Patrick Shrier I ran across this very cool video yesterday while surfing. It shows images of the Somme battlefields today overlaid with video shot in 1916 while the battle was occurring. It is extremely interesting to see how peaceful some of the locations look today that saw so much violence 100 years ago.
Every war that America has been in has seen its share of post-war soldier memoirs, The Hooligans of Kandahar is one of the better ones to come out of America’s most recent war. Specifically, this semi-fictionalized account chronicles one infantry squad’s (typically 8-12 men) deployment to Kandahar in Afghanistan in 2011-2012. The author, in an effort to secure the anonymity of his comrades has chosen to make the book semi-fictional and use nicknames instead of given names for the characters throughout. This was probably a smart idea as any current or former combat arms soldier can tell you that some serious crazy stuff goes on in any tight unit whether … More after the Jump…
This is an annual tradition at Battles and Book Reviews. This year is the 73rd anniversary of the Allied Landings at Normandy in France during WWII. Just a reminder for everyone to stop today and take a moment to reflect on the events that happened 68 years ago today on the shores of Normandy in France. This year, the text of General Dwight Eisenhower’s message to the troops of the Allied invasion force the morning of the invasion. Soldiers, Sailors, and Airmen of the Allied Expeditionary Force: You are about to embark upon the Great Crusade, toward which we have striven these many months. The eyes of the world are … More after the Jump…
Most everybody today has heard some variation on the phrase “Kill them all, let God sort them out’” This phrase gained modern fame during the Vietnam War but it is actually a modern updating of a quote that is over 1,000 years old and was first uttered in Southern France during what are known as the Albigensian Crusades at the Siege of Béziers in July, 1209 by the Papa; Legate and Cistercian monk Arnauld Amalric. The Albigensian Crusades were a series of campaigns waged in France between 1209 and 1226 to stamp out what is known as the Cathar Heresy. The Cathars were a Gnostic group or sub-faith within the … More after the Jump…
Enhanced Interrogation is the book that should have been written 10 years ago when the hype about America torturing captured terrorists was at its height. Unfortunately, it has only appeared now when false “facts” and attitudes towards the interrogation of terrorists have settled into the collective psyche of the left and attained a life of their own. The book itself is 300 pages of text divided into twelve mostly chronological chapters detailing the establishment, working, and closing down of the CIA’s enhanced interrogation program during the Bush administration in the months and years immediately following the 9/11 attacks on the United States. Dr. Mitchell was a psychologist who worked at … More after the Jump…
Knights of Jerusalem is not the book you would expect to read about one of the Crusading orders, it is not a list and description of battles the order fought, with blow by blow accounts of the most famous of these battles such as the Horns of Hattin or the Great Siege of Malta. This is a history of how the order came into existence and how it operated and even continues to operate almost 1,000 years later when so many of its fellow orders in the Church Militant have disappeared. The book focuses on the history of the order from its founding until the end of the Crusading era … More after the Jump…
After reading this latest work from Dr. van Creveld, it is no wonder that Pussycats: Why the Rest Keeps Beating the West had to be self-published as I cannot imagine a mainstream publisher would touch a manuscript that like this that so eloquently gores just about all of the sacred cows of the modern liberal movements but especially that of feminism and the infantilism of Western society. The book itself consists of five chapters with subparts, a conclusion, 29 pages of notes, and an index. The chapters are arranged topically with the conclusion tieing the different strands together into a coherent whole. As usual, Dr. van Creveld is insightful and devastating when … More after the Jump…
[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] Many people think that global trade is a relatively new development in the world. That is not the case and The Roman Empire and the Silk Routes by Raoul McLaughlin describes the ways in which ancient Rome and China traded goods over the ancient Silk Routes. First, the specs. There are 225 pages of text divided into 14 topical chapters and 5 appendices. There are also extensive notes, a bibliography and an index. While many histories of both Rome and … More after the Jump…
[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] Peter Fritzsche’s book An Iron Wind-Europe Under Hitler is “new history” of the best sort. Instead of being a war book about battles and campaigns it tries to capture the experience of World War II of the people of Europe. How did the average civilian who the fighting swirled past and who lived under German occupation experience the war? That is the question this book tries to answer and does a good job of doing so. First, the numbers. There … More after the Jump…
A reluctance to follow traditional, pre-world wars law of war. This point harks back to point #1 and is both a result of and reaction to the high cost of the two 20th century world wars. In the contemporary world the traditional laws of war, that is the agreed upon rules that predate Geneva are considered too harsh. It has apparently never occurred to an academic that the laws of war are harsh for a reason, as though war is supposed to be some collegial contest like a sporting event. They substituted ideals for a realistic appraisal of effectiveness. Let’s use an example. Traditionally, when a city or other fortified … More after the Jump…
[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] There are numerous biographies of German officers and soldiers from World War II and The Devil’s General: The Life of Hyazinth Graf von Strachwitz, “The Panzer Graf” by Raymond Bagdonas is yet another. I cannot quite make up my mind if this is a good book or not. I lean towards yes but something is lacking to make this a truly great biography. The numbers; there are 338 pages of text making up an introduction, 23 chronological chapters and 6 appendices. … More after the Jump…
[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] Castle Builders: Approaches to Castle Design and Construction in the Middle Ages is very interesting but also a specialist book masquerading as a generalist introduction to medieval castle building. That is not to say this is not a good book, it is, but it assumes a level of knowledge of architectural forms and techniques on the part of the reader that eliminates it from the category of general introduction as claimed on the inner flap. The book itself to begin … More after the Jump…
Lines of Departure by Tom Kratman
Mary Roach is one of those authors who is simply a joy to read. I previously read and reviewed Grunt, her book about the science of the military. Packing for Mars is about the science behind making it possible for man to survive in the hostile environment of space. The book itself is 217 pages of text divided into 16 topical chapters. There is an acknowledgments section, bibliography, and an index. Each chapter is topical and covers some aspect of survival in space. All of the topics are covered thoroughly but Roach’s lively writing style takes what would otherwise be a dry and/or boring topic and makes it both entertaining … More after the Jump…
A post-World Wars Western (read European or nation-states settled by Europeans) reluctance to accept casualties in the prosecution of a war (note: this does not apply to non-Western countries which often suffer very high casualties) It is obvious to any student of history that post-World War II Western military success is defined in terms of Western casualties suffered and not military/strategic objectives achieved. Think about it this way. We can all probably agree that the perception is that the people in the West will not tolerate high casualties in military operations. That is conventional wisdom at least since the 1970’s. I am not convinced it is true. I think if … More after the Jump…
