What are we reading?

[airboy]

Now reading Caligula - The Mad Emperor of Rome by Stephen Dando Collins.

You have been on a Rome foray lately.

[WallysWorld]

Finally reading through "Swords Around A Throne" by  John R. Elting. I bought it many years ago, but just read different sections and never really from start to finish. Great information about the Grande Armee.

[WallysWorld]

Now reading Caligula - The Mad Emperor of Rome by Stephen Dando Collins.

How is the book? That piques my interest.

[Gusington]

Airboy yes, I have a giant stack of ancients reading that I am currently picking through. Not bored of the era yet so I'll keep going. It's helped that the last 2-3 books were short and only took a day or two to finish.

WallyWorld - I am 75 pages in. The book is ok but the author has some habits that annoy me so far - he injects modern comparisons to historical ideas and he does some 'telling instead of showing.' There are also some typos that get irritating.

Don't know if those things would bother you.

[Jarhead0331]

Just finished "TopGun" by Dan "Yankee" Pedersen.

Overall it was a really fantastic book. Dan was one of the original founders of TopGun and its first CO. He had a long career in naval aviation, serving from the 1950s and into the early 90s. My favorite parts of the book were the anecdotal stories, particularly the highlights of his flying throughout the cold war. I think the 1950s through the 1970s is my favorite period of military aviation. He gives a lot of insight into how the Navy functions and makes decisions. I also learned a lot about the problems our aviators faced, and eventually overcame, during the Vietnam War, in large part due to the lessons that were being taught in Miramar. Dan flew many aircraft during his career and he talks a lot about the nuances of everything he flew, including the F4D Skyray, F3H Demon, F5, A4, F4 Phantom and finally the F-14, although by the time the Tomcats started filling out the squadrons in the fleet, Dan's flying career was mostly over and he was commanding ships at sea.

Those guys really were living legends...the cowboys of their time. Dan is definitely "Old School" and he spends the last chapter of the book addressing the Navy's growing over-reliance on technology and stealth. TopGun's philosophy was that it is the man in the cockpit that wins the fight, not the machine. Dan has grave concerns about the state of TopGun these days and the impact budget cuts have had keeping aircraft flying and pilots with the flight hours they need to win. Dan is not a fan of the F35 and I was really interested to read that there is a real push to get the F-14s in service again. That would just be awesome!

Anyway, if you're interested in military aviation and fighter combat, I'd say this is a must read.

[ArizonaTank]

I just finished "Case Red: The Collapse of France" by Robert Forczyk.

Very much a military history, there is only a perfunctory discussion of politics. But it has great detail about the battles, weapons, and organizations in the last weeks of the Battle of France.

The book fills a gap left in most other histories..  What happened after Dunkirk? 

Fall Gelb (Case Yellow) was the famous "sickle cut" that drove through the Ardennes into Flanders and on to the sea, cutting off the cream of the French and the British Expeditionary Force (BEF) in Brussels. This book addresses Fall Gelb only at a high level as background. The book really picks up after the Germans stopped at the sea and then transitioned to Fall Rot (Case Red), the Battle for France.

This period had been a gap in my personal understanding of the campaign, and this book did a great job in filling it. I was surprised to learn that once the "shock" of Fall Gelb was over, the French began to adapt their tactics and gave the Germans a run for their money, with fierce counter-attacks. The French also had the best tank on the field, the Char I bis, that often created "tank panic" among the German troops when it appeared on the battlefield.

But in the end, the Germans outnumbered and out gunned the French. The generals (British, French and German) contributed to the defeat through their insubordination against their governments. Guderian disobeyed orders to slow down and wait for the infantry during Fall Gelb, this kept the pressure up on France. In mid-June, British general Brook began withdrawing British forces without authorization from the British Government, or any notification to the French; this increased French distrust of the British. The French general Weygand openly defied efforts by the French Prime Minister Reynaud to pull back to North Africa to not surrender and continue the fight.

The book does a good job of portraying both sides of the battle, but tends to lean slightly toward the allies. Still, Rommel comes off as an excellent division commander, and Guderian and von Rundstedt play large roles in the book as well.

The level of detail is good given the scope of the book. It reminds me of one of one of David Glantz' works...and that is a very good thing.

https://www.amazon.com/Case-Red-Collapse-Robert-Forczyk/dp/1472824466/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=case+red&qid=1589825960&rnid=2941120011&s=books&sr=1-1   

[Gusington]

Top Gun and Case Red sound good. I've had Case Red in my Amazon cart forever and recently added Case White (Fall of Poland).

[WallysWorld]

I just finished "Case Red: The Collapse of France" by Robert Forczyk.

Excellent book! I read it last year.

[twitter3]

Top Gun and Case Red sound good. I've had Case Red in my Amazon cart forever and recently added Case White (Fall of Poland).

I've read Robert Forczyk's book Where the Iron Crosses Grow: The Crimea 1941-1944 and if he covers White and Red in the same fashion I'm buying them both!

[Gusington]

Where the Iron Crosses Grow has some very solid reviews too.

[twitter3]

Where the Iron Crosses Grow has some very solid reviews too.

I really learned a lot in that book. I picked it up at the Raleigh airport in a (now out of business) used book store for $10. I was looking for a topic I knew little about and it caught my eye.

[ArizonaTank]

Top Gun and Case Red sound good. I've had Case Red in my Amazon cart forever and recently added Case White (Fall of Poland).

I've read Robert Forczyk's book Where the Iron Crosses Grow: The Crimea 1941-1944 and if he covers White and Red in the same fashion I'm buying them both!

I'm right there.  I bought both Case White and Where the Iron Crosses Grow this morning.  They are in the queue...

[JasonPratt]

I was surprised that Case Yellow and its setup ended up being a little more than half the book. It sure seemed like the same level of detail as Case Red following. (Case Red itself starts well into chapter 6, somewhere within 61% of the book per my kindle copy.)

[Giappy]

Sengoku Jidai. Nobunaga, Hideyoshi, and Ieyasu: Three Unifiers of Japan
By Danny Chaplin

So far so good

[Gusington]

^Hmm I'll have to look into that one.