Military History Books & Magazines

Five books about World War I - chicagotribune.com

In celebration of Veteran's Day, five interesting books on World War I

 

Strange Meetings: The Poets of the Great War by Harry Ricketts – review | Books | The Guardian

 

In a new book, Eisenhower’s grandson describes formative years with man of love, honor - KansasCity.com

 

Yes - although it's a worthy subject, there seem to have been an endless stream of books about the WW1 poets. For anyone interested, Fussell's book was early in the field and is quite brilliant.

 

The Hyperwar project have made a number of official histories of WW2 available-
HyperWar: World War II on the World Wide Web

 

A YOUNG soldier's moving letters to his mother revealing the hell of the World War I trenches are being made public after 92 years.

Private Freddie Noakes wrote home every day - fearing each note would be his last.
Now they have been brought together in a book spelling out the nightmare of the Western Front in France.


Read more: Soldier’s book of daily WWI letters | The Sun |News|Campaigns|Our Boys​

 

I came across issue three of this magazine in WH Smith today, but didn't manage to buy it-
Military Times magazine | Military history WW1, WW2 & Modern warfare
Anyone else actually read it?
Well, I got it, and it's interesting enough, but not anything out of the ordinary.

 

The Military Institutions of the Romans was written by Flavius Vegetius Renatus in the Fourth Century AD, and is a classic study of late-Roman military organisation. Covering everything from recruitment to equipment and how to wage particular campaigns, this became the must-have handbook for would-be generals until well into the Middle Ages-
Digital | Attic - Warfare : 'De Re Militari' by Flavius Vegetius Renatus
The tactics seem sound enough, but were defeated by the advent of firearms.

 

Seems to have been a lot of good books published recently-
Index of New Book Reviews 2010

 

Great link Historian. All I've got to say is so many books so little time.

 

I know the feeling...

 

One for the Stateside rogues-
Artillery Fuses of the Civil War: Amazon.co.uk: Charles H Jones: Books

And a brand new tome on the same subject-
The Mechanical Fuze and the Advance of Artillery in the Civil War: Amazon.co.uk: Edward B. McCaul: Books

 

A couple of interesting new books from motor books-

"The Campaign in Alsace" presents an excellent military history of two important battles during the opening rounds of the Franco-Prussian war in 1870. On 4 August 1870, General Abel Douay's French division was surprised and virtually destroyed by Bavarian and Prussian troops at Wissembourg. Two days later, at one of the decisive battles of the war, McMahon's I Corps was heavily defeated by the Germans at the Battle of Worth."
Motor Books - The Campaign in Alsace 1870

"Fallujah. Few names conjure up as many images of blood, sacrifice, and valor as does this ancient city in Al Anbar province forty miles west of Baghdad. This sprawling concrete jungle was the scene of two major U.S. combat operations in 2004. The first was Operation Vigilant Resolve, an aborted effort that April by U.S. Marines intent on punishing the city's insurgents. The second, Operation Phantom Fury, was launched seven months later. Richard Lowry's New Dawn: The Battles for Fallujah is the first comprehensive history of this fighting."
Motor Books - New Dawn : The Battles for Fallujah

 

Hate to disagree but, "No True Glory" by Bing West (Sept2006) was the first comprehensive book about the battles for Fallujah. An excellent read also if you're interested in the battle(s).
I haven't read Richard Lowry's but he is a very good writer and I will check out his book on the subject.

"an aborted effort that April by U.S. Marines intent on punishing the city's insurgents."
If you read about the battle this is one thing that will really pizz you off. West quotes Gen. Mattis as saying, "The Iraqi's have never won a war or lost a negotiation", this was never more true than the first Fallujah battle. The Marine Commanders begged the Pentagon pogues and civilian higher ups not to make them assault the city. They said they could apprehend or eliminate all those responsible for killing the Black Water contractors (as an aside they screwed up and caused the whole problem, friggin' PMC's). They had identified most of the bad guys and would use surgical strikes, air and spec ops, to take care of them. They warned the powers that be, that if they assaulted the city it would be a PR nightmare and set back the progress they'd made in pacifying the area. The powers that be ordered them to assault anyway. They attacked the city and , the Marines, were literally within blocks of totally destroying the insurgents when the civilian leadership lost it's spine because of world opinion, and negotiations with sympathetic Iraqis and pulled them back. The troops were in disbelief and pulled back to the outskirts of the city. It was a propaganda victory for the terrorists and Jihadi's from all over flocked to Fallujah to join the fight against the American devils. Al Queda brought in Chechnyan fighters to train up their forces and turned the city into terrorism central.

 

Thanks for the tip on the other book, mate.
Opinions always welcome here.

 

You might want to search this out on an inter-library loan, given the price, but still a worthwhile read for anyone interested in more recent conflicts-
Aftermath: Readings in the Archaeology of Recent Conflict: Readings in Contemporary Conflict and Battlefield Archaeology: Amazon.co.uk: John Schofield: Books

 

Here's one for fans of postwar British aircraft-
Product: Avro Vulcan Manual

 

Thought I would flag up the Journal of Conflict Archaeology, since Maney Publishing are highlighting it as their journal of the month, and there is free online acces to all issues until February 15th.
There's some really interesting stuff in vol. 5-
http://www.ingentaconnect.com/conte...00005/00000001;jsessionid=1r1hae07f8jm1.alice

 

Some new books that might interest. These were on the Site O monthly newsletter-

"Festungsstadt Köln - Das Bollwerk im Westen (Fortress City Cologne - The Stronghold in the West", by Henriette Meynen (ed.). et al., HB, German Text, 544 p., color drawings and plans and B&W and color photos, color maps, Hermann-Josef Emons Verlag, 2010, ISBN 9783897057807 .
This is a huge, beautifully and richly illustrated book on the fortifications of the city of Cologne, Germany. It covers the development of the city’s fortifications from 1815-1914. During this time period, the fortifications expanded outward from the City and the Rhine River further west, east, north, and south, to the point that the city was protected by a ring of individual Forts, Infantry Strongpoints and artillery positions.​

By Lee R. Unterborn"
http://www.buecher-koeselsche.de/koelnbuecherregionalia/meyenhenriettefestungsstadtkoeln.html

"New from Osprey: ​

A Far Flung Gamble: Havana 1762

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, by David Greentree. ISBN 9781846039874.​

This book is about the British assault on Havana that could not take place without eliminating the Spanish fortress of El Morro that dominated the entrance to Havana harbor. JEK"​

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http://www.ospreypublishing.com/store/A-Far-Flung-Gamble-–-Havana-1762_9781846039874​

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I meant to post this earlier, as I know there are quite a few people here interested in this.
It's the handbook for a course at University College London, and there's a lot of great books listed in the reading lists for each lecture-
http://www.ucl.ac.uk/archaeology/studying/masters/courses/coursehandbooks/ARCLG217