Military Affairs & History

[dodint]

I think I might have suggested this a few years ago, but I really liked this book:



An oral history of WWII as told from the Japanese perspective. Not just their engagement with the US but their struggles with China as well.

[NAN]

I may have to pick that one up dodint. Honestly never read anything from the "enemy" point of view with the WWII books I've picked up. Would be interesting.

[Shyster]

There are a couple books on Amazon titled "D Day Through German Eyes," which are basically a collection of recollections on what it was like to be on the other side of the invasion. I read them though Kindle Unlimited. Pretty good.

[Freddy Rumsen]

German memoirs of the Eastern front are harrowing.

[shafnutz05]

There are a couple books on Amazon titled "D Day Through German Eyes," which are basically a collection of recollections on what it was like to be on the other side of the invasion. I read them though Kindle Unlimited. Pretty good.

What's up with all of the reviews saying the book isn't authentic?

[Shyster]

What's up with all of the reviews saying the book isn't authentic?

Damn, I read the books years ago, and it looks like the questions about the authenticity arose since then. Terrible that someone would make that stuff up.

A book from the "other side" that is undisputed authentic is Japanese Destroyer Captain by Tameichi Hara. Hara was the only IJN destroyer captain at the start of World War II to survive the entire war. He was in many of the major naval battles, including Java Sea, Eastern Solomons, Santa Cruz Islands, Guadalcanal, Vella Gulf, and Operation Ten-Go. Hara was a no-nonsense guy, and when he thought someone was screwing up (whether his own side or the Allies), he wasn't afraid to say so, and that comes through in the book. Many of the same battles described in James Hornfischer's Ship of Ghosts: The Story of the USS Houston and Neptune's Inferno: The U.S. Navy at Guadalcanal are covered in Hara's book because Hara was on the other side.

[DigitalGypsy66]

Anything by Hornfischer is an excellent start to US Naval history. Last Stand of the Tin Can Sailors is superb.

[tifosi77]

Another exceptional book by one of the bad guys is The First and The Last by Adolf Galland

Galland was one of the greatest fighter pilots in history, credited with over 100 air-to-air kills. He was also one of an exceedingly small cadre of Luftwaffe pilots who saw combat action in the Spanish Civil War, and went on to fight in just about every major campaign in Europe and the Mediterranean. In the decades after the war, he befriended a large number of American and British pilots against whom had had fought, including the P-47 pilot who ended Galland's final mission by shooting him down in late April 1945.

[Freddy Rumsen]

This is the gold standard German book, imo.

[Freddy Rumsen]

Also this

[shafnutz05]

Oh man, thanks all. I've got some reading to do.

[NAN]

Oh man, thanks all. I've got some reading to do.

Same. Thanks all for the recommendations. I love these kind of books.

[DigitalGypsy66]

This is the gold standard German book, imo.

This guy is still alive, too.

[MalkinIsMyHomeboy]

I know this is all a bit vague/ambiguous (since the term "war" isn't objectively measurable), but how do those in the military/historians count the wars that the US has been in?

1. Revolutionary
2. 1812
3. Mexican-American
4. Civil
5. Spanish-American
6. WW1
7. WW2
8. Korean
9. Vietnam
10. Gulf
11. War on Terror? Feels so amorphous. I originally thought it was just Afgahnistan/Pakistan but on Wiki it includes involvements in Yemen/North Africa/etc
12. Iraqi?

it becomes tough to count when you try to figure all the little conflicts with American Indians (Great Sioux War of 1876), other countries in the Americas and the middle east

[Freddy Rumsen]

I order them in "did the U.S. need to involve itself here".


1. Revolutionary
2. Civil
.
.
.
.
.
.
None

[shafnutz05]

I dunno man. I've seen enough alternate reality timelines to know we had to enter WWII

[eddy]

Had a breakthrough with family ancestry this week and found my 6x great grandpa was in the 2nd NH regiment and fought under Lafayette in Yorktown amongst all the other fights. That regiment was badass and I can't believe I have a relative that fought in all of these battles. I drank a lot of chocolate stouts and listened to Hamilton in honor of him last night. His family cemetery is still standing in new hampshire with 4 other ancestors and we have made plans to visit this summer.

[Freddy Rumsen]

That's good stuff.

Also, good catch Shad. WWII, definitely necessary.

[tifosi77]

eddy



Also, even though it happened before the Republic came into existence I'm inclined to include the French and Indian War as an 'American war'. Colloquially, I think we are the only belligerent territory that separates it out as sort of a distinct conflict as opposed to being taught as a theater in the larger Seven Years War. Not necessarily because of the conflict itself, but because much of the consequent outcomes sort of directly lead to the Revolution.

[Freddy Rumsen]

My whatever great-grandfather Andrew Lewis fought at the Battle of Point Pleasant, which is considered the last of the French and Indian War battles and by some the first of the pre-Revolutionary ones.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Point_Pleasant

[tifosi77]

We salute Maj. Dick Bong, for obvious reasons

Names can be tough in the military, especially since it’s the only organization where your last name suddenly becomes your first. Seeing as nobody usually thinks about that when naming their kid, it can lead to some interesting situations.

Unconventional spelling of your last name? Be prepared for some staff noncommissioned officer who thinks he’s so funny with a half-assed wisecrack about how your parents probably never ‘gradumadated’ elementary school. (It’s okay, don’t sweat it, he’s an dadhole and knows deep down that people are inwardly counting out the seconds until he leaves the office to drown his sorrows and eat his fill at the local combination strip club all-you-can-eat buffet. Alone.)

Is your last name funny or amusing, especially when there’s rank in front of it like Maj. Winner, Capt. America, or Sgt. Major? Jokes. There will be jokes, and probably some awkward conversations plucked straight out of Joseph Heller’s classic World War II satire Catch-22.

Even so, there’s a pretty good chance that Maj. Richard ‘Dick’ Bong has all of them beat.

[dodint]

We had a guy at bootcamp with the last name Major, they called him by his laundry number the entire time.
Had a Sergeant Sargent later on.

There are a few I'm forgetting but those immediately come to mind.

[tifosi77]

It has been said that callsigns in the aviation community are almost always either a play on the person's name, or a reference to an event or incident the person would really rather forget. I once met a Marine F/A-18 pilot called "Jet Pants", and I'm not even sure I want to know that story.

[dodint]

Hah.

One of my favorites was a pilot called "Brick." He was chronically medically down, ended up becoming a UAV Commander.

[tifosi77]

Dude, that's brutal. lol