Old Soldiers
I you have read Weber’s earlier book Bolo!
Spoilers below!
Legatus
The Simple Survival Smart Book -Christmas Sale
From now until Christmas Eve I have reduced the price of The Simple Survival Smart Book by 25%. Instead of the regular price of $14.99 it is now $11.20. As always, if you buy the Print version the Kindle e-book is free. Follow the below link to purchase or you can find it on Amazon by searching for Simple Survival Smart Book. The Simple Survival Smart Book is an invaluable tool in the survivalist/prepper’s toolbox. It is a compact book packed with the essential knowledge you need after the collapse or even if you are just camping for the weekend. It is available as a Paperback, Kindle ebook, and audiobook through Audible.com. … More after the Jump…
Reading and Military Service
There is an interesting piece on Medium.com recently about basic training and encouraging new soldiers to read. I read, and read a lot, and have always tried to encourage others to read, not only my fellow soldiers when I was in the Army, but people in general. I find that the idea of having a reading list and free copies of said books available to basic trainees to read in their less-than-copious free time is an awesome idea and I am chagrined that I did not do it when I was a Drill Sergeant at Fort Knox many years ago. I don’t necessarily agree with all the titles on the … More after the Jump…
Book Review: The Death of Money-The Coming Collapse of the International Monetary System by James Rickards
The Death of Money: The Coming Collapse of the International Monetary System is one of those topical books that come along every once in a while just at the time you are starting to think about the subject at hand. I must admit that I probably have a little bit of confirmation bias in my review of this book because I was already thinking much of what he says, I just did not have the hard data to back it up as he does. The book is 302 pages of text separated into three topical parts consisting of eleven chapters and a conclusion. There are also 18 pages of notes and … More after the Jump…
Veterans Day 2014
Happy Veterans Day! To all my fellow veterans, I say thank you for your service and dedication in protecting this great nation from her enemies, both foreign and domestic
Book Review: The Month That Changed the World: July 1914 by Gordon Martel
[FULL DISCLOSURE: I received my copy of this book free from the author. I was not paid for this review and the opinion expressed is purely my own] Given that 2014 is the 100th anniversary of the outbreak of World War I, there has been a virtual flood of new books and scholarship on the war in the past few years. A flood that I sincerely hope does not stop anytime soon as the renewed emphasis on the war is starting to change the traditional view of the war. One area that has gotten particular emphasis this year is the Origins Controversy, as in, what really caused the war and … More after the Jump…
Book Review: A Doctor in the Great War by Andrew Davidson
[FULL DISCLOSURE: I received my copy of this book free from the author and/or publisher. I was not paid for this review and the opinion expressed is purely my own] Andrew Davidson’s A Doctor in The Great War: Unseen Photographs of Life in the Trenches is part photographic memoir and part unit history. It catalogs the life of his grandfather, Frederick Davidson, as a Royal Army Medical Corps doctor with the 1st Battalion of the regiment of Cameronians (Scottish Rifles) as the battalion medical officer. What makes the book special is that it contains over 250 pictures taken by the author’s grandfather and other officers of the battalion both before and during … More after the Jump…
Book Review: Greece, Crete, Stalag, Dachau- A New Zealand Soldier’s Encounters with Hitler’s Army by Jack Elworthy
[FULL DISCLOSURE: I received my copy of this book free from the author. I was not paid for this review and the opinion expressed is purely my own] Greece Crete Stalag Dachau: A New Zealand Soldier’s Encounters with Hitler’s Army by Jack Elworthy is one of those books written by someone with a very interesting tale to tell. I had heard of Elworthy before getting this book although he was only named once. The story of the POW who hitched along with the American unit that liberated him to finish the war is mentioned in several mainstream histories of WWII. The book itself is 220 pages of text separated into 33 topical … More after the Jump…
Slideshow of pictures from WWI
If you have 6 minutes to kill this is an excellent slideshow of some of the mos profound pictures from WWI. There is n context given just a running slideshow of images from soldiers standing around doing what they do most often in war,waiting, to a mass grave for horses, to battlefield scenes in No Man’s Land.
The Battle of the Nations – 16-19 October, 1813
The October, 1813 Battle of the Nations in Leipzig was arguably as important as the 1814 Battle of Waterloo. In English language historiography of the Napoleonic Wars it is often downplayed or only briefly mentioned however. This is mainly because no English speaking armies fought in the battle. The lions share of the fighting at Leipzig was done by Austrian and Russian armies and thus the English speaking world tries to ignore this decisive battle in which almost 50,000 men died. After Napoleons’ defeat in the Russian Campaign of 1812 and the concurrent French defeat in the Peninsular Campaign the Allied nations of Europe joined together once again in the … More after the Jump…
Book Review: House of War by James Carroll
House of War: The Pentagon and the Disastrous Rise of American Power is one of those books that when you are done reading it you cannot quite decide if it was worth reading or not. If you want to know what history looks like, particularly American history, from the perspective of someone who sees evil and nefarious dealings in just about every single action taken by the United States then this is the book for you. I never thought I would see the day when the Marshall Plan would be described as economic warfare but it is in this book and that is just one example. I found it difficult to … More after the Jump…
The Hattin Campaign and the Triumph of Saladin in 1187
Medieval politics make modern politics look like child’s play. If any act from medieval times highlights this it is the Hattin Campaign of 1187 in which the entire military might of the Christian Kingdom of Jerusalem was destroyed because the Christians themselves collectively acted stupidly due to internal political factors in the face of an existential external threat. The final campaign of the Kingdom of Jerusalem is best seen as an object lesson of what happens when you let internal politics direct external actions. In 1186 Guy de Lusignan became king of Jerusalem through his wife Sibylla after the death of Baldwin V while in his minority. The coronation was … More after the Jump…
Book Review: BOLO! by David Weber
Bolo! by David Weber is kind of an anthology and kind of a series of related novels, I cannot decide which. Regardless, it is a solid offering from Weber, of Honorverse fame. The book is 388 pages and consists of 4 chronologically arranged BOLO stories with an annex on the technical characteristics of the evolution of the BOLO. If you are not familiar with the super tanks known as BOLOs from the books of Keith Laumer this is a good introductory book that will make you want to go read more from Laumer, the guy that invented the concept. Weber does a solid job of telling these stories as he does … More after the Jump…
In Flanders Fields
Given that 100 years ago men were fighting and dying in the opening months of what they would come to call the Great War and we call WWI, I decided to post one of the most famous and memorable poems to come out of that war. This poem is one of the reasons that the VFW sells Poppies today in their fundraisers. It really is true that the fields of Flanders are covered with Poppies in spring and summer. Every time I visit Flanders the poppies serve as a reminder of the slaughter that took place there.
In Flanders Fields
By John McRae
In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.
We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.
Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.
Some backstory on the Poem and Remembrance Poppies can be found on the In Flanders Fields page of GreatWar.co.uk
Moral Relativism and War
If you are of liberal political leanings you will probably not like this piece as I am going to proceed to attempt to demolish several sacred cows of contemporary liberal thought. I unreservedly admit that I am politically conservative and further admit that I am not trying to be unbiased in his piece. I am essentially venting my spleen at the half-truths and outright lies I so often find in books that purport to be histories but that are in reality only thinly disguised attacks on historical actors. I find it typically liberal that such attacks are often made on those that cannot defend themselves, such as historical figures long … More after the Jump…