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cutiger83
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8 hours ago, huntssurplus said:

Just finished "The Last Stand of Fox Company: A True Story of U.S. Marines in Combat" by Robert Drury and Tom Clavin. It was an interesting and entertaining read. The book is about Fox Company of the 2nd Battalion, 7th Marines which took the brunt of the attack by the Chinese at the Chosin Reservoir. 

 

Up next is "Just Cause: The Real Story of America's High-Tech Invasion of Panama" by Malcolm McConnell. 

“The Last Stand of Fox Company” is a great read!  If you want a complimentary account of Marines at the Chosin Reservoir I would recommend “Colder than Hell” by Joseph Owen, who was featured in the Fox Co book.  

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TheCrustyBosun

Just finished Aces High by Bill Yenne. It’s the stories of Bong and McGuire and more. 
 

Currently reading Curtis LeMay: Strategist and Tactician by Warren Kozak

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Cuba's Fight for Freedom and the War with Spain in 1898

 

This history book is actually two books in one volume circa 1898. A comprehensive, accurate and thrilling history of the Spanish Kingdom and its latest and fairest Colony; the long Struggle of Cuba for Freedom and Independence; the Intervention of the United States and the Fierce War with Spain that followed. A record of oppression and patriotism, of cruelty and of valor, and above all of the triumph of the Stars and Stripes.

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TheCrustyBosun

Just finished the Saga of Pappy Gunn by General George C. Kenney. It’s a short read but but a wealth of information on a bonafide larger-than-life aviation legend. 

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Just finished two: 'One Second After"  and "One Year After" by William R. Forstchen. Next up the The Final Day the last  book in the series but first {waiting on my copy of that to arrive] , Man In The High Castle by Philip K Dick.  Needed a break from all the history I usually read. If you haven't read One Second After, you might want to consider it.

 

 

 

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Not currently reading but recently read and worth mentioning here:

 

"Alone at Dawn" by Dan Schilling and Lori Chapman Longfritz about the remarkable story of USAF Medal of Honor recipient John Chapman in Afghanistan 2002.

 

The only MoH action I understand that has ever been visually recorded by UAV overhead.

 

Jeff

 

 

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"Tentative Manual for Expeditionary Advanced Base Operations" (TM EABO), dated 29 January 2021.

 

to be followed shortly by "Amphibious Warfare and the Composite Warfare Commander"

 

This is my life now, as a lifer in a time of wide-scale force design

 

 

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Stalag Wisconsin, Inside WWII prisoner of war camps by Betty Cowley.  Ensign Kazua Sakamaki was a guest of the U.S. Army at camp McCoy

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tdogchristy90

About a week ago I picked up The Great Influenza by John M. Barry. I’ve been told for a few years now I needed to read it. With what’s been going on, I finally picked it up and am almost done. I’m really enjoying it.

 

It actually makes me want to hunt down an influenza Columbia Accolade to go next to the WIA, but I digress.
 

Good read.

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New book just out-"Through the Eyes of a Marine". The private photographs of Sgt. Clarence H. Douglass, 96th Co., Sixth Marines.   142 pages of mostly photos taken by Douglass during his time in the USMC (1917-1919). From enlistment to Paris Island to Quantico to France and finally Germany, Sgt. Douglass recorded the places he served at and 86 of the Marines he served with.  Very rare to find one man's personal photographic record in the Marines during WW1.  Taken with a Kodak camera, he recorded many of the men he served with and some of the places they fought at.  The author, James P. Gregory Jr., used the original captions of each photo in the Douglass scrapbook.  He also provided a short description of the events taking place as the men of the 96th Co. fought and died thruout WW1.  Outstanding work and of great interest to anyone with interest in the 96th Co., the Fifth or Sixth Marines, or the 42nd Division in WW1. Highly recommend this work.

 

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Baseball in Hawaii During World War II by Gary Bedingfield, 2021. This is a fantastic work covering the service teams and leagues in the Hawaiian Islands (predominantly, Oahu) and spotlights the stars of the Navy, Army, Army Air Forces and Marine Corps command teams that included both former professionals and (then) career servicemen. The work is full of never-before-published photographs from multiple collections (including from Chevrons and Diamonds).

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Charlie Flick

I just finished reading "The Guns of Normandy" by George Blackburn.  It is not about all of the guns in Normandy as it is a very specific account of the 25 pounder guns used by the Canadian Army in Normandy, and the 4th Field Royal Canadian Artillery in particular.  The author served in the 4th as a FOO (Forward Observation Officer) in support of the Canadian 3rd Division.  The FOOs worked up front with the Infantry and therefore suffered terrible attrition.   Blackburn had several close calls that almost ended his life and he recounts with sadness the deaths of many friends who were not as lucky. 

 

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Blackburn covers much ground in this book but his retelling of the struggle for Verrieres Ridge near Caen in July 1944 is alone worth the price of admission.  He details the day to day struggles of the artilleryman and the even harder lives of the Infantry they supported with gripping details on the effectiveness of the German artillery, Nebelwerfers and mortars which caused tremendous casualties.  He cites many rather sobering statistics such as the 22,134 shells expended by the 4th RCA in a single day, July 20.  He ruminates on subjects like the importance of a good roof over his trench to address shrapnel and the nearly universal struggle with dysentery, a problem for which Canadian Army doctors seemed to have no ready answer.  He writes in a lucid manner and manages to find humor in some of the most appalling circumstances imaginable.

 

As an American I have naturally tended to focus my reading on American accounts of the Normandy Campaign.  However, this tome has served as a valuable reminder that the Canadians experienced a vicious and costly campaign in Normandy.  I highly recommend this book to anyone, and especially Americans, wanting a more balanced view of the Normandy Campaign.  Indeed, it was an eye-opener for me.

 

First published in Canada in 1995 it is readily available on Amazon and Ebay.

 

Regards,

Charlie 

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Currently reading: America's Secret Army, The untold story of the Counter Intelligence Corp

Not

too much written on the CIC due to the nature of their mission.

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Just starting to read "An Empire on the Edge" by: Nick Bunker, Alfred A. Knopf publisher, 2014, 429 pages, numerous illustrations.

This is a history of the British military and government in the American colonies from 1771 with Fort Charters just south of what is now St. Louis, through to the end of the Revolutionary War, from the British viewpoint written by a British author. 

The only reading on that war I've done has always been from the American or colonial standpoint. So, this is quite an eye opener not so much because of how the two stories might disagree, but rather to help sort out what was going on in the British mind when Americans responded as we did.

https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/206910/an-empire-on-the-edge-by-nick-bunker/ 

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Currently reading "Facing the Mountain" about the Japanese-Americans who served in the 442nd. This is a brand new book by the same author, Daniel James Brown, who wrote "Boys in the Boat" about the Olympic rowing team. Great book! 

 

...Kat

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Currently reading "The Ghost Mountain Boys " by James Campbell about the 32nd Division in New Guinea early in the war. Horrible how unprepared the army was for jungle warfare at that time and what those soldiers had to go through. The author seems to have a very poor opinion of MacArthur, but it would be hard to argue otherwise.

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I enjoyed that book also.  My dad was in the 32nd but was not with them in the Pacific until '43. The division was rather beat up until they got good at what they were doing. I believe MacArthur replaced one or more division commanders either rightly or wrongly due to his belief that they were not sufficiently aggressive. You probably know that the 32nd had the most days in combat of any division in the war. 

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Got a good start on "The Lees of Virginia" by: Burton J. Hendrick, Halcyon House pub. 1935, 455 pages.

Fascinating genealogical biography of the Lee family in Virginia and elsewhere on the branch from Richard Lee in 1647 through Robert E. Lee in 1870, including mostly all of their marital, family, military, militia, war, educational, political and economic details. 

This book was never, so far as I know, ever reprinted after 1935 and the timing of its publication then puts it in an unusual light compared with how such a history might have been written in the 21st century.

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Just finished re-reading "American Spartan: The Promise, the Mission, and the Betrayal of Special Forces Major Jim Gant" by Ann Scott Tyson. A moving account of a Special Forces officer, his service and his ideas for winning the war in Afghanistan. Highly recommended and here is the book on Amazon for those interested:

 

https://www.amazon.com/American-Spartan-Promise-Mission-Betrayal/dp/0062114980

 

Reading this book the first time around led me to seek out Major Gant's influential (unclassified) strategy paper titled "One Tribe at a Time: A Strategy for Success in Afghanistan" that at the time it was first submitted was praised by General David Petraeus and ordered distributed to all commanders in Afghanistan by General Stanley McChrystal. Had Major Gant been in a position to see it through with the continued support of his command, I wonder if the ultimate outcome of the war would have been any different? "One Tribe at a Time" is still available online as of this writing:

 

https://www.globalsecurity.org/military/library/report/2009/2009_one_tribe_at_a_time.pdf

 

Gant himself has been compared to T.E. Lawrence (otherwise known as "Lawrence of Arabia") and the Colonel Kurtz character from Apocalypse Now. Which is what drew me to "American Spartan" in the first place. 

  

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The Panzer Killers: The Untold Story of a Fighting General and His Spearhead Tank Division's Charge into the Third Reich by  Daniel P Bolger

Not a 'bad book', but definitely, in my opinion, not a 'great book' either.  It's full of summaries of battles  which mostly appear to be culled from after action reports, and other books. I learned a lot about Maurice Rose that I didn't know for sure- and my late uncle's 36th Armored Infantry Regiment along with the rest of the Spearhead division's history, but not exactly a 'pager turner'. This book surely could have used maps at points in the narration and I feel that was a big negative about the book. Also the author tends to repeat himself over and over about how bad certain other generals were and that got old with me quickly. We all know Monty had his issues with pomposity, but it didn't need to be hammered home in nearly every chapter. Definitely a B- book.

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