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cutiger83
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"D-Day...June 6 1944" by the late Dr Richard Holmes, one of Britain's most distinguished military historians. Sadly, he passed away suddenly a couple of years ago aged 65. This book is a co-production with the Imperial War Museum. It's profusely illustrated and is chock-full of facsimiles of maps and other key documents relating to D-Day. It's a good concise summary of that "Day of days".

 

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Imperial-War-Museum-Experience-Liberation/dp/1844428052/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1370867703&sr=1-2&keywords=d-day+richard+holmes

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My Share of the Task, by General Stanley McChrystal. Not as great as I had hoped it would be, but offers some good insight into the challenges we faced in the Iraqi "insurgency." I haven't had much time to devote to reading lately, so I'm only 1/3 through it.

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YankeeSpirit76

I'm just finishing the book "A greatful Heart" by Michael Shay who is a Supreme court Judge in the state of Conneticut. It is about the US Army Field hospitals and the 101st, 102nd, 103rd, and 104th Ambulance Companies of the 26th "Yankee division" In which my great Uncle served as a 104th ambulance driver. As you know, it was called the Yankee division because it was made up of all New Englanders.

I always thought these guys had it kind of easy not being in actual combat even though they were right at the front all of the time, but, even they were almost constantly bombarded by German artillary!

 

Why...why would an Army intensionally bombard field hospitals and, try to shell ambulances racing to get wounded men to a hospital? Just when I think our species has sunk about as low as it can go, I read something that says " oh no, we can go much lower than that"!

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I'm just finishing the book "A greatful Heart" by Michael Shay who is a Supreme court Judge in the state of Conneticut. It is about the US Army Field hospitals and the 101st, 102nd, 103rd, and 104th Ambulance Companies of the 26th "Yankee division" In which my great Uncle served as a 104th ambulance driver. As you know, it was called the Yankee division because it was made up of all New Englanders.

I always thought these guys had it kind of easy not being in actual combat even though they were right at the front all of the time, but, even they were almost constantly bombarded by German artillary!

 

Why...why would an Army intensionally bombard field hospitals and, try to shell ambulances racing to get wounded men to a hospital? Just when I think our species has sunk about as low as it can go, I read something that says " oh no, we can go much lower than that"!

 

 

Sounds like a good book. Your mention of hospitals getting bombarded is why I started a thread discussing how people behind the lines were in danger too. Not as often as the front lines but the people behind the lines were not always in a "safe area".

 

...Kat

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Currently reading "A Higher Call" about a German pilot who instead of shooting down a badly damaged B-17, he escorted the B-17 back to the front lines.

 

 

....Kat

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littlebuddy

"The Bomber Command Memorial " this book was written to coincide with the unveiling of the bomber command memorial in London , althougth its not US military based this book is a heart felt publication honouring the servicemen of RAF Bomber command during the war

 

i was lucky enough to get my copy signed by one of the RAF veterans who has one of his accounts writtten in the book and was involved in the bomber command memorial

 

if you are interested in the RAF at all and would like a copy of this book please pm me

 

LB

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Kokoda. Story of the Aussies heroic stand and victory over the Japanese Army who were attempting to cross the Owen Stanley Range and take Port Moresby New Guinea, 1942.

 

Those were tough days for the Aussies. Had the Japanese succeeded it was only a stones throw to Northern Australia.

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TrenchfootJoe66

Currently reading " The Last Valley ". The lates in my current fascination w/ the 1st Indochina Fiasco, I mean War.

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I just finished "The Pacific". I will say that I found the writing style a bit disjointed, but he was trying to cover it chronologically, not per participant.

 

It was an easy read and I see now why the folks watching the miniseries had issues with it. The one I read must have been a later printing as it explained that it was intentionally different than the show.

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Garandomatic

I am in the middle of Chris Kyle's American Gun. His writing is very easily read, and bounces between informal conversation and a more factual tone here and there. Makes for a fun read, and is full of historical anecdotes about his top ten firearms. Of course, I'm biased, I have 8 of his 10, and it would have been 9 out of 10 if I didn't sell one this past winter.

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Focused in on the Fall of 44 up to the Bulge with units of the 26th ID being the main interest. Finished off three books in the last week.

 

"G Company's War" told from the perspective of Bruce Egger an enlisted man and Lee Otts an officer. Edited by Paul Roley.

 

Both men were with the 328th infantry Regiment, 26th ID.

 

Also read two books by Paul Fussell. First covers his life as a 20 year old Lt. With the 410th infantry, 103rd ID. It's called "Doing Battle". The second book is "The Boys Crusade" focusing on the life if the infantry in the ETO.

 

Amazing books covering a time I've missed somehow between Paris being liberated and the Battle of the Bulge.

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Just starting to read Neptune's Inferno: The US Navy at Guadalcanal.

If anyone has any advice on USN memoirs around the Guadalcanal campaign, I would love to here them.

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teufelhunde.ret

US Marines in Iraq 2003: The Anthology and Annotated Bibliography. Published by the USMC History Division

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I've read my copy of Neptune's Inferno three times already! Hornfischer's work is gripping, enlightening, and you can't help but get that you are there feeling.

 

Currently I am three quarters of the way through Atkinsons's The Guns at Last Light.

 

Joe

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Garandomatic

The thing that amazes me about Hornfischer, is that he puts so much life into the people in the book that you can't tell right away which are vets that survived or were killed in action. I had my phone beside Last Stand of the Tin Can sailors so I could check out a guy's name here and there to see if he made it or not.

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Masters of the Air by Donald L Miller

 

 

Excellent read!

 

I just finished Bloody Skies: A 15th AAF B-17 Crew: How They Lived and Died by Melvin McGuire and Robert Hadley. This is the story of McGuire who was a waist gunner on a B-17. This is the best book I have read detailing the day to day life of a 15th AAF crew during the war. I highly recommend it. I purchased a used copy on eBay and was very pleased to find it was a copy that had been autographed by Mel McGuire.

 

Before that I read Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption by Laura Hillenbrand, which is been mentioned in this thread already. This is the story of Louis Zamperini, who was a bombardier in a B24 in the PTO. Another great read!

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Read "The Winds of War" in June. Herman Wouk. 892 pages

Just finished "War and Remembrance". Herman Wouk. 1100 pages

Currently reading "Battle Cry" Leon Uris

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Just starting "Saving the Breakout; The 30th Divison's Heroic Stand at Mortain, August 7-12, 1944," by Alwyn Featherstone. So far, this is an exceptionally well written account of the Old Hickory Divisions' desperate fight against being overrun by the 2nd SS Panzer as well as being bombed by our own air corps. I haven't checked into it yet, but in the forward, MG Ellis Williamson states that the 1st ID ended up being awarded the PUC for the work the 30th did at Mortain. If true, that is indeed a travesty!

Anyway, definitely worth the six bucks I paid so far for this hardcover on Amazon!

G

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