Current Reading August 2025

Starting off the month, finished up with Archaeological Perspectives on the Battle of the Little Bighorn by Douglas D. Scott and others.

I'm attaching the review of the other book I mentioned above, Archaeology, History, and Custer's Last Battle: The Little Big Horn Reexamined by Richard A. Fox

Finished Hitler's Panzer Generals, David Stahel's attempt to plumb the depths of character of the men in question; particularly Guderian and Hoepner. The short answer might be the rhetorical question "...what depths?"

Completed another very interesting book, Fuzzy-Wuzzy: The Campaigns in Eastern Sudan 1884-85 by Brian Robson

Finished The Black Battlefleet by G. A. Ballard.

>5 jztemple: Wow, that sounds really good. Thanks for drawing attention to this book!

Finished another great book, The True Blue: The Life and Adventures of Colonel Fred Burnaby 1842-85 by Michael Alexander

Completed another very interesting book from an author I will be interested in following, Infantry in Battle 1733-1783 by Alexander S. Burns

Finishing up Nicholas and Alexandra by Robert K. Massie. It focuses on Tsar Nichlas II and his wife, Alexandra. I really enjoyed the book and found it very readable. Massie does an excellent job of humanizing the two central people, as well as highlighting all the points that helped contribute to their downfall during the Russian Revolution.

Just finished Night Intruder, "A Personal Account of the Radar War between the Luftwaffe and the RAF Night-fighter Forces", by Jeremy Howard-Williams. As with many memoirs it could have benefited from a bit more editing, but nevertheless it is an interesting and absorbing read. Not only does he share personal experiences from his diaries and flight logs, but he also goes into some detail about the kit and the tactics used by the RAF, in the development of which he was deeply involved as commander of the Fighter Interception Development Squadron. The foreword is by the former Luftwaffe night-fighter pilot who was Howard-Williams' opposite number, and the book also describes some of the Luftwaffe kit and tactics. I learned a lot about this particular aspect of the air war.

I have been reading British Combat Aircraft in Latin America, and if Santiago Rivas doesn't talk about it, you probably don't have to know it.

Just finished Command by Al Murray. He reflects on the dynamics of command in World War II by looking at individual Allied commanders, some well known (eg Monty, Freyburg, Wingate, Slim, Bradley, Patton, Hobart), others at a lower level right down to lieutenant. It's quite wide ranging and very readable, written in the Guv'nor's free flowing style, and it's not just a series of biographies - he also examines tactics, equipment, training and other factors which impinge on commanders and vice versa.

Read Andrew Roberts engaging and idiosyncratic The Storm of War: A New History of the Second World War. Heavily focused on the war against Germany (detail about the Pacific War drops off after Midway, Guadalcanal and Imphal, though Japanese atrocities are not given short shift), the USSR is given its just due as the main force defeating the Nazis. So it's not a comprehensive history, but one that offers a solid, impressionist view at several levels along with well informed analysis and opinions.

Wrapped up Feeding Washington's Army, a case study in how operations, strategy, and logistics came together in the American Revolutionary War. I thought it was quite good, and now I know more about the importance of the so-called "Grand Forage" of 1778 than I did.

>14 Shrike58: I was a bit confused about your reference to the "Grand Forage" of 1778 as I read a book a while ago titled Grand Forage 1778: The Battleground Around New York City by Todd W. Braisted. Turns out that apparently they were two different events, the first in the winter of 1778, the second in the fall.

>14 Shrike58: Have you read The Fate of the Day yet? Atkinson covers that topic, necessarily, though not at the same length.

I thought The Fate of the Day was excellent, though I expected no less from Atkinson. He covers everything you'd expect, from diplomacy to military matters to governance here and in England.