What Are You Reading?

I finished

about two weeks ago.

Danger's Hour, The Story of the USS Bunker Hill and the Kamikaze Pilot Who Crippled Her, Maxwell Taylor Kennedy, Simon & Schuster,2008. 476pp plus end notes. Large number of photographs and diagrams. Few, if any, maps.

As indicated in the title, Danger's Hour chronicles the kamikaze attack on the USS Bunker Hill on 11 May 1945 that put her out of the war. While the book thoroughly discusses the actions by the ship before, during, and after the attack, it also looks closely at one of the two pilots that struck the Bunker Hill that day, Ens Kiyoshi Ogawa.

The book was very readable and seemed to have well researched, both talking with surviving principal crew of the ship and friends and families of the crew and pilot. At times the author seemed to go into too much depth about subjects that seemed to detract from the overall story, such an overly lengthy discussion of the biological response to severe burns.

Basic diagrams of the ship help to keep the reader on track as to where the losses occurred and the large number of photos, of both the US and Japanese, helped to tie the reader back to the subjects of the book.

8/10

 

I just finished


Bowfin, Edwin P. Hoyt, Van Nostrand Reinhold Company, Inc 1983 225pp, many photos and patrol maps.

I guess the best way to describe this book is a biography of a fleet submarine during WWII. It was written by a third party to the boat and lacked description of much of the daily life onboard the boat. Descriptions of combat action read heavily as though gleaned from the patrol reports, which they were. The story describes the patrols in depth, but sometimes tended to make my eyes glass over. This was not often, and over all the book was a good read, although not as enjoyable as such books as Clear The Bridge, reviewed earlier in this thread.

7/10

 

I am now reading:

 

Just started this. Engrossing.

 

I finished


a couple of days ago.

D-Day Plus One, Shot down and On The Run In France, Frank, "Dutch" Holland, with Adam Wilkins, Grub Street, 2007 250 pp, photos. ISBN 978 190494 393 8

This an autobiography of Typhoon pilot shot down on the 7th of June, 1944, west of Caen. He evaded capture for 70 days, living among and with French farmers. Initially he was hidden in barns and the like, but eventually was transferred away from the fighting to a family that had a small house detached from the main living quarters, where he initially hid. A few days later, refugees from Caen passed through the town, and he mixed in with then to appear to be a refugee that had family there. He was able to move around openly, even talking regularly with German soldiers. He knew enough passable French such that while the local knew he wasn't French, the Germans did not.

Over all, it was a interesting story and I liked reading about the British point of view. The book could have used a bit more editing and polishing, but overall he told a good story.

7/10 Interesting, but needed a bit more work on the manuscript.

 

Janissaries, Jerry Pournelle. Ever wonder where those MIAs that are never found really go? Easy, they got hired to do work elsewhere, like in a different solar system.

 

Ditto, but now my free time allows me to wander long forgotten byways, perhaps to find that lost love I squandered as a youth.