What are you currently reading?

[Redwolf]

I was at Barnes & Noble today and I started to browse through Shake Hands With the Devil by Lt. Gen. Roméo Dallaire...I had to buy it and move it to the top of the reading list. I can already tell that it will not improve my opinion of the UN. Dallaire commanded the UN peacekeeping mission in Rwanda in 1993-1994...His actions and leadership were heroic; but doomed to fail for lack of support. He is the highest ranking officer known to have been treated for post traumatic stress disorder.

to Lt. Gen. Roméo Dallaire and Canada's heroic peacekeepers.

You won't regret buying and reading it. One of my all-time favorites.

Also one of the few insightful accounts by somebody who worked with the U.N.

[Boonierat]

I'm reading a book called: U.S. Marines in Vietnam - An Expanding War, 1966 by Jack Shumlison published by the History & Museums Division of the USMC, the third in a 9-volume series detailing the operations of the USMC during the War. It's an awesome book, covering in unbelievable minutiae all the aspects of the Corps day-to-day operations. Written between 1978 and 1992 I believe, this series is a grandiose tribute to all the Marines that fought there, and I just wish the Army had done the same thing.
(You can download it in pdf, as well as other great publications from the USMC here: http://www.usmc.mil/directiv.nsf/HIS...t=5000&start=1)

[Daemon of Decay]

I have to finish my required reading for school before I can read for fun again.



Oh cry me a river.

[hellboy30]

Finished the Warhammer 40k novel "Iron Hands" a few days ago & now I am well into "1635: The Cannon Law" http://www.amazon.com/1635-Cannon-La...e=UTF8&s=books

Highly enjoyable so far, like the rest of the series.

[kentek]

Just finished this:



A good summary of the events leading up to the capture of Derna, both military and political. Unfortunately, the author uses a 'novelized' style and he isn't very good at it. There are better books on the subject.

[Scout32]

I'm reading a book called: U.S. Marines in Vietnam - An Expanding War, 1966 by Jack Shumlison published by the History & Museums Division of the USMC, the third in a 9-volume series detailing the operations of the USMC during the War. It's an awesome book, covering in unbelievable minutiae all the aspects of the Corps day-to-day operations. Written between 1978 and 1992 I believe, this series is a grandiose tribute to all the Marines that fought there, and I just wish the Army had done the same thing.
(You can download it in pdf, as well as other great publications from the USMC here: http://www.usmc.mil/directiv.nsf/HIS...t=5000&start=1)

Great site,Boonie.These look better than the Army's Vietnam Studies series.

[Boonierat]

Great site,Boonie.These look better than the Army's Vietnam Studies series.

Yep. The Army started writing its operational history in Vietnam some years ago but the series stalled after 2 volumes in 2000 . Its a pity really, the first two books are some of my favourite books ever. Gotta admit the Corps did and still does a great job writing its own history.

[17poundr]

Currently reading "Stalingrad, the Fateful Siege:1942-1943" by Antony Beevor. Great book so far.

First of all let me welcome you to these threads, the only one I have found that I keep on returning to... Jump abroad mate!

Secondly, I completely share your view, Beevor's Stalingrad, is his 'tour de force', the one he will be remembered by, even though he has done seminal work, especially in 'The Spanish civil war', and a very easy reading 'Krete', and the somewhat dissapointing 'Berlin 45' (this could have been because I had unwizely just read the fall of Berlin book by the man who wrote the exellent 'A bridge too far', and there were too many similarities, so)...


Thirdly, I would like to thank all of you people who have went to the trouble of doing a bit of literary criticism, or just plain info sharing about the books you are reading, too often I feel somebody just comes out with 'Im reading this by him', and I think "Ok, but is it good? Entertaining, detailed? boring as H****l? Or what?

I feel that this thread is for us to drop a line or two to give our impression of the book, even if only starting the book, I try to give the first impressions, just so the next guy knows kind of what the book is about, after all it's a horrible bumber when you put down your hard earned sheckles to a book with a fancy cover, and find out it's the only sphere where re-cycling is defenatelly not 'in' !!!

Ok, enough with the ranting, and up with my new books, mirrouring my split personality, I am again reading three books at once, (stupid when reading factual books, but hey, just seem to end up there all the time).

My first one was called 'Blizkrieg' (a history of the German tank divisions in World War II) by: Peter McCarthy & Mike Syron.

To sum it up fast, it dwells on a familiar subject, but tries to focus on what really made the panzer div's so good, with provenly inferior equipment during their hayday, and in the end even though having exellent tanks, beign outnumbered by about ten to one and still surviving better than the infantry, the 'miracle ingredient' of the panzers, were the men!

Yep, it was the good training of the men, and ofcourse the early emphasis on radio control ect, but the men were kind of special forces in their mind set, and that was the great secret of the German panzers...

Ok, second book, I started reading this accidentally when I thought that the previous was lost, but It was in the shelf of my mother! (What is she doing with a book on the Panzer Div's, most intriguing ), anyway, so I started on the other side of the coin in a way, a book called:

'Taiming the panzers' (Monty's Tank Battalion's 3rd RTR at war), by: Patrick Delaforce.

This book goes through the war, by one of the rare tank units that pretty much saw all the ETO action bar Norway, they fought well in France, much better than I knew actually, all I ever read about was the Brit counter attack at the Aa canal, but there were other Brit-vs German tank actions, and the 3rtr were in the fray, then blowing what tanks they had left, and having to make it on foot to Dunkerque just by the nick of time!

And all of this after doing some good rear guard action against the Germans in Calais! Then to the Desert, Greece, Crete, back to the desert, and the long long battle that ended in Tunis, then a bit of Italy, to Britain with some of the other favourites of Monty, who must of remembered these very resiliant tankers from their miraculous escape from Calais (an action that possibly made Dunqerque possible), forget about Adolph getting cold feet, they couldnt leave enemy tanks who had demostrated a capacity of being able to take out all the German vehicles, (even the panzer IVs, with a bit of luck), just roaming in their rear...

Then it's D-day with the Bocace country, Verrier ridge, Goodwood, and the glorious dash through France, some meticulous fighting in taking Antwerp, and getting the new Comets which were a godsend, but then they had to rush to the Ardennes, and after that it was crossing the rhein and by that stage it was tank vs anti tank gun, or suicidal folksgrenadier kid with a panzerfaust, and somewhat dissapointed vet's who didnt get to go 'one on one' with a panther since the Comet was pretty good, and the vet's were very bored at having to dodge superiour German armour, (ever since the long barrel panzer IV and Stug came along, let alone the Tigers, and other tank destroyers), with their speedy Cromwells, or sturdy Shermans!

A great tour de force of one Regiment, that was independent, until it became a part of the eleventh armoured I belive (havent got that far yet)... Good small unit action, reminds me of 'Panzer ace's', the little soft back, that told the story of about six of Germany's outstanding tank killers, with exeptions, ofcourse you had your Vittman and Blix, but there was Dr Bäcke of the sixth panzer, in early day's, until he seemed to vanish after Barbarossa, perhaps into training??? And the infamous Ribbentrop's son, who fought in a SS division as a Panzer IV commander in Kursk, and made an amazing get away, when the clash with the Fourth tank army began, and his forward observation troop of three sees the forward troop of sixty t-34s coming, and the two flanking tanks blow up instantly! He got back to his own lines by driving among the T-34s, who still had to rely on the aimer to see, and being buttoned up, nobody noticed that they had a panzer 4 amongst them for a mile, blowing a fiew tanks while at it! And he survived the war (incredible stories),

Anyway, it had a similar feel to 'Taiming the panzers', unknown tank actions described with that slightly detached feel of men who have fought a long long war, and written so many an after action report, and seen so many of their friends go...

Fully recommendable, both of these books!

[Boonierat]

I'm about halfway through Vietnam: from Cease-fire to Capitulation by William E. Le Gro. This book is truly remarkable as it is the only one I know of that deals exclusilvely with what the historians called the 3d Indochina War, from the ceasefire of January 1973 to the fall of Saigon on April 30, 1975.
I knew very little about that subject even though I always had in mind that one day I would explore this often overlooked period of the War. Written by a US Army Colonel who served as a senior staff officer with the U.S. Military Assistance Command, Vietnam, and its successor agency, the U.S. Defense Attache Office, Saigon, from December 1972 until the bitter end, it shows very clearly that the fightings went on unabatted after the 1973 cease-fire and the wihdrawals of the last US troops and that the RVNAF (Republic of Vietnam Armed Forces), contrary to a tenacious myth of the Vietnam War, fought admirably on its own against the NVA. In his conclusion, the author wrote:

Yet the outcome could have been different. Unit for unit and man for man, the combat forces of South Vietnam repeatedly proved themselves superior to their adversaries. Missing, however, were inspired civil and military leadership at the highest levels and unflagging American moral and material support.

[VancePolk]

Finished Beevor's "Stalingrad". I actually bought the book about a year after its release but only read it this year. To be honest, I wasn't going to read it at all, especially after reading William Craig's "Enemy at the Gates". Most of the reviews I saw about it were pretty good for the most part but there were also many negative reviews, especially on military websites. A big knock against the book was it being a superficial journalistic account of Stalingrad and this played a role in me not reading it until now- what a mistake. I rate this book as equal to Craig's.
Beevor has it all in this one. He gives a good accounting of events on the Eastern front leading up to Stalingrad. Beevor mixes operations and also gives you a good feel of what went on at the soldiers level. He gives insight into why certain things happened and you get a good feel of the suffering endured in this epic battle. I also think Beevor is fair to the Soviet side.
I think Craig's book is the more gripping account while Beevor's is the more complete account. Some military books that focus on operations tend to be too detailed and dry, while great for the military historian or aficionato, not so great for a more general audience. These two do not fit into that catagory, they are great reading.

[Wolfe Tone]

In the same boat myself. I read Craig's years ago and enjoyed it a lot.

Bought Beevor's one but have yet to read it. Put off by the negative reviews I guess but I paid for it so the onus is there to get around to actually reading it one day!

[The Doctor]

Just finished this:

A good summary of the events leading up to the capture of Derna, both military and political. Unfortunately, the author uses a 'novelized' style and he isn't very good at it. There are better books on the subject.

Max Boot's The Savage Wars of Peace covers the Barbary Wars and the early exploits of the US Navy/Marines pretty well. Joshua London's book looks pretty good too...Victory in Tripoli: How America's War with the Barbary Pirates Established the U.S. Navy and Shaped a Nation

[hellboy30]

Finished "1635: The Cannon Law" & am now reading "The Elements of Confederate Defeat: Nationalism, War Aims, & Religion". Blowing through it pretty fast.....

[Scout32]

Just finished Clay Blairs Silent Victory and am now reading his U-Boat War:The Hunters and next up his U- boat war:The Hunted.

[The Cooler King]

I'm almost finished with Audie Murphy's WWII memoir, To Hell and Back. An outstanding book retelling the actions of World War Two's most decorated Soldier in his own words.