Current Reading: November 2021

First up with British Submarines in Two World Wars, which is another typically excellent work from Mr. Friedman. Though I was gratified that it's readily available as an inter-library loan!

>1 Shrike58: I picked it up on a Kindle sale but haven't gotten to it yet. Glad to hear that it is very good.

>2 jztemple: It would be interesting to hear how the reading experience is with such an image-heavy work.

>3 Shrike58: The Kindle version embeds smaller images in the text body which can be expanded and zoomed in to. It works OK on a Kindle reader and looks very nice on a smart phone or PC.

>4 jztemple: Sounds like an advertisement for buying a "Surface!" I've been perfectly willing to embrace download culture when it comes to music but have been holding back when it comes to text.

>5 Shrike58: You can always check out a sample on the Kindle or the Kindle app.

After realizing The Hundred Years War I: Trial by Battle has been in the to-read pile since 1989, awaiting the completion of the series before starting it, I decided that I was not getting any younger and have finally started.

And I thought I was bad for having had books on the TBR pile for a mere decade …

I liked Trial by Battle. I’ll pick up the next volume any year now.

Finished up Ikarus IK-2, your basic aircraft-type monograph. I like studying Eastern European air arms so this was right up my alley.

Completed reading Stopping Napoleon: War and Intrigue in the Mediterranean by Tom Pocock. A book about some of the post-Trafalgar activities of the British in the area of the Mediterranean. Not an in-depth history but an entertaining and interesting narrative nevertheless.

Done with An Incipient Mutiny, which deals with pilot insubordination versus slack management in the Aviation Division of the U.S. Army's Signal Corps. Kind of dry, but interesting all the same.

Finally started on The Syrian Wars, which I picked up back in spring. Got bypassed by a bunch of things I acquired in the interrim.

Finished a short The Cinderellas of the Fleet by William Washburn Nutting which is primarily about the American Sub Chasers in the first world war, although part of it is about the earlier Motor Launches (MLs) and their use by the British. It is a more anecdotal look rather than a thorough history but is very enjoyable to read. I read it on Kindle.

Finished The Cavalry of the Army of the Cumberland; pretty good nuts & bolts military history.

Finished the Kindle version of The Burma Wars: 1824-1886 (Conflicts of Empire) by George Bruce. While more of an overview rather than an in-depth analysis, it is very informative and reasonably well-written.

Read We Die Alone: A WWII Epic of Escape and Endurance. Fascinating.

Currently reading James Holland's Brothers in Arms: One Legendary Tank Regiment's Bloody War from D-Day to VE-Day about the Sherwood Rangers Yeomanry. At once both fascinating operational detail and heart-rending as the casualties continue to mount.

>17 Bushwhacked:: I bought this a couple of weeks ago and expect to read next. I've liked some of his previous works.

I've been remiss in not picking up one of James Hornfischer's books sooner, and I found Neptune's Inferno to be really excellent.

>18 PossMan: Have just finished it. Definitely one of the better books I have read recently. I wrote a review that may be of interest.

>20 Bushwhacked:: I'm about a third of the way through and agree it is good. I like the very human stories of the men and so it is very moving when they are killed — no just another statistic. I'm more than a little appalled at the death rate in these early days and have come especially to admire the work of Leslie Skinner, the padre, in finding/recovering/burying bodies and writing letters to relatives.

>21 PossMan: Yes, the padre's efforts on the battlefield were astonishing. Imagine you've just seen your mates killed and you've had to leave them behind on the battlefield, and then next thing you know the padre's off to try and recover them and give them a decent burial... apart from the sprirtual strength of the man himself, the effect of his actions in maintaining the overall morale of the regiment were second to none.