Any recommendations for books?

[parusski]

Hey folks, do not forget Winston Churchill's five volume history of wwII. It is outstanding and gives a politicians inside pov., david

[sven]

"Good reply! The slogan "In Arduis, Fidelis," was one that was sent to me by a fellow gamer as encouragement in a time when I was undergoing some unwarranted pressure from a small group of recalcitrant gamers."(Wild Bill)


Man that is my family motto. My surname is Howell. It is a good one.

My family name is in the Doomsday in England. Ahh the joys of ancestry. You are well loved Wild Bill by the silent majority.

[sven]

Originally posted by Nemesis:



Oh yes. Well, I agree, it is a bit boring battle. There are no big manouvers or anything like that. Conpared to the Big Three (West front, East Front and Pacific), the Far East doesn't seem as interesting.

To each their own , I like it more than Ivanfest.

[Randy]

SunDevil, the Osprey series of books are pretty good. They have Campaign/battle series, New Vanguard Series (armored vehicle)
and Men At Arms Series (OOB/troops). They have really good maps and tons of photos. I just got the Campaign Series of Tarawa. Pretty good. They're about $20.00. Enjoy.
Semper Fi
Randy

[dmccartin]

If you want a German perspective of war from Divisional level the book "Panzer Battles" rains high on my list. After all with out it as a guide, Schwarzkopf's planning for the America Blitzkrieg of Iraq would not of been possable. IMHO

Dan

[Heartland]

Originally posted by Wild Bill:
Anything by Bryan Perrett, Robert Leckie, George Forty, Stephen Ambrose or John Keenan are good. They are ALWAYS good. Watch for those names.

Comment on Ambrose. Personally I never bought anything by him since I've heard a bit too many dubious quotes and cases of selective blocking of facts to consider him a very good historian. Over in the "Art of Wargaming" part of the forums there was a discussion on him recently. Here's the quote from the post:

The History Channel was running a program about D-Day last night which featured a lot of commentary from Mr. Ambrose. I was aware that he is of the rah-rah school of American history, but the following comment blew my mind:

He was describing some action a few miles inland and talking about how the American troops involved TOOK THE INITIATIVE, because they were free thinkers from a democracy, whereas the Germans in the same situation would have been on the horn to HQ and awaited further instructions, they being sons of a dictatorship.

!!!!

It's pretty amazing that, even on a channel dedicated to history, this kind of obvious untruth gets bandied around, and by one of the most well known American historians, to boot.

Anyways, just rambling on, didn't really write this to slam an authour I never bought anything by! What I really meant to do was point out two volume classic that so far hasn't been mention, Erickson's "The Road to Stalingrad" and "The Road to Berlin", the best detailed overview on the German-Soviet battle on the east front available. Add in Glantz' books to "zoom" specific battles, and you're set as far as the east front goes.

[Les_the_Sarge_9_1]

First, I noticed a comment about the Military Book Club here on this thread. More about that in a minute

This is my submission of some good titles to seek in a dusty used book store, or on the shelves of a large well stocked book retailer.

Tank War 1939-45 by Janusz Piekalkiewicz from Blandford Press (excellent day to day history af armour conflict, bias on armour related events).
Tanks of WW2 by Chris Ellis from Octopus (great visual book as it was made for modellers needing accurate painting details).

Illustrated Encyclopedia of Military Vehicles by Ian Hogg and John Weeks from Burlington Books (this tome is saturated in the popular and the obscure).

Soviet Tanks and Combat Vehicles 46 to Present (which was 80's at best then) Steven Zaloga and one other author cant remember name

I mention those titles because of their armour biased info and we are all tread heads here right.

If you dont have Jim Dunnigans books A Quick and Dirty Guide to War; How to Make War; How to Stop a War....well why not they are required reading after all.

While I hesitate to promote a product here, the ASL manuals Design Your Own vehicle/ordnance notes have an unusually high level of technical interest.

And while you might not have access to a decent local model store, they are perhaps the best places to find high end armour literature. If you know the title of the book you should locate an online option to supply the item. I buy either from the Military book club for efficiency, or a local model store Kieths Hobby Shop (well actually its all the way down in Toronto, but its the only hobby store worthy of mention in southern Ontario that I know of).

You who know the club might not have ever thought of this. When you get your 4 obligatory books ordered resubscribe. It allows you to get yet another 4 books for next to nothing.

Now any dolt can see this effectively reduces the costs as a whole. Couple that with some strategic thinking, and you can deliberately buy 4 expensive books for the intro offer and buy 4 cheap books for your obligation. And yes it does work and yes I have been doing this for several years. It is also possible to get your new re subscribe books right out of you club bullateins as well.

All you have to do is understand that you have to communicate with the club by phone and ask the right questions. All things considered (thats an expression of mine too dang it, people always go looking for the problem) they are a good business to deal with.
And one more perk, I dont have to deal with UPS heheh (had to insert that comment).

[Don]

Hi Les,

Good comments about The Club. A friend of mine told me about them at a time when I was looking for Nafziger's books so it worked out great. I couldn't believe they let me pick the 6-book Gettysburg set as a 98 cent selection since it sold for $100, but they did!

I see the UPS comment - are you on the Voodoo Computer forum by any chance? They are in Alberta, and are having BIG problems with UPS right now. One guy just had his new $4000 computer delivered as a box of parts, and I mean UPS absolutely destroyed it. Very anti-UPS on that board right now!

[Wild Bill]

Many thanks, Sven! I appreciate the good thought.

And in reference to the Pacific-Far East, that area of war in WW2 has always been my predilect one.

You are also right about Slim, one of the underrated unknowns of the war.

Wild Bill