What are you reading at the moment?

Discussion in 'Books, Films, TV, Radio' started by Gage, Mar 12, 2006.

  1. stolpi

    stolpi Well-Known Member

    They did a lot of paddling in those days ... as well as 'brain-washing'-avant-la-lettre, as I would describe the action of Chief Tanaghrisson on 28 May 1754
     
    Last edited: Sep 28, 2017
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  2. Orwell1984

    Orwell1984 Senior Member

    [​IMG]

    Published in 2010 by the 9/12 Lancers Charitable Foundation and gives a good, well illustrated history of the two regiments including their time in France 1940.
    Can be bought from them directly for a cheaper price than found elsewhere:
    Bookshop | The Royal Lancers Regimental Association
     
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  3. Warlord

    Warlord Veteran wannabe

    Well, guess this one will have to go to ye olde buying queue; BEF France, Greece and the Desert make up the right kind of mix for me!
     
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  4. bamboo43

    bamboo43 Very Senior Member

    CF,

    Your interest in the book, Elephant Bill, inspired me to use his wiki entry as the base for a small write up for my website:

    Elephant Bill Williams
     
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  5. Orwell1984

    Orwell1984 Senior Member

    [​IMG]

    Looks to be the new standard English reference work on the type. Very very detailed!
     
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  6. Charley Fortnum

    Charley Fortnum Dreaming of Red Eagles

    It looks great, too.

    The problem with your website is that it distracts me from North Africa and Italy as I keep finding interesting little tales you've written up!

    The book I mentioned above has now arrived in the post and it's quite lavish hardback
    for a limited/private publication--very nice production

    20171008_213846.jpg 20171008_214009.jpg 20171008_213942.jpg
     
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  7. bamboo43

    bamboo43 Very Senior Member

    Thanks CF, but more discipline is required if you are to remain on track with North Africa.;)
     
  8. Charley Fortnum

    Charley Fortnum Dreaming of Red Eagles

    Alas, I've drifted way off target: holiday reading was Bomber Command in 1943!
     
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  9. A-58

    A-58 Not so senior Member

    [​IMG]

    Started with this one a few nights ago. Kind of interesting so far. The protagonist in the story, Joe Beyrle (pronounced Bye-early, but yeah, I thought that it was pronounced Berl too) is a paratrooper with the 101st Abn Division, gets captured sometime after D-Day, escapes from a POW camp and makes his was east and links up with the Rooskies. He fights with them until the end of the war. I think that they make him an honorary commie since they liked him so much. Beyrle shares with them his love for blowing things up since he was trained in demolitions. At this point in my readings, the 101st has just disembarked off the British transport ship at Liverpool and are building tent cities and other forms of lodging. They really enjoyed marching the 5 miles or so inland to their camp after being cooped up on a boat for about 8 days or so. All the GI's apparently loathed British on-board chow, and succumbed to eating them when they ran out of C and K rations about halfway across the pond.
     
    Last edited: Oct 26, 2017
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  10. Orwell1984

    Orwell1984 Senior Member

    [​IMG]

    Book description:
    I'd come across reference to this book in some other articles and books on the Sino-Japanese War I was reading and it was always favourably mentioned. So when a cheap copy came across my path I snapped it up. Makes for an interesting study of what was "known" about the Japanese between the wars and what we now know was missed. Clearly written as well.
     
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  11. Warlord

    Warlord Veteran wannabe

    Good stuff, mate, even though with yet another addition to ye olde buying queue, I'm risking a massive retaliatory strike by those who usually benefit from me meager salary :D
     
  12. Chris C

    Chris C Canadian

    It feels a little unreal to be reading a book published during the war, but I found a cheap copy of...

    Birth of an Army, A. B. Austin, publication date 1943

    About the fighting in Tunisia
     
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  13. Chris C

    Chris C Canadian

    I haven't finished Birth of an Army but it is very good. I don't know how hard it is to acquire but I definitely recommend it.

    It's interesting to me because most of the books I read are either after the fact histories or first person accounts. This mixes the author's personal experience - which was more far-roving than most in the army - with the overall, plus it has some good descriptions of the countryside which help visualize the area, from the mud that took 10 minutes to hack off one's boots, to the flowers and the torrential rain in the spring of '43.

    The author also has some comments a little in line with mine about the Canadians in WW2. Mistakes were made and losses occurred in Tunisia. Was it better for those mistakes to be made then, before the invasion of Europe? (That is the author's stated opinion, anyway.)
     
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  14. bamboo43

    bamboo43 Very Senior Member

    In a break from my usual WW2 and the like:

    67.jpg
     
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  15. kopite

    kopite Member

    Bamboo43 wrote "In a break from my usual WW2 and the like:

    Steve,

    I met John Peel outside Old Trafford in 1974. It was an FA Cup semi-final between Liverpool and Leicester City. John was a big Liverpool fan and of course a great DJ that introduced myself and many others to some great new bands. Hope you enjoy the book.
     
    Last edited: Oct 21, 2017
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  16. bamboo43

    bamboo43 Very Senior Member

    Hi Kopite,

    Like you, John Peel introduced me to many of the bands I still listen to today, most notably, Joy Division, The Wedding Present and The Fall. In the book he mentions his hero worship of Bill Shankly and how the tragedies at Heysel and Hillsborough, affected him so much that he could no longer feel comfortable in large crowds.
     
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  17. Orwell1984

    Orwell1984 Senior Member

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  18. Charley Fortnum

    Charley Fortnum Dreaming of Red Eagles

    I'm slightly ashamed to say that I'd never even heard of that battle--although perhaps that's because it seems to be referred to under multiple names.

    A quick search tells me that there is an active debate over the largest tank battle of the war, although I'd always thought it was Kursk/ Prokhorovka in 1943.

    Something new everyday...
     
  19. Charley Fortnum

    Charley Fortnum Dreaming of Red Eagles

    I only listened to John Peel's show from time to time although I own a large number of 'Peel Sessions' recordings of my favourite bands. By mere coincidence of being a univeristy student and then living back at home in the late 90s, I found myself listening to his Home Truths an awful lot on Saturday morning: a program that could go from hilarious to lump-in-the-throat poignant in minutes.

    Much missed.
     
  20. Gage

    Gage The Battle of Barking Creek

    Rick Stroud - Lonely Courage. It's about woman in F Section SOE.
     

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