Waddell Posted 30 October , 2015 Share Posted 30 October , 2015 After reading Martin G's thread concerning Erskine Childers I have started reading 'The Riddle of the Sands'. About halfway through and enjoying it greatly- a lot of sailing in the book. Scott Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andy F Posted 3 November , 2015 Share Posted 3 November , 2015 Currently reading" In The Company of Heroes" detailing the war dead of Radstock and Midsomer Norton together with the surrounding villages in Somerset Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aussiesoldier Posted 3 November , 2015 Share Posted 3 November , 2015 Almost finished Peter Fitzsimmons The Battles of Fromelles & Pozieres. Obviously written primarily for an Australian audience but almost makes a grown man cry. Fromelles was the site of what is seen as the greatest loss of life and casualties in a single day in Australian military history as 5 Anzac Div is thrown into a poorly planned exercise by Butcher Haking and the Australian Division Commander 'Murderer' McCay. Hard lessons to learn but the Anzacs soon learned from their British friends to ignore high command and organise 'unofficial' truces to recover wounded. No idea how many wounded may have been saved if the high command order NOT to organise a truce was ignored. A battle that has only recently re-emerged into Australian folk lore after the discovery of mass burial grounds at Fromelles. He writes with extensive use of diaries and personal accounts and makes it very personal. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marilyne Posted 5 November , 2015 Share Posted 5 November , 2015 Armed with the warnings given earlier in this thread... I started on Pater Hart's monumental "Gallipoli". I like the comment on the cover: "required reading as a study of military incompetence" ... you should read my artillery plan on the defensive at 2nd cycle... can't be worse than that!! Joke aside, I'm 50 pages into the book and already hooked on the style of telling and the methodical approach of Peter's description of the events! MM. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fattyowls Posted 5 November , 2015 Share Posted 5 November , 2015 I like the comment on the cover: "required reading as a study of military incompetence" ... you should read my artillery plan on the defensive at 2nd cycle... can't be worse than that! MM, It can be worse than that believe me. You'll find plenty of examples to choose from..... Pete. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phil Wood Posted 5 November , 2015 Share Posted 5 November , 2015 Armed with the warnings given earlier in this thread... I started on Pater Hart's monumental "Gallipoli". I like the comment on the cover: "required reading as a study of military incompetence" ... you should read my artillery plan on the defensive at 2nd cycle... can't be worse than that!! Joke aside, I'm 50 pages into the book and already hooked on the style of telling and the methodical approach of Peter's description of the events! MM. Peter can always be relied on for a balanced quote - I particularly liked his comment on the late August actions: These were pointless attacks and if they typified any British trait it was a lunatic persistence in the face of the obvious. It was never his prose that made me put the book down! But, back to the aim of the thread - I am currently reading Lyn MacDonald's 1915:The Death of Innocence - a great read, which I must get though more quickly as the 'to read' pile keeps growing! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marilyne Posted 5 November , 2015 Share Posted 5 November , 2015 MM, It can be worse than that believe me. You'll find plenty of examples to choose from..... Pete. I did at one point have one of my batteries fire OVER the positions of a second battery ... gave the teacher nearly a heart attack... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Roger H Posted 5 November , 2015 Share Posted 5 November , 2015 Currently reading" In The Company of Heroes" detailing the war dead of Radstock and Midsomer Norton together with the surrounding villages in Somerset Are you from that area Andy? My late parents lived in Faulkland - just up the hill from Radstock. Is the book worth considering? Roger Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Admin kenf48 Posted 5 November , 2015 Admin Share Posted 5 November , 2015 But, back to the aim of the thread - I am currently reading Lyn MacDonald's 1915:The Death of Innocence - a great read, which I must get though more quickly as the 'to read' pile keeps growing! Know what you mean, I decided read Lyn MacDonald again in chronological order, 1914 'The Days of Hope' got sidetracked by so many 1914 titles, so a late start on the 'Death of Innocence' but then yesterday picked up Margaret Macmillan's award winning '1919' (aka 'the Peacemakers') in my Oxfam shop, hardcover with dust jacket £2, having just recently completed Goddard's fictional trilogy I was gripped by this account from the first chapter, sorry Lyn back on the shelf! Though it has to be said they are standard reference if I want to know how the men reacted to their situation. Ken Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andy F Posted 8 November , 2015 Share Posted 8 November , 2015 Well worth it Roger, I live in Frome, just down the road. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Roger H Posted 8 November , 2015 Share Posted 8 November , 2015 Thanks Andy. Will investigate Roger Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Doug504 Posted 9 November , 2015 Share Posted 9 November , 2015 Just started David Jones "In Parenthesis". I have read conflicting reviews of this book so I'll report back once I've finished reading it. Doug. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Black Maria Posted 9 November , 2015 Share Posted 9 November , 2015 Just finished 'Soldier from the wars returning' by Charles Carrington (Hutchinson 1965). The author wrote his war memoirs in 1929 under the title of 'A Subaltern's war' and using the pseudonym Charles Edmonds, this book is the author's overview of the political and military situation at the time, combined with his own experiences on the Western Front, and in it he takes the opportunity to challenge the Lions lead by Donkeys viewpoint which was prevalent in the mid-sixties. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Resurgam13 Posted 11 November , 2015 Share Posted 11 November , 2015 I've just finished "Wearing Spurs" by Lord Reith, mainly covering his service with a transport unit (5th Scottish Rifles) in 1914-1915. The memoir was apparently written in the late 1930s but not published until the mid-1960s. While the detail was fascinating, I must say that Reith comes across as a very prickly character, who was transferred out after a major falling out with his C.O. and Adjutant. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GWF1967 Posted 15 November , 2015 Share Posted 15 November , 2015 my little one and i are reading THE FRIGHTFUL FIRST WORLDWAR by terry deary. part of the horrible histories series it is full of interesting facts and some amusing tales as well as a brief time line. it does not negliget to inform of the horrors of war, yet presents them in a way that will hold a childs interest. aimed at chilren of about ten( an age where they can begin to understand), i would recommend you get this one for your childen/grand childen as essential reading. it is never too early to learn that so many died to put us where we are today. amanda xx It triggered a lasting interest for both of my lads. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marilyne Posted 16 November , 2015 Share Posted 16 November , 2015 still going with Peter Hart's Gallipoli ... GRAND !!! halfway ... What I find absolutely fantastic is his methodical description of the military facts, with the rigors of an Ops Order: Intentions - mission - execution: both the missions of the various sub units and what really happened. Every single chapter is closed with a summary of the facts and the lessons learned. Me and my military precision like very much!!! M. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marilyne Posted 23 November , 2015 Share Posted 23 November , 2015 Hart's Gallipoli done... and read Bruce Bairnsfather's "Bullets & Billets" yesterday on the train to and from Blankenberge. The "fun" part of the day there was the 23 kilometer march in ice cold rain ... so it was a good thing to have something nice to read on the way back, to distract me from the fact that I was freezing cold!! But the good thing is that the ICE falling around 11 made for a good glass of 11 o'clock tea "on the rocks" ... don't bother replying that I'm nuts... I know that already... next up on the list are the diaries of Kenneth Best, a chaplain at Gallipoli (and then I'll have read my complete G-list through) and the second BB diaries: "From Mud & Mufti" M. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Black Maria Posted 26 November , 2015 Share Posted 26 November , 2015 Just finished re-reading 'The Burgoyne Diaries ' published by Thomas Harmsworth Publishing in 1985, it contains the diaries of Captain Gerald Achilles Burgoyne of the 2nd Royal Irish Rifles from the end of November 1914 till he was wounded at Hill 60 in May1915. This period was a tough one for the frontline soldier, with rudimentary trenches, terrible weather conditions and the constant casualties from snipers and shell fire, but they didn't get much sympathy from Captain Burgoyne who really doesn't have a good word to say for most of the men in his charge and is not averse to giving them a good old fashioned uppercut when he feels the situation warrants it. I found it an interesting book ( especially the many fanciful rumours he has heard and includes in the diary) and especially as there are few memoirs/diaries that cover the first winter on the Western Front. Although not a scarce book to find in the original edition , it has just been reprinted by Pen & Sword. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Khaki Posted 27 November , 2015 Share Posted 27 November , 2015 Thanks blackmaria, for your review, I just ordered a copy, it does sound like it will be interesting reading. khaki Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Black Maria Posted 27 November , 2015 Share Posted 27 November , 2015 Thanks blackmaria, for your review, I just ordered a copy, it does sound like it will be interesting reading. khaki Your welcome Khaki, it's funny but I hadn't read the book for many years and the my most vivid recollection from it was of an attack by massed German infantry on the British trenches, but having re-read it ,the scene does not appear in the book, I think I must have confused it with John Lucy's 'Devil in the Drum' , he served in the same battalion, only most of his memoir covers the 1914 period. It's also worth reading 'Mud and Khaki' by H.S Clapham, although he was serving in the H.A.C, the book covers part of the same time period as 'Burgoyne Diaries' and the same sector of front. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Ibis Posted 30 November , 2015 Share Posted 30 November , 2015 I'm about halfway through it and it is outstanding! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Ibis Posted 5 December , 2015 Share Posted 5 December , 2015 Just starting After years of extremely sparse coverage of the French component of the attack, in the English language, there are/will be three new books on the Nivelle Offensive; the one pictured above as well as books by Jack Sheldon due out later this month and by David Murphy to be released (hopefully!) in January. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phil Wood Posted 13 December , 2015 Share Posted 13 December , 2015 A trip to Oxfam has provided me with my current read - William Philpott's Bloody Victory - seems to have been well received by GWF readers and it is certainly off to a good start! I also picked up Niall Ferguson's Pity of War - which looks to be an interesting change of view. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Resurgam13 Posted 13 December , 2015 Share Posted 13 December , 2015 I don't know why it has taken this long, but I finally pulled Alan Clark's "The Donkeys" off the shelf last week and opened this expecting an over-the-top polemic which set the tone for the way the War was viewed in the 1960s. Instead, I discovered a closely-argued indictment of the three failed "experiments" of 1915: Neuve Chapelle, Aubers Ridge and Loos. Not what I was expecting at all. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
charlie962 Posted 13 December , 2015 Share Posted 13 December , 2015 I started on Niall Ferguson (also ex Oxfam), read some strong criticism on this forum so decided to read Hew Strachan first instead. But I will go back to Ferguson because it is always refreshing to see a different argument explored. I am not sufficiently knowledgeable (and not a good enough memory) to be able to assess the good and bad proposition by myself so it helps to read reviews by others. But whether I can face The Donkeys, I don't know! I know some forumites would say there is a good reason why Oxfam is full of Ferguson's book. Funnily enough I haven't seen a copy of Donkeys. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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