What are you reading at the moment?

It's a case of slow reading and having to look up the odd word here and there but I get by! Bir Hakeim is criminally undercovered in the English language world but I remember reading the Ballatine History of the battle avidly. As to Indochina have you read Bernard Fall's books yet?

And now to my current reading Nautical turn now:


A look from the lower deck at life on the RN cruiser Coventry.

 

Yus, I went through Fall's work some years back, but just to look at the myriad of French written books covering in-depth every aspect of the campaign, makes want to cry

Ballantine's already on the bag and on ye olde reading queue, but just as it is with Indochina, to look at, say, Erwan Bergot's book, brings the odd tear to me eyes

Been thinking of French lessons for ages now, but haven't found the course that will get me to reading french in 2 weeks

P.S. And same happens with Dutch and the thorough bibliography on the NEI!!!

 

Received an little bookette for my birthday: Margaret Thatcher, A Life and Legacy.

 

Now currently reading Red Devils over the Yalu: A Chronicle of Soviet Aerial Operations in the Korean War 1950-53 by Igor Seidov.
Quite a good read from 'the other side' and does seem to cover the air war very well. The author tries to readdress the myth (as he describes it) of the F86 Sabre victory tally over the MiG-15. With so many books covering the air war from the UN side it is interesting to read one from the Russian side. The book is a mixture of providing a narrative on the air operations and first person accounts.

 

'Her indoors' bought 'Changing Times, Changing Tides by Sally Aviss, published a couple of years ago. Although a work of fiction it contains a great deal about Dunkirk and the planning for D Day. The main characters are naval staff officers. Well researched and well written. A fair amount of family relations and romance but you can't have everything.

Mike

 

I found this at the book room of the Canadian War Museum. It is an unofficial history of the Calgary Regiment written mostly by the veterans. There are some accounts of Dieppe (where they had Churchills) and what happened to some of them in POW camps and I'm reading about actions in Italy now. I don't know if this has been published in another format since, or not.

 

Currently reading "War Diaries 1939-1945" by Field Marshall Lord Alanbrooke.

 

Reading HMS Sheffield " The Life and Times of Old Shiny" by Ronald Bassett.
Just getting into the book, bought it on lindle for a small fortune £0.99

 

I'm still juggling both the Calgaries and the Canadian book when I'm at home, but for on the go reading I've gone back to WW1.

 

Hi Chris - what do you think of the Cooper book? Years ago I bought the Trevor Pidgeon book (two vol. set with simply amazing maps) on Flers and it's rather spoilt me for stuff on tanks!

Incidentally, I'm currently reading 'Diary of a Staff Officer' being on something of a 1940 total immersion kick at the moment.

Kind regards
Andrew

 

Question for Incredibledisc re 'The Road to Dunkirk' - finished it yet and did you enjoy it? My copy arrived last week but its still on the shelf as I work my way through the pile!
Cheers
Andrew

 

Getting my eyes opened in reading this book at the moment.

Soldaten - On Fighting, Killing and Dying: The Secret Second World War Tapes of German POWs

 

Hi Andrew,

I'm definitely enjoying it! I'm slightly surprised that it's going into all the history up until (and after?) Cambrai. But not in a bad way. I wasn't really interested in WW1 tanks and know little but after I read Dick Taylor's Warpaint volume 1, I think, I got more interested.

It was not a book I was looking for, but one I stumbled on in a used bookstore over the winter.

I went to another store on the weekend which I thought might have books of that age and format and came away with Ace of Aces by Baker (about Pat Pattle) and one about the Arctic convoys whose title escapes me. Edit: The Gates of Hell by Ewart Brooks.

I have read multiple books covering the land war in North Africa and Europe... I started Delaforce's Monty's Foxhounds and I just couldn't muster up enthusiasm for another account of much the same events AGAIN!

 

In between these other books I had a read of Battle Diary: from Normandy to the Zeeder Zee and VE Day by Charles Martin with Roy Whitsed. Martin was CSM with the Queen's Own Rifles from Toronto and this is a very good read. I was astonished to read of patrols they conducted e.g. if they wanted to go out and capture a prisoner they went out with just 3 or 4 men, they'd change their equipment, and it all sounded more like commando operations than anything else.

 

I'm currently studying Modern History and one of my papers is on WW1. Whilst undertaking research for it, I found many references to "The Secret Battle" by A.P. Hebert and decided to grab a copy to read.

I enjoyed the simple narrative and it brought Gallipoli and trench warfare on the Western Front to life, encompassing the experiences and life of soldiers under constant bombardment and how they dealt with the horrors they faced.

http://a.co/j09nDaM

 

Thanks Chris - I'm finding the biggest problem with this site is that I keep seeing books that look good when I've already got loads to read already! Naturally, I tend to buy them 'just in case'. Ho hum. Like you I have multiple books covering the 'main events' - I have to admit to a certain fondness for the 'I was there' memoirs - not because of their accuracy (we're back to Wellington and his view of 'that ball') but because of the period 'feel' that they engender.
Kind regards
Andrew

 

Hi Andrew,

Like you, I definitely have more books to read than I know what to do with! Plus a list of "frozen" requests for books at the local library...

I enjoy reading memoirs for the personal perspectives and the little experiences that people had, which don't come up in a formal history.

Chris

 

Ah - thank god for the library. I find I have a mental 'price point' below which I just purchase the book, pretty much regardless, above that level I think hard and see if the library have it – thus I have

British Army Communications in the Second World War: Lifting The Fog Of Battle (Birmingham War Studies) on order at the moment. It might not turn out to be too expensive once I've actually seen a copy (if that makes sense!)

Incidentally, I like the tank image on your ‘avatar’ (no idea what its actually called). I must find out how to drop a picture into mine.

Cheers

Andrew

 

I try, but don't always succeed, at only buying books I can't get from the library. I did buy Terry Copp's "Fields of Fire" when I found it (a revisionist examination of the Canadian army's performance in Normandy) not knowing how common it was. But the next one, Cinderella Army, will borrow from the library since I can.

Re British Army Communications, do you mean that if you've had a chance to see how good a book is, you can judge it not really expensive if it's really good?

Re avatars, just click on your name in the upper right, select Personal Details, and you can choose an avatar and select a file from your computer.

 

Moving Tent
Richard Passmore