Current Reading: January 2023

Finished Subchaser by Edward P. Stafford, the personal memoirs of a Subchaser skipper during training and then in the Mediterranean in World War II. Better than many of this ilk as Stafford keeps his musings to a minimum. I learned a lot from it.

Completed Guns of the Special Forces 2001 – 2015 by Leigh Neville. In spite of its title, this isn't a macho stories book or an encyclopedia but rather a well written narrative discussing the weapons used by western special forces. The book is broken down in chapters about each class of weapon. Included are histories of the weapon class prior to the time period of the title, discussions of procurement, tactics and techniques. There are also sections on each of the individual major weapons as well as a look at future trends. The book is well illustrated with many color photographs.

Although I had first gotten the hardcover version, I found that the Kindle version was (and currently is) on sale. The color photos in the Kindle version can be seen quite well on something like a cell phone, tablet or computer, supporting a very significant amount of zooming.

Finished Bulgarian Fighter Colours 1919-1948, which is rather more oriented towards combat narrative than some of these books, in terms of examining the attempts of the Bulgarian air arm to contest the USAAF bomber formation transiting their air space.

I apparently didn't mention I finished The Ethnika in Byzantine Military Treatises in early January.

The "ethnika" are sections describing the military habits of various peoples the Byzantines found themselves in conflict with. Wiita compares those of the Strategicon with the parallel passages in the Taktika, and with evidence from narrative literary sources and the archaeological record. Dry as dust, but interesting.

Knocked off Fatal Colours, which while nominally is an account of the battle of Towton, is really more a short history of the Wars of the Roses, with the famous battle being the climax of the narrative.

Finished Infantry Small Arms of the 21st Century: Guns of the World's Armies by Leigh Neville, a sequel of sorts to the book I mentioned above. Again, excellent research and presentation, very informative.

>3 Shrike58: Sounds fascinating!

>7 Karlstar: Much of the time MMP/Stratus' books feel more like catalogues than narrative histories (but one knows that going in), Bernad's books are an exception.

I finally finished Great Admirals: Command at Sea, 1587-1945 most of the bios were good, but of course too short as were the descriptions of the battles, naturally. Still a good reference.

Finished up Active Defense, a poli-sci examination about how defense policy gets done in the PRC. Pretty dry, but it feels like an advance on the conventional knowledge.

Finally finished grinding through Matchlocks to Flintlocks: Warfare in Europe and Beyond 1500–1700 by William Urban. A scholarly work, interesting in some ways but trying to cover too much ground so a lot of it was overview. Not really recommended unless you need to read it.

>5 Shrike58: I can remember reading about the War of the Roses for my History degree some years ago now and being frustrated by how little material there is on how the wars were actually fought. The political machinations; covered in depth. The supplying and raising of an army; everything you want to know. What the army did when it got to the battlefield; frustratingly patchy when compared with the wars directly before and after, to the extent that you have to go to the continent for the way of battle and extrapolate from there.

Thanks for the tip, btw. I didn't know that one and I'm off the check Bookfinder for a copy.

>12 spaceowl: Goodwin has an argument that the English state's capacity for the mobilization of military power contributed to the ferocity of the civil war, as when you have two nominally legitimate monarchs, it was hard to say no.