What are we reading?

[Gusington]

^That sounds very good.

[ArizonaTank]

Just starting Terror of the Autumn Skies, by Blaine Pardoe.

This is a biography of Frank Luke, one of America's top aces in WWI. On his best day, he scored five kills in ten minutes (two balloons, two fighters and one recon aircraft). Eddie Rickenbacker felt that if Luke had lived longer, Luke and not Rickenbacker would have been America's top ace.

Luke's death is almost as famous as his prodigious balloon busting skills. Shot down behind enemy lines, he was wounded and crawled away from his downed aircraft. The traditional story is that he died in a blaze of gunfire, using his M1911 automatic to trade shots with a German infantry patrol. More recent scholarship believes that he did squeeze off a few shots, and the Germans may or may not have returned fire. But Luke really died of his wounds from the crash.   

The book seems to surmise that because Luke's family had deep German roots, Luke was out to prove that he was more American than other Americans. This drove his almost manic pursuit of victories and seeming hatred of the German war machine. I think this premise is credible since this is also the motivation that drove Henry Gunther, an American infantryman of German descent, and the last death before the Armistice, to attack a German machine gun nest, literally in the last minute before the cease-fire (the German machine gunners, knowing that hostilities were about to cease, even tried to wave Gunther off, but the American kept coming for them). 

Anyway, "Autumn Skies" is a "good", but not "great" book IMHO. Informative - it would be a good choice for anyone interested in WWI aviation.

https://www.amazon.com/Terror-Autumn-Skies-Story-Americas/dp/1616082941/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=&sr=

Interestingly the author is a prodigious writer, who mostly seems to write "Battletech" novels.

[Gusington]

^Also sounds very good. I can see a connection between Battletech and WWI aviation!

[JasonPratt]

A big change between the book and movie is that in the book the protagonist, Bruno Stachel does not die. In fact, he goes on to star in two other books. In the first, "The Blood Order" he follows the Nazis in post-WWI Germany hoping to get to fly again...but gradually grows to despise them. In the third book, "The Tin Cravat," he defects to the US and returns to Germany to start a resistance movement.

That sounds like a great film trilogy idea, too! Maybe Peter Jackson should be working on that.

[Sir Slash]

I am trying to decide between, "Island Infernos: The U.S. Army's Pacific War Odyssey, 1944", John Mc Manus's second of three books about the US Army in the Pacific War and, "Brothers In Arms" by James Holland, the story of The Sherwood Rangers in WWII. Tough choice.  :-\

[ArizonaTank]

A big change between the book and movie is that in the book the protagonist, Bruno Stachel does not die. In fact, he goes on to star in two other books. In the first, "The Blood Order" he follows the Nazis in post-WWI Germany hoping to get to fly again...but gradually grows to despise them. In the third book, "The Tin Cravat," he defects to the US and returns to Germany to start a resistance movement.

That sounds like a great film trilogy idea, too! Maybe Peter Jackson should be working on that.

I would love to see the Blue Max get a remake! Yep, Jackson would be the guy. He practically has his own WWI airforce. :dreamer: 

[ArizonaTank]

I am trying to decide between, "Island Infernos: The U.S. Army's Pacific War Odyssey, 1944", John Mc Manus's second of three books about the US Army in the Pacific War and, "Brothers In Arms" by James Holland, the story of The Sherwood Rangers in WWII. Tough choice.  :-\

Yes, very tough choice. I read "Brothers in Arms" and enjoyed it. I am getting "Island Infernos" for the queue.

[JasonPratt]

A big change between the book and movie is that in the book the protagonist, Bruno Stachel does not die. In fact, he goes on to star in two other books. In the first, "The Blood Order" he follows the Nazis in post-WWI Germany hoping to get to fly again...but gradually grows to despise them. In the third book, "The Tin Cravat," he defects to the US and returns to Germany to start a resistance movement.

That sounds like a great film trilogy idea, too! Maybe Peter Jackson should be working on that.

I would love to see the Blue Max get a remake! Yep, Jackson would be the guy. He practically has his own WWI airforce. :dreamer:

Pro: a Blue Max trilogy by PJ would exist.
Con: PJ would lose so much weight he would turn into a wraith.
Pro: PJ would lose so much weight he would turn into a wraith.

[JasonPratt]

I forgot to mention the other day, but I've started Triumph and Tragedy, the final volume of Churchill's WW2 archive/memoirs; which will also finish out what amounts to the final entry of his history of the English-speaking peoples.

At the same time I also started on Gangsters vs Nazis, and after only the Preface I love it already! If the first page of chapter 1 is any indication, it may be written like a screenplay! Will update my impressions later, God willing and the creek don't rise.

[reydarifyi]

A classic one, should be read with certain attention

[JasonPratt]

Oh, great, there's an English translation!  :bd:

Wish that was true for Shaposhnikov's Nerve Center of the Army.  :dreamer:

(Yes, this counts as zeroth-world problems.  :nerd: )

[greengiant]

Dan Simmons Hyperion. As a scifi nut the Hyperion Cantos series is one I've wanted to read for a long time; all the books have been sitting on my shelf for too long and today I decided to make a start. Loving it.

[ArizonaTank]

Just finished

Under the Southern Cross: The South Pacific Air Campaign Against Rabaul by Thomas McKelvey Cleaver

This is a great book covering the air and naval campaigns over the Solomons and Rabual in 1942 and 1943.

As the book opens, the Allies are outnumbered and outclassed in the air. But by the book's end, the tables are completely turned, with the Japanese taking tremendous losses against determined Allied air power. While the book purports to be focused on the air war, it covers naval action as well.

The heroes of the book have to be the F4 Corsair and the B25G Mitchell (the gunship version with the nose full of .50 caliber machine guns, and even a 75mm cannon). The B25Gs in particular used their massive firepower, and innovative skip bombing to shred Japanese transports.

The book does a very good job of presenting detailed accounts of many of the air fights and (mostly American) personalities who were key to the air war. Air combats were huge and intense. Often seeing hundreds of aircraft from both sides in massive air battles.

One blind spot is that while the book tries to present the Japanese perspective, it still falls somewhat short in this aspect (IMHO). 

Still I would say it is required reading for those interested in the Pacific Air War.

https://www.amazon.com/Under-Southern-Cross-Pacific-Campaign/dp/147283822X/ref=tmm_hrd_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1664394831&sr=8-1

[ArizonaTank]

Just finishing The Republic of Pirates: Being the True and Surprising Story of the Caribbean Pirates and the Man Who Brought Them Down by Colin Woodard.

This is a great entertaining book about the brief period in the early 1700s, when pirates literally set up a working republic on New Providence in the Bahamas. The book tells the story through bios of four men, three pirate captains (William "Black Beard" Thatch [also spelled Teach], Henry Avery, and Charles Vane) and Woodes Rodgers the pirate hunter who put an end to the pirate kingdom.

A few tidbits

-Many of the English / Scottish pirates were Jacobites who were somewhat motivated by their distaste for George I, the first Hannovarian King of England. When George I offered pardons, many of the Jacobites refused on political grounds.
-Much of the story takes place in the Carolinas and along the US East Coast.
-The book covers "Black Beard," who seems to have been fairly well educated, and who more often than not depended on his victims fear of him, but he does not come across as bloodthirsty.
-The pirates had a "society" of sorts, and the crews did not usually let captives be killed, but the book does give some exceptions.

Anyway, it is a well-rounded book that takes a steady approach to describing the pirates and their world. A great book if you are interested in pirates.

Here is the link to the book:
https://www.amazon.com/Republic-Pirates-Surprising-Caribbean-Brought/dp/0151013020/ref=tmm_hrd_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1667148623&sr=8-1

[ArizonaTank]

Moving from pirates to "road agents" of the Old West...

Half-way through "Vigilantes of Montana" by Thomas Dimsdale

https://www.amazon.com/Vigilantes-Montana-First-Thomas-Dimsdale/dp/0762725680/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1667505219&sr=8-2

I started reading this book on a whim and didn't know what to expect...  I have been pleasantly surprised.

The book was written in 1864, and was a newspaperman's view of crime and punishment in Bannack, Montana in 1862-1864.

The town's sheriff, Henry Plummer, had a side business running a local band of outlaws and "road agents." Eventually, local vigilantes captured, tried and hung Plummer but not before his associates had terrorized the entire area.

The book is full of gun fights, stage-coach robberies, ambushes, and all sorts of other "villainy." The author has a newspaperman's eye for detail in describing these events. For example, one gunfight in a saloon saw both men empty their pistols at close-range and they still missed each other...only a dog hiding under a table was hit (three times). It was during the "cap and ball" era so several gunfights turn because of misfires. One man's heavy clothes even stopped a bullet from a pistol that wasn't loaded with enough powder.   

The book also covers "vigilante justice" and is very sympathetic to it. For the most part, trials were by jury of the "crowd" and the author admits this sometimes led to mixed results. For example, in one "trial" the crowd let murderers go because of their youth and "good looks."  Sentences were often swift...one infamous outlaw was hung within 58 minutes of the end of his trial. He was strung up off a beam in a house under construction in Bannack.

Many of these events seem somehow familiar...and I imagine that this book has been an invaluable source for many Hollywood scriptwriters over the years. 

One of the interesting aspects of the book, is that it describes the events that were very recent when it was written. So the book reads more like today's newspaper, than a "history". It feels like everything the author describes happened yesterday.

BTW, Bannack, Montana is a ghost town and state park now. Here is a Google Street view of its main street. If you want to see what an authentic Old West town looks like, this is it:
https://www.google.com/maps/@45.1618058,-112.9976395,3a,75y,128.13h,78.64t/data=!3m8!1e1!3m6!1sAF1QipOVM9hMN8i4RifvQSqVsZ7h02DxrS94G0praaQe!2e10!3e11!6shttps:%2F%2Flh5.googleusercontent.com%2Fp%2FAF1QipOVM9hMN8i4RifvQSqVsZ7h02DxrS94G0praaQe%3Dw203-h100-k-no-pi-0-ya292.78287-ro0-fo100!7i12396!8i6198

Despite the fact that I am having a great time reading the book, I don't think it is for a general audience. I can only recommend it if the subject matter is of interest. The writing is very 19th century, and the turn of phrase takes patience.

Still the book has been great for me since I have been toying with the idea of doing some "Old West Gunfight" gaming...and for me this book really hits the spot.