Military History/Strategy
Discussion
Pretty wide area - I read heaps of it. Depends what your actual interest is....if you are just starting out I would pretty much recommend one of the big WW2 city books by Anthony Beevor (Stalingrad, Berlin etc) or if you prefer a more sweeping analysis anything by Max Hastings. What are you specifically interested in?
Siko said:
Pretty wide area - I read heaps of it. Depends what your actual interest is....if you are just starting out I would pretty much recommend one of the big WW2 city books by Anthony Beevor (Stalingrad, Berlin etc) or if you prefer a more sweeping analysis anything by Max Hastings. What are you specifically interested in?
Thanks for the suggestions. I'm new to the subject, but my interest has been prompted by how Ukraine is doing against a supposedly superior Russia force.I guess ideally I'd like something which combines 'The basics of military tactics' with 'here's a ripping yarn'.
I'll take a look at the two you mentioned.
Slowboathome said:
Siko said:
Pretty wide area - I read heaps of it. Depends what your actual interest is....if you are just starting out I would pretty much recommend one of the big WW2 city books by Anthony Beevor (Stalingrad, Berlin etc) or if you prefer a more sweeping analysis anything by Max Hastings. What are you specifically interested in?
Thanks for the suggestions. I'm new to the subject, but my interest has been prompted by how Ukraine is doing against a supposedly superior Russia force.I guess ideally I'd like something which combines 'The basics of military tactics' with 'here's a ripping yarn'.
I'll take a look at the two you mentioned.
I've also read Julian Jackson's "The Fall of France-The Nazi Invasion of 1940" which shows just how tank armies should and shouldn't be deployed would be of interest given the present circumstances.
D Day through German eyes by Jonathan Trigg
How the Wermacht lost France.
An interesting analysis describing the failure of the Atlantic Wall fortifications. Most of the manpower is described as unwilling non German from the over-run countries, new recruits training or troops recovering from the Eastern front before returning. This features in the Spielburg movie.
The bit that made me think was the remark made by a captured soldier witnessing the huge unloading of troops, munitions and vehicles at Omaha and asking where were the Allied horses. Horses still made up a significant means of transport for guns and supplies together with the consequent need for feed, stabling and farriers. That is when reality kicked in that the war was lost.
On some positions, the army had to make do with upto 4 different types of captured guns with no flexibility to rationalise the different sizes of ammunition. A real logistics headache.
How the Wermacht lost France.
An interesting analysis describing the failure of the Atlantic Wall fortifications. Most of the manpower is described as unwilling non German from the over-run countries, new recruits training or troops recovering from the Eastern front before returning. This features in the Spielburg movie.
The bit that made me think was the remark made by a captured soldier witnessing the huge unloading of troops, munitions and vehicles at Omaha and asking where were the Allied horses. Horses still made up a significant means of transport for guns and supplies together with the consequent need for feed, stabling and farriers. That is when reality kicked in that the war was lost.
On some positions, the army had to make do with upto 4 different types of captured guns with no flexibility to rationalise the different sizes of ammunition. A real logistics headache.
Forgotten Victory by Gary Sheffield is probably one of the best books covering the whole of the FWW. Sheffield believes that the War represented a 'Revolution in Military Affairs' and that these come along very rarely. The point being that a Napoleonic soldier would have recognised the tactics of 1914 but by 1918 the war was being fought in a way similar to the Second World War. The book is also a very good antidote to much of the 'mud, blood and futility' nonsense that blights much FWW writing.
A little left (actually, probably to the right...) of the OP...
Invasion 1940 - The Nazi Invasion Plan for Britain, by SS General Walter Schellenberg. The book calls itself The Gestapo Handbook and was the secret handbook to be used by German occupying forces once they'd landed in Britain in 1940. Very compelling reading as it shows just what the Gestapo knew about life in Britain at that time. It also includes a list of wanted Britons!
The Coming of the Third Reich by Richard J Evans. More academic in approach and detail, the notes/bibliography accounts for about 20% of pages, it starts with Bismarck and the forging of the German Empire and goes as far as the establishment of the Third Reich in 1933.
Invasion 1940 - The Nazi Invasion Plan for Britain, by SS General Walter Schellenberg. The book calls itself The Gestapo Handbook and was the secret handbook to be used by German occupying forces once they'd landed in Britain in 1940. Very compelling reading as it shows just what the Gestapo knew about life in Britain at that time. It also includes a list of wanted Britons!
The Coming of the Third Reich by Richard J Evans. More academic in approach and detail, the notes/bibliography accounts for about 20% of pages, it starts with Bismarck and the forging of the German Empire and goes as far as the establishment of the Third Reich in 1933.
Gassing Station | Books and Literature | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff