What are you reading right now?

[Schöneboom]

Just finished "One of Our Submarines" by Edward Young, a memoir of his days in the RN Submarine Branch, from his first dive as a junior officer to his war patrols as commander of HMS Storm, from the Arctic Circle to the Indian Ocean. My copy is almost 60 yrs. old, but the book is still available. Very well written.

[Kazuaki Shimazaki II]

Originally Posted by Subnuts

Just about to finish up Alan Zimm's The Attack On Pearl Harbor.

I've just read it off Kindle PC. The author makes some good points but others are too ... theoretical.

Really, it's amazing how much the Japanese dropped the ball at Pearl Harbor. The author includes a "laundry list" of Japanese failures near the end, such as Fuchida's flare-gun fumble,

OK, he sold me on that one.

the 60% dud rate attributed to the 800-kg AP bumbs,

That's not a tactical failure.

the utter lack of combined-arms tactics or operational flexibility built into the plan, the lack of SEAD tactics and poor use of the A6Ms,

As far as I can see, he proposes that once intelligence is received, the planes committed to the carriers should be redirected to attack battleships. He has a point there, but a counterpoint is that if the carriers do turn out to be there after all (as he admits, the possibility does exist), similar confusion will ensue as they try to reorient against the carriers, if it can be done at all. It might be worth accepting some inefficiency in the other department.

His SEAD and escort plan basically draws on the fighters and dive bombers that were tasked in the real attack. In his "perfect attack", he attempts a TOT attack (good as a aim, not a precondition) and tasks the A6Ms with two missions (SEAD and OCA) separated by time. It reeks of the kind of "textbook solution" so loved by staff theoreticians and so hated by combat vets. One can easily see friction and fog of war turn his neat TOT strike into a prolonged affair (the real attack also became more prolonged), in which case without the suppressive effect of the fighters and VBs it is not hard to figure that many more fighters will get to take off and strike his bomber formations. Though they will be escorted in such a case, they will also likely be outnumbered and given that Zimms assesses a high effectiveness for American aircraft, the overall Japanese losses to fighters will be much higher. Zimm's doesn't even attempt to (as far as I can see) wargame this possibility - he just seems to assume his TOT attack will work.

Why is the Middle East so screwed up?

David Fromkin in A Peace to End All Peace: The Fall of the Ottoman Empire and the Creation of the Modern Middle East addresses this question in the historical context of the Great War. This is a very readable book, well researched and referenced, that goes a long way to providing an answer to the above question.

Cynical politicians and diplomats, Great Power rivalries, power-grabs and infighting, by allies, between tribal groups and the religious of various sects all are on display in this detailed narrative. Mr. Fromkin cuts through many of the myths and legends widely held by all concerned detailing the origins of many of the contemporary problems and why the prospects for real peace in the oxymoronically named Holy Land seems so remote even today.

An interesting sidebar is the deconstruction of the legendary Lawrence of Arabia; how T.E. Lawrence was really a relatively minor player with a great publicist (American journalist Lowell Thomas) and knack at self promotion. Anybody with a desire to see how the past can affect the present as it relates to the question that opened this post should give A Peace to End All Peace a serious look.

When read in conjunction with superbly objective One Palestine, Complete; Jews and Arabs Under the British Mandate by Israeli historians Tom Segev and Haim Watzman these books provide a solid basis for understanding why the problems in Palestine seem so unsolvable.

Both books are available at Amazon through the SubSim link.

[STEED]

Reading one of the Osprey Campaign series that caught my eye.

Campaign 235

Walcheren 1944
Storming Hitler's island fortress
By Richard Brooks

About this book
Although the Alllies captured Antwerp in September 1944, the port itself could not be opened due to the continued German presence on the island of Walcheren, which guarded the port entrance. In November, the Allies launched an assault on the island, using a number of Commando units. Supported by warships and assault vehicles, the Allies fought their way ashore and engaged in deadly streets battles with the Germans.

[Dowly]

Finally started reading the first of the two books I got last christmas.

The book's called "Guerrilla Warfare on Long Range Patrols - Detachment Marttina's Patrol Reports 1941-1942"

As the title implies, the book contains the reports from all recorded sabotage
missions deep behind Soviet lines during the Continuation War conducted by
detachment Marttina. Also included are personal stories from the invidual soldiers
who took part in the missions, maps, equipment loadouts etc.

The second book is the same but for 1943-1944.

They're bricks, around 800 pages per book, but quite interesting read.

[STEED]

Started reading..

Sledgehammers: Strengths and Flaws of Tiger Tank Battalions in World War II
By Chris Wilbeck

[Gerald]

The portfolio!

[Red October1984]

I am reading The Sum of All Fears

[Schöneboom]

I just finished Lawrence Paterson's "U-Boats in the Mediterranean, 1941-1944". If there's no such thing as too much historical detail, he's your man.

Now I'm starting on his other book, "Hitler's Grey Wolves: U-Boats in the Indian Ocean". Great photos!

[Kazuaki Shimazaki II]

http://www.foia.cia.gov/docs/DOC_000...0000261309.pdf

Man, what a piece of spineless wishwash. We know there are conflicting views on this subject. At least side with one side and explain why you did so.

Originally Posted by Kazuaki Shimazaki II

Man, what a piece of spineless wishwash. We know there are conflicting views on this subject. At least side with one side and explain why you did so.

With all the redaction's in the released document you cannot be certain that the original classified version did omit solid conclusions.

That said, the target audience for this briefing were apparently external agencies with their own intelligence requirements and agendas. Given the divisions within the US defence establishment and the general nature of the briefing, a lack of focus should not be a surprise. Intelligence is a commodity and without knowing who the briefing was intended for (NCA?, NSA?, DOD?, DOE?, NRO?, some defense committee?), drawing specific conclusions may well have been beyond the mandate of the report's authors.

Still, the uncensored text contains little that could not have been found in open sources like Breyer's Guide to the Soviet Navy, Brassey's or published works then available from the USNI bookstore of the day. One has to wonder what was cut out of the original top-secret version.

[HunterICX]

Sir Ian Kershaw's The End: Hitler's Germany 1944 - 45

HunterICX

[cactusmitch]

Blair's detail on so many operations has lead me to think of a strategy / tactics simulation game for smart but not historically informed smarties. Since Pearl Harbor day is just a few days away, starting a quasi real time re-enactment of the events of 70 years ago might be fun. Can today's brain-iacs do better at finding and fixing the problems? Are bureaucracies any more responsive nowadays?

[soopaman2]

I actually stumbled across something in the library.
(Yes, some of us still use them)

U-Boat Ace: The story of Wolfgang Luth.
by Jordan Vause. It seems well researched and am looking forward to finishing it.

I am only a few pages in thus far, but am riveted.

[frau kaleun]

I have both the books he did on u-boat commanders (as far as I know there are only two). Thought both of them were very well done and fascinating reads. The other is called "Wolf" and is a collection of about a dozen biographical sketches of different commanders. Definitely worth looking for if you enjoy the Luth bio.