What are we reading?

Started by Martok, March 05, 2012, 01:13:59 PM

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JasonPratt

Having gotten into A Night with Saddam, which is a title I'll never not-cringe at typing, or thinking, let me clarify that the author wasn't Hussein's primary medical examiner -- the one who was made famous on television -- but had that fellow not come on duty a few hours earlier it would have been the author. Instead, he happened to be hanging around nearby out of curiosity when someone came in for the night watch and realized that Hussein should have a trained medic in the cell with him (along with the usual translator and security guard, plus any extra visitor) for the night. He was the nearest and most senior medic, so that turned out to be him.
ICEBREAKER THESIS CHRONOLOGY! -- Victor Suvorov's Stalin Grand Strategy theory, in lots and lots of chronological order...
Dawn of Armageddon -- narrative AAR for Dawn of War: Soulstorm: Ultimate Apocalypse
Survive Harder! -- Two season narrative AAR, an Amazon Blood Bowl career.
PanzOrc Corpz Generals -- Fantasy Wars narrative AAR, half a combined campaign.
Khazâd du-bekâr! -- narrative dwarf AAR for LotR BfME2 RotWK campaign.
RobO Q Campaign Generator -- archived classic CMBB/CMAK tool!

Dammit Carl!

World War Z by Max Brooks.  I've read it damn near six or seven times at this point but as it is near October, I thought it time to pull it out and enjoy it again.

Afterwards, I've a bevvy of horror short story novels to delve in to.

Jarhead0331

Picked up two very interesting books at my local used bookstore this weekend. The first is somewhat of a biography on COL John Boyd called "A Mind of War: John Boyd and American Security". This was an interesting find as I recently gave a presentation for lawyers wherein I explained the OODA loop and how it can be used in law practice.

Second, I picked up "Target Switzerland: Swiss Armed Neutrality in WWII". The premise of this book is interesting, that due to circumstances involving geography and a national history of arming and training its citizens, Switzerland was able to maintain independence despite overwhelming German conquest in Europe. Makes me think of how the right to keep and bear arms might discourage a foreign invader from attacking our shores.
Grogheads Uber Alles
Semper Grog
"No beast is more alpha than JH." Gusington, 10/23/18


JasonPratt

Is the Target Switzerland book a rewite/update of The Swiss and the Nazis three years later?
ICEBREAKER THESIS CHRONOLOGY! -- Victor Suvorov's Stalin Grand Strategy theory, in lots and lots of chronological order...
Dawn of Armageddon -- narrative AAR for Dawn of War: Soulstorm: Ultimate Apocalypse
Survive Harder! -- Two season narrative AAR, an Amazon Blood Bowl career.
PanzOrc Corpz Generals -- Fantasy Wars narrative AAR, half a combined campaign.
Khazâd du-bekâr! -- narrative dwarf AAR for LotR BfME2 RotWK campaign.
RobO Q Campaign Generator -- archived classic CMBB/CMAK tool!

Jarhead0331

#4564
Quote from: JasonPratt on October 01, 2018, 03:24:23 PM
Is the Target Switzerland book a rewite/update of The Swiss and the Nazis three years later?

Not sure, but it is the same author. The one I have appears to pre-date the book you reference by 9 years.

interesting...in researching the author, I see he is a big Pro-Second Amendment scholar and has argued cases in the Supreme Court on behalf of the NRA and others. I have some of his books on the Second Amendment. I didn't initially make the connection.
Grogheads Uber Alles
Semper Grog
"No beast is more alpha than JH." Gusington, 10/23/18


Silent Disapproval Robot

Just started Operation Crossbow:  Hunting Hitler's V-Weapons.



Gusington



слава Україна!

We can't live under the threat of a c*nt because he's threatening nuclear Armageddon.

-JudgeDredd

besilarius

If you are interested in the night battless of Guadalcanal, or in the effects of doctrine on how people fight, The Gun Club is well worth a read.
https://www.amazon.com/Gun-Club-U-S-S-Duncan-Esperance/dp/0999075306

This is on a USN destroyer, and the Battle of Cape Esperance.  The middle third of the book is on the actual battle.
This section is a must read if you are a naval wargamer.  Admiral Norman Scott tried to come up with a plan to engage the Japanese forces.  The IJN had trained for night battles for years and this was their great advantage.  Radar was new, had lots of teething issues, and was not trusted by officers who had not grown up with it.
The USN had not done any night fighting training, because it was too chaotic and too dangerous.
Most accounts do not mention all the errors that nearly led to a complete disaster.  As it was, friendly fire was almost as dangerous as the enemy.  USS Fahrenholt lost it's mast to the cruiser Boise, and Duncan was sunk by Boise.
"Most gods throw dice, but Fate plays chess, and you don't find out until too late that he's been playing with two queens all along".  Terry Pratchett.

During filming of Airplane, Leslie Nielsen used a whoopee cushion to keep the cast off-balance. Hays said that Nielsen "played that thing like a maestro"

Tallulah Bankhead: "I'll come and make love to you at five o'clock. If I'm late, start without me."

"When all other trusts fail, turn to Flashman." — Abraham Lincoln.

"I have enjoyed very warm relations with my two husbands."
"With your eyes closed?"
"That helped."  Lauren Bacall

Master Chiefs are sneaky, dastardly, and snarky miscreants who thrive on the tears of Ensigns and belly dancers.   Admiral Gerry Bogan.

JasonPratt

#4568
Another October, another Missing 411 release! Still not including the Pinson boy lost in Jan 2016 about an hour and a half south of me, though that's a classic case.  :'(

This one starts off with an incident in the Thousand Mile War, however! -- which I think is the first incident the author, David Paulides, has listed in combat operations. He's listed incidents that happened during wartimes, including a few other WW2 incidents in this book, but not in actual ops. The reason for this is fairly obvious, I suppose: in combat ops, weird disappearances/deaths could usually be attributed to the enemy and/or to other normal fringe results of operations.

In this case, about a dozen troops (not sure if it was a platoon per se) was stationed on one of the Aleutian islands on the route to Attu, where by then the Japanese invaders had been bottled up. They had previously been on this island, too, but had been driven off. The troops were stationed there as a radio beacon, since Attu was hundreds of miles west, but the staging areas for ops against Attu were even farther still to the east! This station helped planes and ships navigate the area and the passage back and forth; and by securing the island there was at least a chance of recovering crash survivors if a plane had to go down in the sea nearby or on land.

So it was an important job, but also a quite safe one, since by now the Japanese at Attu weren't in a position to invade east again, and had there been moves by the Japanese to strike back in this direction, there would have been a lot of US ships and planes to notice the attempt (and maybe try to do something about it). At any rate there was no such move detected, and after the war records haven't evidenced any such move was planned. So no enemy action in the area.

The missing soldier told his fellows (properly) that he was going to do a perimeter walk around the camp to stretch his legs; but he never came back. The other troops searched the barren 8 mile island for him, and some help was sent in from HQ for the search, but nothing was found of him. The weather wasn't too bad (for the Aleutians), but the prevailing theory was that he had gone down to the shore and somehow gotten swept into the sea by a rogue wave, then pulled out to sea by an undertow (or perhaps taken by a predator once in the water). Naturally his family was distraught since, despite the climate, they had been relieved that he had lucked into a safe place to work during the war -- and suddenly he was gone for no clear reason.

If I recall correctly (I don't have the book at hand atm), his body and effects were found in 1994 by a expedition team on the island doing natural science work. They found him in a shallow crevice, practically on the other side of the island from the camp, and 1200 feet higher in elevation. There was no obvious sign, from the remains, for how he had died -- no wounds or broken bones -- although of course by now there had been a good deal of degradation to the body, even with preservation in the Arctic climate. The radio beacon team had long since explored the island before he disappeared, so there was no particular reason why he would have gone off alone, up the side of the mountain (and maybe down again?) to the other side of the island; and certainly he hadn't said he would be doing so, but rather just doing a perimeter camp walk to stretch his legs. It would have taken him more than 8 hours in that terrain to even hike to where his body was found, and that's assuming good weather by the local standards! (Instead of gale-force fog and rain and snow mixed together. ;) )

I'm unsure from the report whether searchers had tried to cover that area on the ground, but if not it would have been due to the unreasonableness of him being all the way up and over there. And planes had been sent to fly the whole island looking for him: they might not have spotted him in the crevice, but he could have seen and tried to signal to them. Obviously he was armed, and could have shot rounds to catch the attention of ground searchers at any time, had he been able or willing. Mentally, his team reported that he was in good spirits and glad to be there rather than slogging through a hot combat zone, and looking forward to getting home to his family, so suicide was ruled out -- and this would have been a goofy way to commit suicide anyway, when there were plenty of easier and handier options (like for example bullets).

It ticks a number of M411 boxes; and being a fan of the Thousand Mile War, I made a note to share it on a thread here somewhere when I got around to it.  O:-)


UPDATE: check my next post downthread for corrections and clarifications -- http://grogheads.com/forums/index.php?topic=564.msg633290#msg633290
ICEBREAKER THESIS CHRONOLOGY! -- Victor Suvorov's Stalin Grand Strategy theory, in lots and lots of chronological order...
Dawn of Armageddon -- narrative AAR for Dawn of War: Soulstorm: Ultimate Apocalypse
Survive Harder! -- Two season narrative AAR, an Amazon Blood Bowl career.
PanzOrc Corpz Generals -- Fantasy Wars narrative AAR, half a combined campaign.
Khazâd du-bekâr! -- narrative dwarf AAR for LotR BfME2 RotWK campaign.
RobO Q Campaign Generator -- archived classic CMBB/CMAK tool!

Toonces

Some excellent books here. 

@ DammitCarl!: if you enjoyed World War Z, consider giving Metro 2033 a try.  Not exactly the same, but a very good and somewhat scary book.  The paperbacks are pretty reasonably priced.

@ Bes:  I suspect you've read this, but if not, be sure to check out Neptune's Inferno.

I've got a couple of books in the queue.  I'm almost finished with a historical novel called Wolf Hall, about Thomas Cromwell during the era of Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn.  The author has a very distinctive writing style that I can't decide if I like or dislike, but it's certainly unusual.

I'm on my third try with The Rules of the Game, about Jutland and British naval culture.  I'm not going to sugar coat it - the book's a slog.  The first part is good about Jutland, but then it just goes into this lengthy biography and background of the key players and...it's just long and not that interesting.  I'm past the halfway part and we're back into the battle, so I might actually get through it, but I just don't know.  There are too many good books to be tied down with something I'm not enjoying.

Finally, I'm about 2/3 of the way through Don Quixote, a book I've always wanted to read.  Not sure if I'll finish this, either.  I wanted to see why it's a classic...ok, I guess I got the gist.   

"If you had a chance, right now, to go back in time and stop Hitler, wouldn't you do it?  I mean, I personally wouldn't stop him because I think he's awesome." - Eric Cartman

"Does a watch list mean you are being watched or is it a come on to Toonces?" - Biggs

Gusington

Dracul, prequel to Dracula, written by Bram Stoker's great-grandnephew, Dacre Stoker. It is epic.


слава Україна!

We can't live under the threat of a c*nt because he's threatening nuclear Armageddon.

-JudgeDredd

MetalDog

And how very Halloween of you.
And the One Song to Rule Them All is Gimme Shelter - Rolling Stones


"If its a Balrog, I don't think you get an option to not consent......." - bob

JasonPratt

Some corrections and updates to my previous post, on the disappearance of Corporal Carl "Bud" Houston during the Thousand Mile War (now that I've got the book back in front of me  ::) ):

Buldir Island was where it happened. I had the 2/3rds proportion right, and the hundreds of miles distance either way, but not between Attu and the nearest staging island. It's 2/3rds of the way to the Russian coast from the Alaskan coast. It's only 50 miles east from Attu, where the Japanese invasion garrison had been bottled in. 1400 miles west of Fairbanks, 600 miles east of Siberia (or perhaps more correctly, Kamchatka).

The disappearance happened on March 3rd, 1945, so the Attu garrison had been very firmly long-since locked down, and there was serious doubt whether they'd even be evacuated -- no Imperial ships had been sighted in Aleutian waters for more than 2 years by that point. So enemy action can be even more firmly ruled out.

Buldir isn't 8 miles long, but rather 4 miles. So Corporal Houston wouldn't have had to travel quite as far to die in the rocks, but on the other hand his squadron would have had a little easier time searching the island for him. It seems likely that they checked nearby where he said he'd be taking a walk, and perhaps walked the shoreline around the island. They did ask for air support in locating him, late on March 3rd when he didn't come back from his walk around the camp; and Shemya Air Base sent planes to help find him when the weather permitted. (The article doesn't call it a perimeter walk, but when a soldier says he's going to stretch his legs in the "vicinity" of the camp, then I know what that's meant to imply.)

The camp was about 100 feet above the shoreline, but I'm not sure how far away laterally from the shore -- again, the prevailing theory was either that he had been swept out to sea after falling in somehow, or that he had been buried by an avalanche. This suggests that there was evidence of a fresh avalanche, but that detail wasn't explicitly said. His body was located in a situation where a high-mountain avalanche might have thrown it, wedged in a crack between some boulders, but it was on the opposite side of the island, about as far as possible from the camp, and 1500 feet farther up in elevation.

He was found in July 1998 by scientists with the US Fish and Wildlife Service, who happened to make camp just around some boulders from his body, a few yards outside camp. In the crevice, they found a skull, leg, arm, and pelvis bone, an Army belt buckle (according to some sources), his M1 rifle with bayonet, his issued boots, a US coin and pocketwatch, and his wallet. The wallet was too deteriorated for identification, which was made by dental records from remaining teeth in the skull, as well as other bone confirmation. The author doesn't note this, but Grogs would know that this indicates both of his dog tags were missing! (Had they been so damaged somehow as to both be illegible, that would have been unusual enough to be mentioned in the official reports he's using as source material.)

The author doesn't mention the squadron being in charge of a radio beacon -- rather they were a Weather Squadron. The two tasks aren't mutually exclusive, of course, especially for only one squadron.
ICEBREAKER THESIS CHRONOLOGY! -- Victor Suvorov's Stalin Grand Strategy theory, in lots and lots of chronological order...
Dawn of Armageddon -- narrative AAR for Dawn of War: Soulstorm: Ultimate Apocalypse
Survive Harder! -- Two season narrative AAR, an Amazon Blood Bowl career.
PanzOrc Corpz Generals -- Fantasy Wars narrative AAR, half a combined campaign.
Khazâd du-bekâr! -- narrative dwarf AAR for LotR BfME2 RotWK campaign.
RobO Q Campaign Generator -- archived classic CMBB/CMAK tool!

RommelFox

Quote from: Gusington on October 14, 2018, 11:09:24 AM
Dracul, prequel to Dracula, written by Bram Stoker's great-grandnephew, Dacre Stoker. It is epic.

I'm going to have to add this to my list.  He's got quite the pair of shoes to fill.

I'm reading "The Complete Gods and Goddesses of Ancient Egypt" by Richard H. Wilkinson.  It's a wonderful book and very accessible even if you don't have much prior knowledge of Egyptian history/religion.  He really lays out what they believed and goes into quite a bit of depth for many deities.  There's over 1500 known ones, so he had to pick and choose a bit.
My ancient Egypt site:
Gods and Pharaohs

Gusington

^You won't be disappointed.


слава Україна!

We can't live under the threat of a c*nt because he's threatening nuclear Armageddon.

-JudgeDredd