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RE: Favorite Miltary History Reads

 
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RE: Favorite Miltary History Reads - 7/25/2009 8:33:14 AM   
Bluebook

 

Posts: 143
Joined: 7/24/2009
Status: offline 		Keegan - a history of warfare
One of the best books I have ever read.

(in reply to sabre1)
Post #: 31
RE: Favorite Miltary History Reads - 7/25/2009 10:40:50 AM   
jackx

 

Posts: 353
Joined: 7/8/2009
From: Germany
Status: offline
quote:

ORIGINAL: sabre1

While we are on the subject of "books".

I am about to start Wellington, The Years of the Sword, by Elizabeth Longford. My question is if this book is worth the effort?

Thanks for any info...



All I know is that Bernard Cornwell frequently mentions it as one of his historical sources for the Sharpe novels - that says more about my guilty pleasures than about the book, though.

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Post #: 32
RE: Favorite Miltary History Reads - 7/27/2009 4:31:59 AM   
sabre1


Posts: 1928
Joined: 8/15/2001
From: CA
Status: offline 		Thanks Jackx. I will give it a go then...

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Post #: 33
RE: Favorite Miltary History Reads - 7/27/2009 6:37:40 AM   
SLAAKMAN


Posts: 2725
Joined: 7/24/2002
Status: offline 		Excellent read on the Uboot war;


(Regarding PoliCorr);
quote:

Sulu, this guy is a false-flag troll par excellence, pretending to pretend to be a Wehrmacht fanboi,

For the record, Im an Axis Fanboy and a Commonwealth Fanboy and a Red Airforce Fanboy, Kamikaze Fanboy and an SIS, SOE, SD, SS, Gestapo, NKVD, OSS, IJN & a Bletchly Park Fanboy to name but a few as well and so are all of you or you wouldnt be here. Political Correctness be Damned!!


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Post #: 34
RE: Favorite Miltary History Reads - 9/3/2009 9:08:12 PM   
Lurker101

 

Posts: 4
Joined: 8/20/2006
Status: offline 		Not trying to restart an old thread but...

Recently finished East of Chosin by Roy Appleman, which lays out how Task Force Faith was destroyed, and I highly recommend it. It’s a compelling read that never gets mired in a small battle’s details (while providing plenty of them).

More importantly, it’s a case study of the complete failure of an entire chain-of-command, from Corps down to squad-level (and a case study of how in a severe crisis some leaders step up while others disappear).

The book also makes it clear that TF Faith’s destruction wasn’t inevitable. Tragic.

East of Chosin SPOILER ALERT

Examples of TFF’s leadership failure, from the top, bottom, and middle parts of the chain:

1) The day before the attempted breakout a tank unit that had been so far unmolested by the Chinese was withdrawn from a key spot along the breakout route, since the general who issued the order didn’t see the need to endanger men for a regiment that he already assumed was lost. The next night the breakout attempt ended at that spot, now a strong Chinese fireblock.

2) During breakout afternoon the vehicle column (all the vehicles were carrying wounded) was stopped for several hours by fire from a road fireblock and the prominent hill above it. Groups (at this point not units) spontaneously organized by small unit leaders several times attacked up the hill and cleared it, but those leaders couldn’t get any of the groups to attack back down the hill to clear the road fireblock, or to stay on the hill, and instead all of the groups continued over the hill to escape to the reservoir’s ice (with most of the leaders going with them). Each time the Chinese reoccupied the hill.

If the vehicle column had made it to the fireblock described above in 1) in daylight, it might’ve been possible to destroy the fireblock with air strikes.

3) Early in the breakout attempt, before unit cohesion totally broke down and before the breakout was under the kind of pressure that led the groups described in 2) above to fight their way to the ice, the rear guard company abandoned the vehicle column and took (not fought) to the ice.


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Post #: 35
RE: Favorite Miltary History Reads - 9/3/2009 10:21:55 PM   
KG Erwin


Posts: 8981
Joined: 7/25/2000
From: Cross Lanes WV USA
Status: offline
quote:

ORIGINAL: Canoerebel

Honorable Mention: Do or Die Men by ???. This covers the 1st Marine Raider Battalion at Tulagi and Guadalcanal.



It was written by George W. Smith. I have this in my personal library, and it is excellent.

(in reply to Canoerebel)
Post #: 36
RE: Favorite Miltary History Reads - 9/5/2009 12:02:00 AM   
ijontichy


Posts: 68
Joined: 10/10/2006
Status: offline 		I don't think that Shelby Foote's magnum opus (no Baldrick, not majestic octopus) is the "definitive" book on the US Civil War, but it's a very entertaining read, and perfect for a beginner to the field. I think it's much better than McPherson's popular book, for example. But for deeper analysis, there are many great books: Brent Nosworthy's The Crucible of Courage: Fighting Methods and Combat Experience of the Civil War, Warren Grabau's Ninety-Eight Days: A Geographer's View of the Vicksburg Campaign, Rowena Reed's Combined Operations in the Civil War, Ethan Rafuse's McClellan's War: The Failure of Moderation in the Struggle for the Union, and Gordon Rhea's Overland campaign series of books.

My favourite Stalingrad book is Jason Mark's Island of Fire: The Battle for the Barrikady Gun Factory in Stalingrad. A lot of detail in that one.

For me the best books have a lot of numbers, graphs, and maps in them. Less words, more data! Ha, ha.

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Post #: 37
RE: Favorite Miltary History Reads - 9/5/2009 7:46:59 PM   
Capt. Harlock


Posts: 5358
Joined: 9/15/2001
From: Los Angeles
Status: offline 		George MacDonald Fraser's "Flashman at the Charge". The protagonist is fictional, but the background story of the Crimean War up to the Charge of the Light Brigade is superbly done.

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Post #: 38
RE: Favorite Miltary History Reads - 9/6/2009 3:27:21 AM   
D.Ilse


Posts: 330
Joined: 5/2/2009
From: Florahduh, yea that state.
Status: offline 		right now I am just starting Turtledove's The Man with the Iron Heart, about a SS lead resistance after the Fall of the Reich.

(in reply to sabre1)
Post #: 39
RE: Favorite Miltary History Reads - 9/6/2009 4:23:40 AM   
Sarge


Posts: 2841
Joined: 3/1/2003
From: ask doggie
Status: offline
quote:

Favorite Miltary History Reads


For WWII it would have to be C.B MacDonald’s A Time For Trumpets, and for my other fav. Era (colonial ) I guess Fred Andersons Crucible of War would rank right up there.

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Post #: 40
RE: Favorite Miltary History Reads - 9/6/2009 8:16:51 PM   
Arctic Blast


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Joined: 4/4/2007
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quote:

ORIGINAL: D.Ilse

right now I am just starting Turtledove's The Man with the Iron Heart, about a SS lead resistance after the Fall of the Reich.


Do me a favor and let me know how it was after you're done, if you don't mind. I've considered picking that one up a few times after really enjoying his Settling Accounts series.

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Post #: 41
RE: Favorite Miltary History Reads - 11/26/2009 4:39:06 AM   
vanmathi

 

Posts: 2
Joined: 11/26/2009
Status: offline 		the greatest tactician goes to Alexander the Great, in my book. Besides being a capable strategist, conducting sieges and campaigns against presumably more powerful enemies, he personally led his troops into combat against superior numbers, adjusting his plans on the fly. He's the epitome of someone making their own luck.
And any military man worth his salt studies prior campaigns and battles. The most important reason is to try and avoid being caught in the same traps that the losers fell into. The second is to repeat the victories won. Can nae is one of the classic examples of double envelopment. But notice that this was in effect the standard strategy of the Zulu at their peak, and they had not heard of Hannibal or his campaigns when they did it. Some tactics and strategies are simply so good that people will keep re-inventing them.
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Post #: 42
RE: Favorite Miltary History Reads - 11/26/2009 9:51:39 AM   
Speedysteve

 

Posts: 15998
Joined: 9/11/2001
From: Reading, England
Status: offline 		Anyone know of any good books on the 'Battle of Trafalgar' and British Naval battles, ships and tatctics from this era in general?

Thanks

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Post #: 43
RE: Favorite Miltary History Reads - 11/26/2009 11:50:36 AM   
D.Ilse


Posts: 330
Joined: 5/2/2009
From: Florahduh, yea that state.
Status: offline 		just finished the fiction novel Siege, about a group of Landsers in Northern Russia, first in Kholm and then Luki. Good read.

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Post #: 44
RE: Favorite Miltary History Reads - 12/1/2009 10:31:22 AM   
martok


Posts: 837
Joined: 8/30/2004
Status: offline 		When it comes to historical fiction regarding ancient Hellenic culture & warfare, I find there's none better than Steven Pressfield. Virtually all his novels are excellent reads, with Tides of War (covering the Peloponnesian War) and Gates of Fire (covering the Battle of Thermopylae) being especially superb.

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