What Are You Currently Reading? 2013

[davidbfpo]

Thanks to a "lurker" I have finally read 'The Defence of Duffer's Drift' by E.D. Swinton; well a retired police officer takes his time to read classic texts for the military.

Well worth a read, although I suspect many here already have. On a search I found it featured on nearly twenty threads, with Tom Odom especially citing it's value.

There are numerous places to get a copy, here is one I found:http://regimentalrogue.tripod.com/du...fers_Drift.htm

Wikipedia:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Def...ffer%27s_Drift

[Tukhachevskii]

...I too like to read multiple texts (are you Dyslexic Dave?)

Anyway I'm the process of reading or have read the following...

Brian ldiss, The Dark Light Years

K. S. Friedman, Myths of the Free Market

Frederick Forsythe, The Dogs of War. Much, much better than the film.

L. I. Held, The Quirks of Human Anatomy (A real gem)


G. Till, Seapower
&

D. J. Lonsdale, Alexander the Great: Lessons in Grand Strategy

[Red Rat]

Just finished: Blood, Steel, Myth: II SS Panzer Korps at Prochorowka

and about to start

Demolishing The Myth: The Battle of Prokhorovka

The large scale of the fighting highlights the significant impact of what may seem minor variations in TTPs between german Army (Heer) units and Waffen SS as well as the cumulative impact of combat fatigue and the impact of airpower.

On my Kindle I am currently getting through a very readable:

History of the Peloponnesian War

and have just finished:

The Heights of Courage: A Tank Leader's War on the Golan

More big war then small war at the moment.

[ganulv]

On my Kindle I am currently getting through a very readable:

History of the Peloponnesian War

Have you taken a stab at Herodotus? I don’t think anyone would go so far as to call The Histories readable—the historical geography in The Landmark edition helps, as does Carolyn Dewald’s Introduction in the Oxford World’s Classics edition—but that has a lot to do with the scope of his ambition. As the editor of The Landmark edition says, Thucydides was interested in politics and warfare, Herodotus was interested in everything.

[Red Rat]

Have you taken a stab at Herodotus? I don’t think anyone would go so far as to call The Histories readable—the historical geography in The Landmark edition helps, as does Carolyn Dewald’s Introduction in the Oxford World’s Classics edition—but that has a lot to do with the scope of his ambition. As the editor of The Landmark edition says, Thucydides was interested in politics and warfare, Herodotus was interested in everything.

I have taken a stab at Herodotus and intend to return again to him (a copy is also sitting on my Kindle).

I studied a lot of Greek philosophy while at university, I am finding The Histories readable in comparison

[ganulv]

I have taken a stab at Herodotus and intend to return again to him (a copy is also sitting on my Kindle).

One of my teachers told me that he grades with two things in mind: the scope of the student’s ambition and his/her success in fulfilling it. Herodotus scores well on both!

I studied a lot of Greek philosophy while at university, I am finding The Histories readable in comparison

I have studied very little Greek philosophy, but just last night I was reading a short piece about ontology which makes reference to “competitive metaphysics in the Greek style.”

[Steve Blair]

Just finished: Blood, Steel, Myth: II SS Panzer Korps at Prochorowka

and about to start

Demolishing The Myth: The Battle of Prokhorovka

The large scale of the fighting highlights the significant impact of what may seem minor variations in TTPs between german Army (Heer) units and Waffen SS as well as the cumulative impact of combat fatigue and the impact of airpower.

On my Kindle I am currently getting through a very readable:

History of the Peloponnesian War

and have just finished:

The Heights of Courage: A Tank Leader's War on the Golan

More big war then small war at the moment.

Be curious as to your opinions about the two Kursk books. That's always been one of my favorite areas (Eastern Front).

[ganulv]

That's always been one of my favorite areas (Eastern Front).

As one of my professor used to write in the margins of my papers from time, “Are you sure that is what you mean to say?”

[Steve Blair]

As one of my professor used to write in the margins of my papers from time, “Are you sure that is what you mean to say?”

Maybe.....

[Bill Moore]

http://www.amazon.com/Gomorrah-Perso.../dp/0312427794

This book has been out for awhile, but I just recently got around to reading it. I give it two thumbs up a big toe and look forward to the author's next book on the Cartels in Mexico.

Roberto Saviano is powerful writer who knows what he writes about. His writing style very much reminded me of Michael Herr's writing style in his book "Dispatches" about the Vietnam war. Roberto writes about (although uses different terms) many topics of interest we discuss on SWJ ranging from global networks, criminal insurgencies (he points out that the mafia needs the state so it doesn't want to overthrow it, but it does want to control it and it does in much of Southern Italy), control of the populace through coercion and a prevailing fear, mixing legal and illegal business methods, etc. I think most will find it insightful and relevant to the study of Small Wars. A couple of excerpts.

Since I was born, 3,600 deaths. The Camorra has killed more than the Sicilian Mafia, more than the Ndrangheta, more than the Russia Mafia, more than the Albanian families, more than the total number of deaths by the ETA in Spain and the IRA in Ireland, more than the Red Brigades, the NAR, and all the massacres committed by the government of Italy.

Imagine a map of the world, the sort you see in newspapers such as Le Monde Diplomatique, which marks places of conflict around the globe with a little flame. Kurdistan, Sudan, Kosovo, East Timor. Your eye is drawn to the south of Italy, to the flesh that piles up with every war connected to the Camorra, the Mafia, the Ndrangheta, the Sacra Coronal Unita in Puglia, and the Basilischi in Lucani. But there's no little flame, no sign of conflict. This is the heart of Europe.

They cut off his ears, cropped his tongue, shattered his wrists, gouged out his eyes with a screwdriver--all while he was still alive, awake, conscious. then to finish him off they smashed his face with a hammer and carved a cross on his lips with a knife. His body was supposed to end up in the trash so that it would be found rotting in a dump. The message inscribed on his flesh was perfectly clear to everyone.

A discussion the author is having with his father,

"Robbie', what do you call a man who has a pistol and no college degree?"

"A #### with a pistol."

"Good. What do you call a man with a college degree but no pistol?"

"A #### with a degree."

"Good. What do you call a man with a degree and a pistol?"

"A man, papa!"

"Bravo, Robertino!"

If you read this book, or have read it already, you'll better understand why I posted this tribute to a heroic anti-Mafia fighter earlier.

http://council.smallwarsjournal.com/...ad.php?t=18169

[Red Rat]

Be curious as to your opinions about the two Kursk books. That's always been one of my favorite areas (Eastern Front).

I'll drop a further line in due course.

Blood Steel & Myth: Lavishly illustrated with maps and photographs and provides a day by day, almost hour by hour account of the battles of II SS Panzer Corps. Good statistics with sources and workings demonstrated (important when one considers the conflicting claims as to just who killed what with what at Prochorowrka). Some anecdotes of the soldiers' experiences.

Demolishing the Myth: Not as well illustrated as 'Blood Steel and Myth' and while the mapping is adequate it could be better. The content though is superb, setting the context extremely well and taking pains to explore commanders' backgrounds and experience often down to brigade level well. Perhaps because I am less familiar with the workings of the Soviet Army, but I am finding this book engrossing, hugely educational and very enjoyable.

Added by Moderator: See Post 31 for links to both books.

[Steve Blair]

I'll drop a further line in due course.

Blood Steel & Myth: Lavishly illustrated with maps and photographs and provides a day by day, almost hour by hour account of the battles of II SS Panzer Corps. Good statistics with sources and workings demonstrated (important when one considers the conflicting claims as to just who killed what with what at Prochorowrka). Some anecdotes of the soldiers' experiences.

Demolishing the Myth: Not as well illustrated as 'Blood Steel and Myth' and while the mapping is adequate it could be better. The content though is superb, setting the context extremely well and taking pains to explore commanders' backgrounds and experience often down to brigade level well. Perhaps because I am less familiar with the workings of the Soviet Army, but I am finding this book engrossing, hugely educational and very enjoyable.

Added by Moderator: See Post 31 for links to both books.

Thanks for the initial thoughts!

I've got this coming in the mail, which I'll update folks on if anyone's interested. SOG has always been an interest of mine, and this looks to be either good or hugely disappointing...

[ganulv]

I've got this coming in the mail, which I'll update folks on if anyone's interested. SOG has always been an interest of mine, and this looks to be either good or hugely disappointing...

Sure, keep us updated. That was “back when the Green Beanies were cool,” as a veteran of the 82nd who I once worked with informed me.

[Firn]

Thanks to a "lurker" I have finally read 'The Defence of Duffer's Drift' by E.D. Swinton; well a retired police officer takes his time to read classic texts for the military.

Well worth a read, although I suspect many here already have. On a search I found it featured on nearly twenty threads, with Tom Odom especially citing it's value.

There are numerous places to get a copy, here is one I found:http://regimentalrogue.tripod.com/du...fers_Drift.htm

Wikipedia:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Def...ffer%27s_Drift

I finished that book quite recently. I really like the way it presents a problem and helps the reader to interact and to learn step by step. Needless to say that the specific pedagogic approach can be valuable in other areas as well.

From a military point of view firepower certainly made it's weight felt already there and even earlier with all the logical ramifications.

[Backwards Observer]

Advice and Support: The Early Years of the U.S. Army in Vietnam 1941-1960 by Ronald H. Spector.

The idea that the appropriate use of American power will provide a satisfactory outcome to even the most intractable problem in the Third World is far from a novel one. It was succinctly, if inelegantly, expressed in the slogan which one saw everywhere in Vietnam, “Once we have them by the balls, their hearts and minds will follow.” The work presented here suggests a fundamentally different conclusion, but one which was also embodied in an expression commonly heard in Vietnam, “You can’t make somethin’ out of nothin’.”

...

Added to this propensity to make something out of nothing was an American ignorance of Vietnamese history and society so massive and all-encompassing that two decades of federally-funded fellowships, crash language programs, television specials and campus teach-ins made hardly a dent. In Chapter 1 of the present work I attempt to show how infrequent and tenuous were American contacts with Vietnam before 1945 and what little knowledge of IndoChina there was in the U.S. even among specialists. U.S. contacts with Japan and China, however distorted by mutual suspicion, ignorance and prejudice, were rich and varied in comparison to those with Southeast Asia. (from the preface to the 1985 edition)

Advice and Support: The Early Years of the U.S. Army in Vietnam 1941-1960 - amazon



***

Something For Nothing (Rush) - youtube

[davidbfpo]

A "lurker" lent me a slim AUSA book, 'Dien Bien Phu: The Epic Battle America Forgot' by Howard E. Simpson. It is a long time since I read on the French Indo-China war, notably Bernard Fall in 'Street Without Joy'. Originally published in 1994 and my edition 2005:http://www.amazon.com/Dien-Bien-Phu-...America+Forgot

Simpson writes well, although the editor missed some strange spellings and grammar which jarred an easy read. He has interviewed on both sides, including General Giap and clearly has admiration for the stoicism of the French (including a good number of non-French nationals and local tribesmen). Some new information was found; the UK & US official visits, the extent of US civilian pilots flying most of the transports and the use of quad .50 cal. machine guns.

I still marvel at those who volunteered to parachute in the last days, many with just a few days training:

800 French, 450 Legionnaires, 400 North Africans & Africans and 150 Vietnamese - only 681 jumped in.

Finally the author was there, as a diplomat, before the siege began.

[ganulv]

I still marvel at those who volunteered to parachute in the last days, many with just a few days training:

I read Peter G. MacDonald’s biography of Giap earlier in the year. Didn’t that jump land all of them in POW camps (and from to their graves for many of them)?

[davidbfpo]

Ganulv asked:

Didn’t that jump land all of them in POW camps (and from to their graves for many of them)?

Simpson refers to:

11,000 French Union able-bodied and wounded being captured, approximately 3,300 were returned.

The possible factors that caused their motivation is mentioned, multi-faceted yes and now too late to research properly. No doubt other examples in military history exist.

[jmm99]

After the war, Pierre Langlais ("Gars Pierre"; CO of the 2nd Airborne Brigade at DBP) carried on a 2-year battle with the French Army to award parachutist badges to the surviving "first jumpers" into DBP, despite their (obvious) lack of regulation airborne training jumps, etc. Bureaucratic indifference to combat courage won out (as is usually the case).

On DBP (the "pi$$pot" battle): Bernard Fall, Hell In A Very Small Place: The Siege Of Dien Bien Phu; Jules Roy, The Battle of Dienbienphu; and Martin Windrow, The Last Valley: Dien Bien Phu and the French Defeat in Vietnam. Windrow's is the latest academic work - and very comprehensive. Fall and Roy were there at the time.

Background (Franco-American viewpoint): both by Bernard Fall, Street Without Joy: The French Debacle In Indochina; and The Two Viet-Nams: A Political and Military Analysis (essential and cheap).

Regards

Mike

Chants Des Appelés.Le Gars Pierre (YouTube)

[carl]

I read Peter G. MacDonald’s biography of Giap earlier in the year. Didn’t that jump land all of them in POW camps (and from to their graves for many of them)?

That is what David marveled at, me too. They knew what the odds and they went anyway.

Maybe the motivation was what I read motivates most things like that, they can't stand to leave their mates unaided.