Current Reading - May 2025

One thing leads to another... the interesting things you can pick up while watching a Really Bad Movie!

Today in the Melbourne, Australia, the weather was somewhat fickle, and during my lunchtime walk / escape from the office I was unexpectedly caught in a downpour. To dodge the sudden drenching, I scurried for shelter into a nearby regular haunt I happened to be passing, Play Music & Rare DVD's, who sell an eclectic mix of otherwise hard to find DVD's and CD's. Browsing the shelves I came across a DVD that beckoned me to 'Step into the Cult Arena! - Lewis Collins (of the Professionals) is back in another Macaroni Combat Classic from Italian B-Movie Legend Antonio Margheriti. Code name: Wild Geese is another Low Budget High Action Spectacular saved from 1980's Video Shop Hell, co-starring Ernest Borgnine and Lee Van Cleef!'

Who could turn away from such an offering?

Alas, the movie was as bad as advertised, and in the middle of Lewis Collins character wielding a buttless (?!) Thompson submachine gun to hose down a jungle drug lab run by a Vietnamese General, I pondered whether the ageing gentlemen Co-Stars, Borgnine and Van Cleef, had possibly ever served? Now thoroughly distracted, I opened their Wikipedia Bios and started reading. As it turns out both Ernest Borgnine and Lee Van Cleef served in the US Navy in the Second World War in minesweepers, and both appear to have seen active service. Borgnine left the Navy with 2 Good Conduct Medals and Van Cleef a Bronze Star and a Good Conduct Medal. The otherwise atrocious movie had at least redeemed itself with some good reading links to Military History!

Finished Vought F7U-3 Cutlass, where Crecy Publishing gives the somewhat ill-fated fighter the full coffee-table luxury treatment. If you treat yourself to this book you'll never have another question about the Cutlass; the overall vibe being the heavy emphasis on "nuts-and-bolts" of the Specialty Press meets the glossy presentation of Classic Publications.

Wrapped up Death of the Leaping Horseman. Even keeping in mind that the original printing was over twenty years ago, it feels very old school in not taking into account the fall of the Cold War paradigm about the virtuous German army (at least compared to the Waffen-SS). If there was a new printing the author would have to offer some more editorial observations.

Just finished the e-book version of Arnhem: Black Tuesday by Al Murray. I've long known of Murray as a brilliant comedian in his persona of the Pub Landlord (the Guv'nor), but I only recently discovered that he is also an accomplished amateur military historian.

As a Briton of my generation I grew up with stories about Arnhem, but I must say Murray's book has given me new insights. For one thing he concentrates on a single day of the battle, the "Black Tuesday" of the title, although he obviously also gives background and some reference to the other days. I found his division of the battle into four areas - the Bridge, the Village, the Town and the Woods - to be very helpful in following what was quite a complex chain of events.

While I would not call it revisionist, nevertheless he writes about the battle through an interesting new lens. With hindsight of course we know that the operation failed, but Murray tries to portray what the actors on the ground would have known. As far as they knew, the Allied Second Army, led by XXX Corps, was advancing on schedule to cross the bridge and relieve them. The Airborne were getting a real pasting from German forces who proved to be much stronger than Intelligence had predicted, but they only had to hold out for two days until help arrived; they could do it, whatever the cost. Despite their heavy losses they were optimistic and upbeat almost to the end, and indeed managed two extra days until they finally realised that help was not going to reach them in time, although XXX Corps did get close enough to provide long range artillery support for the exfiltration of those who could make it.

All in all, an excellent read. Well done, Guv, and thanks!

>4 John5918: Thanks for posting about that book, I've read about Arnhem before but this one really sounds like an interesting take on the subject.

>4 John5918: Al Murray wrote the new forward to the book about Arnhem I read and reviewed last month, The Cauldron.

Catching up, knocked off The First Day of the Blitz over the weekend; not bad, not great.

From the so-so to the truly great, I finished The Kaiser's Cruisers and now feel like I really need to own a copy. Best book about the Kaisermarine I've read in a long time.

>8 Shrike58: I picked up the author's The Kaiser’s Battlefleet: German Capital Ships 1871–1918 on Kindle when Amazon was having one of their very rare sales on these types of books. Sadly there isn't a Kindle version of The Kaiser's Cruisers 1871–1918 so I can't even hope for a sale!

I own a copy of "The Kaiser's Battlefleet" and I'm not sure it's as essential as the book on small cruisers; though it's arguable that the cruisers were much more in need of some love. If Dodson & Nottlemann have the guts to tackle German torpedo craft I'd be there for that.

Knocked off Patton's Eyes in the Sky, a rather prosaic book given the full-bore "Classic" coffee-table book treatment; justified by being heavily larded with personal accounts by the men of the 10th Photo-Recon Group. I picked it up cheap a month or so ago!

Finished The Transvaal Rebellion: The First Boer War 1880--1881 by John Laband. This is not a combat history of the war as much as a political and cultural history, although there are decent descriptions of the military operations as well. The book is very comprehensive and well researched and I would consider it the definitive history of the war. There is also an excellent overview of the development of the Transvaal state and the long history of the relationships between the British and the Boers.

Completed Hannibal's Last Battle: Zama and the Fall of Carthage by Brian Todd Carey. In spite of its title, this is mainly a history of the Second Punic War, with a chapter on the first Punic War, lots about the Second one, and then a chapter about the Third war and finally some conclusions and observations. It is very readable and includes many maps, including multiple illustrations of a number of battles, showing the phases of the battles themselves. There are substantial end notes, a glossary of important personalities, another glossary of military terms and even a glossary of Roman and Carthaginian government terms. Finally there is a comprehensive bibliography. Overall an excellent book.

Wrapped up The Strategists: I found it to be so-so, but maybe the total newbie general reader might find it useful.

Finished the 3rd volume in the Pacific trilogy by Ian W. Toll, Twilight of the Gods: War in the Western Pacific, 1944-1945. (I still have to read the first volume, so not really bragging yet)

Found this full of loads of information I didn't know the details about previously. This book covered the island hopping campaigns, MacArthur in the Philippines (and press releases), the development of nuclear weapons, the air raids and firebombing campaigns, the Russian maneuvering, the Japanese political situation in the summer of '45, all the different warfare communities, and ... whew, you get the picture, I'm certain. This trilogy is an excellent overview of the Pacific theater war but it's a brain-full. I liked something he said in an interview: that he's writing books he'd like to read. Yes! Me, too! (the reading part)

Wrapping up the month with American Secret Projects 4; part of my personal Operation Coffee Table.