What Are You Reading?

You've heard of him? It's a pretty good read so far. You should go to Amazon and get yourself an early Christmas present on cyber Monday.

No, this is a new title published in the last year or so. I heard the author bring interviewed on a local talk radio show a couple months ago. He's from here in Louisiana. Sounded pretty interesting so I had to have it.

 

Never heard of him but I have read about him-specifically in Mark Perry's work, "PARTNERS in COMMAND- George Marshall and Dwight Eisenhower in War and Peace". I call Conner the best WW2 general you've never heard of. I realize he retired before the war started but his influence on that war, through his tutoring of Marshall, Eisenhower, Bradley, Patton and others contributed much to our success. His aphorism, "Never fight unless you have to. Never fight alone. Never fight for long." Should be drummed into the head of every president before hi takes office! I will look for this book.

 

I just finished 'River of Doubt' about Teddy Roosevelts river exploration of the Amazon.

Quite an interesting read - between the hardships, the personalities, and not really knowing much about the Rough Rider.

 

Recently completed: "Easy Company Soldier", by Sergeant Don Malarkey with Bob Welch || "Beyond Band of Brothers" by Dick Winters || "Bothers in Battle, Best of Friends", by William Guarnere and Ed Heffron || "Band of Brothers", Stephen Ambrose (again)

Completed last night: "We Who Are Alive and Remain: Untold Stories from the Band of Brothers", by Marcus Brotherton ||"Band of Brothers" mini-series (again)

Interesting to view the experiences of Easy Company through different individuals and skill sets.

 

Sounds interesting

 

What a well written book-it had to be to keep my interest for over 800 pages. Was just purging my overstuffed closet I use for a library and as trying to decide weather to keep it or donate it. As good as it was I doubt I'll ever open it again.

 

Not WW2, but currently reading the first novel in the Outlander series after watching the tv series recently.

 

It was recommended to me on vacation in an old book store. I was looking for a good tale of Adventure. I wasn't aware that after losing the election, he went on this trip to Brazil to discover this 1000+ mile long river. It almost cost him his life on the trip and was ultimately responsible for his death 6 years after the fact. It took a month of bushwacking just to get to the start. The local tribe of Indians who they encountered (and due to a democratic system of deciding on things) let them live. The two following expeditions sent down the river - 1 turned back, the other disappeared (most likely killed and eaten by the local Indians). This same tribe wasn't contacted again until the 1960's to give you an idea of how remote the region of Brazil they were in was!

 

I've been reading the Kingsbridge series by Ken Follett. Not WW2, but some pretty good Historical Fiction.

I do have a biography on Churchill I plan on continuing soon as well.

 

I'm halfway through Tyranny Unmasked. I've also gotten a guide book for WWII touring in Berlin.

 

While reading in the book about General Fox Conner, I began to understand why the Americans had the Anglo-phobia thing going for so long. While the French and the British were teetering towards the brink of losing the war at the time of the German Spring 1918 offenses, they were also fighting with Pershing and Wilson over breaking up the AEF to be frittered away piecemeal in their armies. I knew of this already, but what I found out was the shipping capabilities of the US were limited and not keeping up with the demand for bringing US troops to Europe. Priority went to infantry and machine gun units, but artillery and armor (both men and equipment) shipments were put on the back burner. French artillery units initially supported US infantry divisions, then late arriving US artillery units were equipped with French 75s, and US tank crews with French light tanks. What really got me was that during the supposed shipping crisis, Britain stepped up and offered more than enough shipping to get American units from the US to Europe, ONLY if they were allocated to the British Army indefinitely. The Brits did compromise to allow for US battalions to be used as complete units, and not using them to be broke up and inserted as replacements in decimated units as they originally wanted. Both Pershing and Conner complained to Wilson about "all this new shipping that was now suddenly available" as opposed to what was being told that was available at the time. US battalions were eventually loaned to the British for a limited amount of time, until fresh French units could be rushed in from quieter sectors. Dang redcoats!

 

Fox Connor also arguably saved Eisenhower's career.

 

I recently completed Voices of the Pacific, Untold Stories from the Marine Heroes of World War II by Adam Makos who also wrote A Higher Call; with Marcus Brotherton who also wrote We Who Are Alive and Remain: Untold Stories from the Band of Brothers*.

Makos interviewed a United States Marine Corps veteran, friend of his father, who had friends who had kept in contact with others they served with. The book comprises the experiences of fifteen Marines from the bombing of Pearl Harbor, through boot camp, into the Pacific islands of war, post war and through their successes in life. With the reality of urgency brought on by the age of the group, Makos secured the assistance of Brotherton who’s successful book was of the same format style, both structured with interview content in order order of the timeline. The oldest interviewed, Marine Richard Greer, was ninety-five at the time of the book publication. He recently celebrated his one-hundredth birthday. Voices of the Pacific is captivating and well written.


* We Who Are Alive and Remain, by Marcus Brotherton is a biography of combined memoirs of approximately twenty veterans and four decedents. The book is comprised of the experiences of Easy Company, 506th PIR, 101st Airborne members that were not recorded by other biographies. The interview commentaries are structured in the timeline starting with prewar life and closes with their lifetime successes. Approximately four contributors died of natural causes during the creation of the book. There are a few duplications of content in the writings through specific writings of events and summary statements by veterans, which I viewed as reinforcing, finding the book to be well structured and well written.

Michael Sobel, Easy Company's original commanding officer Herbet Sobel's son, is a contributor in the writing with reflections on his father’s strengths. Seeking answers, he approached Easy members at a reunion after the release of the HBO mini-series, Band of Brothers. His commentaries in the Brotherton book reflects his assessment of the Band of Brothers Ambrose book as factual with minor errors, but he was highly critical of the reflection presented in the mini-series. I found the Sobel roll presented in the mini-series to be a parallel to the roll represented in the Ambrose book.

 

Yes, I just covered that chapter a few nights ago. Army bean counters were sticklers for details.

What I really took issue with was French General Foch insisting on continuing hostilities up to the 1100 hour time frame. Lots of men died needlessly on that last day. It was felt that the Huns would not honor the armistice and attempt one of their dirty Prussian tricks at the last minute, to pull a victory from the jaws of defeat. Pershing and Conner had the same convictions, but wanted to continue the advance into Germany and accept nothing but unconditional surrender. I just think that too many men were sacrificed that last day for nothing.

 

In the Footsteps of the Band of Brothers: A Return to Easy Company's Battlefields” with Sgt. Forrest Guth by Lynn Alexander is based on the routes taken by Easy Company, 2nd Battalion, 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 101st Airborne Division; in the United States and in the European Theater. Pre and postwar historical reference is combined with current details of locations. Second hand quoted veteran commentaries from other sources were included with input from Sgt. Forrest Guth. Struggled to stay interested in this one which is no replacement for the available biographies on Easy Company members.

With the Old Breed by Eugen B. Sledge is about the war time experiences of a US Marine of King Company, 3rd Battalion, 5th Marines, 1st Marine Division. His paths as a 60 mm mortarman included the battles at Peleliu and Okinawa. Well written and captivating with frequent supporting historical footnotes.

 

I'm reading Einsatzgruppen by Michaël Prazan for like the third time, it's the best book I know on the subject. The documentary by the same guy is available on Netflix (well at least here in Canada), it's really good.

I'm also reading a travel guide on the Baltic countries, to prepare my next trip.

 

Currently reading Craig Nelson's Pearl Harbor: From Infamy to Greatness.