The Book Topic.

[Del640]

Can only second Alan's recommendation.

I got it after he recommended it. Not a cheap book new but worth every penny especially given as it's written from the German perspective by a pilot who actually flew in the wartime Luftwaffe...... It set me on the path of buying a couple of 109 kits from JG 300 too.

ATB.

Andrew

I have a book called:
'I flew for the Führer' by Heinz Knoke

It's supposed to be a good German account, I'll start that after Gallands autobiography.

Del

[Dave Ward]

Books I have read more than once - all non-fiction, but all great studies.
Dreadnought - by Robert K Massie
To Lose A Battle: France 1940 - by Alistair Horne
1918 Year Of Victory: The End Of The Great War - Ashley Ekins ( ed )
Nemesis - By Max Hastings
Nomonhan, 1939 - by Stuart Goldman
The Civil War: A Narrative - by Shelby Foote ( 3 Vols! )
They're all a bit heavyweight, especially the last, but all classics in my opinion........................
Dave

[minitnkr]

Almost anything about Scipio Africanus.

[spanner570]

'The Forgotten Soldier' Guy Sajer

[Tim Marlow]

Dreadnought is excellent Dave, as are the Shelby Foote books, good shout…..
One for the flyboys that I just remembered…..

Excellent memoir about WW1 flying.


One from the OR perspective. Most memoirs tend to be written by officers, but this isn’t…

[Guest]

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ASSIGNMENT TO CATASTROPHE. Major-General Sir Edward Spears.

Churchill's envoy to the French Cabinet at the time of the German invasion of France up to the Capitulation of France.

He tells of what went on in both the British & French cabinet & other meetings. It is an incredible insight into the chaos on one side & the steady nerve & determination on the other.

Spears was ordered back by Churchill for a meeting. Spears records how he went into No 10 gardens, very traditionally English where he was greeted by Churchill & others. He describes the absolute tranquility & determination compared to the chaos in France.

At a meeting in Villacoubly just below Paris he records this scene as Churchill arrived at the airport to come home to London. I wish I had been there. My gained info gives me to think they were Hurricanes.

On the aerodrome I saw a picture and received an impression of beauty unequalled in my life. The nine fighter planes were drawn up in a wide semicircle round the Prime Minister's Flamingo.

Very slight they seemed on their undercarriages, high and slender as mosquitoes. Churchill walked towards the machines, grinning, waving his stick, saying a word or two to each pilot as he went from one to the other, and,
as I watched their faces light up and smile in answer to his, I thought they looked like angels of my childhood.

A great book which I have read 4 times. Spears was a scholar & wrote superbly. I have one of the originals with paper which is as thin & smooth as silk ( you can get them fro about £6 ).

Laurie

[Guest]

Missed a bit. Spears on the way back after the capitulation was accompanied to the airport at Bordeaux
by General De Gaulle. The aircraft started to move & they hauled De Gaulle into the aircraft.

Just a bit more. The aircraft landed at Jersey Airport to refuel. It was reported he was whisked of for dinner some where in the Island.

[JR]

The first one that says 'Fifty Shades of Grey' is banned....
Revelation - Ned B. Ricks (Novel of the Vietnam War)
Fighter Pilot - Christina Olds & Ed Rasimus (Story of Robin Olds - even funnier and more colourfull in real life)
The Heights of Courage - Avigdor Kahalani (A tank leaders war on the Golan)
Take These Men - Cyril Joly (Western Desert war)
Tank Across the Desert - George Forty (The war diary of Jake Wardrop)
Just a few in my collection.

You didn't mention Hoppity Skip Hop !

[Isitme]

You didn't mention Hoppity Skip Hop !

That is in the fiction section under skippity hop hop!

[JR]

That is in the fiction section under skippity hop hop!

Sorry of course it is, under the subsection of PE for beginners .:thumb2:

[Isitme]

Sorry of course it is, under the subsection of PE for beginners .:thumb2:

"Bend it like Race..."

[Tim Marlow]

Isn’t that “Bend it like wreck ‘em” Mike?

[JR]

"Bend it like Race..."

That is indeed right, unfortunately I seem to bend some parts the wrong way :loudly-crying:

Isn’t that “Bend it like wreck ‘em” Mike?

Quite correct Tim.

[dave]

A few more, I haven’t seen mentioned:

Carrier Pilot, Norman Hanson
Wings on my Sleeve, Eric Brown
Where the Iron Crosses Grow - Crimea 1941-1944, Robert Forczyk
Helmet for my Pillow, Robert Leckie
With the Old Breed, E.B. Sledge
Tank Commander - From the fall of France to the defeat of Germany, Bill Close
ChickenHawk , Robert Mason

[Tim Marlow]

+1 on chickenhawk…….fantastic book!
One for the fiction aficionados…

The film is pretty good, but the book is on another level!