Do you know if there is a decent history of the Great War and the vie ferrate, Firn?Originally Posted by Firn
Do you know if there is a decent history of the Great War and the vie ferrate, Firn?
If you don’t read the newspaper, you are uninformed; if you do read the newspaper, you are misinformed. – Mark Twain (attributed)
Audiobooks while PCSing cross-country:
- War, Junger: Pretty good, got something out of it on psychology and combat stress. I wish I'd had maps for a couple of the tactical vignettes, curious to check the hardback for them when I can dig it out of storage. Might be the rare case where seeing the movie first was better.
- Quartered Safe Out Here, Fraser: Fantastic. Neck-in-neck with With the Old Breed for my favorite combat memoir. The audiobook is the way to go, because the actor who reads it does an excellent job with all the Cumbrian/Cockney/posh accents, and you quickly get a handle on Fraser's section mates. I've gotta find time for the last six Flashman books.
- Blink, Gladwell. I'm a little skeptical of Gladwell because I think some of his stuff is facile, but this was solid. It's good sociology lite on decision-making and intuition. Especially liked the part on LtGen Van Riper in Vietnam.
British Muslims: who are they, what do they think?
Innes Bowen after seven years research and writing has written a short, exceptional book 'Medina in Birmingham Najaf in Brent Inside British Islam':http://www.amazon.co.uk/Medina-Birmi...ds=innes+bowen
Perhaps there is an American equivalent? Here is my review.
This 230 page book is simply an exceptionally useful guide to who British Muslims are and what they think (about their religion). They are a minority, which is growing, spreading out of the inner cities, are increasingly found in the professions and can often have differences with the rest of us – they need to be understood better. So read this book!
Loyalty to the nation, not a cricket team, regularly features in public discussions. In a 2011 survey by Demos they showed that Muslims were more patriotic than other Britons (83 per cent said they were proud to be British as opposed to 79 per cent of the general population).
The vast majority of urban English British Muslims have been here for at least fifty years, traditionally supporting the Labour Party. Alongside smaller groups like the (now growing rapidly) Somali and Yemeni for far longer - often in port cities. Not all British Muslims have an overseas origin, there are growing numbers of converts, black youths in London and white English academics – all of them have a place in the book.
Rightly the book concentrates on Muslims of South Asian origin (60% of all British Muslims). The book helps to explain that often their faith is expressed via mosques and community organisations that are sectarian, with strong South Asian / Saudi Arabian links. One consequence is that these groups produce very conservative clerics – not the externally desired British “moderate” ones.
In the media British Muslims appear to come in from small vocal minorities. What better example than the columnist Yasmin Alibhai-Brown; she is an Ismaili, one of fifty thousand. Or the Muslim Brotherhood whose main influence is in London's Arab community and control just seven mosques out of over sixteen hundred. Then there are the angry, shouting “radicals”.
One hopes that those in national and local government, the politicians and bureaucrats, read this book too. It should be on the desk of those responding to British Muslims as individuals and communities, such as community workers and the police.
Contrary to Amazon.com the book has been published.
davidbfpo
'Uncle Bill' Slim: the authorised biography
Now available in paperback I read the hardback edition of Russell Miller's 'Uncle Bill: The Authorised Biography of Field Marshal Viscount Slim', thankfully I'd not purchased the tome.
It is a long time since I read another biography and his own book. Being 'The Authorised Biography' I hoped it would cast new light on Britain's best modern general.
Sadly there is not a single campaign map, not even of the Burma-Indian front. Nor a table of organisation for the Fourteenth Army, I suppose the author and editor forgot.
Yes the use of Bill Slim's letters to his children added value and the author has collected new material. Then one reads that the Japanese used Stuka divebombers! Some characters appear before their entry to the narrative, Wingate in particular, which would be confusing to a reader not aware of them.
UK Link:http://www.amazon.co.uk/Uncle-Bill-A...+viscount+slim
US link:http://www.amazon.com/Uncle-Bill-Aut...+viscount+slim
davidbfpo
Oh yes, the wonderful Yasmin Alibhai-"Brown" who once said there weren't enough "brown faces" (whatever that means) in her doctors surgery and was lauded by the liberal maggot heads as a luminary. If Nick Griffin (leader of the BNP) had said there weren't enough "white" faces he would have been called a racist. So much for Common sense.columnist Yasmin Alibhai-Brown.
Read the McAuslan books and stories too. They are as good as Quartered Safe Out Here.
"We fight, get beat, rise, and fight again." Gen. Nathanael Greene
Missed that post. Never read an English book about the Italian front and specificially the ferrate, so I can not recommend one. While I don't go mountaineering to explore military history you can easily combine it in some cases. Certain military roads and routes have become actually rather famous.
I plan to get 'Storia della Grande Guerra sul fronte italiano', but only as a reference as I just don't have the time to read as much as I would like.
... "We need officers capable of following systematically the path of logical argument to its conclusion, with disciplined intellect, strong in character and nerve to execute what the intellect dictates"
General Ludwig Beck (1880-1944);
Speech at the Kriegsakademie, 1935
Been meaning to get to this one, but haven't yet. The reviews look promising:
http://www.amazon.com/The-White-War-.../dp/0465020372
Thanks, Tequila. Just checked that one out from the local library.
If you don’t read the newspaper, you are uninformed; if you do read the newspaper, you are misinformed. – Mark Twain (attributed)
There is actually very little in it about the 'White War' or the high-alpine front. For good reasons, one should add, as that area wasn't the Schwerpunkt of the war apart form the Austrian offensive also often called 'Strafexpedition' in Italian even if this wasn't the official Austrian name. Sounds suitably Germanic and can still be roughly correctly pronounced. I did download it for my tablet after the question and glanced over the book so far.
One of the most impressive aspects of the Dolimite front was the military engineering, especially from the Italians. The Strada delle 52 gallerie is worth a (bike) trip. Perhaps not so much know is the clever use of the cooling water for the rock drills, which were so incredibly important to 'drill in', to provide in some locations the troops with warm water in the barracks right against (or in) the walls.
Last edited by Firn; 08-10-2014 at 10:20 AM.
... "We need officers capable of following systematically the path of logical argument to its conclusion, with disciplined intellect, strong in character and nerve to execute what the intellect dictates"
General Ludwig Beck (1880-1944);
Speech at the Kriegsakademie, 1935
I just wanted to add that the road itself is officially closed for bikes, but you still can get a great ride&walk trip. As so often there have been some guys which didn't respect the guys on foot and others which didn't pay enough attention. It is a bit of a shame for the mtb community, at least there are still great trails out there. Sadly the weather has been terrible so far this year.
Last edited by Firn; 08-10-2014 at 11:23 AM.
... "We need officers capable of following systematically the path of logical argument to its conclusion, with disciplined intellect, strong in character and nerve to execute what the intellect dictates"
General Ludwig Beck (1880-1944);
Speech at the Kriegsakademie, 1935
In looking over Thompson’s book yesterday afternoon the thing that most jumped out at me was that 3x as many Italians died during WWI as during WWII. I had no idea.
If you don’t read the newspaper, you are uninformed; if you do read the newspaper, you are misinformed. – Mark Twain (attributed)
The Italian Front in WW1
I have been to the region twice, once based in Italy and then years later based in Slovenia - a good part of the study tour was spent in the mountains.
I became aware that after the Italian collapse at Caporetto, corps sized British and French formations were sent as reinforcements. My local infantry regiment, the Royal Warwickshire Regiment were on the Asiago Plateau when attacked later. There is a UK historian who writes on this period, but being a Sunday my memory cannot recall him.
Rommel was there too, with his Alpine infantry unit and IIRC his WW1 memoirs are largely about his time on the Italian Front.
Italian losses were horrendous, partly as their leaders just kept on attacking and appear oblivious to learning any lessons.
The study tours enabled me to follow one of my interests, the study of military architecture since the advent of artillery via the Fortress Study Group:http://www.fsgfort.com/
davidbfpo
Just finished "A Walk in the Woods" by Bill Bryson. First third was pure fun and educative too, second part dissapointment by author and his companion giving up, and third part even bigger dissapointment as they gave up again. But Mr. Bryson definately has a very readable style of writing. Now I got "Blackwater" from Eric Prince under way.
The contribution of allied troops in Italy is perhaps one of most neglected elements of the Great War from an 'Italian' perspective. The rise of fascism did more then it's share there through the instrumentalisation of the Great War and in addtion the allies of those years became the competitors and afterwards enemies in the next big thing. The most visible traces of fascist glorification can be seen on prominent hills or mountain tops along the front. In some cases a few 'ossari' were also built far away from it, close to the new border. The Italian Wikipedia offers a rather long article on those sites and their story.
It is more 2.5 IIRC, but higher then that percentage-wise.
Last edited by Firn; 08-11-2014 at 12:14 PM.
... "We need officers capable of following systematically the path of logical argument to its conclusion, with disciplined intellect, strong in character and nerve to execute what the intellect dictates"
General Ludwig Beck (1880-1944);
Speech at the Kriegsakademie, 1935
I don't know if this counts but in Helprin's A Soldier of the Great War a lrge part of the story deals with Alpine fighting. And it was a superb book too.
"We fight, get beat, rise, and fight again." Gen. Nathanael Greene
a miracle of rare device
The Travels by Marco Polo (Penguin Edition)
English Lessons: The Pedagogy of Imperialism in Nineteenth Century China by James Hevia
'No one knows who they were. Or...what they were doing. But their legacy remains..." Spinal Tap, Stonehenge
Friedrich Engels. Origin of the Family, Private Property, and the State
Haeresis est maxima opera maleficarum non credere.
The Threat Matrix: The FBI at War in the Age of Global Terror
The Soviet Biological Weapons Program: A History
Intelligence Elsewhere: Spies and Espionage Outside the Anglosphere
When I am weaker than you, I ask you for freedom because that is according to your principles; when I am stronger than you, I take away your freedom because that is according to my principles. - Louis Veuillot
Posting Permissions
Bookmarks