Current Reading - September 2020

Completed German Secret Weapons of World War II: The Missiles, Rockets, Weapons and New Technology of the Third Reich by Ian V. Hogg. Hogg was a recognized expert in the fields of armaments and so he speaks with expertise but still in a style quite acceptable for the lay reader. Highly recommended.

I'm about halfway through To End All Wars by Adam Hochschild, and I'm throughly enjoying it. It's not so much a military history of WWI (although it does include some of that) as a social history, and concentrates on under-reported themes such as socialism, the anti-war movement and conscientious objectors. Very enlightening.

Edited to add: While it recognises that there was pretty overwhelming public support for the war in most of the protagonist nations, nevertheless it shows that there was a significant anti-war movement in Britain, which was heavily censored and suppressed by the authorities at the time and has largely been whitewashed out of history. It also notes the anti-war sentiment in Russia which was connected with the revolution there in 1917, both as a cause and effect. At a time when all over the world we are interrogating dominant historical narratives, this book is a timely contribution to the conversation.

Have just finished No Need For Heroes by Sandy MacGregorabout the Aussie sappers entry in the Vietnam War. Very interesting story told with a bit of the Aussie larrikan about it.

The best works so far this month are the magisterial British Battleships of the Victorian Era and the highly insightful The Rise and Fall of the French Air Force. Norman Friedman really doesn't need any introduction but Greg Baughen has kicked out a whole raft of monographs regarding Anglo-French air power in the past few years and I think that I'm going to make it my business to read some more.

Over the weekend I knocked off Command Culture, the dreaded PhD thesis turned into a book that seemed to hit a nerve with the U.S. military. Essentially, Muth argues that while the U.S. Army thought that they were copying the best of the German military education system they really didn't get it pre-1939. The best of the U.S. Army officer corps in World War II was a reflection of the inherent sense of vocation of those men; not what they learned at West Point or Fort Leavenworth. The Infantry School at Fort Benning under George C. Marshall is another matter. Muth's end note is that while the U.S. Military Academy is leagues better today than pre-WWII, there's still too much tolerance of the hazing culture.