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Your FIRST military reading book?


Bluehawk
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Might be fun and interesting for us?

 

My VERY first military history reading book was on John Paul Jones, at age 7.

 

It was part of a set of American biographical books for kids, all of which had a blue cover with a black silhouette of the person on it. Got it from my public school library. My grandfather was a lifelong Methodist minister, in Minnesota at the time, my little brother and I were living with them in Springfield. He took me with him to attend the Annual Conference in St. Paul one year, so I had a lot of time in our room to read this exciting book.

 

Since then, well, a few hundred others I'd guess, unable to get an accurate count, and still at it to this day 65 years later. A major major part of the enjoyment of life for me, every day...

 

How about you?

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My dad had a huge library with many books on military history.

 

My favorite books were the ones on Arnhem.

 

They were all in Dutch so I could only understand every other word but the pictures were great!

 

I also read French Tintin and especially loved the books with military themes.

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I think mine was a WWII Aircraft Encyclopedia. I had quite a few so I can't exactly remember which one it was. I think i was 7 or 8 when I first read that.

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Patchcollector

Like manayunkman my Dad had a great library and I was a voracious reader so I spent a lot of time poring over the books,many of them Military themed.He had most all of the Time-Life sets on the Wars,and there were also magazines like the Civil War Times that he subscribed to.

 

Another memory I have was when I was in 5th grade our teacher would take a few minutes of each school day to read us Johnny Tremain,by Esther Forbes.Set against the backdrop of the Revolutionary War,the excellent story caught my attention from the beginning and I looked forward to hearing each days reading.

 

It took him most of the school year to finish reading it to us,but I enjoyed every minute.

 

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I can't remember the first book but I can remember the experience. I was an Air Force brat living on Davis Monthan AFB, 5th-7th grade, and I would go to the base library and check out and read just about every military book the had. What else could you do during the hot summers but read and going swimming at the base pool.

 

Another great experience was listening to Armed Forces Radio in Germany and they would read books over the air. The best was the crash of the b-24 Liberator in Libya and the struggles they had trying to survive before death. Sorry, I do not remember the name of the book but I am sure someone will let me Know.

 

Mason

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The bible? Plenty of battles in there.

 

As a child, as almost all children, I was fascinated by books with pictures of aeroplanes, tanks, soldiers, etc on them. Being able to focus my long since vanished infantile mind onto a title, that's another thing. "The Longest Day" is a title that strikes me hardest.

 

When I was 3, 4, 5 years old, the BBC would air documentaries on World War II almost daily (when the test card was the main player). I believed the war in black and white (European Theatre) had recently finished but the war in colour (Pacific Theatre) was ongoing. Thinking of Korea, I wasn't too far wrong.

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I'm thinking my father's Divisional History at home, and later an Infantry Journal Press one called Fighting Divisions which I needed to read for my Boy Scout Merit Badge for collecting, yes it was Shoulder patches, not coins or stamps.

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Other military biographies in that blue book series included David Farragut, Patrick Henry and George Washington.

 

Each book was about 1/2 - 3/4" thick. The only pictures in them were illustrations, a few black and white drawings.

 

I have to say it was those books that stimulated my lifelong interest in American military history.

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Robert Loomis “Great American Fighter Pilots of World War 2”. 2nd grade, Northport Elementary School Library 1967-68. It set in motion a life long passion

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I don't remember the first one but suspect it was either Red Badge of Courage, All Quiet on the Western Front or Killer Angels as I remember reading each of them as a kid. I have more of a memory watching old WW2 films from 50s and 60s with my dad when I was young and I think that is what planted the seed for me in my future interests.

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Hmmmm. We had some kind of encyclopedia... Not sure if it was a US history set or not, but it wasn't the world book or anything like that. Picked on up at the age of 7 and read about Pearl Harbor... Shaped the next 30 years.

 

I read more than a few WWII books, there was a huge US history series that I had a few of from the library, have since found most of them and read them to my kid. As for real chapter books, I would have to say "We Were There at Pearl Harbor." My dad got it for his birthday when he was just little, like 1960 maybe, and I read it soon after finding out what happened. Also added several of that series for my little boy!

 

Have to mention Band of Brothers, though. Read it in 8th grade, long before the series came out. Really gave impetus to the idea that I'd teach history at some point.

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Hookemhorns88

I have always been interested in history; the wild west, Indians, Civil War, etc. However, it was not until I was in my early 20's that I picked up a copy of "This is Your War" by Ernie Pyle in a used book store. I became hooked on WW2. Over the following 25+ years most of the reading that I have done for entertainment has almost all been something related to WW2.

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Salvage Sailor

I was regaled as a youth with The Odyssey followed by the Iliad, both by Homer.

 

Being in a household with Great War doughboys whose grandfathers were in the Civil War, this was followed by All Quiet on the Western Front and Bruce Catton's Army of the Potomac trilogy (Mr. Lincolns Army, Glory Road, and A Stillness at Appomattox)

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The first military books I remember were in my Elementary School library and were by C.B. Colby "fighting gear of WWII Equipment of the American GI" was a particular favorite

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C._B._Colby

 

Tom Bowers

 

This is a tough one, as grade school was some time ago.

 

I remember picking up a copy of the Colby book "Fighting Gear of World War II Equipment and Weapons of the American G.I" at one of those school book fairs. Nice big photos of everything from carbines to tanks.

 

But I also bought copies of Landmark books. I think my first might have been on the United States Marine Corps, as it showed a full color painting of a Marine hitting the beach.

My Dad was a Marine with stateside service during the Korean War, but I wanted to know more.

 

I also remember going home and asking my Mom for money to buy a copy of "Guadalcanal Dairy". For the life of me, I could not figure out how a milk production facility

had anything to do with cover art of a beach landing in the Pacific. My Mom looked at me funny and then with a kind laugh said "Oh, you mean "Guadalcanal Diary". It was

a watered down version of the original by Richard Tregaskis, simplified for a grade school reading level. A lot of the Landmark books were done the same way, with a famous

author who had written the adult version.

Story of the US Marines.jpg

Story of the US Marines b.jpg

Story of the US Marines c.jpg

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Salvage Sailor

Grade school.....

 

Now you've done it Gil, you made me break into the toy room.....

 

Many of us, uh, not so young folks, had the Milton Bradley American Heritage games which also had the historical booklets in them. They were based on the American Heritage sets of books that we had as youths in our houses during the 1950's. Spent many a day reading them cover to cover, the series had most everything in it in regard to American history.

 

I've got all four games but am missing the WWII Pacific 'Hit the Beach' booklet. Something else I'll have to search for.....

MB American Heritage Games 001.jpg

american_heritage_books_edited-1a.jpg

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All this information is causing me to wonder - In a classroom or group of, say, 30 students/kids, how MANY of those did, or do today find fascination with military readings, on an "instinct" basis - by accident, or from some other cause.

 

As the Chinese are reputed to have declared, "Under the mountain of books lies a kernel of knowledge."

 

Which kernels are chosen, and by whom, and even, why.

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All this information is causing me to wonder - In a classroom or group of, say, 30 students/kids, how MANY of those did, or do today find fascination with military readings, on an "instinct" basis - by accident, or from some other cause.

 

As the Chinese are reputed to have declared, "Under the mountain of books lies a kernel of knowledge."

 

Which kernels are chosen, and by whom, and even, why.

 

As mentioned, my father was a Marine, so it came naturally. The same was true with a lot of my classmates who had WWII or Korean War vintage parents, uncles and grandparents.

 

Movies are another big trigger. And, history class as well. My daughter this weekend was telling me how she teaches the WWI unit using the movie made about the Christmas truce. Very effective right before the holidays.

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The first military book I read (well it was more looking at the pictures than actual reading) belonged to one of my uncles who was about fifteen years old when he got liberated. It is about the history of WW2 in the region he lived in and I for that matter live in today. I must have been about ten years old when I first saw it and whenever I was over there I had my nose in that book and listened to the stories my uncle told. My uncle has long since passed away but he had stipulated in his will that this book was destined to become mine. And I still have it in my collection.

 

In the photo it is the book on the right. On the left is a later edition of that same book.

 

post-169612-0-74232700-1514323465_thumb.jpg

 

post-169612-0-43497900-1514323484_thumb.jpg

 

Rene

 

 

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Grade school.....

 

Now you've done it Gil, you made me break into the toy room.....

 

Many of us, uh, not so young folks, had the Milton Bradley American Heritage games which also had the historical booklets in them. They were based on the American Heritage sets of books that we had as youths in our houses during the 1950's. Spent many a day reading them cover to cover, the series had most everything in it in regard to American history.

 

I've got all four games but am missing the WWII Pacific 'Hit the Beach' booklet. Something else I'll have to search for.....

Those American Heritage books were like gold for me. Air War over Hitlers Germany was the second most influential book of my grade school years. Ive gathered many of those books since for my kids and now grandkids. I think I was the only kid in grade school to check them out religiously ?

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Gee I can't recall, probably comic books by the late 60s :lol:, uniform books, photo books like CB Colby, American Heritage etc etc of course by the early 70s, and real hard corps military history and general history books definitely by the mid 70s, I clearly remember taking out in my High School library starting in 76, books like O Jerusalem, Is Paris Burning, and Ryan's The Last Battle, The Battle of Berlin among quite a few .

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https://www.google.com/search?q=air+war+over+germany+book&client=tablet-android-samsung&prmd=sivn&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiVvcOum6nYAhUi_4MKHasPDiYQ_AUIEigC&biw=1280&bih=800#imgrc=_jGKUWEOY2d3CM:

 

It's actually Air War Against Hitler's Germany. It was one of the best ones in the series. I always thought the cover art was very striking.

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I can't remember which book I might have read first. A few that I do remember and made an impression on me were, "Up Front", "Guadalcanal Diary" and a 1940 copy of "Jane's All the World's Aircraft" that I found in the trash.

 

I was also fascinated with the multi volume set of the "Pictorial History of the Second World War". That was more gawking at photos and reading captions than a detailed history. But, I remember pouring over those books until they fell apart.

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