What Are You Currently Reading? 2010

[Uboat509]

I just finished On Infantry by John A. English and Bruce I. Gudmundsson. I thoroughly enjoyed it until the last chapter which was just odd and pretty far off of reality. I am now reading Dr. Kissinger's book Diplomacy. I am only a couple hundred pages into it and now that I have started two online college classes I don't have as much time but I am really enjoying it. Speaking of those college classes, for one of them I have to do selected readings from Creasy's 15 Decisive Battles of the World: From Marathon to Waterloo. He seems to be a pretty good historian but he takes too much artistic license with his writing for my taste.

[Backwards Observer]

Reading:

Expended Casings by Alan Farrell and Journey Into Darkness by Thomas P. Odom. Highly Recommended.

Expended Casings - Amazon

Journey Into Darkness - Amazon

[Tukhachevskii]

Derrick Wright, The Battle for Iwo Jima. Written by a British author the book does a serviceable job of explaining the battle for Iwo Jima in a writing style that is both fresh and succinct (the volume itself is best described as “slim”). Though well written I was disappointed that the author did not cover in greater depth or at the very least acknowledge the background to the initiation of operation Detachment. The author somewhat uncritically accepts the conventional (B-29 bomber deployment) argument for the operation without exploring the inter-service debates and rivalries that went on behind the scenes (which see Robert S. Burrell, ‘Breaking the Cycle of Iwo Jima Mythology: A Strategic Study of Operation Detachment’), The Journal of Military History, Vol. 68, No. 4, Oct. 2004). I also would have liked to have had more information on the Japanese side. However, as the author expressly states that his intention is to examine the US angle this can be forgiven. The narrative contains many firsthand accounts of the battle and includes, much to the author’s credit, chapters that cover the “forgotten” heroes; the Corpsmen and Seabees. The historical narrative itself is structured chronologically and, after a brief background assessment, follows the entire operation from D-Day to D+36. I would, however, like to know of any English language books that do cover the Japanese side in depth during the final stages of the war and would appreciate the members of the SWC pointing the way to them especially if they are better than the even slimmer and, on the whole, less than satisfactory volume below.

Patrick Hennessey, The Junior Officers’ Reading Club: Killing Time and Fighting Wars. There is something remarkably unsatisfying about this book; though, I am certain his friends will enjoy it immensely. To be fair one learns an awful lot about life at Sandhurst, about regimental life in general and about the culture junior officers are socialised into but it still reads much less like a memoir of war and more like a cleverly marketed and pitched faux-memoir/diary for the iPod generation. Some may find that tone and style refreshing but I for one found it self-indulgent with a whiff of the flippant. The author is apparently now reading to become a lawyer and his book reads very much like a publicity exercise in preparation for a life of (self-)importance.


Mathew Parker, Monte Cassino: The Story of the Hardest Fought Battle of World War II. While I would dispute the latter half of the title (there are surely other battles that are just as deserving of the title “hardest fought battle”, especially in WWII) I cannot dispute the unique conditions, hardships and challenges that the Italian campaign imposed on the multi-national combatants. Combining military history with oral history the book reads much like Max Hastings’ Overlord. The author examines the inter-allied squabbles, often petty but serious nonetheless, regarding Allied strategy, courses of action, allocation of objectives and directions of advance while dispelling many myths (i.e., regarding the supposed proclivity of North African soldiers to rape and loot) and revealing much that has since faded from memory in the process. He also does a great service to the forces of countries usually under-appreciated in more general works on WWII war such as the Free French whose North African forces provided sterling service and whose metropolitan French officers suffered inordinately higher casualties than some of the Allied other units; the Poles; South Africans, Indians, Kiwis/New Zealanders, Aussies and Canadians (ANZAC). Indeed, for the Free French and the Poles the Italian Campaign held much greater import politically than it did militarily as both sides fought for their respective nation’s honour and for the right to determine their nation’s status in post-Nazi Europe.

[A German propaganda leaflet berates similar Allied Psyops efforts]: “Those of you who are lucky enough to get out of this inferno of Cassino will always remember the German parachutists, the most ferocious of them all. Yet just imagine, some greasy, slick-haired guy sitting safely way back of you tries to soften us with leaflets, asking us to wave a white handkerchief. Let this guy come to the front and find out that the paper with his trash on it is just good enough to the wipe the arse with. On second thoughts, let him continue sending his leaflets – toilet paper is becoming rare at Cassino, and tough as they are, even German parachutists don’t like using grass”. (p. 276)

Quite.

[GI Zhou]

Greetings.

I am after a good reference book on US military operations in Afghanistan, especially the early entry operations by the US Marines and helicopter operations generally from 2001- 2006.

This is for a 8,000 word advanced staff college type paper, so the more references in it, the better.

[baboon6]

Military history and current affairs I have read lately:

The Brigade by Howard Blum. The stories of three men who served with the Jewish Independent Brigade Group in battle in Italy in the last months of World War II and then on occupation duty. The latter, in Italy, the low countries and Germany, becomes both destrcuctive and constructive when an element within the brigade starts hunting down and killing alleged war criminals, and then both they and others rescue Jewish refugees and smuggle some back to Palestine. Quite an interesting story and characters but not particularly well-written.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Brigade-Stor...4443603&sr=1-3

Commando by Chris Terrill. The author follows a troop of Royal Marine recruits through training (and completes the Commando tests himself) and also goes off to Afghanistan to report on a newly-commissioned officer and his troop in combat. A few more details and insights than the TV series but I found the former more gripping.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Commando-Chr...4444297&sr=1-1

Chasing the wind by Major-General Kenneth van der Spuy. The memoirs of one of South Africa's aviation pioneers, from his training in SA's first class of flight cadets, through action in both German South West and German East Africa and France in World War I, post-WW1 service with the RAF in North Russia including capture and imprisonment by the Bolsheviks, peacetime service in South Africa and the UK, to his final posting as the Union Defence Force's Director-General Technical Services in World War II.

http://www.abebooks.co.uk/servlet/Se...d&x=0&sortby=3

[Granite_State]

Gates of Fire. Pretty much required reading in the Marine Corps. Definitely enjoyed it, some great, visceral stuff, but I found the happy helots a bit hard to take.

Battle Leadership. German WWI captain's lessons, only twenty pages in but enjoying it so far. Good bit on knowing the personalities/psychologies of one's subordinates and how to issue them orders as a result.

[Tukhachevskii]

Doug Beattie MC, An Ordinary Soldier
The author seems to have spent his entire time in Afghanistan in a kind of moral purgatory and he is often second guessing himself throughout the work. Whether that is for civilian consumption or whether he was genuinely stricken with ethical vertigo the work is valuable in its depiction of “the face of battle” (to borrow a phrase from the title of John Keegan’s book). It is very definitely narrator’s perspective to which we are treated in all its moral confusion. Yet, Beattie is no Erich Maria Remarque. He has a job to do and does it...with aplomb. That job was to take Garmsir “the gateway to Helmand” with the 1st Battalion Royal Irish Regiment and elements of the ANA and ANP many of whom were of questionable ability and/or loyalty. Ironically, Beattie was initially penned for desk job as intelligence liaison officer to the Canadian contingent. When he arrived at KAF (Kandahar Airfield), in the best traditions of British ad hocary and gentlemanly amateurism...

...no one knew anything about Doug Beattie [...] I was given a choice. Either act as an operations watch keeper, another desk role also at KAF, or go down to Lashkar Gah to work at the embryonic Provincial Security and Co-ordination Centre (PSCC)(p.75)

He chose the latter and would subsequently be involved in one ambush after another as part of his job working with the ANA/P formulating a common security plan and supporting UK forces with fighting detachments of Afghans co-ordinated by OMLT (Operational Mentoring and Liaison Teams). Beattie then continues to explain the difficulties of leading and co-ordinating OMLTs and their Afghan charges and is, if anything, an excellent examination of the clash of cultures- professional vs “yokel” / occidental rationalism vs oriental rationalism- that NATO and Afghan soldiers must contend with. There’s also the cultural intelligence that he needs in order to operate effectively in a world of deeply held religious beliefs intermingled with “chai boys” belonging to village elders, local notables or tribal chiefs...

...there to be ordered about by the men and, when required, to provide sexual pleasure [...] The boy was fresh-faced and clean shaven. He looked timid. At some stage, as he aged, his sexual attractiveness would wane and he would be replaced by someone else, someone younger. For him the abuse would be over. Instead it was likely he would himself become a fully fledged member of the police and probably turn into an abuser too.(p.137)

Add to this the outright collusion and collaboration of certain ANP units with the Taliban (p.233) and the distrust between the ANA and ANP and you have an unenviable and heady mix. Though overly sentimental for my taste definitely an interesting, and with regards to the ANA and ANP a revealing, read.

[After a brief encounter with the Taliban, Beattie asks ANA Col. Gulzar]...what would happen to the bodies of the dead. “We will give them back to the village elders and they will return them to the Talib for burial”. There was a sense of honour between the two sides I did not expect. Perhaps it came about because there wasn’t actually much that differentiated them. Afghans take a pragmatic approach to fighting. Their loyalty can be bought, people often choosing sides on the basis of who they believe will win[.](p.109)