"People called Romanes they go the house?"
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What are you reading?
- Thread starter Recovering LSO
- Start date
I thought we already established that we're not interested in your Nazi stories.
By H.R. McMaster in The Atlantic. It is from the forthcoming book Battlegrounds: The Fight to Defend the Free World Looking forward to the book being released in September.
How China Sees the World
And how we should see China
The Chinese Communist Party is not going to liberalize its economy or its form of government. It is not going to play by commonly accepted international rules—rather, it will attempt to undermine and eventually replace them with rules more sympathetic to China’s interests. China will continue to combine its form of economic aggression, including unfair trade practices, with a sustained campaign of industrial espionage.
www.harpercollins.com
How China Sees the World
And how we should see China
The Chinese Communist Party is not going to liberalize its economy or its form of government. It is not going to play by commonly accepted international rules—rather, it will attempt to undermine and eventually replace them with rules more sympathetic to China’s interests. China will continue to combine its form of economic aggression, including unfair trade practices, with a sustained campaign of industrial espionage.
Battlegrounds
From Lt. General H.R. McMaster, U.S. Army, ret., the former National Security Advisor and author of the bestselling classic Dereliction of Duty, comes a bold and provocative re-examination of the most critical foreign policy and national security challenges that face the United States, and an urgent
Been reading a lot lately for some strange reason and these are a few of the better ones and one crappy one:
To Lose a Battle: France 1940, by Alistair Horne - While I was familiar with the Battle of France I didn't much at all about the details, especially from the French side, so I figured I would learn. Overall it was a great book and was very well detailed with over 100 pages leading up to WWII and the chaos that was the French government in that time. Also laid the groundwork by detailing the debilitating affect WWI had on the French from their national psyche to their population, like the startling fact that France's it lost about a quarter of its military-aged males in the war and the population didn't recover to its pre-WWI level until 1931.
Then there is the war itself, where the French command was so out of touch it took 3 or 4 days for the real news to reach Paris from the battlefield and by that time entire army corps' had disintegrated. The only folks who seemed to really grasp what was happening big picture-wise was the BEF, whatever Lord Gort's shortcomings as a commander at least his quick actions likely saved the BEF despite the French and some of his superiors back home. As for ze Germans, I was reminded repeatedly just how good they were at the battlefield command level with everyone from Generals to JO's and NCO's taking the initiative and winning battles on the fly when things went wrong, or right in many cases.
My critique would be that Horne's writing is very 'British', the easiest way to describe it is that he loves to pontificate and show off his knowledges sometimes. Smart guy but it was distracting, as was his use of French terms periodically that he didn't translate seeming assume that the reader was suppose to be fluent. Okay for Brett, not so much for me.
Launch the Intruders: A Naval Attack Squadron in the Vietnam War, 1972 - Very good squadron-level view of the last few months of the Vietnam War. Well detailed with multiple squadron officer perspectives included. A lot of squadron life would likely sound familiar to many of us but some wouldn't. It was a nice window into a squadron at that time, a nice change of pace for me and the normal straight history books.
Operation Linebacker I and Operation Linebacker II - Both books are by the same guy who wrote the excellent Clashes and The Eleven Days of Christmas, two of the best books on the Vietnam air war, these were short and easy to read histories of Linebacker I and Linebacker II. Cheap enough and with good pics and other pretty graphics to make things easier to understand they are good overviews of both ops if you dont' know much about them.
Destroyer Battles: Epics of Naval Close Encounters - Pretty disappointed with this one, only a few battles covered and not very well. He drew some pretty broad conclusions from them and not very good ones either. Overall, meh.
Silent Victory: The U.S. Submarine War against Japan - Very detailed overview of the US submarine campaign against Japan in WWII, ~880 pages worth, sometimes a bit overly detailed for my taste. The detail does give you a very good picture of US submarines in the war, from tactics to the technical without being overly detailed on those parts, and also the personalities. The author doesn't pull punches in critiquing some US submarine leaders and a lot of the intra-service politicking by them. What was a little surprising is that some crappy leaders were left in place for much of the war, partly because of the split command structure of the US forces in the Pacific between MacArthur and Nimitz. I thought some of the critiquing of sub strategy at the start of the war was a bit too much of hindsight being 20/20, they were really learning as they go, but the author was a wartime sub veteran himself so it is understandable.
A couple of interesting facts from the book, the preference for Naval Academy types was a big factor in CO selection towards the end of the war when some non-Academy grads were becoming CO-eligible. Granted, there were not too many non-Academy grads in the service at higher ranks but it was still an interesting detail and a bit anachronistic today. Another was the 'fleet boat' design that helped win the war really didn't come together until about a year or two before the war started, didn't know it was that close. And Rickover was resented by many of the war vets as a Johnny-come-lately who didn't know jack about combat command, and he didn't, interesting how he was able to completely take over the sub service even with so many war-experienced officers still in when he did.
Naval History of World War I - I'm about a third of the way through this one and so far it is an easy read and a very good overview of the naval war in all theaters in much more detail than I expected, but not overly so. So far the Brits come across as pretty smart strategically and the best at waging war at sea, as expected, ze Germans are good but didn't have a really good strategy until they decided to go all in with the U-Boats and the Italians were generally not so great at the whole war thing except a few special forces which scored some pretty spectacular successes.
War at Sea: A Naval Atlas, 1939–1945 - If you like books with maps of naval battles this one is awesome, got it on sale from USNI for about a quarter of its cover price and it has a lot of pretty pictures to distract you for a while, covers pretty much every naval battle of the war of note from the Med to the Philippine Sea.
I've got a couple more coming so this reading binge ain't ending anytime soon.
To Lose a Battle: France 1940, by Alistair Horne - While I was familiar with the Battle of France I didn't much at all about the details, especially from the French side, so I figured I would learn. Overall it was a great book and was very well detailed with over 100 pages leading up to WWII and the chaos that was the French government in that time. Also laid the groundwork by detailing the debilitating affect WWI had on the French from their national psyche to their population, like the startling fact that France's it lost about a quarter of its military-aged males in the war and the population didn't recover to its pre-WWI level until 1931.
Then there is the war itself, where the French command was so out of touch it took 3 or 4 days for the real news to reach Paris from the battlefield and by that time entire army corps' had disintegrated. The only folks who seemed to really grasp what was happening big picture-wise was the BEF, whatever Lord Gort's shortcomings as a commander at least his quick actions likely saved the BEF despite the French and some of his superiors back home. As for ze Germans, I was reminded repeatedly just how good they were at the battlefield command level with everyone from Generals to JO's and NCO's taking the initiative and winning battles on the fly when things went wrong, or right in many cases.
My critique would be that Horne's writing is very 'British', the easiest way to describe it is that he loves to pontificate and show off his knowledges sometimes. Smart guy but it was distracting, as was his use of French terms periodically that he didn't translate seeming assume that the reader was suppose to be fluent. Okay for Brett, not so much for me.
Launch the Intruders: A Naval Attack Squadron in the Vietnam War, 1972 - Very good squadron-level view of the last few months of the Vietnam War. Well detailed with multiple squadron officer perspectives included. A lot of squadron life would likely sound familiar to many of us but some wouldn't. It was a nice window into a squadron at that time, a nice change of pace for me and the normal straight history books.
Operation Linebacker I and Operation Linebacker II - Both books are by the same guy who wrote the excellent Clashes and The Eleven Days of Christmas, two of the best books on the Vietnam air war, these were short and easy to read histories of Linebacker I and Linebacker II. Cheap enough and with good pics and other pretty graphics to make things easier to understand they are good overviews of both ops if you dont' know much about them.
Destroyer Battles: Epics of Naval Close Encounters - Pretty disappointed with this one, only a few battles covered and not very well. He drew some pretty broad conclusions from them and not very good ones either. Overall, meh.
Silent Victory: The U.S. Submarine War against Japan - Very detailed overview of the US submarine campaign against Japan in WWII, ~880 pages worth, sometimes a bit overly detailed for my taste. The detail does give you a very good picture of US submarines in the war, from tactics to the technical without being overly detailed on those parts, and also the personalities. The author doesn't pull punches in critiquing some US submarine leaders and a lot of the intra-service politicking by them. What was a little surprising is that some crappy leaders were left in place for much of the war, partly because of the split command structure of the US forces in the Pacific between MacArthur and Nimitz. I thought some of the critiquing of sub strategy at the start of the war was a bit too much of hindsight being 20/20, they were really learning as they go, but the author was a wartime sub veteran himself so it is understandable.
A couple of interesting facts from the book, the preference for Naval Academy types was a big factor in CO selection towards the end of the war when some non-Academy grads were becoming CO-eligible. Granted, there were not too many non-Academy grads in the service at higher ranks but it was still an interesting detail and a bit anachronistic today. Another was the 'fleet boat' design that helped win the war really didn't come together until about a year or two before the war started, didn't know it was that close. And Rickover was resented by many of the war vets as a Johnny-come-lately who didn't know jack about combat command, and he didn't, interesting how he was able to completely take over the sub service even with so many war-experienced officers still in when he did.
Naval History of World War I - I'm about a third of the way through this one and so far it is an easy read and a very good overview of the naval war in all theaters in much more detail than I expected, but not overly so. So far the Brits come across as pretty smart strategically and the best at waging war at sea, as expected, ze Germans are good but didn't have a really good strategy until they decided to go all in with the U-Boats and the Italians were generally not so great at the whole war thing except a few special forces which scored some pretty spectacular successes.
War at Sea: A Naval Atlas, 1939–1945 - If you like books with maps of naval battles this one is awesome, got it on sale from USNI for about a quarter of its cover price and it has a lot of pretty pictures to distract you for a while, covers pretty much every naval battle of the war of note from the Med to the Philippine Sea.
I've got a couple more coming so this reading binge ain't ending anytime soon.
Good call on the USNI discount. Have gotten great utility from that membership- thanks for these recs.
I am just upset you weren't referred to as CAPT(sel) for the article. The nerve...
Funny, I thought the same thing...
@Brett327 , lots of talk in there about the Carrier Air Wing. What do exped squadrons do for work-ups? Do they get scheduled for range time and such when the air wings aren’t in town? Does the weapons school handle them locally?
Exped does EW-ARP for basic phase (Whidbey and Fallon), then they usually do a Red Flag with the USAF.
Having just binged on HBO's "The Pacific", I'm now reading "Helmet For My Pillow: From Parris Island To The Pacific" by Robert Leckie...some of the source material for the TV series.
Next you’ll have to read Sledge’s “With the Old Breed at Peleiu and Okinawa.” It is a great book. I had the honor of meeting Robert Leckie not long after he published “A Few Acres of Snow.”
Working my way through this:
If you like WWI history and you're interested in the German side of the story, this one is of very high, scholarly quality. The problem with trying to find good material about Germany is a lot of published stuff is either rehashed or you run into a lot of impertinent neonazi shit that you have to sift through (this is especially true for the online stuff). This book gets into the personalities of a lot of the senior German officers. What makes it interesting is learning about how they didn't always get along with each other, specifically who and when at different points in the war. There's also a lot of pretty good technical discussion (tactics, logistics, etc.).
If you like WWI history and you're interested in the German side of the story, this one is of very high, scholarly quality. The problem with trying to find good material about Germany is a lot of published stuff is either rehashed or you run into a lot of impertinent neonazi shit that you have to sift through (this is especially true for the online stuff). This book gets into the personalities of a lot of the senior German officers. What makes it interesting is learning about how they didn't always get along with each other, specifically who and when at different points in the war. There's also a lot of pretty good technical discussion (tactics, logistics, etc.).
You've piqued my interest. Rupprecht was a very effective commander.Working my way through this:
If you like WWI history and you're interested in the German side of the story, this one is of very high, scholarly quality. The problem with trying to find good material about Germany is a lot of published stuff is either rehashed or you run into a lot of impertinent neonazi shit that you have to sift through (this is especially true for the online stuff). This book gets into the personalities of a lot of the senior German officers. What makes it interesting is learning about how they didn't always get along with each other, specifically who and when at different points in the war. There's also a lot of pretty good technical discussion (tactics, logistics, etc.).
Be careful. I looked at an online preview and found several spelling issues. For example he often wrote about the “centre” of the line or some “programme” of training. ?
If you’re going to criticise the way he spells “behaviour” and “colour,” you can sod off, you wanker.