 

Joffre had a similar problem with Sir John French, commander of the BEF, and the original French Fifth Army commander General Lanrezac, but he was able to effectively, after much work, nuance, and direct intervention, get these two forces to finally stop the their retreats and actively participate in the counter attack which forced the Germans back from the Marne to the Aisne River about 40 miles rearward. It was along that line that the trenched began to appear and the race to the sea took place.

 

I do submit that the there was something inherently wrong about having the British commander named French. Makes for troublesome reading, or perhaps it is just me.

[PAK]

Thunder Run: The Armored Strike to Capture Baghdad by David Zucchino - actually I'm reading it for a second time. Excellent book about American surprising armor assault of Baghdad in 2003.

[broncepulido]

Perusing near 4.900 warplanes books to edit warplanes in the diverse DBs (more of 41 GB), and also some old paper books

 

My habitual reading are not military relationed (but some are defence, international politics or security relationed), and this year I've a lot of work in my real life. Habitually, in military topics books I only read the data or facts I'm searching, looking over casually the rest of the text.

 

I'm very little spare time this year, to force myself to read something, I bring some paper books ever with me and I stay "al fresco" in some "terraza" in some bars (with mojito, beer or gin-tonic, and cigar). And this is a very cold winter, too.

 

At home, almost only reading on PC. Now I'm ashamed because I'm reading Dan Brown's "The Lost Symbol" (a not very good nor original book of course, but I want to know what the people are writing about these old topics).

But little disposable time compelled me to not actually reading it

I'm double ashamed because it, but I'm hearing it as audiobook (in Spanish) in the PC (Harpooning in the PC, watching TV, mostly History Channel, and surfing the Net)

 

And, surprise, today I discover "The Lost Symbol" is defence relationated

The research premises mentionated in the book are similar to the mentionated in these articles:

http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2010/03/da...uantum-effects/

http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2008/05/lockheeds-spook/

 

And no, don't ask me for more details, I don't understand it very well ... yet

[pmaidhof]

Well, I'm just over 100 pages in to From Normandy to the Ruhr: With the 116th Panzer Division in World War II . Kleine Heinz and the 116th PzD, or more like what is left of it, had its baptism of fire in Normandy, fought at the Falaise Gap, and now has closed on the French-German border with the Allied forces slashing and thrusting their way east in pursuit. Apparent so far is the German high command (OKW) issuing orders to "divisions" which could only muster between single company to battalion strength to defend locations already occupied by the "opponent" or to attack with units out of place, already engaged or simply phantom units.

 

These events taking place in the west, while only alluded to is that the Soviet Union's Red Army pulverization and collapse of the German Army Group Center during Operation Bagration in Belorussian SSR and eastern Poland from June 22-August 19, 1944.

 

A very interesting look at the command and control of a mechanized unit in an extremely fluid movement, taking its lumps, and doing so using only radio and messengers.

 

More to follow.

[PAK]

Now I have moved into a completely different theme - I'm reading "Eleanor of Aquitaine. By the Wrath of God, Queen of England" by Alison Weir. My fiancee presented me this one for my birthday. A good read so far, quite possible that this book will finally "force" me to buy Crusader Kings with Deus Vult add-on...

[deadmeat1471]

I'm still reading John B. Lundstrom's The First Team: Pacific Naval Air Combat from Pearl Harbor to Midway.

 

Haven't been making much progress with it lately. Need to spend more time reading good books.

 

Any good? ive always been interested in carrier warfare, this sounds to be right up my alley

[CV32]

I'm still reading John B. Lundstrom's The First Team: Pacific Naval Air Combat from Pearl Harbor to Midway.

 

Any good? ive always been interested in carrier warfare, this sounds to be right up my alley

 

Yes it is, especially if you like detail (which I do, very much).

[pmaidhof]

The tried and trusted inter-library loan has now produced for me The Austro-Prussian War - Austria's War with Prussia and Italy in 1866 by Geoffrey Wawro. Looking forward to it providing me with more insight to use in upcoming games of kriegspiel.

[broncepulido]

This week in Madrid I've finded a re-edition of a very good book (only in spanish, I regret, but we know are many spanish readers in these fora).

http://inedita.masopciones.com/catalogo/no...ateo_mille.html

Historia Naval de la Gran Guerra 1914-1918 (first edition 1935), a very comprehensive history of all the WWI in the sea. With some material errours, it's a incredible good and vivacious reading.

The author, Mateo Mille García de los Reyes, was a Spanish Armada officer (Capitán de Corbeta), nephew of the Admiral Mateo García de los Reyes, he was also spanish correspondent of Jane's Fighting Ships (you can see his name in the photos of the Spanish Armada section of the WWI Jane's), and was murdered in the early months of the Spanish Civil War in the Paracuellos Massacre with his uncle (a action very similar to the Katyn Massacre, and also relationed with the Comunist Party). http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paracuellos_massacre

This book is a expanded variant of the earlier Los Titanes de la Mar (1932), but including the Pacific, Middle East, Africa and Mesopotamia theaters of operations.

Los Titanes de la Mar was one of my first and scarce early readings, many times repeted, and as consequence my interest by naval matters (My 1932 has the seals of the library of the DD Alcalá Galiano, from where was leased by my grand-father before his demise in SS C-3).

Historia Naval de la Gran Guerra is now a affordable book (28 euros), and for me of imprescindible reading for spanish readers with interest in naval history.

 

Other references:

http://todoavante.bloogle.es/2010/04/30/ma...a-de-los-reyes/

http://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mateo_Garc%C3%ADa_de_los_Reyes

http://pedrocurto.com/hombres/mateo.html

http://www.hermandaddelvalle.org/article.php?sid=4412

[wombat1417]

I just finished "Opeation Mincemeat" by Ben Macintyre. If you remember ever reading "The Man Who Never Was" as a kid, you'll really appreciate this book. It adds much more information than was available (or permitted to be used) at that earlier time. A ripping good yarn.

[broncepulido]

That story fascinated me by many years, from a early reading in Reader's Digest.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Mincemeat