Read Books This will provide a list of the books I've read with a brief review. Users are blocked, contact me for access. I welcome discussions, but I'm tired of spam.

This is a collection of after-action reports more than a treatise on military tactics or a history of WWI or of Rommel. As such, it is interesting and insightful. It characterizes the conditions of WWI and gives a good taste of what the war may have been like, differing from the visions we have as provided by Hollywood.

Although sometimes billed as a bio of Rommel, it does nothing to portray his life. It does show is genius and daring on the battlefield. It does portray him as a leader, demonstrating how he can act in adversity, how he can make successful command decisions on impulse. How he managed to develop units that outperform all others.

I wish it went into more personal detail. It isn’t clear whether he developed good men, found them, or got them by chance. The book is an accurate military portrayal of events, but doesn’t discuss the interpersonal relationships developed, how he inspired his men, or gained the respect of his superiors.

I can recommend this for people interested in military history, or in Rommel himself. There are better works on World War I.

Ultimately, this is the story of Operation Mincemeat, an effort to misdirect the Germans about the D-Day invasion. More-so, it is the story of the evolution and development of the English spy network from the first spy’s involvement through the operation and beyond the end of the war. The book includes information from interrogations after the war and follows up on the lives of the spies when the war ended and they returned to somewhat normal lives.

Information for the book includes data that was declassified not too long prior to the book’s writing, although it was implied that some related information was not declassified. This information was supplemented from written accounts by the spies and from what their relatives could supply. In some cases, information taken from the spies personal diaries was included, the author was good to note when this occurred allowing the reader to judge its value. The sources make some of the stories likely subject to embellishments, the author acknowledges this is a few points. Overall, I didn’t feel the way the stories were told gave much opportunity for embellishment or other deviations from the facts, although many of these facts are weak, themselves. The book did seem to make the German intelligence seem inadequate at best and largely incompetent.

The book maintains a very fast pace. Characters are introduced and events happen too quickly, I have difficulty keeping everything straight. The author could easily have added a lot of extra material, but it may have become several volumes rather than a single book.

If you have any interest in this portion of WWII history, this book is a good read.

Pappy Boyington was an alcoholic, he couldn’t hold a job, he was irresponsible, and he was the best pilot and an outstanding leader of the Black Sheep Squadron. No one was on the fence, he was either loved and admired or hated. Many people credited him with saving their lives or making their careers work. What drove this dichotomy?

As a youth, Gregory Boyington was drawn to flying. As a child, he scrambled to get $5 from his parents so he could have his first flight. Learning to fly wasn’t readily in his future, though. He found an opportunity with the Marines to learn to fly.

Before the US became involved in World War II, Boyington found another opportunity to further his own goals, of flying and experiencing combat. He resigned his commission to join the Central Aircraft Manufacturing Company and support China’s resistance to the Japanese invasion. He became a member of the Flying Tigers.

The squadron leader was an experienced pilot who understood the real characteristics of the Zero and of the US aircraft. He bucked traditional teaching and taught unique combat strategies. These impressed Pappy in his future career and laid the foudation for his own teaching.

With the Flying Tigers, he impressed his peers with his flying, but destroyed any opportunity he could have by his drinking and fighting. He only had one friend, and no opportunities. Although threatened if he resigned, he did anyway. He expected to resume his career with the Marines. The CO was determined to force him into the Navy, and preferably apart from flying. Boyington frantically contacted congressmen and friends in the Marines until he got his wish.

When Boyington rejoined the Marines, he got his commission and his squadron, only there weren’t any pilots or planes. He managed to collect a number of unattached pilots and eventually received the Corsair, a new plane intended for the Navy, but unsuitable for aircraft carriers.

Pappy started to shine for the first time in his life. He impressed the new pilots with his knowledge, he pushed their training to the point of their skills becoming reflex. He forged the unit into the best fighting air unit in the world. He approached his job, not as an officer, but as a coach and mentor. He didn’t follow the dogmatic approach of the military, but forged his own path.

He won the respect of his pilots when he earned enough kills in his first outing to become an ace in a single fight. One month later, he turned an ambush around on Japanese pilots and shot down three Zeros in 60 seconds.

When he started to approach Rickenbacker’s record, he started to become careless, pushing too hard. He was shot down and spent the last 20 months of the war in a Japanese POW camp.

Not knowing whether he lived or died affected everyone in the US. Many pilots lost some hope. Newspapers that had followed him printed his demise. His squadron, although distraught, redoubled their own efforts, doing as much damage to the Japanese as he could. He was awarded the Medal of Honor during his captivity. He learned of it through a new prisoner. Upon hearing it, he commented that he’d gladly trade it for a hamburger.

Even in captivity, he never lost his spirit, nor his will to live. He inspired others to fight to live. One pilot commented that just knowing Pappy was in the prison camp make him certain they would all survive.

Pappy was able to keep the good and bad separate. He never lumped all Japanese into one camp as evil. He befriended one of his captors, and found many Japanese civilians were willing to help prisoners during the war when they would face death when found out. After the war, he commented that what we did to the Japanese Americans was unthinkable.

Three of his pilots achieved ace status during WWII. Some earned it again in Korea. Almost all of them did well after the war.

Pappy reverted to his drinking and failure after the war. He tried, but was unable to overcome his demons. Not able to keep a job, nor a marriage, he had few friends. But the Black Sheep never gave up on him. They always saw him as a hero and mentor.

Pappy Boyington died in 1988. A hero.

I enjoyed the book thoroughly. I’ve always wondered how much of the tv show was accurate. Very little, but I enjoyed finding out. The book has inspired me to read the biography of some of his pilots as well.

Bill Bryson is a wealth of information on the English language.  In this book, he describes the origin of our language and traces its evolution through interactions with different cultures.  It can be fascinating how he describes the relationship between neighboring villages and their particular dialects, or how French and Anglic terms evolved for the same words.

However, I didn’t feel there was really enough information for a full book.  When Bill Bryson gets into details of particular words, rather than give a few examples of their changes, he will continue for 20 or 30.  At times it felt as if his editor were pushing him to expand a magazine article into a full book.

By the end of the book, I felt as if I had read everything.  New information came slowly and the majority of the text was lists of words and interesting facts.  I think it would have been more suited to an etymological dictionary.  Mix in a number of errors and I cannot recommend this book.

Gettysburg, by Newt Gingrich and William R. Forstchen

This book is set during the US Civil War, specifically in the last days of June and first days of July, 1863. It is about the officers and how they interact. The men of both sides were well acquainted with each other, and in many cases, had served with one or more of the leaders on the other side. Even the individual solders would face friends, and sometimes relatives across the battlefield.

Both authors hold PhD.s in history, William Forstchen has authored numerous books of historical fiction and science fiction. The authors hold the position that history can best be understood by examining alternatives to what happened in history, looking at the events and the people to hypothesize what might have been. This book examines what would have happened if Robert E. Lee had taken a different tactic at Gettysburg.

The book is primarily told in dialog form. In this manner, we get to know the generals on a personal level. We get a feel for how they think and how they interact with each other, and with their enemies.

Gettysburg goes further to give a feel for battle of the era. We see the effects of the fog of war, and the difficulty of decisions when mens’ lives are on the line. And we are made to feel the guilt at sending men to their deaths. The battles are described in a bit too much detail for my taste. It is gruesome and bloody and seems futile at times. The authors describe the weapons, primarily the rifles used and cannons, and their affects on the troops, both as individuals and as formations.

Gettysburg provides a few photos and images of maps throughout the book that I felt the photos were very well selected. These appear to be prints from daguerreotypes, mostly of men, in formation or relaxed. Some images are of the dead, on the field or lined for identification or burial. There are also a few maps. These images are not bloody, and fairly benign. Although they do not directly relate to the story, they do set the stage for it, and I felt these pictures did add a lot. I do wish there were captions explaining a bit of what I was looking at.

I did enjoy this book ,and feel that anyone with a casual interest in the US Civil War will enjoy it, too.