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What are you currently reading?


cutiger83
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Currently reading "We Band of Angels" - the untold story of American nurses trapped on Bataan by the Japanese. by Elizabeth M. Norman

 

Good book so far. It is interesting to read about Bataan from the woman's point of view.....Kat

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Just finished, Tonight We Die As Men by Roger Day & Ian Gardner, highly recommended for all airborne historians.......517th

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Charlie Flick

I just finished "A Dawn Like Thunder" by Robert Mrazek. It is the story of VT-8, Torpedo Squadron Eight, which suffered terrible losses at Midway. Mrazek's book goes beyond the carrier based attacks by VT-8 and tells the story of what happened to the few squadron survivors who later fought in the Solomons, part of VT-8s history that is little known. It also reveals the story of the VT-8 detachment that flew the new TBF and attacked the Japanese fleet from Midway Island. An excellent read.

 

Mrazek mentioned a book written by a VT-8 pilot during the War, Lt. Frederick Mears. His book "Carrier Combat" was published in 1944 and has long been out of print. Mears was KIA just a few months after his book was published. I happened to have an old paperback copy from 1967 on my bookshelf. I had never gotten around to reading it but pulled it down to start after learning about it from Mrazek's book. Those torpedo plane pilots sure had a lot of guts.

 

Charlie Flick

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I have actually got 4 going at once...

 

Special Forces (in Iraq) War Against Saddam Hussein by Eric Micheletti

 

and I am rereading:

No Room For Error by Colonel John T Carney Jr. & Benjamin F Schemmer

None Braver by Michael Hirsh

The Hunt for Bin Laden Task Force Dagger by Robin Moore

 

Steven

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Four Stars of Valor by Phil Nordyke.

This is the combat history of the 505th Parachute Infantry Regiment, the only parachute regiment to make four combat jumps during WWII.

 

 

GREAT BOOK! my grandfather was with the 505th through it all and Phil Nordyke signed a copy of the book for me.

Highly recommend this book!

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Just finished reading The Forgotten 500 a gripping account of yugoslavian partisans who risked it all to save allied airmen and there subsequent resque by the OSS. This is a great book which I highly reccommend!

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Just finished "From Powder River to the Rhine"...now reading the Unit History of the 313th Signal Battalion of WW1.

Both quite interesting in the context of 1918 and 1839 writing proficiency.

Cheers

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I just finished reading the new book "Police Battalions of the Third Reich" by Stephen Campbell. I found it somewhat unsatisfying since it suffers from poor editing and fact checking. I can't recommend this particular book but sometimes you have to buy them to evaluate them.

 

I am now reading "The Fall of the Philippines; The War in the Pacific" by Louis Martin. This is an Army Center of Military History book originally published in 1953. This book is well done and factual with many footnotes and official sources. So far, I like this one a lot.

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I thought I would start a thread to see what people are currently reading. This doesn't have to be your favorite book. Just whatever you are reading right now. We may get some good suggestions. I am always looking for good first person accounts of war. To get this started, I will list what I have just finished too.

 

Just finished: "The Wrong Stuff - The Adventures and Misadventures of an 8th Air Force Aviator" by Truman Smith

Currently reading: "No Time for Fear - Voices of American Military Nurses in WWII" by Diane Burke Fessler

 

Thanks...Kat

 

KAT: While my book is not new, in fact it is old, 1917! "Army and Navy Information" by Major D.W.C. Falls. I went to http://www.half.com and saw it for under Ten U.S. Dllars (US$10), noticed others of same title and author were about Seventy-Five U.S. Dollars (US$75), a real break for myself. It has no less than six (6) colour plates, no small achievement for 1917, for sure! It describes then U.S. Armed Forces and foreign armies and navies in great and exacting detail and features black and white illustrations of marines, sailors, and soldiers in various types of uniforms as well as a page showing their fighting gear and firearms too! It almost seems older militaria books get overlooked and often underpriced as well? I saw it also at: http://www.archive.org/ in case anyone cares to go there to see what they can read there or download free of charge. Another feature for newer books is not just Half.com, but Alibiris.com, Abebooks.com, and Amazon.com that often let you see a few dozen pages of the latest military books and often give an evaluation of said book and if not, write a review yourself and if they lack a picture of the cover, you can also submit one too! You can better promote military books by adding your own knowledge to those book sale websites and it finds it's way to GOOGLE and maybe others of similiar interests will read what you said and maybe even trade books with you or offer their completed copies very low priced or even free of charge. Good communication is what it is all about! think.gif Sarge Booker of Tujunga, California [[email protected]]

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Squad leader
GREAT BOOK! my grandfather was with the 505th through it all and Phil Nordyke signed a copy of the book for me.

Highly recommend this book!

 

100% in agreement. A GREAT BOOK!!! twothumbup.gif

Is your grandfather mentionned in the book?

What is his name?

Thanks, Dan.

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Right kno I am reading "Kill Bin Laden" by Dalton Fury. An ecellent book written by the senior ranking officer at the Battle of Tora Bora. It is a fist person account written by a former Delta officer and his experiences inside Afghanistan.

 

Just finished up "Six Minutes to Freedom" by Kurt Muse and John Gilstrap. This book detailed the capture of Kurt Muse by the Panamanian Defense Force and his subsequent incarceration for anti-Noriega radio broadcasts. It also talks about the Delta rescue of Muse from the Modelo Prison.

 

I recommend both books highly!!!

Arch

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The Silent War .

South African Recce operations

1969-94 .

Peter Stiff .

A fantastic read .

Covert war is dangerous at best and even more dangerous when a govt denies it ..with silence .

But years later access to the files makes this story read like a dirty James Bond thriller.

Blood diamond like Disney land .

Empty trucks roll into Zambia only to return piled high with bodies .

24 hours a day .

If you want to know what happened to the Selous scouts and the Rhodesian SAS then this is a read for you .

Printed in South Africa in 1999 by Galago I got this book many years ago in Ebay and am only not hitting it .

owen

Owen,

Have you read 32 Battalion as well? It is also by Galago Books. I am sure you have, but if not, it is an excellent read.

Arch

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Arch

I have not .

As you know these books are hard to come by !!!

Send me it and I will send you Silent war when I am done !!!!!!!!

o

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Currently reading To Conquer Hell: The Meuse-Argonne, 1918, by Edward G. Lengel. It's a good book about America's bloodiest battle.

Next up: Joe's War: Memoirs of a Doughboy, by Joseph N. Rizzi. Rizzi was one of the Doughboys at the Argonne. I found out about his book from Lengel, who uses the book as a source, and I bought it right away since I'm very interested in Italian Americans in World War I. I can't wait to read it.

Pete

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Cobrahistorian

Just started "Ghost Mountain Boys" last night. It chronicles the 32nd division's New Guinea campaign, which happened while the Marines were fighting on Guadalcanal. It makes some pretty impressive comparisons early on about the similarities of the two campaigns. Good read so far!

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mjerickson

Ghost Mountian Boys is a very very good book, the cool thing for me was some of the old guys he interviewed for the book live not far from me. I did some roaming around the VFWs and AMVETs hall and asked around. I got to meet 2 of them.

 

Im currently reading Ghosts of Pearl Harbor, so far its great.

 

Mike

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Just finished Yamamoto - The Reluctant Admiral. A very in-depth study of the man. Hell, it is a 1.50 inch thick paperback and you don't even get to WWII till the last 20% of the book!

 

Presently reading The Glider Gang, a history of glider operations in WWII.

 

Tom thumbsup.gif

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sgtdorango

Just finished reading "The Filthy Thirteen" by Jake McNiece.....all about the imfamous group of 101st screaming eagles some of who are pictured with the mohawk haircuts in the famous D-Day photos.....highly recommended.....mike thumbsup.gif

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Stinger Gunner USMC

Finished "Tanks on the Beaches", K. Estes and R. Neiman last week. An excellent account of a Marine Tank officer in the Pacific and one of the few at Iwo and Okinawa.

Estes' book "Marines Under Armor" was also a very good book on early tank operations in the USMC

 

This morning I finished "With the Old Breed", E.B. Sledge.It was excellent, of course! It has been on my "to read list" for years and I finely got it for my bday earlier this month.

 

Tonight I started "Iwo" by Richard Wheeler. Im about 50 pages in and so far its a very detailed and personal account of the Japanese and there fortification of Iwo prior to the battle. So far it seems that this author has really done his homework. (Of course written by an Iwo vet, I wouldn't expect much less)

 

All above are excellent and highly recomended for a WWII Marine historian's library

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Just got "Most Secret: The Cockleshell Canoes" by Quentin Rees. It's about the British military canoes in WW2 and the commando teams that used them.

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