Reading:
Expended Casings by Alan Farrell and Journey Into Darkness by Thomas P. Odom. Highly Recommended.
Expended Casings - Amazon
Journey Into Darkness - Amazon
Reading:
Expended Casings by Alan Farrell and Journey Into Darkness by Thomas P. Odom. Highly Recommended.
Expended Casings - Amazon
Journey Into Darkness - Amazon
Some light reading...
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.
Quite.[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)
Help Needed on Afghanistan 2001-2006
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.
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
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.
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...
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......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)
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....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)
[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)
Jake Scott, Blood Clot: In Combat with the Patrols Platoon, 3 Para, Afghanistan, 2006
In polar opposition to Beattie is the “raw” account of Jake Scott whose forthright and honest style comes as a cool breeze. At times reminiscent of the early Ernst Jünger Scott’s prose is jagged edged and searing, he pulls no punches which, for a Para, is to be expected. A member of 3 Para’s patrols (reconnaissance) platoon of WMIKs (7) and Pinzgauers (2) he is mostly fond of the former vehicles recounting that ...
The Patrols would do very much of this in their tour in Helmand province although they would also operate on foot during air assaults. He also excels at elucidating the unheralded and often inexplicable aspects of small unit cohesion, camaraderie and brotherhood- the banter, the jibing, driving off whilst the youngest soldier attempts a No.2 behind your WMIK, regimental and professional pride and espirit d’corps- that often determine whether or not men will fight. He’s also not afraid to criticise...I remember talking to a Canadian officer on this while harboured up amongst their convoy for a night in the desert, he too thought we were mad. But as I explained to him and many others who question this, our Land Rovers could get in and out of most areas without being spotted unlike the big US LAVs that were seen miles off. We were small and relatively quiet, light and fast; it provided better cross-country capability and the reason why we would stay off the main routes where others would fall foul and pay the price with roadside bombs. We had better arcs of fire and a 360 view while moving. We could lie low in wadi beds and in mountain gullies. We also had the option of debussing very quickly if need be.(p.34-5)
Like Beattie, Scott also reveals the complexities/pitfalls of CIMIC when he narrates that the Governor of Helmand, Engineer Daoud was pushing for more assistance from UK forces...After the big kick-off about the .50 Cal weapons not firing correctly in Now Zad, little had been done. [...] The Canadians and Estonians were selling the British army .50 Cal ammunition. It was ridiculous that this couldn’t be solved ourselves and we had to sponge off other countries, as whoever had ordered the ammo had, in my opinion, gone for some cheap #### and the low grade of ammo was causing problems[...] What had happened in Now Zad, Sangin, Kajaki and now Musa Qaleh had made the top brass realise that this was no ordinary Iraq, KJosovo or Northern Ireland tour. I also began seeing more kit and equipment coming through the stores, TI was the big thing, TI sights for personal weapons and the .50 Cals were like rocking horse #### yet here they were (one TI per .50 Cal and one Viper TI per team). The new body armour and swing arms for the WMIK along with run-flat tyres we also accommodated. Also more ammo was coming in and we could eventually operate with our ‘full scales’ ammunition [..] About time; but again too little too late in my eyes.(p.135)
Scott vivdly describes the intensity of small unit engagements putting the reader into the heat of battle often in circumstances at once surreal and deadly...One of his former commanders had been attacked and his bodyguards and family members killed. Not only that but one of the local police chiefs was under threat from the local people for raping a young girl. “Let him have it”, we yelled out on hearing the news. I definitely didn’t want to be associated with saving or protecting a rapist and paedophile, I thought we were here to protect the people of Afghanistan and rid them from the Taliban and terror. If they thought we were protecting people like this it would turn everyone against us.(p121-2)
’Stand down lads, its just women and children’, the boss said.
‘Stand down lads just a group pof tarts having a mothers meeting’, I joked.
‘Well is there any chance of getting some scoff?’, Tommo said.
‘Yeah I’m Hank Marvin’, Lee butted in. [...] As the sun began to sink some of women walked past some of the outer positions, no more than 50m away, dressed in their female dish-dash clothing with their faces covered. The Yanks moved a Humvee up onto the high ground alongside our blokes. Chris W., a fuill screw, was the commander up there.
‘Hey what you doing’ he said to one of the Yanks now standing sky lining himself with a tab in his mouth. ‘You’re in plain view, pull your vehicle back’.
‘We are fine mate’, the Yank replied.
OK, suit yourself’, Chris finished. Minutes later as the US soldier sat at the front wheel of his Humvee a massive explosion erupted. The US Humvee exploded into flames, it took a direct hit with an RPG and then everything went noisy around them. Heavy 7.62mm weapons started firing from the location from where the Afghan women had disappeared. Pete McKinley, a tom in A Company, ran forward under fire and dragged the injured Yank back and started first aid while rounds were smacking into the ground in front of him[...] The so-called women had really been Taliban dressed to disguise themselves to get as close as possible to some of the lads and the US troops and set up a firing post right in front of their position.(p.84,85)
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