Books that we are reading

[Raverdave]

I am interested to see what books we are all reading that are related to UV.


I have just finished "Touched With Fire, the land war in the south pacific" By Eric Bergerud in print with Penguin Books.
It would have to be one of the best books that I have read that covers the ground war in the South Pacific between '42 and '44. Rather than a dry "this happened on this date here" book, Bergerud looks deep into the make up of the Aussie, Japanese and American troops. He also covers the weapons that the troops used as well as the ground that they fought over, and how infact it was the Jungle that they were as much at war with as the enemy.

At 532 pages, in paperback form, it is a spell-binding read that you will, as I did, find hard to put down. It is a perfect book to read before you start UV as it goes along way in letting you understand the ground war that takes place in UV.

[Ron Saueracker]

I just ordered a heap o' books from The Naval Institute Press (gotta get my money's worth in savings from my 5 year membership). Among them are "The First Team" (two volumes covering Pacific naval combat from Pearl Harbour to end of Nov 42, Tin Can Sailor, South Pacific Destroyer, Fighter Squadron at Guadalcanal, and Warships of the IJN (a real monolith). On that note, I just built myself 3 solid oak book cases at my buddies shop (kiln dried oak and black ash detailing courtesy of him for me helping him drywall and install wood flooring in his cottage we are renovating) for any further attempts at savings with the Naval Institute, and perhaps make room for my contributions in the near future (I just knocked on one of the bookcases:D )

[U2]

I have just finished reading the following to kill time before UV.

The Japanese Submarine Force and WW2

Little Giants Against Japan ( the story of pacific escort carriers ) Those tiny things did a hell of a job in the pacific but without the attention that their bigger and more glamorus sister ships recieved.

Utmost Savagery: The three days of Tarawa

I guess I will have to buy more books because when UV is realesed ( I have a pre-order with Cips&Bits ) it will take about two weeks for it to cross the atlantic to my place in Sweden




Sayonara
Daniel

[worr]

Franks, "Guadalcanal" is probably the best on that topic.

It has good stories. It is a great read. And it has lots of information. It is very well researched!

Worr, out

[Rob Roberson]

I would have to agree, IM currently rereading it just to brush up on the flavor.

[bradfordkay]

Here's another vote for Frank's "Guadalcanal". It reads almost like Iain's AARs...

[Supervisor]

Another good one (as I remember it) is "The Big E: The Story of the USS Enterprise". Covers the history of the Big E from just before the war on thru till the attempt to save her from the scrapheap.

This is being reissued for the first time since 1962, and it was a good one (as I remember). Of course, my second hand copy fell apart in the mid-70's, so maybe my memory is faulty.

I just preordered it yesterday (do miss the original cover tho' ).

[Raverdave]

For those of you whom have Frank's "Guadalcanal" I would strongly recommend that you look at Eric Bergerud's "Touched with Fire".

One book that I will NOT recommend is "Fleets of the World" by Richard Worth. Although it is informative, he pays little justice to Canada, Australia and South Africa, by lumping these nations all under Britain:mad: yet counties such as Haiti and Peru get separte mentions Even Iraq gets a mention!

[corbulo]

Just finished "Fire in the SKy" by Bergerud - excellent read.
Rereading "The Thin Red Line" by James Jones (experiences of F company, 2nd BN, 27th INF REG, 25TH INF DIV. His portrayals of Col. William A. McCulloch(27th REG commander) and Lt. Col. Herbert V. Mitchell(2nd BN commander) are none too flattering.

[Raverdave]

Thanks corbulo,

Seeing as how much I enjoyed "Touched with fire" I will have to get "Fire in the sky" as well. Interesting to note that both books cover the same time period, and place.

[daniel123]

Originally posted by Raverdave
Thanks corbulo,

Seeing as how much I enjoyed "Touched with fire" I will have to get "Fire in the sky" as well. Interesting to note that both books cover the same time period, and place.

I have read them both and they are excellent. The author gives you more than lines and division names. He go into the reasons on why events occurred and the decisions that created them. I was disapointed by The Solomons Campaigns 1942-1943 by William Mc Gee. The book had a lot of eye widness accounts, but in the end it left you wanting more infomation.

[coach3play4]

Touched by fire is a great book - gives a much better feel for the terrain (than say South Pacific! -just kidding). It will be interesting to see if this game handles that better than PacWar - (I love PacWar - but one of the objections was the ability you had to stuff lots of units into combat areas. For example, you could send a couple of divisions to Midway and of course there was no way it could hold everyone. Same for the Solomons -you could run too many units inot the area.

[RayM]

Having a good library certainly does help to understand the particulars of the battle, campaign, or theater of interest. In fact, one of the great things about playing wargames is the history that comes with it and the opportunity to read as much as you want/need to.

In my case, I am concentrating on USMC actions in the South Pacific for the moment so hopefully my UV play won't be too bad. To help in this task, I recently purchased the following USMC monograph reprints from The Battery Press that focus on the UV AO:

Marines in the Central Solomons
The Campaign on New Britain
The Guadacanal Campaign
Bougainville and the Northern Solomons

A quick pass through them indicates that they look pretty good. Now to find the time to read them!

[shall9]

Try reading "General Kenney Reports" by, of course General George C. Kenny. He was in command of US Army and Allied air forces in the Southwest Pacific Area from August 42 until the end of the war.
He invented skip-bombing and commanded such pilots as Bong and McGuire.
The book is an easy 579 page read and gets right to the point... if you can find it.

[Raverdave]

Still no sign of UV, so I had to read another book to pass the time.

This one was about the Battle of Britain, writen by Stephen Bungay and called "The Most Dangerous Enemy". He blows apart the myth that the battle was a close fought thing, and while yes Britain was under pressure, they won the battle by a country mile. It is a good read with lots of interesting and sometimes surprising facts.

Now seeing as UV still is not here, looks like I am off to the bookshop again tomorrow.