Currently reading Max Arthur's Last of the Few. It's a series of vignettes from those involved in the Battle of Britain. Interesting look at it told by those in it.
Currently reading the Killer Angels by Michael Shaara. (he passed away in 1988) He won the Pulitzer Prize for it. The Classic Novel of The Civil War. Historical fiction at its very best. I live in Civil War country, where the armies marched and where they fought and died.
Have you seen the movie “Gettysburg?” It was taken directly from the book. So far it’s the closest book-to-movie production I’ve seen. It’s worth a look.
Yes, thanks, I’ve seen it a couple of times. They filmed it at Gettysburg but on farmland surrounding the actual battlefield and park. They would never be allowed to film with all those people and crew in the battlefield park, it is considered hallowed ground. I live thirty minutes from Gettysburg. Lee and his army camped about a half mile from where I live while on his march to Gettysburg in late June of 1863. There is a Pizza Hut in that location now.
I just finished The Last Zero Fighter, Dan King, Pacific Press, 2012 It was a bit mistitled and should have been the The Last Zero Fighters - plural - as the author interviewed wrote about 5 Japanese aces from the war. The book was interesting and I learned a great deal about the Japanese naval air wing. The author provided a good bit of history about the training and backwater events, as well as the combat. When he stuck to quoting or detailing what the pilots did, the writing was excellent but when he gave war background, I did not care for his writing style at all. I don't know how to best describe some of his phrases and sentence, other than "dorky." Overall, a good book, well worth reading. Many photos and a few large scale maps 7.5/10 would recommend others to read it. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ I've started re-reading The Brotherhood of War series by WEB Griffin. I read it about 35 years ago and like it greatly. Altogether it is about 2500 pages, so I will be spending a lot time over the next weeks wading through them.
Just started Hell's Islands by Jersey, covers the battles for Guadalcanal and surrounding islands. A lot of detail about the Japanese side of the battles. One of the first chapters deals with the evacuation of civilians in the area. Some of it reads like a script for a 3 Stooges short. scott
Just started Tooze's Wages of Destruction . Very dense. I'll need to read it slowly so I understand it. Will probably take me a while.
Yes it is, but you know what they say, amateurs study tactics; professionals study logistics. At least that's what they say at the US Army logistics school in Ft. Lee, Virginia.
Bobby, it's an economic history of the Third Reich. It tries to explain Hitler's economic goals and how the Third Reich attempted to compete both in weapons and for the people. I'm only in the introduction (65 pages long) which sets the tone. I'll have to read further to get a better idea of the main ideas. It's good so far, but as I said it's really dense. The whole book is 800 pages.
Sixty-five pages in the introduction? Dang. Eight hundred pages after that? All words, no pix, maps, charts, etc?
Wages of Destruction Has a fair number of charts and tables. I still haven't finished it in part because of the "Ah Ha" moments. The main criticisms I've heard were when he gets into more military events later in the book. I found the first few chapters extremely informative and enlightening .. makes it clear how extensive a Ponzi scheme Hitler was running.
More the book itself that's odd, mate. (The subject of logistics obviously being fascinating to any right thinking person! ) Not sure the book's really what it describes itself as. A couple of facsimile translated German documents. Not finished yet. We'll see if it gives us any analysis later.
You are correct so far. The Intro itself has a lot of information that directly contradicts much of what I thought I knew. If the rest is anything like this I'll be more than amazed.
NAVAL ANTI-AIRCRAFT GUNS AND GUNNERY by Norman Friedman. This takes in the period from WW1 through WW2, into the 1950s. Being an old artilleryman I know how hard it is to hit a fixed object with a gun in it's own fixed position. Here, it's about shooting from a ship moving in two dimensions at a target moving in three while it's moving at up to 350knts. I'm having a hard time with some of it because in large part it's written for people who have a background in the subject. Quite interesting since so much of it is about predicting how to figure out how to get a shell close to where an aircraft is going to be at a given point in time! Plenty of info on the guns as well! Goes into the most detail about the RN and USN but has info on the other combatants also.
One could also argue that the ship is also moving in 3 dimensions and is having accelerations in two of them applied which are not under the control of the ship.
Well, 1 to 3 dimensions - situation dependent. Usually forward(x), probably rolling(y), possibly turning(z). Friedman is one of my go-to authors for naval matters. Always does very thorough research, and his works are very detailed.
Yes, of course. However, even then navies were transitioning to stabilization. For instance the German guns and directors were triaxially stabilized.
Or it could be forward and either up (whole ship vertical displacement or rotating up and down) and sideways roll. Possibly some sideways displacement from wave, wind, or current as well. Simple vertical displacement would probably not be sufficient to mess up a fire control solution but the rotation perpendicular to the axis of movement is another matter.