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I'm reading 'A Time for Trumpets', by Charles B. McDonald (The Same author who wrote the excellent 'Company Commander') It's about the the Battle of the Bulge. It's a great book, albeit busy to follow all the units involved (I really need a map as I read along). I never appreciated just how chaotic and involved that battle was before.
-Tom
GM, I need to build a B-26 and M4 HST for my dad before his time comes. They are of the same generation and service times.
Wolf, It's not that I did not care for Shattered Sword. I found it quite enlightening regarding IJN air ops and procedures at Midway. It was a good read. But their view that Midway was not the near run thing of other works on the battle is not quite as it appears
(SPOLIER ALERT!)
The hype around it when published portayed to have serious view changing information held within. That book's saying that Kaga and Soryu were scuttled the same as Akagi and Hiryu by IJN Destroyer torpedoes is not a great stretch. The readiness of the Kido Butai air strike when the Enterprise and Yorktown dive bombers made their strike is also not a great stretch. Even the position of Hiryu within the formation at the time of the morning carrier dive bomber strike in Shattered Sword as compared to Incredible Victory or Miracle at Midway is even not a great stretch when all things of that chaotic 10 minutes is reviewed in hindsight from 20, 30 or 60 years later- debatable, but understandable.
I will throw one hypothetical based off of Midway out there. What if Lt Best and his two wingmen had dived on Kaga along with all the other Enterprise dive bombers? Those three planes and two bombs truly altered the course of the Pacific War. Akagi surviving the morning strike would have completely altered the course of the Battle of Midway. Not Kaga and Soryu being scuttled by their escorting destroyers, and not Hiryu's place in formation during the morning strike. A cordinated counterstrike of two carriers with increased fighter escort by the Japanese at Midway of torpedo bombers and dive bombers, flown by their best airmen, could have resulted in more than just the loss of Yorktown. The results of Santa Cruz could have been added as well.
Just a thought...
F is for FIRE, That burns down the whole town!
U is for URANIUM... BOMBS!
N is for NO SURVIVORS...
- Plankton
LSM
Interesting that, John. My mom and dad moved to California in 1953 and he was re assigned to the California Guard, at Army Camp Roberts down near Paso Robles.
I came around in 1956.
I have the AFV Club M40 GMC gun kit in my stash. I really wanted to build it with him, but Alz has taken him away from me. Sudden and horrible in two years time.
Modeling is an excuse to buy books.
My dad was Illinois Army Guard, and he got called to Korea and served as a 81mm mortar crew chief near Jane Russell Hill. I believe he was attached to the California guard unit, but am not sure. I think I need to get the book mentioned Long Weekend.
I'm kinda surprised you did not care for Shattered Sword. The level of research and analysis was top notch, at least as far as I could tell. I agree that Lunddtrum's books are great, and I have copies of both First Team books.
John
GMorrison stikpusher Last week I finished reading "A Very Long Weekend- The Army National Guard in Korea". It was a combination of personal recollections and timeline history. Some funny, some tragic, some making you shake your head. Those guys did all that was asked if them, more than what was expected of them, and if the Korean War is the "Forgotten War", the Guard soldiers who fought there are even more forgotten for their deeds, being overshadowed in the histories by the Regulars who soaked up what little limelight there was in Korea. A good read for those interested of this area of history. I'd like to read that. My father was in the Michigan ANG from 1950-1954. He stayed stateside, but the units that did go to Korea were legendary.
stikpusher Last week I finished reading "A Very Long Weekend- The Army National Guard in Korea". It was a combination of personal recollections and timeline history. Some funny, some tragic, some making you shake your head. Those guys did all that was asked if them, more than what was expected of them, and if the Korean War is the "Forgotten War", the Guard soldiers who fought there are even more forgotten for their deeds, being overshadowed in the histories by the Regulars who soaked up what little limelight there was in Korea. A good read for those interested of this area of history.
Last week I finished reading "A Very Long Weekend- The Army National Guard in Korea". It was a combination of personal recollections and timeline history. Some funny, some tragic, some making you shake your head. Those guys did all that was asked if them, more than what was expected of them, and if the Korean War is the "Forgotten War", the Guard soldiers who fought there are even more forgotten for their deeds, being overshadowed in the histories by the Regulars who soaked up what little limelight there was in Korea. A good read for those interested of this area of history.
I'd like to read that. My father was in the Michigan ANG from 1950-1954. He stayed stateside, but the units that did go to Korea were legendary.
Yeah, the Michigan Guard Redlegs were pretty darn good! Some things in 1950 had not changed in 1990 or 2001-2005...
http://www.amazon.com/Very-Long-Weekend-National-1950-1953/dp/1572490225
You can buy the book cheap. I'd send you the one that I read, but it is a loaner from another Guard vet in my AMPS chapter.
I want to get ahold of Lundstrom's books. Those are top of my "to get" list for books. I read Shattered Sword when it was first published. It was good, but not as good as the hype of the time implied.
I just finished John Lundstrom's "First Team the Guadalcanal Campaign", after finishing his "First South Pacific Campaign." I recommend Lundstrom's books to all fans and students of the Pacific War, along with Tully & Parshall's "Shattered Sword" (inspired by the research and analysis that Lundstrom did).
I'm turning next to Barrett Tillman's "The Forgetten Fifteenth" about the 15th Air Force.
The bigger the government, the smaller the citizen.
Butcher is one of my favorite authors, and I love the Dresden Files and the Codex Alera by him. I just started re-reading Weber's Safehold series since there is a new book in that series. The series is a combination of science and historical fiction. Humanity has encountered a genocidal alien that tracks us by our high tech emmissions, so the desperation mission to colonize a planet chooses to revert to muscle, wind and water powered technology. Unfortunately, the majority of the command crew were megalamaniacs and programmed the colonists to believe they were the "Archangels" and the colonists were "Adams and Eves" born on Safehold. 800 years later, an android wakes up on Safehold with the mission to re-introduce humanity to technology for the eventual return of the aliens. He takes the name Merlin. The series raises some interesting questions about faith and morality and the battle scenes are truly awesome in their depth and detail. The first book is called "Off Armageddon Reef", and all of the rest of the books have titles taken from classic hymns.
I starter reading book 15 of the Harry Dresden series, but put that aside for a new book from the same author, Jim Butcher. "The Aeronaut's Windlass" is the first book of a steampunk series set in another world. Very well written and a great start to another one of his series. I have read 14 of the Harry Dresden book in the past year.
Tim Wilding
I just finished "Marching With Caesar - Conquest of Gaul". I'm a big fan of Roman Era historical fiction but currently taking a break from that (mostly b/c I don't have another one) so I just started reading The Longest Day again. It was a toss up between reading this for the second time or A Bridge Too Far for the third time. A Bridge Too Far is one of my favorite books!
-Andy
The plural *** is blocked. The singular nazi is not.
again it's in an effort to avert flame wars and makes sense to me.
the wiki article on the swastika is very good. It covers the reasons a couple of countries have controls over the usage, and more power to them.
GMorrison Baron, deep breath. The nannybot is set up that way to prevent personal insults in online flame wars. It's sort of funny, but the offensive term is "rivet ***". Nazi is ok. At least semantically. The swastika is not banned in the EU, either.
Baron, deep breath.
The nannybot is set up that way to prevent personal insults in online flame wars.
It's sort of funny, but the offensive term is "rivet ***".
Nazi is ok. At least semantically.
The swastika is not banned in the EU, either.
And "Bury us upside down", the story of the Vietnam Misty pilots in F-100s.
Devil Dawg An excellent book that I just read is "Viper Pilot", by Dan Hampton, a veteran USAF F-16 pilot. He writes about his exploits during the 1st Gulf War, and the other conflicts that the US has been involved with since then. Excellent read!
An excellent book that I just read is "Viper Pilot", by Dan Hampton, a veteran USAF F-16 pilot. He writes about his exploits during the 1st Gulf War, and the other conflicts that the US has been involved with since then. Excellent read!
Dave
2022 New Year's Resolution: Enter 1 group build and COMPLETE a build this year!! Why Photobucket did you rob me of my one Group Build Badge??? Must be part of the strong anti-Monogram cartel!!!
]
OK, I just noticed that in my previous post about The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich, that the forum's nannyware actually censors the abbreviation commonly used for adherents of National Socialism. That is really just too much! I can see censoring profanity, but N-a-z-i is a historical term, and, unlike the s-w-a-s-t-i-k-a, the word isn't banned (yet) in the EU. I'm sorry, but that's just ridiculous.
I just finished reading, "Five Days in London-May 1940" by John Lukacs, which looks at the infighting in the British cabinet when Churchill was named to replace Chamberlain, and the eventual decision not to negotiate with the Germans but to fight on at all costs; and John Lundstrom's "The First South Pacific Campaign", on Japanese and US naval and political strategies from December 1941 to the end of June 1942. I really enjoy Lindstrom's books about the first year of the war in the Pacific.
jibber I'm just finishing The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich, a factual narrative of the party and the background of those who were there. It's a large book but it keeps getting better. This is the first book I've read on the Reich because the author William Shirer was there and wrote a true account supported by documents. The Germans wrote down everything and we're still translating them from about 70 years ago. Terry
I'm just finishing The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich, a factual narrative of the party and the background of those who were there. It's a large book but it keeps getting better. This is the first book I've read on the Reich because the author William Shirer was there and wrote a true account supported by documents. The Germans wrote down everything and we're still translating them from about 70 years ago. Terry
"Time you enjoy wasting is not wasted time".
Reading a book now that I got in the Grand Canyon when I was just there callled "Death in the Canyon". Wow, what a harrowing book--it details the ways that people die in the canyon from falls, dehydration, environmental hazards. Definitely a great primer to read before you consider a hike in the brutal wilds of the canyon, where temperatures in the shade can exceed 102F. It certainly has me second-thinking a hike...
Devil Dawg
On The Bench: Tamiya 1/32nd Mitsubishi A6M5 Model 52 Zeke For Japanese Group Build
Build one at a time? Hah! That'll be the day!!
Just finished re-reading "PT-109: John F. Kennedy in the South Pacific" the 40th anniversary edition by Robert Donovan. The new foreword by Donovan, and the afterword by Duane Hove, make the book an even more exciting read for those interested in PT boat warfare in the Solomon Islands. Highly recommended.
Another recent read for me was "The Night Stalkers" by Michael J. Durant and Steven Hartov, with Lt. Col. (Ret.) Robert L. Johnson. Another great read about the 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment. Chapter 8, "From the Jaws of Death" holds a special meaning for me- I flew as a crew chief with the pilot whose Gulf War exploits are described in that chapter (not as a Night Stalker, but back when CWO4 Jim Crisafulli was my unit's standardization instructor pilot, with the 5th Special Forces Flight Platoon, and a heckuva pilot)
Great books.
BlackSheepTwoOneFour rooster513 Finished Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand not too long ago. Very good book. I read that book as well just after I first heard the movie was coming out based on that. I recommended those interested in seeing the movie to read the book first. The book tells more than the movie did. I know a few of us did read it before seeing the movie.
rooster513 Finished Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand not too long ago. Very good book.
Finished Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand not too long ago. Very good book.
I read that book as well just after I first heard the movie was coming out based on that. I recommended those interested in seeing the movie to read the book first. The book tells more than the movie did. I know a few of us did read it before seeing the movie.
Agreed... there was no way to include all the book into the time alloted in the movie. although I do think that the movie did a very good job of capturingmost of the essence of the book.
I've also read Lone Survivor by Marcus Luttrell and The Trident by Jason Redman. Very good reads about Navy Seals.
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