What Are You Reading?

[John Kettler]

DerKommissar,

Frankly, I don't know what to make of your remark about the danger of Stalingrad as a workplace. Simply don't see how danger would be unexpected in a place full of booby traps, mines, barbed wire, snipers, machine guns, mortar fire, artillery fire, a zillion things to fall into, onto or trip over, not to mention fall from or be entombed by. Never mind interacting with AFVs or simple trucks, even horse transport. As for the using the pioneer battalions being a bad idea, given adequate support, it was a great idea, for pioneers are specialists in breaking into and overcoming enemy fortifications, precisely what each building was de facto or by explicit plan. A relative to a battalion handful of Pioneers landed smack on top of strategic Belgian Fort Eben Emael, and despite a garrison of 3000 men in it, proceeded to wreck its entire capability to do its designed function. In record time!

Do you know what Armor soldiers call Infantry? Crunchies! You don't have to fall in to the path of one, for sometimes it finds you, in your fart sack while you're sleeping. Happened to someone when his unit was a NTC. Out cold for the night, a night permanently ruined by an AFV that decides to reposition and has no idea this poor man is in the way! By the way, NTC and other bases with armor have extremely important warning signs that look like this. Ignore them and die!


Regards,

John Kettler

[General Jack Ripper]

Just finished 'The Savior Generals' by Victor Davis Hanson.

It never occurred to me much before how the divergence of political opinion from military reality can so quickly destroy what would otherwise be a successful military action, in the case of Tecumseh Sherman.

I also really enjoyed the part about Matthew Ridgeway, being a general I know little about, and now feel keen to correct that shortcoming.

...and I feel a kind of kindred spirit in Belisarius. I think he and I would have been friends, of a sort. The ability to simply throw the book out the window and do what's best to win is a skill few commanders posses, and even if they posses it, they rarely exercise it in light of outside considerations.

[John Kettler]

Finished the fabulous Island of Fire, by Jason Marks, and have tentatively decided to avoid withdrawal syndrome by starting the only other book I have by him, Death of the Leaping Horseman, which is about the destruction of 24 PD at Stalingrad. Wasn't joking about withdrawal syndrome, for have been intermittently fretting about what I could possibly read of such astoundingly high caliber as that. Had the real deal after reading James Clavell's phenomenal novel Shogun back in the early Seventies. In fact, went around for several weeks in a kind of literary daze before discovering he had two other novels which were related. They were good, but for me, weren't even close to being as good. Besides, I find samurai vastly more interesting and appealing than great trading houses!  If I get ambitious, I may break out Zamulin's Demolishing the Myth, a top-down then new study in what really happened at Prokhorovka, Kursk. Zamulin is a real heavyweight author, too, for he is curator of the Kursk Museum and holds a Candidate in Military History degree, which is equivalent to a Ph.D. Happily for us, it was written before Putin closed the State Archive. It also has some priceless advantages over my last read: larger point size type, easier to read typeface, and bright white enamel stock. Not only is this a winning combo by itself but it also makes photographs far more viewable. Uttered some choice curses over the ones in Island of Fire because I could hardly see a thing in them on that yellowish far from smooth paper.  

Regards,

John. Kettler

 

[John Kettler]

Zamulin won, and oh, am I getting an education in the 20 some odd pages I've read so far. Despite being relatively compact, this book is heavy, too, so free light workout when holding it in the hands! 

Regards,

John Kettler

[General Jack Ripper]

A while back, I picked up a copy of Up Front by Bill Mauldin at a used book store.

Having read it several times, and being what it is, I've decided to share it.

Anyone who PM's me a mailing address will receive my copy, first come, first served.

[BletchleyGeek]

Brains and Bullets, by "Leo Murray" was exciting and very intellectually stimulating. It was for me a missing piece in a puzzle, I got so excited I have restarted a project I have kept under a tarp for years.

Very interesting exposition, illustrated by historical and contemporary examples of how command and control and planning can go totally off the rails even in highly professional armies, why so many owe their life's to flamethrower tanks, or why most CM scenarios should have a 10% casualty level victory condition

Edited April 17, 2020 by BletchleyGeek

[Gpig]

Re-reading Company Commander, by Charles B. MacDonald. This time I'm revisiting all the locations on google earth. Adds a crazy appreciation.

Finished The Liberator, by Alex Kershaw, which was is not unlike Company Commander and also quite good.

Two of my favourite books about the Canadians in WWII are,

- South Albertas, A Canadian Regiment at War by Donald E. Graves, and,
- No Holding Back, Operation totalize, Normandy, August 1944, by Brian A. Reid

I'm curious if anyone can recommend a good book regarding the strategic operation and tactical responses (from any nation) to the ISIS apocalypse that befell the middle east these last 6 years?

Cheers,
Gpig