What are we reading?

[Gusington]

Just started The Kaiser's Battlefleet - German Capital Ships 1871-1918 by Aidan Dodson.

[JasonPratt]

Just finished Hargreaves' Blitzkrieg Unleashed, which I'm including in my collection of accounts of various WW2 fronts told from predominantly the diaries and recollections of German soldiers, from the private up to the general. I haven't even started on the Eastern Front (or Fronts rather), and I still lack filling some gaps in the West and South, but I'm coming along. :)

One big point from this book I hadn't read or heard before, was that Hitler actually started the invasion of Poland a day or two after gaining the Molotov-Ribbentrop pact. But he called a halt to it at the last moment after receiving both an ultimatum from Britain that they would stand by their promise to avenge a Polish invasion, and also a letter from Mussolini apologizing that while he would love to be able to help, he had to be honest and report that he didn't think he could convince the Italian people to go for it! Hitlers generals scrambled to call off the attack, and mostly succeeded, but a few incursions happened anyway, most importantly a commando attack to secure a pair of railway tunnels in the southern mountains. The attack sort-of succeeded, but without immediate followup the commandos had to abandon the attempt, and some were captured, though handed back as Slavic agitators from the recently annexed Czechs. (Not a man was in fact Slav or Czech.)

This puts the first true though partial rebuttal I've found to a part of Suvorov's Icebreaker theory, by the way, where the plan is constantly represented as Hitler and Stalin agreeing to kick off the invasion of Poland together on Sept 1st (not August 26th), which Stalin then reneged on after Hitler had already launched, begging off as being unprepared and starting two weeks later -- so that Hitler could catch the world's blame, and Stalin could promote himself as saving the Poles and securing his borders.

This sequence could still be essentially true, however -- Suvorov does have his sources and details, which cannot be simply dismissed. The harmonization would be that Hitler decided on a definite attack of Sept 1st despite the nerve-shattering setback which caused him to cancel the invasion, because in the intervening period he had gotten reassurances from Stalin that they would divide up Poland at the same time. Hargreaves doesn't provide any direct evidence for this; but I'm not sure his silence counts in this case, since he is observably shallow on just what the Molotov-Ribbentropp pact involved. He tells enough to show that he does know it involved the mutual military elimination of Poland between the two powers, but he kinnnnnnd of just elides past it as much as possible, and barely discusses the Soviet side of action (though he's far from rose-colored about what was really happening there).

Anyway, the aborted attack is still good information I hadn't run across before, though offset later by the odd omission of any reference at all to the famous Visnia "40 to 1" defense.  ??? I can recommend the book readily.


Along the way, I learned (toward the end) about Johann Adolf Graf von Kielmansegg, who served in the 1st Panzer Division from the start through the end of the war, through France and the gates of Moscow, and who kept himself clean enough that he was granted command of the first post-war Bundeswehr and eventually rose to command all Central European NATO forces! -- dying at last in 2006 at the age of 99! Surely the last of the Panzer Generals. I would love to read an English version of his biography (released in 2007), or his account of the WW2 German Army (published in 2001), but alas, not available yet.

[Gusington]

Now reading Kaiser Wilhelm II - A Life in Power by Christopher Clark.

[Sir Slash]

Can't wait to hear the part about how he invented the roll.  ???   Heard he made a lot of dough because of it.  :DD

[Gusington]

 :-[

[Gusington]

Just began The End of the German Monarchy: The Decline and Fall of the Hohenzollerns by John van der Kiste.

The Clark book on Wilhelm II was very academic. Good, but dry.

[JasonPratt]

Currently stepping lively through Dando-Collins' Legions of Rome, a history of every Imperial Roman legion. (Possibly including their pre-Imperial history, probably not including the hundreds of micro-legions of late Byzantium, maybe not including any legions after the fall of Rome. Not sure yet, he hasn't specifically said and I'm not far enough to start the actual histories yet, only the preliminary context stuff.)

[CJReich46]

Currently stepping lively through Dando-Collins' Legions of Rome, a history of every Imperial Roman legion. (Possibly including their pre-Imperial history, probably not including the hundreds of micro-legions of late Byzantium, maybe not including any legions after the fall of Rome. Not sure yet, he hasn't specifically said and I'm not far enough to start the actual histories yet, only the preliminary context stuff.)

I remember that book. I found it at Barnes and Noble, and it's amazing. Literally the history of every legion. Their Scutum patterns (they all had different designs). There's a few that were actually disbanded, due to cowardice, rebellion etc. One survived a siege at Ctesiphon for 300 days.

I have the first three volumes of The Accursed Kings.- (Le Rois Maudits)- It was the inspiration for Game of Thrones, except this is historical based. It's about the fall of the Capetian kings of France, the rise of the House of Valois and the Hundred Years War with England.  Figure it would be good flavor for CK II.

But I'm looking for odd stuff, alt histories. etc.

[Gusington]

I've got that Dando Collins book too. It really scratches that Roman Army itch.

[Toonces]

^ I've started reading that Rome book a few times, but never have stuck with it long enough to get very far.  Beautiful book, though.

[Gusington]

To me it felt more like an encyclopedia than something you sit in front of the fire with. But I still enjoyed it.

[Sir Slash]

Just started, "On A Knife's Edge- The Ukraine November 1942- March 1943" by Prit Buttar, rapidly becoming one of my favorite authors.  O0

[Jarhead0331]

Went crazy at my local used bookstore...I try to get out there once every other month, or so. They have a fantastic military history section and regularly get some great books that I would have no way of finding online or from any other source. Anyway, they had a crapload of new titles, including some awesome Osprey books. I picked up a whole series of them on WWII tactics covering armed recon, urban combat, infantry tactics, anti-tank operations, etc. I also picked up some technical books on the Panzer III and Stuka, and the A-4, and really great books on Operation Bagration (in anticipation of Steel Armor II), and the invasions of Poland and Okinawa. Finally, I also got detailed books on amphibious invasions in the Central Pacific and the wartime memoirs and journals of Generaloberst der Panzertruppen Erhard Raus.

We went with my in-laws on Saturday and had to leave before I was finished, so on Monday, I actually left work early and went back to buy more on my own time! Shhhhhhhh...don't tell wifey. She'll kill me. My book collection takes up A LOT of real estate in the house.

[Gusington]

Sounds like you are channeling Your Inner Gus.

Living newr West Point, our local library has some incredible books at their fundraisers. The last one I was at a few months ago had some incredible books that would normally sell for 40 or 50 dollars on sale for like .99 cents. I almost felt like I was stealing.

I am FINALLY going to start reading some Prit Buttar in the next few weeks...is that Urkaine book his latest?

[Sir Slash]

Yes, I believe it is, I had to wait for it to come out in November if I remember correctly. Love his stuff.