Currently reading: September 2022

Currently reading The wreck of HMS Orpheus found amongst the stacks of Grant's Bookshop, published 1975. Orpheus was a wooden hulled steam corvette, flagship of the Australian Squadron, wrecked on a bar at Manukau Harbour, New Zealand in 1863 taking reinforcements and supplies from Australia to the British forces in the New Zealand Wars. 189 died, including the ship's Captain, and also the Commodore of the Australia Station. Some controversy surrounds the wreck, a steadfast refusal to pin the blame on the ship's officers saw an onshore signalman placed unfairly in the spotlight, later absolved, the blame finally being placed on the 'shifting nature of the bar'.

Finished Fly Until You Die, an accounting of the Hmong pilots recruited by the CIA to fight in their secret war in Laos. Not your typical military history in that the surviving pilots invited an ethnographer to sort out their research work, finish the interviews with the survivors, and write up the results.

Finished a rather oddly named Redcoats and Courtesans: The Birth of the British Army (1660-1690) by Noel T. St. John Williams. In spite of the subtitle, the book only tangentially related the birth of the British army. It is far more about Charles II, court politics, courtesans, mistresses and backstairs (literally) skullduggery. However, it still was rather interesting.

Currently reading an interesting little find from TIME Booksellers at Somerville, Uniforms of the Australian Colonies, published in the 1970's and wrapping a text around some earlier paintings by Lieutenant General Sir Carl Herman Jess, CB, CMG, CBE, DSO (16 February 1884 – 16 June 1948).

Prior to Federation in 1901, the Australian Colonies had their own largely volunteer military and naval forces. You sometimes get the impression that early on the local well-to-do just enjoyed dressing up and playing soldier, but serious harbour fortifications were raised (usually as a consequence of the 19th century "Russian Invasion" bogeyman) and enthusiastic volunteers were available for various expeditions in support of the Empire, the biggest force dispatched being to the Boer War.

Some of the military units of the time live on in the reserve forces of the modern Australian Army, for example the Prince of Wales Light Horse and the Queensland Mounted Infantry live on as armoured cavalry units in the current order of battle.

Completed a very well done Instruments of Darkness: The History of Electronic Warfare, 1939-1945 by Alfred Price. The original edition was released in 1967, but this is the revised edition updated by the author and released in 2005. Very readable story of electronic warfare in WW2, primarily concentrating on the European front but with some material on the Pacific theater as well.

I'm a chapter or two into The Macedonian Phalanx, an indepth look at, well, the title's a clue. Liking it a lot this far.

Gave up quickly on Henry Knox's Noble Train: The Story of a Boston Bookseller's Heroic Expedition That Saved the American Revolution by William Hazelgrove . The author isn't terribly conversant with the finer details of the period as I found several errors in the first couple of chapters. His quoted passages aren't from primary or even contemporary sources but recent books such as the David McCullough one about John Adams. For someone who knows little about the primary events the book describes it might be worth a read, but I don't see it adding anything to my knowledge, so off my Kindle it goes.

Finished the bracing Clear, Hold, and Destroy, an accounting of what "pacification" meant at the provincial level in America's war in South Vietnam, Short version: Any understanding of pacification as being anything other than military control on the ground is irrelevant.

Finished Bigger Bombs for a Brighter Tomorrow, an examination of just how viable the U.S. nuclear deterrent was in the late 1940s. Short version: Not very. It took me five years or so to get around to reading this book; the author is coming up with a follow up work and that will be read sooner, rather than later.

Finished a very interesting Over the Earth I Come: The Great Sioux Uprising of 1862 by Duane Schultz.

I've just finished and thoroughly enjoyed a fictional work, Bomber's Moon by Grant Patterson. It tells the story of an RCAF Pathfinder squadron flying Lancasters on bombing raids over continental Europe. The style reminds me a bit of Goodbye Mickey Mouse which was discussed in last month's current reading thread. It's gritty and doesn't shy from the horrors of the strategic bombing campaign, trying to capture what it was like for the bomber crews, where 55,573 were killed out of a total of 125,000 aircrew (a 44.4% death rate), a further 8,403 were wounded and 9,838 became prisoners of war (Wikipedia). It focuses particularly on crews coming towards the end of their tour of duty.

Finished with Red Wings in the Winter War; I was hoping for more of a narrative than a compendium but I was still happy to add the book to my collection.

Finished with Bombing the People, or, more accurately, washed my hands of the book. The author left me with the impression that they never really mastered their material. Still, I have to admit that I got enough out of it to come to the conclusion that Douhet is highly overrated as a military thinker!