What Book Are You Reading at the moment?

[TulliusDetritus]

A classic book which had enormous impact on the ethnographic genre: Argonauts of the Western Pacific by Bronisław Malinowski.

So far, as good as Ancient Society, an 1877 book by the American anthropologist Lewis H. Morgan.

[roeddog]

The Histories Herodotus

[DeepBlack]

I just purchased "Mr. Humble and Dr. Butcher".
This book is a real life story of those doctors who
actually put into practice the gruesome concept
of transplanting heads/brains.

I've heard bits and pieces of this story over the years.
It is a staple of horror movies and it will be fascinating
to see what was actually done and what they were hoping
to achieve. And also, if anyone is still doing it today?

This is the review of the book at wire that piqued my interest.
If You Transplant a Human Head, Does Its Consciousness Follow?

[RangerJoe]

ORIGINAL: DeepBlack

I just purchased "Mr. Humble and Dr. Butcher".
This book is a real life story of those doctors who
actually put into practice the gruesome concept
of transplanting heads/brains.

I've heard bits and pieces of this story over the years.
It is a staple of horror movies and it will be fascinating
to see what was actually done and what they were hoping
to achieve. And also, if anyone is still doing it today?

This is the review of the book at wire that piqued my interest.
If You Transplant a Human Head, Does Its Consciousness Follow?

I don't know about that but I did see where a couple of species of sea slugs could squeeze off their head when they are relatively young and the head will grow a new body. The body that is left will stay alive but will not grow a new head.

With a PICTURE! [:'(]

Developmental biology

09 March 2021
Now that’s using your head: a sea slug’s severed noggin sprouts a new body
The creatures can form a new body in only three weeks, thanks to extreme regenerative powers.

When sea slugs lose their heads, they keep calm and regenerate a whole new body.

Sayaka Mitoh and Yoichi Yusa at Nara Women’s University in Japan noticed that some sea slugs (Elysia spp.) could sever their entire bodies from their heads, which continued to move around and eat algae. A slug’s head regenerated a heart within a week and the entire body within three weeks. Slugs more than a year old did not have this ability — they simply died when their heads were severed.
.
.
.

https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-021-00614-x

Another article with more information and more PICTURES! [:'(]

A sea slug’s detached head can crawl around and grow a whole new body
Yes, planarians too regrow bodies but don’t have as many fancy organs such as a heart
.
.
.

https://www.sciencenews.org/article/sea ... w-new-body

[Anonymous]

[Deleted by Admins]

[MrsWargamer]

Combo of Navigators of Dune, and Window on the Bay (romance novel by Debbie Macomber).

[Zorch]

The Most Powerful Idea in the World: A Story of Steam, Industry, and Invention

https://www.amazon.com/Most-Powerful-Id ... 226726347/
The story of the internal combustion engine.

[DeepBlack]

ORIGINAL: Zorch
The Most Powerful Idea in the World: A Story of Steam, Industry, and Invention

Ha, I read this one but have forgotten
everything other than the fact I read
it and it's good!

[RFalvo69]

Spurned by a debate in the "WEGO" thread I finally started reading this one.

The style is quite dry and technical - not an easy reading. The book, however, is full of facts I never read about. For example that Hitler's idea to attack France in late 1939 was worse than crazy. The German army had used all the bullets and bombs available during the Polish campaign and the war production still had to catch up (no one had planned for the "Polish Campaign" to become a war).

It is also nice to see first-hand confirmation by Keitel and Halder of a pet-peeve of mine: that while the Germans were engaged in Poland their Western border was barely defended. According to Halder, an attack by the French would have led to the loss of the Ruhr - minimum. Not that you will be able to try it as the French in your average "accurate" ETO game...

[pkpowers]

"it never snows in September" by Robert Kershaw

"fleet tactics" by Capt. Wayne Hughes

[RangerJoe]

ORIGINAL: RFalvo69

Spurned by a debate in the "WEGO" thread I finally started reading this one.

The style is quite dry and technical - not an easy reading. The book, however, is full of facts I never read about. For example that Hitler's idea to attack France in late 1939 was worse than crazy. The German army had used all the bullets and bombs available during the Polish campaign and the war production still had to catch up (no one had planned for the "Polish Campaign" to become a war).

It is also nice to see first-hand confirmation by Keitel and Halder of a pet-peeve of mine: that while the Germans were engaged in Poland their Western border was barely defended. According to Halder, an attack by the French would have led to the loss of the Ruhr - minimum. Not that you will be able to try it as the French in your average "accurate" ETO game...

That is why I have repeatedly stated that the French should have attacked with whatever they had; just go in and keep going. The reserves would follow later - along with the British.

[altipueri]

The Scramble for Africa - by Thomas Packenham

[RFalvo69]

ORIGINAL: RangerJoe

ORIGINAL: RFalvo69

Spurned by a debate in the "WEGO" thread I finally started reading this one.

The style is quite dry and technical - not an easy reading. The book, however, is full of facts I never read about. For example that Hitler's idea to attack France in late 1939 was worse than crazy. The German army had used all the bullets and bombs available during the Polish campaign and the war production still had to catch up (no one had planned for the "Polish Campaign" to become a war).

It is also nice to see first-hand confirmation by Keitel and Halder of a pet-peeve of mine: that while the Germans were engaged in Poland their Western border was barely defended. According to Halder, an attack by the French would have led to the loss of the Ruhr - minimum. Not that you will be able to try it as the French in your average "accurate" ETO game...

That is why I have repeatedly stated that the French should have attacked with whatever they had; just go in and keep going. The reserves would follow later - along with the British.

This is exactly what the German High Command fully expected once "Hitler's Gamble" failed, and France and the UK declared war on Sept. 3rd. Hitler, most famously, simply asked "What now?" No one had an answer. The Allies could have knocked Germany out of the war right then. Even after the German victory in Poland they were facing a spent German Army with their fully mobilised ones.

[Orm]

ORIGINAL: RFalvo69

ORIGINAL: RangerJoe

ORIGINAL: RFalvo69

Spurned by a debate in the "WEGO" thread I finally started reading this one.

The style is quite dry and technical - not an easy reading. The book, however, is full of facts I never read about. For example that Hitler's idea to attack France in late 1939 was worse than crazy. The German army had used all the bullets and bombs available during the Polish campaign and the war production still had to catch up (no one had planned for the "Polish Campaign" to become a war).

It is also nice to see first-hand confirmation by Keitel and Halder of a pet-peeve of mine: that while the Germans were engaged in Poland their Western border was barely defended. According to Halder, an attack by the French would have led to the loss of the Ruhr - minimum. Not that you will be able to try it as the French in your average "accurate" ETO game...

That is why I have repeatedly stated that the French should have attacked with whatever they had; just go in and keep going. The reserves would follow later - along with the British.

This is exactly what the German High Command fully expected once "Hitler's Gamble" failed, and France and the UK declared war on Sept. 3rd. Hitler, most famously, simply asked "What now?" No one had an answer. The Allies could have knocked Germany out of the war right then. Even after the German victory in Poland they were facing a spent German Army with their fully mobilised ones.

I suspect that the Germans would have won a stunning victory if the Allies would have gone for an all-out attack on Germany in September 1939. I think that both Keitel and Halder overestimated the ability, and capabilities, of the French, and CW, forces at the beginning of the war.

[Orm]

ORIGINAL: altipueri

The Scramble for Africa - by Thomas Packenham

This one has been on my reading list for quite a while now.

[RFalvo69]

ORIGINAL: Orm

ORIGINAL: RFalvo69

ORIGINAL: RangerJoe




That is why I have repeatedly stated that the French should have attacked with whatever they had; just go in and keep going. The reserves would follow later - along with the British.

This is exactly what the German High Command fully expected once "Hitler's Gamble" failed, and France and the UK declared war on Sept. 3rd. Hitler, most famously, simply asked "What now?" No one had an answer. The Allies could have knocked Germany out of the war right then. Even after the German victory in Poland they were facing a spent German Army with their fully mobilised ones.

I suspect that the Germans would have won a stunning victory if the Allies would have gone for an all-out attack on Germany in September 1939. I think that both Keitel and Halder overestimated the ability, and capabilities, of the French, and CW, forces at the beginning of the war.

The problem for the Germans, as presented in this book, was twofold: First, only a veil of forces to cover the French front while the Wehrmacht was involved in Poland (this fact is underlined in other books I read, too); and, second, the sheer lack of a war economy plan for the Germans, which I read about here for the first time. Basically, in September 1940 the German reserve forces had almost no ammo.

Even as late as October 1939 only one-third of the German divisions had been replenished - and with enough ammo for only fifteen days (something which sent Hitler into "ammo-panic" and caused the suicide of General Karl Becker, the chief of the Army Weapons Bureau). The Germans were behind in motorization (a problem further compounded by the wear-and-tear of the vehicles employed in Poland), and even the sheer number of soldier and officers they could deploy (which led to a crash course in the Winter of 1939/40).

The thesis offered by this book (which does seem to be supported by research done on primary sources) is that Hitler wanted to attack France at once because he feared that the Allies would had used the Winter to "catch up". In reality, the exact opposite happened: the Allies deployed the best they could and then sat there. Germany used the "phoney war" to reach the proper shape for the campaign in the West.

Anyway, this is what Keitel said after the war:

"A French attack during the Polish Campaign would have encountered only a German military screen, not a real defense."

And this is Halder:

"The success against Poland was only possible by almost completely baring our western border. If the French had seen the logic of the situation and had used the engagement of the German forces in Poland, they would have been able to cross the Rhine without our being able to prevent it and would have threatened the Ruhr area, which was the most decisive factor for the German conduct of the war."

[warspite1]

ORIGINAL: altipueri

The Scramble for Africa - by Thomas Packenham

warspite1

Excellent book and one of those I am desperate to read again. Trouble is there are too many books and not enough time. Also want to re-read The Rise and Fall of the British Empire (James)

[warspite1]

As ever I suspect both sides are/were guilty of over-estimating the other.

I suspect that if the French attacked (even minus any British help which at that time they were in no position to provide (and was small scale anyway)) the result should have been an overwhelming victory to France based purely on numbers.

BUT

Firstly, the French army wasn't geared up for offensive warfare. They over-estimated German strength, meaning that the bold, swift attack in numbers that was needed while the Poles were still in the game, would have been unlikely to have happened.

Think of the speed - or lack of - with which the French conducted war in 1940. The Soviets came in on the 17th September, the French started the Saar offensive on the 7th. Even if the Saar offensive was beefed up and actually had the goal of destroying German forces in the west and occupying the Ruhr, the French had 10 days before the Germans could start bringing meaningful numbers of troops west (handing more of the pain to the Soviets than was the case). And if the Germans disengaged earlier then there would be knock-on effects in the fighting for Poland.

The counter of course is that (and this is often forgotten in Strategic war games) the German Army was low on ammunition and its army needed serious R+R after Poland.

Unless the French moved with a speed and clarity of purpose (not likely given what we now know) then I suspect they would not have gained much in those ten days in terms of territory or destruction of German forces.

So I think its impossible to say with any certainty what the outcome would have been and how it would have altered the war. There are simply too many variables e.g.

- how committed would the French have been - remember we are talking Gamelin here
- how many of its divisions were actually fully mobilised and in a position to take offensive action in the first week of September
- how hard would the Germans fight in the west to delay the French until reinforcements arrived
- how quickly could meaningful reinforcements be able to disengage from the Poles and then head west
- how hard would the Soviets fight having gained 'their' piece of Poland to end Polish resistance in the west
- What action would Stalin actually take would likely depend on what happened at the start of the French offensive as per above.
- how long would Poland hold out

As always, its easy to simplify these what-ifs to a simple numbers game. Real life is more complicated than that.

[RangerJoe]

If the Western Allies, that is mostly the French, would have pushed harder then it is entirely possible that the Soviets would not have come into Poland when they did do so. That is, unless there would be an actual alliance between Germany and the Soviet Union.[X(] Then think of that combination along with Japan . . .

[warspite1]

ORIGINAL: RangerJoe

If the Western Allies, that is mostly the French, would have pushed harder then it is entirely possible that the Soviets would not have come into Poland when they did do so. That is, unless there would be an actual alliance between Germany and the Soviet Union.[X(] Then think of that combination along with Japan . . .

warspite1

Sorry, RangerJoe, could you explain that a bit more, I'm not sure I understand what you are proposing here.

Thank-you.