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cutiger83
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Currently reading "Canadians in Russia 1918-1919"...book is autographed by the author, Roy MacLaren.

 

 

Could you post the ISBN number. I have a few books about the Allied Intervention and this subject peaks my interest.Thanks

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This one doesn't really have much military. Before I clear them out of my house, I'm going through 10 years' worth of the quarterly EASTERN EUROPEAN GENEALOGY, published in Canada by the Manitoba Genealogical Society. A lot of folks up there are descended from various waves of east European immigration. One of the motivators to leave was to avoid military service. Pacifistic sects like Mennonites came to Canada to avoid the draft in the old Austrian and Russian empires. These journals are full of unfamiliar ethnicities like Ruthenians, Slovaks, German Bukovinans, Galicians, etc. There was a good long article about using Austrian military service records for genealogical purposes. A lot of information on the Latter Day Saints' microfilming of archives in eastern Europe for family history research. Particularly interesting were stories of Ukrainian immigrants who were unlucky enough to pick Brazil as their destination instead of North America. Being dropped off in the jungle with a wife and kids and not knowing a casava from a capybara. Kind of like Swiss family Robinson with a high mortality rate. Still, enough survived so that parts of southern Brazil today have substantial Ukrainian populations, and the local Indians speak Ukrainian as a second language (!)

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teufelhunde.ret

Have started re-reading books on my shelves. Presently reading "Washington's Crossing" by David Fisher. He is a great story teller, great delivery of details and the story moves along smootly.

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Fix Bayonets! John W. Thomason, Jr. Capt; USMC 2nd printing, May 1926. Very nicely written and even better illustrations. I have found many of the books printed into the 1950s had numerous printings within the 1st year in this case the 1st printing was March, 1926 and this one shows April, May, 1926. An example of the revered Marine NCO is one who is referred to as having two rows of ribbons. The times sure have changed.

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I'm currently reading The Thousand Mile War, about the Aleutians Campaign. I highly recommend it, because it is well-written by a professional writer.

 

I started reading it back in December and am going at the rate of one page every other night, so I should be finished some time in 2013.

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Manchu Warrior

I am reading Conversations With the Enemy The Story of PFC Robert Garwood, I am almost finished the book and I am still on the fence on my opinion of him. :think:

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I quitted reading "First Recon: Second to none", not liking the way it is written (very different fron Force recon diary 1969, Force Recon diary 1970 and Da Nang Diary, which i enjoyed a lot.)

I started (and almost finished) a book i took from one of the free bokshelves that are outside our people mover station: "Perugia Liberata" by Roger Absalom. It is a compilation of documents regarding American and english occupation in Perugia (central italy, where i live) in 1944-1945. There are documents ranging from politics (control of Fascists, helping the partisans with supplies) to needs of our power plant, factories and farms, description of battles, damage assestments on monuments, everything. It gives a picture of how difficult it was life those days, but i found it expecially engrossing because by looking outside my window i can see a lot of the places described.

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"Six Armies in Normandy" by John Kegan. It's a good book. Aside from clearly telling the story of Normandy, Mr Kegan is great at providing detailed background information on the different military units involved. I am just beginning the section on the 1st Polish armored division and the Falaise gap.

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2ndInf.Div.

Currently I am reading Storm Of Steel by Ernst Junger, it's a very great book so far. And since that isn't a US book, I will be reading a unit history of the 2nd Infantry Division in Korea next.

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I am reading Conversations With the Enemy The Story of PFC Robert Garwood, I am almost finished the book and I am still on the fence on my opinion of him. :think:

 

As a follow-up to your current read I would suggest Survivors by Zalin Grant. He gives an excellent account of Garwood's behavior in a VC prison camp from the prisoner's perspective. I'll avoid personal editorializing but would highly recommend this book and another by Frank Anton (one of the prisoners in Grant's book) called why didn't you get me out?, also a powerful read. I think these may push you off the fence. Below are some informative links.

-Lee

 

http://www.pythiapress.com/wartales/PrisonCamp-one.html

 

http://www.ojc.org/anton/wdygmo.htm

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I am just finishing up The Blue Devil "Battle Mountain" Regiment In Italy: A History Of The 350th Infantry Regiment by John E. Wallace. I did not know about this book until I read Dr. Wallace's obituary a year or so ago. I had met him and did not realize that he was a veteran and had written the book. The book reminds me more of a term paper than a really detailed history. It's not quite as dry as the Sahara but it's close. There are many, many typos. My favorite part of the book is the many illustrations by Private Gus Fagerholm. I got the best deal I could find on Amazon Books for this one and it cost around $35.00. Others have it for sale for way more than that.

 

Dave

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Now back to a classic....Silent Wings.....rereading for the 3rd time.....havent made it to the library lately. BTW, Bushmasters is a really good read! :thumbsup:

 

 

 

I just started "Silent Wings" for the first time. It was a little hard to get through the background history of gliders, but now I am reading about "Operation Husky" and the book is riveting!

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I also wanted to add that An Army At Dawn by Rick Atkinson is an outstanding work and very well written. I actually wasn't nterested in the subject (the North African campaign) until I picked up the book at the bookstore, and couldn't put it down. I found a good copy on ebay for six or eight bucks. I'm not reading it now, but it is at the top of the stack.

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I also wanted to add that An Army At Dawn by Rick Atkinson is an outstanding work and very well written. I actually wasn't nterested in the subject (the North African campaign) until I picked up the book at the bookstore, and couldn't put it down. I found a good copy on ebay for six or eight bucks. I'm not reading it now, but it is at the top of the stack.

 

All of Rick Atkinson's books are great!

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Just finished reading "Road of Bones - the epic siege of Kohima" A brilliant read from start to finish of one of the most brutal battles of the whole of the Second World War.

 

Currently reading - "Island Fortress" about the siege of Malta. Again a fantastic read about domination of the Meditteranean. Superb :thumbsup:

 

Rich

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  • 2 weeks later...

Today I received Called To Honor by COL John Edward Gray, USA (Ret), which are the memoirs of this three-war veteran (seat duty with the Marines in WWII, Army officer in Korea and Vietnam). Part of the book however covers peacetime service and seems to be a rather dry read, but the author is a competent writer.

 

I ordered it because Gray was a veteran of RCT 31 which fought on east side of the Chosin Reservoir. Gray was awarded the DSC for actions in that battle. There are 70 or so pages covering Chosin; in the appendix, amongst copies of paperwork regarding the indorsements for RCT 31's belatedly-awarded Navy PUC, are a couple of pages of translated Chinese documents which I hadn't seen before.

 

 

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I will be reading shortly The Gallant Dead, Union & Confedrate Generals Killed in the Civil War by Derrick Smith, but I still need to finish up Thomas Fleming's Washingtons Secret War, The Hidden History of Valley Forge. I will admit that since I got this damn Computer my reading has dropped to Zero, watching DVDs too, since I got this thing I have been ordering Books and great DVDs like crazy, But When to look at them that's the question, I, day and night am on the forum or looking at other sites.

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bunkerhillburning

" Cold is the Sea " by Edward Beach.

 

Its pretty good. Not my normal read but this and two other books were on the bedstand of a friend who recently passed. I think these were the last books he was reading when he died. By far one of the most well read gents I have ever known. And what a military history library he collected - first rate.

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I picked up "American Daughter Gone to War" by Winnie Smith from Tarbridge's shop. So far very good read about an early VN war nurse. This isn't my usual area of interest but am enjoying seeing her evolution throughout the book. A little weird because it is written in the present tense but that is just a stylistic complaint.

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Doyle, William. A Soldier's Dream. NAL Caliber; New York, NY. 2011.

 

I'm about to finish the book, and have really enjoyed it. The subtitle is 'Captain Travis Patriquin and the Awakening of Iraq.' The book traces the events which shaped CPT Patriquin's service as a warrior, and contributed to his ability and willingness to work with the sheiks around Ramadi, the capital city of al Anbar Province, Iraq. It also provides a brief vision of how the Awakening in al Anbar lead to the Sons of Iraq movement, which enabled the US (and it's remaining Coalition partners) to move out of the country by the end of 2011. But the book's primary focus is CPT Patriquin and his contributions.

 

The book's based on a tremendous amount of first-hand interviews the author conducted with a number of the key participants, as well as books and news reports.

 

I would STRONGLY recommend this book to anyone interested in the Iraq war, or in counter-insurgency in general. The book describes how Patriquin and his superiors in the 1st Brigade, 1st Armored Division separated the people of Ramadi from al Queda, by engaging with the tribal leadership, the sheiks. This sparked significant controversy among the Americans involved, set the conditions for Ramadi to transition from one of the most violent cities in Iraq at Ramadan, 2006, to one of the most secure cities, by Ramadan, 2007.

 

I look forward to sharing this with at least one of the interpreters I served with in Ramadi in 2007-2008.

 

Steve

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boisbelleau

post-5477-1334524614.jpeg

 

 

Just finished this one... An amazing read. The information within the pages is first rate and covers most American wars dating back to the Revolution including the raid on Tripoli in 1804 and the Mexican Campaign. Big emphasis on WWII with little known stories such as the aviator who was KIA as a member of the Belgian Resistance. This books reads like a PBS special and is illustrated with many rarely if not ever published pictures. The appencices are a list of names of most Americans buried in foreign soil NOT under the auspices of the ABMC.

 

I highly recommend the addition of this book to any war library.

 

An accompanying website can be found at: http://theforeignburialofamericanwardead.com/

 

BB

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