What is everyone reading?

The Bedford Boys.

[ 12. October 2003, 12:14 AM: Message edited by: Ahab ]

 

I thought of reading soem good oled cold war stuff...

By some Russian author from the beginning of the 1960´s a book titled " The truth about the second front"...Should be interesting to see how the Russians claim Churchill ( probably ) a liar and the reasons he gave were just excuses...

 

A Century of Violence in Soviet Russia

Received it from an American friend.

Anyone who thinks Lenin, Stalin & Co. were "good guys" should be forced to read this.

http://www.yale.edu/yup/books/087608.htm


...when orders came from Moscow to root out "anti-Soviet elements" they had friggin quotas of how many "conspirators" are to be found and "tried in court" (they had also quotas of how many should be shot) or just exiled to Siberia or sent to hard labor camps. Of course, the local authorities being the good bolsheviks they were, always strived to exceed the quotas...



I highly recommend it.

 

Bought too many books lately, but the highlights are,

Deadulus Returned by Von Der Heydte
Arnhem Lift by Louis Hagen
History of the Royal Marines by Julian Thompson
The Last Knight of Flanders by Allen Brandt

And a complete OOB and analysis of German troops in Normandy 1944.

Oh and I just finished Popski's Private Army!!!

 

Has anyone ever read David H. Hackworth's "Brave Men" or "About Face?" They're about his personal experiences when he served at 16-17 y/o? in the occupation forces post WWII, his dealings with a "Special Forces" group called the "Wolfhounds" in Korea, and his experiences in Vietnam. He was a very highly decorated veteran of those two conflicts and still writes commentaries on military actions/campaigns to this day. "Brave Men" is one of those books you just don't mind reading three or four times!

 

Koskimaki's style makes reading history addictive. Once you finish his Battered Bastards book, look for "To Save Bastogne" by Robert F Phillips; first published in 1983 and dedicated to the 110th Infantry Division who bought enough time with their blood to permit Bastogne to be reinforced and eventually relieved.

It puts the entire action into perspective.

 

Many thanks, MajorD !

In fact, I have a nice copy of ' To Save Bastogne ' waiting to be read...I bought it from a US dealer via Bookfinder last year. I am gradually putting together a good 'Bulge' library - many of the books being available only from US sources.

 

Thanks for the pointers guys.

I get a lot of packages in for someone 'who promised not to buy that many books anymore'.

 

I'll second that!

Another excellent read (and for those in Britain this is not yet another book about how the USA saved the world and won the war alone) "The GI Offensive in Europe- The Triumph of American Infantry Divisions, 1941-1945" by Peter R Mansoor.

This book takes a new look at how the war was won and by whom. Often critical of American senior staff the author tries to highlight the work done by the tactical level of command while critisizing Corps commanders for their lack of knowledge and poor command skills. He explains why the capture of Paris was such a problem for the Allies, what went wrong in the Huertgen Forest and the Vosges, why GRENADE was delayed and why it succeeded and has a good chapter on the Battle of the Bulge and why the Germans could never have won it.

Thought provoking and factual, this is a great book. It puts "Crusade in Europe" and "War as I Knew It" in their place.

For me, this book tied together many loose ends; many misunderstood and seemingly disjointed events are now clear.

 

Make sure you read them and don't just collect them. I have been a collector for far too long. Reading them is much more rewarding.

By the way, I have found the British booksellers to be vastly overpriced. I can get most of the books I need via alibris.com perhaps they don't ship to the UK?

One book that I can't find is called "Waltzing Matildas" and it details the Australian armoured vehicle/organisation history. Does anyone have a copy they could sell me?

 

I do read everything in my collection - eventually - although visitors to my house never believe me....

UK dealers seem to think that they'll only put the book on Bookfinder, ABE, or whatever if it's an expensive one, or it 'isn't worth the bother' otherwise ! So you can find much cheaper books in the shops over here. I have bought from some very good US dealers and Australian ones, too - maybe they can help with 'Waltzing Matildas'.

 

Recently bought a few ospreys off ebay to top up my collection. Just finished peter kilduff book on the red baron. an excellent book. Just started Herwig Holgers 'Luxury Fleet: the Imperial German Navy 1888 - 1918'. So far so good.

I also recently catalogued the books i have up here at uni. It worries me because i got more at my parents

 

I still have problems with Osprey; I have only two titles myself which are ok, but early on in my ww2 book reading career these titles were really badmouthed by a lot of people and that kinda turned me off of them. There is a bookshop in Leiden which stocks, I think, all osprey titles; hundreds of them.

I have some really good experiences with Australian booksellers; got some titles very, very cheap and very good service too. Agree that on line UK sellers can be expensive, but so can US dealers!! It remains a matter of shopping around. Like I wrote; I got Gale's With the 6th A/B in Normandy from a UK dealer for GBP 10!! There is one dealer in Germany which stuctually overprices his books by at least 30%.

Sorry I keep butting in...I love to talk books....I read them too, I promise!

 

Stevin i wouldn't knock osprey. for a very basic potted history i find them very good. especially if it is an era your not to sure you interested in. it just give a taste. the main problem can be its artwork, though this only really effects the medieval and ancient range. here the criticism is that they are a combination of archealogical finds from different periods and therefore, don't really represent anything. the main culprut of this is unfortuanatly Angus McBride, who while an excellent artist combine lot of the details and unfirtuantly there is no real basis to them sometimes.

 

I guess I have to agree with you; I have only read some WW2 titles. I thought the pics were interesting and for someone with little or no knowledge on a subject I guess they are a decent introduction. I speak for the volumes that I have (read). However, I did find some really irritating mistakes/errors in them. Captions that are obviously wrong, etc. But I guess these books are not really meant for the more initiated.

Still, I have a rather long Want-list, so the Osprey titles will have to wait...

 

At the moment I'm reading "Midway - the Japanese story - The decisive battle of the Pacific War" by Mitsuo Fuchida & Masatake Okumiya.

 

Ha haaa...

Found Günther Prien´s book "The way to Scapa Flow" in Finnish in a second hand store....Excellent!!!! Book Year 1941!

 

Although a predominantly Lufwaffe enthusiast -

I recently found a book entitled "Soldat" by Siegfried Knappe depicting his military career as a German general staff officer serving on the Eastern Front at war's end, and of his time in captivity by the Soviets. Only half way through, but so far, a good read.

Bill

 

wise choice Bill ! I believe my good friend Helmuth Reichert who is still recovering from his almost disastrous colon surgery, exclaimed that he thought it was one of the better books printed on a Deutsche soldat !

just going through hundreds of files at the moment and continual research for my books. does that count ?

~E

 

OH, YES!