OT - Book (Non Fiction) Review/Recommendations Thread

[Legbreaker]

https://quadrant.org.au/magazine/201...DK7Zv9Fe9TpTeY
Absolutely worth a read if you can track it down (not sure it's available outside Australia).
Details the bastardry bordering on treason that occurred in union run industries in WWII, particularly on the docks and in coal mines. The strikes, go slow campaigns, theft, sabotage and more which directly led to massive shortages both at home, and worse, on the front lines even while Australia was under imminent threat of Japanese invasion.
At the time the unions were absolutely riddled with loud and proud Marxists bent on bringing about a workers revolution at any cost, even if it meant loosing the war against Japan!

[dragoon500ly]

Picked up an very interesting read on the WWII German Army called
"Enduring the Whirlwind, The German Army and the Russo-German War 1941-1943" by Gregory Liedtke.

Its an overview of the German rearmament starting in 1919, through the Nazi assumption of power and breaks down the overall costs and quantities of the build-up to war.

Also of interest is the breakdown of personnel and combat losses.

Its a dry read, but very interesting to any student of of the war!

[Adm.Lee]

The best stuff I've seen on the WW2 Germans at the high command level are Robert Citino's works.

"Death of the Wehrmacht: the German campaigns of 1942"
"The Wehrmacht retreats: fighting a lost war, 1943"
"The Wehrmacht's last stand: The German campaigns of 1944-45"

How did the Germans stave off defeat for so long? and WHY did the Germans fiht for so long? are the prime questions of these books. Citino's spent a long time studying and writing about the Germans, these are well worth reading.

[Raellus]

Not a review/recommendation, but a heads-up- these titles could be helpful for GM's wanting to update their T2K timelines.

https://ospreypublishing.com/store/m...war-in-ukraine

https://ospreypublishing.com/store/m...ations-command

They're both scheduled for release this summer.

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[unkated]

Paul Scharre has worked for 10 years in the policy side of robotic warfare. He has put together a book (Army of None) about recent development of autonomous weapons, directions that technology is heading, and the (US) government and military policies regarding that development.

Hmm. That reads a bit dry. But then, so does the book. It is a sober view of the development of autonomous weapons and the direction and capabilities of current technologic developments (published 2018). He has some excellent access to heads of technology development and policy inside the US military.

Army of None is even-handed on the question of where development should go. Essentially, after talking about what can be done, Mr. Scharre points out potential good uses of autonomous weapons and bad ones and basically says we need to think these out and choose now, because the capability to create fully autonomous weapons system is very close. Of course, the question becomes what do you want autonomous weapons systems to do; their discrimination and judgement regarding targets is far from perfect.

My major objection to the book is that Mr. Scharre's sources are 90% American, perhaps 6% British, and 4% Israeli (for technology) and there is little presentation about Chinese or Russian capabilities, or about anyone else's policies (beyond a few published comments).

If you have any interest in the current state of this area of weapons capability, this is a good read (or listen; it is available as an audiobook).

Uncle Ted

[Adm.Lee]

I'd read this about 1990, and pulled it out again while playing a Korean War-game earlier this summer. It's a monster of a single volume, nearly 1000 pages of text, and a lot more of endnotes and references. Unlike some works on the Korean War, there are chapters after the fighting dies down in the summer of 1951, through to the 1953 armistice.

A major focus of this work is on US Army's leadership, from battalion to theater level. How the Eighth Army and the Pentagon brought in officers to fill slots and improve leadership is perhaps something T2k fans could consider. I was somewhat disappointed to find that my current age is now "too old" to command a regiment.

[swaghauler]

I've been going back into the old library for a training class I recently ran and have to recommend TWO books to the forum here. They are Massad Ayoob's...

StressFire I [Combat Pistol] (ISBN- 978-0936279039)
StressFire II [Combat Shotgun] (ISBN- 978-0936279114)

These are the definitive texts on using those weapons systems and form the foundation of the US Army Pistol Marksmanship training as well as the Shotgun Training Course for USMC FAST teams.

There are also videos on YouTube that you might like.