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Remembered Today:

What WW1 books are you reading?


andigger

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26 minutes ago, Michelle Young said:

I’m struggling with his Mons book, what my dear old Dad (who contributed a couple of the maps) would have called a bum squeezer. I’m finding it very dull. 

Hi Michelle,

I found the his Mons book a good read and very sequential; certainly I occasionally lost my train of thought and had to go back a couple of paragraphs and re-read to get his points into my brain. It is certainly a different read than either John Terraine: Mons The Retreat to Victory or David Ascoli: The Mons Star.

Now I found To Play a Giants Part by Robert Perry difficult though I persevered and read it all in the end though I had to keep putting it down and coming back to it.

Regards

Peter

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  • 1 month later...

New year, new reading list... and a clear resolution to STICK TO THE LIST ... no funny 10-months long course to come ruin it all.. 

prios are of course continue to discover the world of the women at the front but considering I'll be diving into Boulogne and Le Havre, I have to know more about logistics. And I need to go back to Command... we've had a few talks during 3rd cycle and I've got a couple books I haven't read yet. 

So here we go: I started punctually on the 2nd January with Christine Hallett's "Veiled Warriors" which will be followed by Yvonne McEwen's "It's a long way to Tipperary" and Kate Luard's "Diary of a nursing sister"  ... the last one to be read on archives.org. when these are done I'll dive (back) into Clem Maginnis's "An unappreciated field of endeavour". 

happy readings!!

M.

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Just finished Doff's book 'Winning and Losing on the Western Front: The British Third Army and the Defeat of German in 1918'. Superbly written analysis of the performances of both the British Third Army and the German forces that fought against it in the last 100 days. Highly recommended.

Robert

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Just finished At War with the 16th Irish Division 1914-1918 The Staniforth Letters - very engaging and readable, one I wish I had read much earlier in my Great War studies  as he goes to pains to explain many things in his letters home, often to his mother, that I have often wondered about. So informative as well as entertaining 

Now onto The Fateful Battle Line by Captain Henry Ogle MC

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I'm just starting "Serbia's Great War 1914-1918" by Andrej Mitrovic, in the English language edition obviously.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Going back to command questions I have Terraine's "The Educated Soldier" and Winter' "Haig's Command" before me... I know I should start with Terraine, for the sake of logic, but I have to give Winter back to the library ... hard choices.

M.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Seeing as I am self-isolating I am having a bit of a Nevil Shute binge. Mostly the wrong war, of course, but Marazan, Lonely Road and So Disdained are all set between the wars and feature main characters who are Great War survivors.

 

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21 minutes ago, seaJane said:

Seeing as I am self-isolating I am having a bit of a Nevil Shute binge. Mostly the wrong war, of course, but Marazan, Lonely Road and So Disdained are all set between the wars and feature main characters who are Great War survivors.

 

As he was, unlike his brother

https://www.rte.ie/centuryireland/index.php/articles/a-1916-story-war-rebellion-frederick-hamilton-norway

We’ll get you back on the right war 😉

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That's a sad story, Ken, but thanks for the link.

[bit of a grumble - they need a proofreader, the spelling veers from Nevil (correct) to Neville (wrong) like a teetotum]

 

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13 hours ago, seaJane said:

Seeing as I am self-isolating I am having a bit of a Nevil Shute binge. Mostly the wrong war, of course, but Marazan, Lonely Road and So Disdained are all set between the wars and feature main characters who are Great War survivors.

 

Enjoy.

As my main area of interest is the Easter Rising, I have a copy of Nevil Shute's (aka Norway) book Slide Rule and recently read his parent's book re their experiences of the Rising.  Shute being one of two Shrewsbury school boys on holiday in Dublin at the time, Jack Woods the other boy; both worked as stretcher bearers with the Red Cross. 

He appears in the list of Awards to Ambulance Workers in the 1916 Rebellion Handbook as Neville Norway rather then Nevil.

 

Just finished reading Sniping in the Great War by Martin Pegler and Cheshire Bantams by Stephen McGreal.

Currently reading  Zeppelin Onslaught The Forgotten Blitz 1914-1915 by Ian Castle.

 

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20 minutes ago, doyle3 said:

Slide Rule

I don't have that but my Dad does. I might borrow it to read next time I go to stay with him.

I have read it before but find that I don't remember it at all, which is not like me!

sJ

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I have just started 'The Guns of August' - I've had it on kindle for a while but only got around to it at the weekend.

 

Starts well and am looking forward to a good read. 

 

B R 

 

:poppy:

 

 

 

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8 hours ago, Paul Alan Bardell said:

The Guns of August'

I enjoyed that one. I believe people complain about a lack of historical rigour, but it's an excellent book for giving the feel of the time and situation.

(I'm also very fond of Barbara Tuchman's A Distant Mirror about the 14th century).

sJ

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On 07/02/2022 at 23:48, seaJane said:

...it's an excellent book for giving the feel of the time and situation.

I agree. Tuchman did an excellent job conveying the drama of those early weeks. There are several historical inaccuracies but these do not detract from the overall impact of the book.

Robert

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On 29/01/2022 at 19:59, David Filsell said:

Don't be vague, go for Haig by John Terraine 

Regards

DAvid

You were - and are - absolutely right. I started with Terraine but then had to rush because the book needed to get back to the library. 

I was already wondering why I could not find a good review on Winter's book here on the forum... he sounds like the revisionist of the revisionist... "blame it all on Haig - the more the better"... and I'm not even sure that all his historical facts are actually historically accurate... 

very disappointing! 

this being said and done, I'll turn to Neilland's "Generals on the Western Front" now and then go back to logistics, because I really need to get going with the research around the girls in Boulogne, and that means logistics!!! 

have also indulged in one more buy just now... inspired by the new Sabaton single "the unkillable soldier" about the only Belgian to ever win the VC, I bought Sir Adrien's memoirs "Happy Odyssey" 

Alan Ogden's "The Life and Times of Lieutenant General Sir Adrian Carton de Wiart: Soldier and Diplomat" looks very good too, but at 115€ on amazon??? no thank you! 

M.

Edited by Marilyne
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1 hour ago, Marilyne said:

 

have also indulged in one more buy just now... inspired by the new Sabaton single "the unkillable soldier" about the only Belgian to ever win the VC, I bought Sir Adrien's memoirs "Happy Odyssey" 

M.

Another Sabaton fan must be the marching 👍😃

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11 hours ago, Marilyne said:

I bought Sir Adrien's memoirs "Happy Odyssey" 

 

It's an excellent book, made more remarkable by the fact that he doesn't mention that he was awarded the VC ... !

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21 hours ago, kenf48 said:

Another Sabaton fan must be the marching 👍😃

YUP !!! 

"Resist and Bite" is one of our motivational songs for my road marching team!!

M.

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  • 1 month later...

'My Campaign in Mesopotamia'  Charles V.F. Townsend.  .......... an absolutely gut wrenching, self serving ramble throughout.  The whining Part V describing "My Captivity May 1916 - October 1918' totally beggars belief.  I'm astounded that this was ever published in 1920 and further astounded it continued to be published long after his death (photo below 1929 French version).  

Read online (in English) for free at:

#11 - My campaign in Mesopotamia, by Major-General Sir Charles V. ... - Full View | HathiTrust Digital Library

CVFT 1929.jpg

Edited by TullochArd
Read online (in English) for free at:
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  • 2 weeks later...

I'm catching up on the pile of books that I haven't read, and the latest one is "Deserters of the First World War - The Home Front" by Andrea Hetherington. 

I must admit that (although I hadn't really thought much about the subject before) I was surprised at the scale of the problem. The book gives a lot of examples of the practice, some quite amusing and some tragic, and certainly gave me pause for thought on several occasions. It seems to me a problem which didn't (and possibly still doesn't, if it still happens?) have an easy solution - or even one at all. It's a well recommended book. 

  

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