Current Reading - August 2024

I'll start with reading this month.
I finished reading Medieval Mercenaries by William Urban. Overall, the book was decent. Urban provides an overview of mercenaries in Medieval Europe, as well as an examination of mercenaries through literature of different eras. I found the historical examination to be good and informative. Urban uses various historical examples to demonstrate how mercenaries operated. However, I felt that the examination of mercenaries portrayed in literature could have been improved. The book seemed to not be as focused during these parts. The book is generally a decent read.

More institutional and social history than military history, Divisions: A New History of Racism and Resistance in America's World War II Military, examines the twists and turns by which the official mind attempted to maintain "Jim Crow" segregation in a mass military during WWII, and the resulting dysfunction. I was impressed, but not THAT impressed; I'm a little too saturated in the issues at hand to be that surprised.

Finished Dragonslayer: The Legend of Erich Ludendorff in the Weimar Republic and Third Reich, which examines the processes by which the general became a legend, and how the legend became greater than the man once he went off the rails post-1918.

Gave up part way through Red Eagles: America's Secret MiGs by Steve Davies. This is the story of the secret programs from the late 1960 to the First Gulf War to acquire, test and use Soviet equipment to help train US military pilots and aviators. I thought the book would be reasonably interesting, but instead it is a overview of a lot of government programs and agencies. Additionally there are a lot of people introduced throughout the book, often with several pages of background about them. Ultimately it is a book about people and agencies and not a lot about the hardware and the flying, which I was more interested in.

I am well into Okinawa: The Last Battle, the final combat volume of the Green Books. Ironically, given its title, it was the first one written. Written by Army historians who were assigned to the units during the battle, the book published just 3 years later has a bit more immediacy than subsequent volumes. What makes my copy rather special is that it was originally owned by a participant, a member of Reserve Communications Unit 25. In the first part of the book he wrote several short notes. Most seem to be just emphasizing what a particular paragraph was about, but there are a few personal comments. Nothing thrilling or graphic, but they add a personal dimension ("It was raining when we landed", noting where he picked up the helmet of a dead Japanese soldier etc.). He also stuck various clippings from later years that refer to Okinawa, including a review of the opening of "Teahouse of the Autumn Moon" and an article about a Japanese soldier who had been holding out for decades after the war ended. There was also a cut out rather silly cartoon about hungry WAVES that on the back had a snippet about the Navy replacing 2000 binoculars that had been lost during the war. The real gem, though, is a sheet of paper with his hand written notes and sketches (not artistically significant!) for identifying Japanese aircraft. Such details makes the copy feel like it has a direct connection to the events it describes.

>5 wbf2nd: Wow, that book sounds like a real find.

Wrapped up How the War Was Won: Air-Sea Power and Allied Victory in World War II, which offers a really cogent analysis of worked, and what didn't, in terms terms of air and sea power enabling the ground war.

after reading The Picts and Scots at War by Nick Aitchison which I found hard going I am now just past the first chapter of Bosworth 1485 by Michael K. Jones which seems more promising

>5 wbf2nd: One of my prize library treasures is a battered paperback copy of Bomber Command War Diaries... that I found in a secondhand bookshop... in the front is an inscription from bomb aimer to his navigator... further through the book's pages are circled all their sorties.

Have been plodding my way through Max Hastings Armageddon: The Battle for Germany 1944-45 ... the man does have opinions.

>9 Bushwhacked: very cool! In my opinion, stuff like that is more valuable and meaningful than a signed first edition.

I have a copy of Warships of the Imperial Japanese Navy, 1869-1945 that came from Avalon Hill's corporate library.

>12 Shrike58: Research... but for which game?

A bit of a find this afternoon at Grant's Bookshop down in Sandringham... a hardcover three volume set of Shelby Foote's The Civil War - A Narrative ... probably common enough in the 'States but I've only seen paperback copies down here before. Snaffled.

>13 Bushwhacked: Good question!

>15 Shrike58: I had the game Midway from AH way back when, they could have used that book for research.

Reading Destroyer Captain, The life of Ernest E, Evans by James D. Hornfischer and David J. Hornfischer