What are you reading

Yesterday I got the best WWII book I ever had, WAR at SEA, A naval atlas 1939-1945 by Marcus Faulkner, published 2012 by Seaforth Publishing in England. Cost me £ 50. The best book ever. Most of the information are pictures of maps, maps that looks like A&A maps, and the ships and aircrafts are pictured in the same way as the A&A Rulebook. It feels like reading the A&A Rulebook, or a book about A&A. And the text are almost statistic only, how many ships, how many men, how many aircrafts and so on. Not that nonsense you usually see in WWII books, that private Schumacker write letters home to his family, and tell them how poor it is at the front, he is wet, frozen and hungry, and the enemy kill his friends and so on, all the off topic stuff that have ruined so many WWII books. This Atlas is free from that BS. Statistics only, and pics of the situational maps that tell the story.

Best buy ever  :-)

Im buying this for sure right now. I also bought the Great War version .

Eagle you should also buy the WW2 and WW1 Data books. The same thing . no stories about dysentery to grandma. Just the facts. Im with you on this completely. I just want raw data for me to interpret.

Anything by Stackpole books.  These are amazing.  Currently reading “Tank Tactics”, next “Panzer Wedge!”  Luthwaffe Fighters and Bombers was a great read of short action reports and biographies…

Only problem is that Half-priced books got a huge run of these, sold for $5-11, now they have all been picked up and only AMZN carries the full catalog of both theory books and eye-witness accounts.

One that I like is The Longest Winter by Alex Kershaw.

Just finished Burma '44 by James Holland.

It is about the largely forgotten Battle of the Admin Box, which was the first decisive victory by the allies against Japanese mainland forces. Of course, the US was already winning the war at sea and across the islands.

The Japanese attacked British Empire forces in southern Burma and for the first time were defeated. What makes this a fascinating read is the succession of tactical and strategic lessons the allies had learned, which were here deployed so effectively, despite the Empire forces at hand being “a ragtag collection of clerks, doctors and muleteers, a few Yorkshiremen and a handful of tank crews” to quote the book cover.

The later larger and better know Battles of Imphal and Kohima, followed by the Burma campaign, have rather eclipsed this battle, whose name invites relegation. But prior to the Admin Box the Japanese were perceived as unbeatable in the jungles of Burma.

@Imperious:

Im buying this for sure right now. I also bought the Great War version .

Eagle you should also buy the WW2 and WW1 Data books. The same thing . no stories about dysentery to grandma. Just the facts. Im with you on this completely. I just want raw data for me to interpret.

In case you are talking about The military Atlas of WW II by Chris Bishop, the 2013 edition from Amber Books, then I just got it, based on your suggestion. This book is good, maybe one of the best books ever to get an understanding of the conflict. But what I miss, if nitpicking, is a correct number of men in each battle. This book only deals with divisions and corps, but a division could be from 7000 men to 18000 men, and a panzer division could have from 500 Tanks in the early war, dropping to 250 Tanks for the late war division, and Bishop dont go deep into that. But nevertheless, one of the best WWII educational books ever, and absolutely short of any dysentery to grandma stories.

no these books:

https://books.google.com/books/about/The_World_War_II_Databook.html?id=MD4OAQAAMAAJ&source=kp_cover
https://books.google.com/books?id=ntBmAAAAMAAJ&source=gbs_similarbooks

I’m just finishing Crete 1941: The Battle and the Resistance, by Antony Beevor. It’s a great read. I’ve heard his name before but never read any of his books, but I’ll be searching them out now and highly recommend this one. Classic example, for me, of a subject on the war that I knew about generally, but not a ton of the specifics. The biggest surprise to me was Freyberg’s misunderstanding of the invasion, thinking the main assault would come by sea, thus giving paratroopers more time to regroup and take Malame airfield. Beevor has done great research and made everything very compelling to read. I loved that he prefaced with the mainland invasion of Greece first, and also went into the resistance to the occupation as well. The actual invasion is enough for a book itself, but I always love more context. Great read.

I don’t want to spoil the ending for you, but at the end of the book… the Germans win.

after their boy scout army got shellacked, they won.

Losses;

4 paratrooper units and 2 transport aircraft for Germany,

2 infantry, 1 AAA, 1 DD, 2 partisans lost for UK

…good trade.

@Wolfshanze:

I don’t want to spoil the ending for you, but at the end of the book… the Germans win.

Yea…definitely know that. As I said, if you read my post, I know the basic history of the battle. Costly paratroop operation, lacking defensive forces, etc. It was the intimate details that were new to me as someone who hadn’t read about the battle in depth before.

And if we’re being technical, they lose in the end! As I said, the book covers the resistance/end of the war as well. Don’t want to spoil WWII history for you, but at the end of the war…the Germans lose.  8-)

@Chris_Henry:

And if we’re being technical, they lose in the end! As I said, the book covers the resistance/end of the war as well. Don’t want to spoil WWII history for you, but at the end of the war…the Germans lose.  8-)

Ah, dammit, you ruined it for me… [closes Time-Life’s History of WWII book]… no point reading the final chapters now…  :-(

Nemesis by Max Hastings. I have enjoyed every one of his books and recommend him unreservedly.

@ABWorsham:

Currently reading Jurassic Park

Try this link for the summary:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gh4zvQfDhi0

well this thread encouraged me to go to the library instead of just walking by : )

I’ve read this before , I think : )

How Hitler Could Have Won World War II  The fatal errors that lead to nazi defeat

Bevin Alexander

@barney:

well this thread encouraged me to go to the library instead of just walking by : )

I’ve read this before , I think : )

How Hitler Could Have Won World War II  The fatal errors that lead to nazi defeat

Bevin Alexander

Hindsight is always 20/20… there’s many ways almost any war could have gone the other way from history if the losing side knew then what is known now.

I reccomend everyone read the Rum and the Fury!

http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/21878245-the-rum-and-the-fury

by our own Karl7 from A&A.org!

I recently read and would highly recommend Ian Toll’s “Pacific Crucible” and “Conquering Tide” covering the war in the Pacific.  I especially liked the insight into what was going on in Japan in the lead up to war, as well as the leadership and strategy on both sides.  A very good read, but for those looking for an order of battle level of detail this is not the book for you (does have some of the horrors of war stuff - - but not overdone).  After reading these I went on to read Six Frigates, also by Toll, which turned out to be the best of the three - - about the founding of the US navy.  Has a lot about post revolutionary war politics in addition to the naval battles and commanders, which I found really interesting but might not be everyone’s cup of tea.  I would also highly recommend the “The River War” by Winston Churchill an account of the re-conquest of the Sudan.  Well written with a dose of dry humor (no surprise given the author) and includes a detailed description of the battles (including order of battle and troop strengths).  Very interesting to read the book and think about who is writing it at the same time.