The ASL Book Club

witchbottles

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Related to the newest of the ASL core modules, I have just finished this excellent work:

9788

highly affordable and an excellent read. It smoothly transitions between the actions over Korea and the disputed border region with China, and the political and foreign policy decisions that were being made which affected both the PLAAF, the 2 squadrons of PVO instructor/pilots from the USSR, and the various air commands of the United Nations Forces committed in Korea.

Well worth the read.
 

Ed Donoghue

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Got fired up with the pending release of Operation Schmidt by BFP, so re-read Charles MacDonald and Sidney Matthews', Three Battles: Arnaville, Altuzzo, and Schmidt, CMH Pub. 11-7-1. (well actually read the Schmidt portion thus far). Since I had known a few guys from my VFW that were there, including a local Pastor who had been a Platoon Leader in the "Bloody Bucket" at the time in Kommerscheidt, it had kind of a special attraction to me from the stories we would hear from those guys over a few libations or at Veteran's Day activities. Lot of great stuff in the book as it goes down to platoon level operations at times though most seem to be armor or engineer centrist at that level (hey, with that fight and the immediately following actions during the Battle of The Bulge, there simply weren't that many of the original Infantry guys left around to tell their stories). recommended again, even if like me you had read the book many years earlier.
I have Three Battles and have read it at least twice. I highly recommend it.
 

Ed Donoghue

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I read his "Neptune's Inferno" when it came out a few years back and really enjoyed it. For the grand naval overview of the entire Pacific war, I am planning to read Toll's trilogy at some point in the not too distant future ( "Pacific Crucible," "The Conquering Tide," and the yet to be published third volume).
While my interests are along tactical lines, I am just about finished with Toll's "The Conquering Tide" and it is well worth the time & money.
 

HansK

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I have been reading "The Battle for Manilla" by Connaughton/Anderson/Pimlott.

I had heard about the devastation that hit Manila, but man, what those people went through is hard to describe. The attrocities by the Japanese are described in detail and makes for some heavy reading. Next the Americans used an abundance of arty to wreck the place...

A good book about a neglected subject, but no light read.
 

Tuomo

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From what I've read, the Japanese, particularly the Navy, get blamed for holing up in Manila instead of defending the nearby mountains (like the IJA preferred), essentially forcing the US to blast them out.

Manila, "the Pearl of the Orient", featured lots of huge buildings with a unique mix of classic and modern architecture - see this thread for links. When faced with Japanese dug into such huge edifices, the US brought up higher-caliber guns.
 

Tuomo

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I'm looking for a good SCW book that strikes a balance between the military and political aspects. With maps, of course :)
 

lluis61

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Antony Beevor's "Battle for Spain: The Spanish Civil War" is more political than military, but it benefits of the more recent findings in the archives of Soviet Unión.
Only about a 15% of the published Works cover the military aspect of the SCW. You may try in English this book: SCW Military History.
As for maps, you may try Batallas de la Guerra Civil Española
 

Khill

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Vaino Linna, Unknown Soldiers (2015 English translation) is a must read. Originally published in Finland 1954 (The Unknown Soldiers) it is a fictional account of the common Finnish soldiers experience in the Continuation War. Though it is a novel it is closely based on Linna's experience during the war. It is considered a classic of Finnish literature. There are three or four film and TV adaptations of the book. The most resent (2017) film is excellent and is as true to the book as a film can be. But, read the book first: you get much better character development and gives the nuances of the film more meaning. Also, the newest English translation of the book has a nice note from the translator explaining his use of language, in English, to express some of the aspects of the language used in the original text to show regional dialects and wonderful expressions of the Finnish soldiers and the nations character. An excellent book but as with all real depictions of war, it is rather sad and depressing
 

Ed Donoghue

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Hello everybody!

I decided to resurrect this thread in a non-gameplay, ASL sub-forum primarily because I miss hearing about the books which everyone has been reading lately.

I was also motivated by the arrival in my mailbox today of 'After the Battle' #176, which includes a fascinating and well researched article about the identities of the marines who were involved in the second flag raising on Iwo Jima. The article includes extensive, irrefutable photographic evidence, most of which I have never seen before.

Anyways, feel free to share your reading recommendations as well, some of us would love to hear all about it.
There goes my Amazon gift card balance.
:)
Fantastic link
 

Ed Donoghue

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I'm hoping to that someone here might be able to give a book recommendation...

I've been reading on the 1940 campaign in the West (feeding a growing interest in early war), but none of the books that I have are especially "well endowed" with maps (I know, that constant complaint in military history). So, can anyone recommend a source of large and clear maps? (For example, does the West Point Atlas have good coverage of these early war battles?) The book needn't be a history of the campaign in France, Belgium, and Holland (I've got several accounts already queued up), but just would really like large and clear maps to which I could refer. I would be really grateful for any pointers.

Dave
The West Point Atlas will probably not be much help for the early war battles in that those battles did not involve American units.

I was in Amazon Books (amazon.com) this morning ordering a book recommended in this link and saw a book titled "World War II Map by Map". Might want to look there. Best source might be a British version of Amazon if it exists.
 

Ed Donoghue

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The West Point Atlas will probably not be much help for the early war battles in that those battles did not involve American units.

I was in Amazon Books (amazon.com) this morning ordering a book recommended in this link and saw a book titled "World War II Map by Map". Might want to look there. Best source might be a British version of Amazon if it exists.
I must apologize. I took my West Point Atlas out this evening to see if I was as bright as I thought I was. And Duh! " THE WEST POINT ATLAS OF AMERICAN WARS" does include maps of the early WWII campaigns in Europe and North Africa. Early Campaigns: 22 Maps. The War in Eastern Europe: 23maps. The War in North Africa: 15 maps. I hope I did not lead anyone on a wild goose chase, if so, I owe you a beer, maybe two.
 

djohannsen

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I was in Amazon Books (amazon.com) this morning ordering a book recommended in this link and saw a book titled "World War II Map by Map". Might want to look there. Best source might be a British version of Amazon if it exists.
Somehow I've been reading a ton on the Pacific and the Korean war and haven't gotten back to early ETO in a while. I need to get back to it, with the recent Lone Canuck "Race for Meuse" pack now available.
 

TopT

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Just FYI, Stephen Hamilton's newest version on the Battle of Berlin, Bloody Streets: The Soviet Assault on Berlin 1945 is due to be republished in Feb 2020.

I have never read this but have heard that it is the best book ever written on the battle. I should drive to the War College (Carlisle, PA) and take a look at this.
 

jtsjc1

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Just FYI, Stephen Hamilton's newest version on the Battle of Berlin, Bloody Streets: The Soviet Assault on Berlin 1945 is due to be republished in Feb 2020.

I have never read this but have heard that it is the best book ever written on the battle. I should drive to the War College (Carlisle, PA) and take a look at this.
I've never read a better day to day account and it covers each district where the fighting was going on. One of the best books on any battle I've ever read. Fantastic. Also I preordered it from Amazon UK and it was 59.95 GBP. Saves you some money since Helion is published in the UK.
 
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jtsjc1

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The price on Amazon UK now down to 38.96 GBP! If you haven't preordered and are interested in this book do it now. Its due to be released on 11/30. Bloody Streets I mean.
 
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Michael Dorosh

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jrv

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This guy has written a fair number of books on world war 2 tanks: http://www.yeide.net/World_War_II_History/Home_Page.html. He has a book on the independent tank battalions attached to infantry divisions (as opposed to those in armored divisions) that looks pretty interesting. I have not read any of these, but they caught my attention.

JR
 
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