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Just found a book that I've forgotten I've owned. "Notes Of A Russian Sniper" by Vassilli Zaitsev! Needless to say this book has moved to the top of the list. The forward in the book is written by Vasily Chuikov, Marshal Of The Soviet Union.

Like Christmas in June!!

Gary

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  • 4 months later...

Just wrapped up Ian Tolls The Conquering Tide, the 2nd book of his trilogy on the Pacific War.  Great read, this guy does for the Pacific what Army at Dawn and the other two in that series did for the ETO.  Highly recommended, gets into detail from a strategic and grunt's eye view of the war, both from the US and Japanese perspectives. 

 

Also just read After Yorktown, The Final Struggle for American Independence by Don Glickstien.  Really good book about a subject I knew very little about.  Details the fighting that continued for two years after the Brits surrendered at Yorktown, both in the US (which was especially bloody, some of the fighting puts ISIS to shame) and also as widespread as the Caribbean, Mediterranean and India.    

 

 

Edited by 11bee
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1 hour ago, 11bee said:

Just wrapped up Ian Tolls The Conquering Tide, the 2nd book of his trilogy on the Pacific War.  Great read, this guy does for the Pacific what Army at Dawn and the other two in that series did for the ETO.  Highly recommended, gets into detail from a strategic and grunt's eye view of the war, both from the US and Japanese perspectives. 

 

Also just read After Yorktown, The Final Struggle for American Independence by Don Glickstien.  Really good book about a subject I knew very little about.  Details the fighting that continued for two years after the Brits surrendered at Yorktown, both in the US (which was especially bloody, some of the fighting puts ISIS to shame) and also as widespread as the Caribbean, Mediterranean and India.    

 

 

 

I read Army at Dawn, I like Rick Atkinson (highly recommend Crusade by the same author) I am skipping around in and enjoying Touched by Fire by Eric Bergerund, enjoying the hell out of it, he also wrote Fire in the sky, which I read and loved and why I picked this up. Actually examines the cultural impacts and economical constraints along with tons of other details about the combatants in the pacific. For example we all know about the lack of armor and sealing fuel tanks in the zero, but he outlines the other faults in it as well, along with interesting tidbits like how the test pilots were crucial in the selection process, and they wanted light and fast, so they got light and fast --no matter the cost in other areas. The zero's engine was basically picked first, then the aircraft built around it, and it was constructed lightly to save on materials as well.  Just really cool perspectives mixed with first hand accounts. Both of those books go into detail about how the Japanese blew it. Which is a subject I find endlessly fascinating for some reason.

 

Right now I am muddling through the 3rd book of Dune which according to my device is telling me I still have 3.5 hours left to go...

 

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  • 1 month later...
On 10/18/2016 at 9:58 PM, 11bee said:

Just wrapped up Ian Tolls The Conquering Tide, the 2nd book of his trilogy on the Pacific War.  Great read, this guy does for the Pacific what Army at Dawn and the other two in that series did for the ETO.  Highly recommended, gets into detail from a strategic and grunt's eye view of the war, both from the US and Japanese perspectives. 

 

For some reason, I started with the 2nd book of the trilogy, am now reading book #1, Pacific Crucible, which covers pre-war through the battle of Midway.   Just as good as the 2nd book, what I find particularly fascinating is the insight it gives on how Japan, in the space of only a decade or so, went from a relatively open, west-leaning nation to one dominated by right-wing militarists.  Also like the background it provides on the key personalities, especially FDR, Churchill, Yamamoto, King and Nimitz.  Some fascinating characters.    Looking forward to the final book in the trilogy, hopefully it will be out soon.   Also re-reading some of Eric Brown's Wings of the Luftwaffe.  Another must-have book for anyone into WW2 aviation.  I've got his Wings of the Navy on my X-mas list.  

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Since my last post, I've read

Luftwaffe Eagle (Walter Shuck's autobiography)

Supermarine Spitfire, Mk VI to Mk IX and Mk XVI

Aces of the 325th Fighter Group

To Boldly Go (rare photos from season 1 of Star Trek TOS)

Air Force Legends #201: Martin B-51

Air Force Legends #203: North American F-107A

Air Force Legends #207: North American Sabre Dog

Air Force Legends #212: North American F-86H "Hog"

Air Force Legends #218: Lockheed F-94 Starfire

B-58 Hustler in action

F-8 Crusader vs MiG-17

F-84 Thunderjet in action

F-84 Thunderjet in detail

Flying Wings (visual history of the XB-35 and YB-49)

Hawker Hurricane and Sea Hurricane

Messerschmitt Bf 109 Early Series (V1 to E-9 including the T-Series)

Naval Fighters 6: Chance Vought F-7U Cutlass

Naval Fighters 58: QF-86E/F/H Sabre

Naval Fighters 98: Douglas AD/A-1 Skyraider Part One

Naval Fighters 102: Grumman S2F/S-2 Tracker & WF-2 Tracer

The Peripheral by William Gibson

zero history by William Gibson

Walk Around F-89 Scorpion

Before Topgun Days by "Bio" Baranek

Topgun Days by "Bio" Baranek

 

Fixin' to read

Naval Fighters 58: QF-86E/F/H Sabre

Naval Fighters 68: Grumman F9F-8T/TF-9J Two-seat Cougars

Edited by Slartibartfast
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  • 8 months later...

Have no idea if this is the current book thread, ARC's search function sucks.   Anyway, just wrapped up "Valiant Ambition" by Nathaniel Philbrick (one of my favorite authors), the story of Benedict Arnold.   A nice read, much more to the guy than I realized.  Only downside to the book is that it just suddenly ends after (SPOILER ALERT)                Arnold's scheme to hand over West Point to the Brits is foiled.   Nothing else about how things played out for Arnold afterwards. Other than that, a pretty good book.   I'm been reading a great deal on the revolutionary war lately, quite the fascinating subject. 

 

Also, just started "Hue 1968" by Mark Bowden (the "Blackhawk Down" author).   So far a really interesting read.  Got the urge to read up on this battle after watching Full Metal Jacket for the first time in many years. 

 

 

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On ‎10‎/‎19‎/‎2016 at 0:35 AM, Thommo said:

'No Shortage of Good Days' by John Gierach. A fly-fishing book. 

 

I'm enjoying it so much I just ordered 3 more of his books.

Sex, Death, & Fly Fishing was the first of his books I read. All are good reads!

gary

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Just finished "Tiger Tracks" by Wolfgang Faust:

25080405.jpg

 

Controversial read as many consider it a complete work of fiction while others defend it as a memoir written under a pseudonym. Regardless I couldn't put it down and found it an absolutely  fascinating read about the brutal tank warfare on the Eastern Front (the descriptions are not for the weak of stomach). 

 

I enjoyed the book so much that I bought this companion book...

 

the-last-panther-slaughter-of-the-reich-

 

Faust is now the TC of a Panther and this book is so far equally fascinating.

 

Regards,

Don

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 All of my reading lately has been books recommend by this thread. Just finished Masters of the Air; an outstanding read. Also Thud Ridge and Going Downtown earlier. As others have noted, all are highly recommended!

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52 minutes ago, dnl42 said:

 All of my reading lately has been books recommend by this thread. Just finished Masters of the Air; an outstanding read. Also Thud Ridge and Going Downtown earlier. As others have noted, all are highly recommended!

If you enjoyed those books then try and find a copy of this book:

51Oc30SbxuL._SX301_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg

Awesome, in the cockpit type read from the late Lt. Col Basel. Highly recommended.

Regards,

Don

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3 hours ago, Don said:

If you enjoyed those books then try and find a copy of this book:

51Oc30SbxuL._SX301_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg

Awesome, in the cockpit type read from the late Lt. Col Basel. Highly recommended.

Regards,

Don

could you take a couple minutes and publish the ISBN number? Robin Olds Fighter Pilot also ties in with the books you spoke of.

gary

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Gary, here is the ISBN# for G.I. Basel's book "Pak Six":

 

ISNB 0515090050

 

I'd bet Amazon has copies if you need a starting place.

 

Hope this helps.

 

Regards,

Don

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  • 3 weeks later...

Just finished reading this book:

Star-of-Africa-cover.jpg

What a great read! I learned a great deal about Marseille, things I had never heard or read before. As I was reading I couldn't help but see the parallels between him and RCAF fighter pilot George "Buzz" Beurling. The two "lone wolfs" would have made for interesting squadron mates. Anyways, highly recommended.

 

Regards,

Don

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On 8/23/2017 at 10:40 AM, Don said:

If you enjoyed those books then try and find a copy of this book:

51Oc30SbxuL._SX301_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg

Awesome, in the cockpit type read from the late Lt. Col Basel. Highly recommended.

Regards,

Don

 

 

Ken Bell's "100 Missions North" is right there as well. "Pak Six" was the very first book I ever read on the air war in Vietnam, I think I was maybe 11 or 12. Still have the same copy of it on my bookshelf.

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Here's an interesting book for you all. Hitler's Spy Plane Over Normandy 1944 by Philippe Bauduin. ISBN # 978 1 47382 339 6. Packed full of photos and details of the airframe. Yet the real gist of the book is the recon photos included in the book. I can highly recommend this book to any WWII buff!

gary

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  • 1 month later...

Just finished Dan Hamptons "Viper Pilot", had to order a 1/48 F-16CJ thanks to the inspirational read, and I'm not a big fan of the F-16! I just started his "The Hunter Killers" book, so far it's a good read!

V/r

Ron

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well I had to go to something very off beat to clean out my head. Just about finished reading Gerry House's book "Country Music Broke My Brain." Book is a fun read, and at times sorta sad. Yet it tells us what really goes on in Nashville's music scene. Next fun read will be Bob Hope's book about his USO shows. I've read it before, and want to read it yet another time.

gary

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Reading Robert Service’s The End Of The Cold War.  A but dry but a fascinating book regardless.  Got even more respect for Reagan, despite being labeled as an Uber-hawk, he was driven to remove nuclear weapons.

 

Really surprised to read about how bad the USSR was off, even in the mid-80’s when it was supposedly at the height of it’s power. 

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