Book reviews

[xtc-alec]

Post reviews of the books you have read recently and put them here!!

I will start

Victor Nekrasov front-line stalingrad

1962 harvill press ( english translation)

This is one of those books with lots of small details that reenactors lap up. Using German brown butter dishes as tobacco tins.
The need to truly represent a soldier of the time to smoke yourself to death. Small cap badges on ushankas.esbit stoves,primus.
The authors batman, VALEGA, crawling through no mansland, wounded, "sir, you forgot your greatcoat"., and the loyalty of the common man to an officer they respected as a soldier,and a gentleman, despite communism.

The author , a sapper and engineer, after a retreat finds himself on the eastern bank of the Volga. After a reorganisation he is sent over the river as an engineering officer, and part time infantry battalion commander in the vicinity of Stalingrad's railway station, from September to December, prior to wounding. he returns in January to see lines of german "tourists" being escorted to see the Volga.

The book is a narrative of the organisation of the Red Army, and the interaction of the units of the RKKA at the time. The language is an issue in the translation, but the descriptions are true to life . The Soviets call the nebelwerfer a DONKEY, due to the noise it makes.
I never paid much attention to this until I heard my donkey braying in the distance, and YES, that's it exactly.

A very Soviet orientated book for detail, sorry, no atrocities, or sex, no descriptions of an unstricken 38 wit spangels, but a gripping tale of the turning point of the Great Patriotic War.

[xtc-alec]

Bump for good luck

[enigma]

The Fall Of France: The Nazi Invasion of 1940, by Julian Jackson

The author is a professor of Modern History at Queens Mary and Westfield, University of London.
He has wrote several books on 20th century France and has taught students about the Fall of France for at least 15 years, prior to 2001 when he released the book, for Swansea History Department.

The book describes the German invasion of France from the French point of view.

He tells us the story of the battle, the French strategy and there plans for the defence of Belgium. Why which plans were chosen etc
He describes the role of the army in these plans and how the Germans didn’t manage to walk into France via the Ardennes.
He gives us maps and descriptions of the key battles as well as the overall picture.

He not only gives us the military story but the political one too.
The French attempts to construct grand alliances, who they had talked to and what happened. As well this he walks us though the Anglo-French relations.

With the above covered, he moves us onto the French government, there roles in the war and before hand and what the people thought of them. He describes how fragile the governments were and how they did there best to give the Army the tanks, planes etc they needed.
He tells us about these production plans, and gives us tables full of stats to show us the extent of the industry.

Not only does he show us these stats and tables, in the other chapters of the book before and after, there are tables and stats showing us army strengths and losses for not only the French but the British and the Germans.

All in all a very enlightening read, but it got for me at least a bit boring to read towards the end.
This book gives the reader an insight into the military campaign and the world of the everyday Frenchman and soldier as well as there politics during the war, before it and even after it.

In my opinion, anyone who wants to understand the battle and France at the time should read this …

To quote one reviewer:

utterly absorbing .... This is an admirable study, clearly written and quite the best thing i have read on this sore subject


One should note, one can see some of the information from this book cited here:
http://www.1944d-day.com/forum/showthread.php?t=1748&highlight=fall+france

[OliverMarshall]

( i will be listing amazon sites so that you can see what other people have written about the book)


Karl von Clausewitz: On War
Incredibly boring but the definitive book on strategy and war.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/War-Everymans-Library-Classics/dp/1857151216/sr=1-5/qid=1167246653/ref=sr_1_5/026-4161340-9754031?ie=UTF8&s=books


Moscow 1941: A City and Its People at War by Roderic Braithwaite

About the Siege of Moscow kinda like Stalingrad by Anthony Beevor but better.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Moscow-1941-City-Its-People/dp/186197759X/sr=1-1/qid=1167246822/ref=sr_1_1/026-4161340-9754031?ie=UTF8&s=books


Crete: The Battle and the Resistance by Anthony Beevor

Good in explaining the stupidities commited by each side, ruined my belief in Freyberg as a General. Quite a good book.


http://www.amazon.co.uk/Crete-Battle-Resistance-Antony-Beevor/dp/0719568315/sr=8-1/qid=1167246922/ref=sr_1_1/026-4161340-9754031?ie=UTF8&s=books


Guiness Book of World Records 2007

quite good


Becoming Charlemagne by Jeff Sypeck

Great book on Charlemagne ( also know as Karl the Great) is set almost as a story and a good read, details the start of the Holy Roman Empire.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Becoming-Charlemagne-Baghdad-Empires-D/dp/0060797061/sr=11-1/qid=1167246951/ref=sr_11_1/026-4161340-9754031


A Military Miscellany by Thomas Ayres

Intresting small book on basic facts and figures on American history of warfar, even though i'm not an american a good read. Same format of Essential Militaria, that's a better book though which I would reccomend to anyone, this one's good too though.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Military-Miscellany-Thomas-Ayres/dp/0553804405/sr=1-2/qid=1167247015/ref=sr_1_2/026-4161340-9754031?ie=UTF8&s=books


Essential Militaria ( one of my favourite small fact books): http://www.amazon.co.uk/Essential-Militaria-Nicholas-Hobbes/dp/1843542293/sr=1-1/qid=1167247046/ref=sr_1_1/026-4161340-9754031?ie=UTF8&s=books

[ShaunCowdell]

The Sorrow of War
- Bao Ninh

"This hauntingly beautiful novel, written by a North Vietnamese Army Veteran, manages to humanise completely a people who up until now have usually been cast as robotic fanatics"
- Sunday Times

Bao Ninh was born in Hanoi in 1952. During the Vietnam war he served with the Glorious 27th Youth Brigade. Of the five hundred who went to war with the brigade in 1969, he in one of ten who survived. A huge bestseller in Vietnam, The Sorrow of War is his first novel.

This book is just one of those books people take for granted. It's based upon the Vietnam War from a side we don't usually hear, from a North Vietnamese fighting against the South.
We think of these people as the enemy, as evil, but do we ever think of them as humans? Truthfully we don't and by reading this you understand this.
You go through his life from signing up, through the war, through romance, heartbreak, death, despair and life after the war.
You see how hard it was for him, you feel such sorrow for him, sometimes you just can't imagine a human going through all this.
You truly can never grasp how hard it could've been for one.
Out of a brigade of 500 who went to war he was one out of ten that survived.
I could not stop reading this book. And after I finished it the first time I went straight back to read it again.

10/10 for the best war novel I have ever read. I just can't explain how good it truly is.

[xtc-alec]

I will look into reading that. Where did you buy it?

[CBowling]

"With God In A POW Camp" -Ralph Gaither


A true story.

Ralph Gaither was a pilot in Vietnam, who was the 42nd person to be MIA in vietnam. He was shot down in October of 1965, and was kept as a POW for 7 and a half years. The book covers his experiences as a POW, and how the Lord and his friends help him to pull through the trials.


The book is very good. It really opens your eyes to the life of a POW in Vietnam, and to see the cruelty and treatment they went through. This book leaves nothing out about the pain they went through, but it also talks a great deal of God and how he helped to pull the men through.

The book may make you cringe, and definately will make you appreciate those POW's more. I definately recommend the read.


The amazing thing to me is the fact that this man is one of my dad's patients. My dad may introduce him to me whenever I go up to the Navy Hospital with him sometime soon.

[enigma]

The Struggle For Europe by Chester Wilmot

imo this is an amazing piece of litature!

The first 200 pages take us from Dunkirk, to the BOB, the balkans and then the USSR.
A narative of the British build up, Grand strategy, the German army strengths and there weaknesses, the invasion of the balkans and the USSR.
The fight for Italy ....

And then second part of the book begins, the plans for Overlord, the build up, strategy and interallied relations, relations with the soviets and the efforts made by all.
We then land from the air into Normandy, the author using his 1st hand knowledge of the 6th airborne landings to describe his landing and then the actions taken that night.
He covers the other side of Normandy and the battles fought by the 82nd and the 101st.
Then beach by beach we land in Normandy, maps and indepth descriptions of the landings and the following fighting as the troops move inland.

Imo this section is better then Ambroses book dedicated to the day.

Following this, the Americans, British and Canadians work inland, massive sections dedicated to each operation, each battle etc

The brakeout and then part 3 .... the race across Europe towards Germany, Market Garden and the Buldge.
Stalins manipulation of the Western Powers and his armies summer offensive ... although described briefly.

And thats where am currently up too .... the Ardennes offensive has been launched, the march into Germany awaits and theres still at least 200 pages to go.

The author sums up the positive and the negative traits of the Generals and the leaders, the pros and cons of the operations launched, is critical of the certain generals who had too much of a onetrack mind and was not open to new possibilties, the Soviets abuse of the Western leaders trust to maniplute global strategy.
It is also cramed full of stats and books which he draws upon for evidence.

This is has to be on everyones list of books to get to cover the war in the west and for a decent level of understanding what happened elsewhere.
For a book released in the 50s, this has to have stood the test of time and as ive said beats some naratives ive read on the subject.

[NicholasJohnson]

John Adams by David McCullough
http://www.amazon.com/John-Adams-David-McCullough/dp/0743223136/sr=8-1/qid=1169422091/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1/002-7605596-5254418?ie=UTF8&s=books

Very nice biography of America's 2nd President and often overlooked Founding Father. Could be read by anyone, reads like a novel almost.


Franklin smote the ground and out sprang George Washington . Franklin then electrified him with his miraculous lightning rod and the conducted the entire revolution all by themselves.~ John Adams on how he would be remembered.

[enigma]

The Scots Guards 1919:1955
by David Erskine
Amazon link (http://www.amazon.co.uk/Scots-Guards-1919-1955-David-Erskine/dp/1843420619)

I have only used this book as referance for one operation, an operation which was essentially a day long but the ammount of detail contained within was amazing!

The book contains day by day information, regarding movments of the battalions, casualty figures, accounts of the fighting and is jam packed with maps etc

If anyone is looking for a book on the actions taken by the Scots Guards during WW2 this is the book to look for!

Villers-Bocage Through the Lens
By Dan Taylor
Amazon Link (http://www.amazon.co.uk/Villers-Bocage-Through-Lens-After-battle/dp/187006707X/ref=sr_1_8?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1209719703&sr=1-8)

This is possibly the best published account of the fighting that i have read that happened during June 13th at Villers-Bocage.

The book also contains all photographs taken by the Germans post battle as well as a few taken by British photographers when the town was eventually recaptured.

The book is worth it for the wealth of photos really.
The only problem with the book is that the photos themselves in parts tell another story, the location of Wittmanns tank does not tally with with the photographic evidence nor do some of the claims when you also use some other accounts.

On the whole a great introduction into the fighting.

[dingeldein]

has anyone read "199 Days: The Battle of Stalingrad" by Edwin P. Hoyt?

ive read his book "Angles of death: Goering's Luftwaffe" and really liked it and now want to read 199 days. the problem is i cant find it anywhere in libraries in the US and UK or in any bookstores.

Before i go online and try to order it i want to know is it really worth it?

[metsapeikko]

Generation Kill
by Evan Wright

"Devil dogs, Iceman, Captain America, and the face of modern war."

Simply speaking, this book was excelent, it follows the Marines of First Recon Battalion during the invasion of Iraq. This battalion was the very tip of the spear that drove into deep behind enemy lines, and drove through all the ambushes/possible ambush-positions they could. And ofcourse, the men of the first recon didn't know this untill after the invasion was mostly over.

If I didn't miss anything, in this book, one chapter = one day. And there is about 35 chapters in this book. I can recommend this one strongly. It was very good book, besides the fact that war is usually pretty fucked up thing.

The Last Centurion
by John Ringo

"I am your Centurion. This America shall not fall."

In short; Shit hit the fan. Basically, "Swine Flu" killed about 1/3'rd, in places 2/3'rd of the population. Civilizations crashed. And to add to that, there was more or less "cold time" coming.

Now, US Military pulled out and went back to home as soon as possible. But they really can't leave all the expensive stuff behind now can they?

So, US Army leaves one strenghtened, more or less mechanized infantry brigade to iraq to guard a supply depot. And that, was like division-sized supply depot. So, not so hard task. If the world wasn't falling apart and Iraqis didn't want the stuff they had in that depot.

This was really good book actually, very enjoyable. I would recommend this to the people who likes action. And military stuff.