What Chicago Boyz Readers Are Reading (October and November 2016)

14 thoughts on “What Chicago Boyz Readers Are Reading (October and November 2016)”

1. Just finished James D. Hornfischer’s The Fleet at Flood Time, a great history of WW Ii war in the Pacific from the battle of Saipan until the Japanese surrender. The author deeply researched the subject and is a superb writer. Currently reading Willem Steenkamp’s Mobility Conquers:: The Story of 61 Mechanised Battalion Group 1978-2005. This book is really a weighted tome as it has over 1100 pages printed on heavy stack paper–the kind you use for photos which the book is full of. This book is also of interest as I know several of the people mentioned in the book as well as Willem.

2. If anyone hasn’t read the Boys In The Boat – do so. Best book i have read in some years. It has many themes – the starkness of the Depression and its effect on people; friendship and trust

   https://www.amazon.com/Boys-Boat-Americans-Berlin-Olympics/dp/0143125478

3. Interesting. I’ll try to remember to use your link. I have discovered that I can buy any damn thing from China on Amazon. I am building up my electronics build capacity to build and toy with drones, their hardware and software. A fascinating area for me. My first one in the build process:

   http://carnagepro.com/fly/Alien6_build1.jpg

   Anyway I need stuff, a lot of bits and pieces. I can buy a roll of solder for $2.95 with free shipping and that’s it. Canada Customs doesn’t add tax or duty, I just get whatever I want for that price. I can just go shopping for a huge range of things that are hard to come by where I live in the sticks. Sometimes they get 2 things in a bag, but often it’s a single item. The only drawback is long shipping time, 15 to 30 days, although I’ve never waited much past 20.

   If you get paid per transaction, rather than by actual value, I may be able to help. ;)

4. You have an ebay link? I just bought 10 5v buzzers for $1.34 on the bay. Free shipping … $1.34 … straight from China.

   This is how you take over the world. ;)

5. The eBay link is an idea. Do they pay a commission ? I bought my wife’s Christmas presents on eBay the past two years.

   One was a gold charm bracelet last year that was filled with charms that fit our lives. She loved it. I had a jeweler polish it.

   She loves estate jewelry and eBay has a good selection.

6. Morgan,

   Regards this —

   >>Just finished James D. Hornfischer’s The Fleet at Flood Time, a
   >>great history of WW Ii war in the Pacific from the battle of Saipan
   >>until the Japanese surrender. The author deeply researched the subject
   >>and is a superb writer

   Not so much.

   My research to date points to both Iwo Jima and Okinawa being a poorly planned and poorly executed blood baths.

   The best thing to be said about them is they were a better choice than invading Formosa.

   Hornfischer’s “The Fleet at Flood Time” is hagiography, pure and simple.

7. Too each his own. I only read the book because Ralph Peters sent it to me for an X-Mas gift,otherwise I probably would never had read it, or even been aware of it. By the way, my oldest brother was killed on Okinawa as a member of 1st Mar Div.

   Merry Christmas.

8. I recommend “To War With Whitaker”. I won’t quote the subtitle in case it puts you off but it’s a tale of WWII compiled long after by the wife in the story, from her diaries. Her husband, a young officer, is sent to the Middle East taking with him Whitaker (his Jeeves). She’s determined not to be left behind so she pawns her jewellery to fund the jaunt, and sets off too, in spite of army rules that forbid it. She reckons that she should find work easily because she has shorthand and typing, and speaks French and a little German. What could possibly go wrong? Rather a lot, but encouraged by Whitaker she found that everything would go right in the end.

   It’s an excellent read – she writes very well, is perceptive, and has a good sense of humour. She meets Churchill, Eisenhower, Noel Coward, Douglas Fairbanks Jr, and a host of other luminaries. I don’t think I’ve read another book about the war from the perspective of someone who is both the wife of a serving officer, and whose work lets her mix freely with generals, diplomats, and spooks.

9. both Iwo Jima and Okinawa being a poorly planned and poorly executed blood baths.

   Compared to what ?

   Tarawa and Peleliu make them look like planning masterpieces.

   Okinawa told us what an invasion of the Home Islands would be like and helped Truman make the decision on the atomic bomb. The best part of “Fleet at Flood Tide” was the section on the squadron that dropped The Bomb.

   Tibbets was an amazing guy. I have a signed photo of him. He also led the first B 17 raid into Germany.

   My daughter, who is now 49, when in 6th grade her class held a “war crimes trial ” of Truman and convicted him. Leftist radicalism is not that new.

10. On Tibbets, I should add that he was the pilot and the co-pilot was Frank Armstrong. who was the model for the Gregory Peck role in “12 o’clock High, ” the movie.

    Armstrong was another who flew in both theaters. He led, as commender not pilot, the first raid into Germany and the last one into Japan, after the atomic bomb had been dropped by Tibbets.

11. “Iwo Jima and Okinawa, Tarawa and Peleliu”: if I understand correctly, these battles were essentially sieges. If so you must expect the same sort of casualty figures as in the siege fighting of WWI: Verdun, the Somme, and Passchendaele are the natural comparisons, aren’t they?

12. Mike K.

    The Navy blew its intelligence preparation for battle. None of the small islands around Okinawa were photographed before the fleet arrived. This allowed Japanese radars on those islands to avoid detection via camouflage and watch our combat air patrols to direct Kamikaze attacks.

    The Navy blew both its signals planning and signals security to hell and gone. Repeated Kamikaze warnings were lost to congested frequencies due to too many people on them and long logistical messages on combat frequencies. The latter also gave away the meanings of the aviation brevity codes to the Japanese.

    The Navy wiffed on taking the most important island air field in the campaign – Kikia Jima – which was as important to land based fighters supporting the proposed invasions of Japan as Iwo Jima was for the B-29 campaign.

13. “if I understand correctly, these battles were essentially sieges.”

    In one sense they were assaults on fortified positions in which the Japanese had constructed elaborate fortifications that resisted naval gunfire and aerial bombing.

    However, a “siege” suggests a prolonged campaign and methodical approach. These were rapid and bloody attacks by infantry.

    Tarawa was complicated by two factors. The tides have not been accurately determined which left the assault force stranded on the reef a considerable distance from shore. Troops had to wade in under constant fire. The actual battle took only 76 hours on an island (Betio) that was only 2 miles by 800 yards. All defenders died.

    Guadalcanal had taken 6 months but was a large island. More like a land campaign. It was also not that well fortified.

    Iwo Jima was similar although it took 5 weeks to destroy the 21,000 defenders who, again, had extensive tunnels and fortifications. My former partner in surgical practice was a young Navy medical officer and landed with the Marines. He and his wife returned for the 50th anniversary of the battle in 1995. They found medical stations in caves that still had skeletons of dead and wounded in carved out bunks.

    Okinawa was a bit more of a siege as the Japanese decided not to contest the landing and, somewhat like Guadalcanal, fought the battle in the interior of the island. Like Iwo Jima and Tarawa and unlike Guadalcanal, Okinawa also had extensive underground fortifications.

    It took 82 days to defeat the forces defending it and the Kamikazi attacks made this considerably different from the other campaigns.

14. Peleliu was a longer battle and was unnecessary. It was a strategic error that it was invaded at all.

    In the United States, this was a controversial battle because of the island’s questionable strategic value and the high casualty rate, which exceeded that of all other amphibious operations during the Pacific War.[6] The National Museum of the Marine Corps called it “the bitterest battle of the war for the Marines

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