What Are You Reading?

"The Fleet at High Tide", James D. Hornfischer.

Got it as a Christmas present from the elder son. I started it day before yesterday, about 3/5ths of the way through it and it's a good read. Had to stop and watch "Away all Boats" and "The Fighting Lady" as that's some of what came to mind reading the first four chapters.



REVIEWS:

"Away all Boats"

https://www.amazon.com/Away-All-Boats-Jeff-Chandler/dp/B00000I1CR

• I was a big fan of Chandler as a boy in the 1950's. My personal favorites of his from then and as an adult are Pillars of the Sky and Yankee Pasha. As always with older films, you have to put them in the context of the time in which they were made as far as style, realism, etc. Believe me, this guy was handsome to the ladies and a man's man to the guys....tons of on screen magnetism.

The main thing I want to add about both Chandler and this movie is my experience watching this film as a Navy officer aboard a ship of the very same type during the Viet Nam era. The title of the film refers to the fact that the ship (the Belinda, as I recall) was an amphibious cargo ship, one which carries marine vehicles, anchors off the coast, lowers boats ("away all boats") into the water and drops the vehicles into the boats for the trip to the beach with U.S Marines who drive them ashore and onward. In the officers' wardroom aboard the USS El Paso in the early '70's, we watched this movie multiple times and loved it as well done and realistic.

We did get some big chuckles out of the casting comparing actors like Richard Boone ("Have Gun Will Travel") playing, I think, the First Lieutenant, and Lex Barker (Tarzan) as the Executive Officer and comparing these guys to our own counterparts. We all thought the film was "Navy" all the way, however. I'm not sure if these amphibious cargo ships are still in operation, but they were used through the first Gulf War.

This movie is realistic and an accurate depiction of a U.S.Navy amphibious ship during wartime. Chandler is certainly the main man in the story but does not dominate to quite the same extent as in some of his other films. He is good in the role, however, and this is an authentic depiction of Navy life and a good story.

• I'm also a Navy Vietnam-era veteran and I do love this film. I had recorded it years ago and now can't find the tape so I am sure I will be getting the DVD here. This movie was filmed, in part, aboard the Amphibious Transport ship USS SANDOVAL APA (LPA) 194. I was stationed on this ship in 1968-69 until we decommissioned her. Watching the landing exercises in this film brought back many memories as I was part of 2nd Division which was the boat division and we were "graded" on our readiness.

This has good acting and alot of adventure. The script was a bit hoaky at times but that can be overlooked. I highly recommend this film. Get it and Set Condition One-Alpha!

• This movie is a stunner. As an ex navy officer it is startlingly realistic, particularly with regard to the ex merchant marine skipper (George Nader) and the way he was relegated to 2nd lieutenant in the navy, despite having more comprehensive ability than anyone else onboard.(I am ex merchant marine myself!)

The very, very great shame of this presentation is that it was shot in VistaVision and stereophonic sound. It would have looked SPECTACULAR on a big screen in it's original format.
What we get with this dvd is a very ordinary 4x3 (cropped) picture and monophonic sound!
This movie deserves the full blu-ray treatment, in it's original format.
One of the great war movies

"The Fighting Lady" (though anonymous at the time it's the Essex Class USS Yorktown)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=37Mjbw0GBog

What I like thus far:

Just about everything. I really feel we were very fortunate to have such leaders as Nimitz, Spruance, Mitscher, Turner, Harry Hill, and Holland Smith, to lead our operations in the Pacific. Hornfischer is really good at conveying the magnitude of what the central characters faced and the complexity of naval and amphibious operations.
I particularly enjoyed the background on UDT's and Lt. Draper Kauffman, USNR. He's like a character from a novel or movie and we were fortunate to have such mavericks to innovate new tactics, units and equipment to meet the needs of our operational forces.

Only negative thus far is his treatment of Tarawa, which is a peripheral subject in the book, but one he uses to illustrate the need for better intelligence, UDT's and amphibious tractors. Either he is not fully informed on the battle, he chose to ignore certain facts, or just didn't convey the facts very well when he wrote about them.

Some facts he didn't know or failed to convey.
-The planners for Tarawa were well aware of the possibility of a dodging tide.
-The planners improvised using logistics vehicles, LVT's, in the assault role in case there was a dodging tide. They also uparmored them with locally acquired (New Zealand) boiler plate.
-He goes at length into Kelly Turner's support of innovation, but Kelly Turner originally opposed the use of LVT's at Tarawa and refused to carry them on his ships. (No mention of this by Hornfischer, when the subject of the use of LVT's for the Marshall's and Mariana's is discussed).
-The reason all assault waves (the first three were landed in LVT's) were not carried in LVT's was not a lack of planning, it is that there were NO more available, 40% of the LVT's used in the assault had to sail directly from the US to Samoa where they married up with their crews and rendezvoused with the amphibious task force enroute to Tarawa. Hornfischer also fails to credit the ability of the first three waves relatively intact due to the LVT's as the primary reason the assault didn't fail. He does however cover the problem with the follow on waves having to wade in.
-The 2d Marine Division re-furbished and rebuilt all available LVT's in preparation for the Tarawa assault but only managed to get 75 operational. The 2d Marine Division planners found out there were 100 LVT-2's in San Diego and went to General Holland Smith to try and obtain them. Holland Smith actually had to tell Turner; "Kelly, it's like this. I've got to have those amtracks. We'll take a helluva licking them without them." And I added with finality, "No amtracks: no operation." He got 50 additional amtracs.

Take aways thus far:

Nimitz's inestimable good judgement in placing Spruance in his position as commander 5th Fleet. Spruance's ability to recognize talent, and his ability to get those people into the right slots and have them cooperate as a team. His understanding of personality flaws and how he steadfastly stood by his friends. Kelly Turner's ability to drive forward despite any obstacles placed in his way. In fact it motivated me to start re-reading Dyer's biography of him "The Amphibian's Came to Conquer". I'm fortunate enough to have an old copy of the hardbound, but it's also available on Kindle and at Hyperwar:
http://www.ibiblio.org/hyperwar/USN/ACTC/actc-16.html

Yes, I am a nerd in this area because I routinely read three or four books on the same subject simultaneously. I find it helps me better appreciate and understand the subject.

I highly recommend the book!

 

A book Named "Xalabanan" - Pilots- .

Writer: Sarhang Alireza Purbozorg-e Vafi - War Cognizance Committee Of Martyr Lt. Gen. Ali Sayyad Shirazi - 222 Pages - 2007 - ISBN: 964-7607-25-3

 

My Friend The Mercenary- James Brabazon
Reporting/filming while running around with a group of rebels...James hooks up with a South African mercenary who has large ambitions.
3/4 way through. James is haunted with PTSD.

 

Professor Porsche´s wars by Karl Ludvigsen...was there something else to prepare....

 

Dividing my time between an illustrated edition of Edward Stafford's The Big E and Robert Cressman's That Gallant Ship: USS Yorktown (CV-5).

 

Just finished The Dog Who Could Fly: The Incredible True Story of a WWII Airman and the Four-Legged Hero Who Flew at His Side by Damien Lewis. What an amazing story. Highly recommend it.

 

I am reading "The rise and fall of the Third Reich" by William L. Shirer. Just started.

 

I am reading "Cassino: Portrait of a Battle" by Fred Majdalany, having recently finished 'A Bridge Too Far'.

 

Tonight, I will finish reading a 300 page dissertation on the organization and evolution of The OSS, Detachment 101 in Burma. It has been a really good read! Here is a link in case anyone is interested: http://oaktrust.library.tamu.edu/bitstream/handle/1969.1/ETD-TAMU-3280/SACQUETY-DISSERTATION.pdf?sequence=1

Also, I have ordered Marsmen in Burma and it should be here next week. Really excited to get my grubbies on that one. Lol

 

Settle in. It's quite a read.

 

Frauen by Alison Owings.

 

Just finished this one last night>>




Author: A. N. Wilson
Language: English
Subject: Adolf Hitler
Published: 2012

Not a bad read, some really good points within!

Now I'm just starting>>



Supposed to be quite harrowing, but an excellent read!

 

I've been reading a lot of Slovenian drama, poetry and tales for college. Some of the authors I've been reading: Cankar, Gradnik, Kozak, Kersnik, Levstik, Prešeren and Voranc.

 

Diving into my own copy of The Fleet at Flood Tide now.

 

I finished reading "Shattered Sword" last night, well really about 0045 or so early this morning actually. It was quite the read, and it blew what I thought that I knew about the Battle of Midway right out of the water to put it in proper context. I highly recommend this book to anyone who is interested in naval warfare of the PTO.

Now I have to decide on which new book I got in from Amazon to start reading on now. It's either "Storm Over Leyte" (another USN vs the IJN study) or "Lapham's Raiders", yet another book on guerrilla warfare on Luzon. Might go with the guerrilla book. Don't want to get too burned out on naval stuff. Yes that's what I'll do. Talked myself into already.

But really, "Shattered Sword" is an excellent read.