Counterattack at Carentan

[Maastrictian]

On the topic of other authors we like (I can't stand Ambrose personally) I'd recomend John Keegan, both for his book "The Second World War" and for "Six Armies in Normandy." His books offer a much more "strategic" perspective than Ambrose, which personally I like a lot.

"The Battle for History : Re-Fighting World War II" is also an interesting "meta" book about WWII.

He's also written a number of excellent books on the history of warfare in general.

[BloodyBucket]

I like Keegan. I like Ralph Martin. Mauldin and Pyle are great. Ambrose is worth a read. William Manchester is worth reading. So is Guy Sajer.

As to Ambrose's view that democracy triumphed over dictatorship in a contest of systems on the soldier level, I hope he is right, and I don't think it is smarmy for somebody to ascribe victory to those virtues. If all the marbles went automatically to the side that had the mathematical advantage, then there is no virtue in bringing the question to the decision of battle.

[Vanir Ausf B]

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by M. Bates:

Would it be correct to say that the USA has never had either the biggest army in the world / or the best trained army in the world at any one time in its history?<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

I believe that would not be correct to say. I'm going from memory here, but IIRC at the end of the American Civil War (1865) the United States had the largest standing army in the world. It was also without question the best equiped and most experienced. In short, it was the biggest and the baddest. What did the US do with this awesome force? They dismantled it as fast as they could.

And as someone else said, in the late 80's and early 90's the US army was unit for unit as good as anyone in the world IMO, though not the largest.

[ 04-18-2001: Message edited by: Vanir Ausf B ]

[Pvt. Ryan]

Here's a link to a story about a group of people who really have a bone to pick with Ambrose:

http://www.geocities.com/youngabe/troopcarrier.html