What are you reading at the moment?

[Kyt]

Hi Sniper, I've got the book and would recommend to anyone interested in the BoB. They've done some good research (esp for their updated 1989/90? edition), and the tables at the back are very handy. And it's a lot easier to read than Battle of Britain:Then and Now (mainly because that weighs about 2 1/2 kilos!!). I did a table once just comparing the losses given in the book aganst those published during the war. I shall have a root around and post it.

[morse1001]

The Other Side of the Hill By B H Liddell-Hart. Pan Books.

This a reprint and for me a re-read! But still a good book with many useful insights!

[morse1001]

Bader - The Man and his Men by Michael G. Burns.

Bader is not one of my heroes, in fact I disliked his style of leadership. However this book covers the events and the men of his Bader wing.

A couple of surprising things, the wing was only in combat for a fortnight during the BofB, the impression given in other places was that it was in combat all during the battle.

The other thing was that during the period where figher command launched attacks on France, the Luftwaffe lost 124 aircraft, whereas, the RAF lost 198 during the same period.

But the book is also useful as it goes in to in great detail the postings in and out of the various squadrons and of the various combats fought by the wing.

It also goes into the same detail with the wing after the loss of Bader.

[morse1001]

The Last Flight of the Luftwaffe - The Suicide Attack on the Eighth Air Force, 7 April 1945 By Adrian Weir

This covers a very interesting episode in the Luftwaffe history. the idea behind the attack was a plan for a massive blow against the daylight bombers in order to deter them for a while. This would allow the build up of Jet units which would be able to out run and out gun both the bombers and the bomber escorts.

On the day, a combination of events derived the assembled luftwaffe units from massing in any great number and those that took off, were snet in penny packets to attack the bombers. The plan did involve jets, whose job was to fly at the bomber fleets and entice the escorts away. Bit in many cases the escort stayed near to the bombers and could still pounce on the incoming suicide planes.

Funnily enough, many of the luftwaffe pilots baled out at different points and so survived, this included several of those who actually rammed aircraft.

[morse1001]

One Bullet Away - the Making of a Marine Officer By Nathaniel Fick.

This is a book about a young classics student who joined the Marine Corp in 1998. he goes into detail about the way he was trained as a officer and a marine in the modern service. Some of the stuff is very interesting including things like "killology" classes!

But he was commisioned just before 9/11 and was bound for training in Austrailia when word came through about the attack. His ship was diverted and headed up the pacific and ended up in the Indian sea. It was here when his unit was alerted to plan an operation to go into Afghanistan and protect a downed blackhawk helicopter while it was being recoverd.

Once this was done, he and his unit moved to a base nearby and he describd the conditions of living in a american base deep in the heart of Afghanistan. It was not very hospitable and they found it difficult to get used to the place.

The main part of his book deals with his time in Iraq during the second gulf war. By this time he had moved to being a platoon leader with the recon branch of the marines. the picture he creates was somewhat different from that presented on the various news channels. Some Iraqis did fight back and held up the americans before the yanks realized that it was better to outflank the towns and thus avoid any attacks.

He also describes the adventures of his unit as they moved into Bagdad and carried out routine patrol duties in thier zone of the city.

It was an interesting read!


It is worth comparing it with A Rumour of War by Phillip Capato, who trained as a marine officer in the sixties and was part of the first american unit to land in Vietnam and his subsequent service in that country.

[Kyt]

Right. Morse poseted at 12.05, 12.10, 12.19 and 12.33. So that means he managed to finish the first book in 5 minutes, the second in 9, and he must have taken a leak because in took 14 minutes to finish the third.

Strewth, and I thought I could read fast!!

The only one of those I've read is The Last Flight of the Luftwaffe, which I found really interesting. That was a couple of years ago so I must have a re-read soon.

[morse1001]

Unscratched - Maj Phil Ashby QGM RM.

The Major was a UN Observer serving Sierra Leone helping with the ceasefire between the RUF rebels and the central government.

However, most of the book is taken up by the story of his various escapades while mountain climbing and when he was in Cambridge, climbing various buildings. There is a also a section about his time trying to row around the Island of Spitsbergen.

There is also a description of his time in training as an officer, then as a Mountain Leader wth the Mountain cadre. this is a specialist branch of the service and one which matches the exploits of the SBS and SAS in their training.

When he covers the period as a UNMO, we start to get interested. The country had been ravaged by a war which mainly centred over who controlled the diamond mines, the civil war had been going on for years until a UN brokered peace deal was signed by both sides and the UN moved in.

Ashby describes his dealing with the various factions in the country and they all seemed to be fulled on drink and drugs. They also appeared to be very young, some as younf as twelve years old and carrying aloaded weapon! he descrbes going through various rebel checkpoints where the commander was a teenager!

Part of the peace plan was for the disarming of the factions and Ashby was left in command of a camp, with orders to specifically not to start a civil war! The cam was especially set up to house and educate those rebels who came forward to be disarmed. they had an incentive of a 300USD grant, if they turned their weapons in.

Ashby, disarmed ten rebels and welcomed them into the camp and that is when the action started. The local rebel leader heard of the ten and brought his forces down to the camp to get them to return. The ten hearing the commotion, escaped into the sourounding jungle!

The rebals formed a cordon around the camp and set about a campaign of harrassement. the camp was defened by some members of the kenyan army, but they had very little inthe way of weapons and ammo, having only one hundred rounds for each solider! They had to defend the camp and protect the five UNMOs based at the camp.

The rebels began their campaign by attacking the local population and as Ashby says, he could heard the screams in the building the UNMO were using. the rebels also hacked of various parts of bodies and threw them near to the Kenyan positions.

Since the rebel leader had declared that he would do a "Somalia" and drag the naked bodies of the UNMO around the town, the UNMO decided to use their military skills, Ashby had been a jungle warfare instructor in Belize, and escape.

They packed their kit and rations and escaped out of the camp. They worked their way out of the town and into the countryside. But as both Ashby and a fellow UNMO had both just recovering from Malaria and typhiod respectively, it was hard going. Also, the other three who were a RN Nuclear Engineer, a army major and a Kiwi major had not ben in the jungle before which caused problems.

They finally made it to a UN camp which was manned by Ghanians and was itself under seige by the rebels. But by managing to get in contact with the UNHQ in Freetown, a RAF Chinnock came and took them back to Freetown.

[Antipodean Andy]

Originally Posted by Kyt

Right. Morse poseted at 12.05, 12.10, 12.19 and 12.33. So that means he managed to finish the first book in 5 minutes, the second in 9, and he must have taken a leak because in took 14 minutes to finish the third.

Strewth, and I thought I could read fast!!

While we're posting and dribbling on here, Morse, dark horse that he is, is rattling through his to read list!

I'm on The Armed Rovers by Roy Nesbit at the moment.

[Ron Goldstein]

On Peter G's recommendation I have just aquired "The Years of Extermination" by Saul Friedlander, sub-titled Nazi Germany & the Jews 1939-1945.
It is likely to be my sole reading for the immediate future (870 pages) and I will likely pop up occasionally to report on points that have impressed me.

[Antipodean Andy]

I wish your biceps well, Ron!