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Post 1945 Conflicts
From William Waddell's In the Year of the Tiger: The War for Cochinchina, 1945–1951.At first the French viewed the post-WW II fighting in Indochina as one conflict. Only later did they see the reality. The U.S. didn’t. As Waddell wrote:
The conflicts in Tonkin and in Cochinchina during the First Indochina War in fact represented two very different wars. Furthermore the variance was not due to a difference in strategy among the northern and southern Viet Minh. The chief difference was rather the conduct of the war on the French side. In Tonkin, the French military found itself stretched thinner and thinner as it endeavored to bring the elusive Viet Minh to decisive battle on favorable terms, while in Cochinchina the French adopted a more restrained approach. French strategy in the south focused on a strong but circumscribed hold over the politically and economically vital cities and eschewed large-scale mobile operations except insofar as they furthered the goal of defending the already pacified zone. This restrained approach evolved . . . from the reluctant admission by a pair of reflective French commanders that they had neither the means nor the military intelligence to summarily deal with the Viet Minh.
When Viet Minh forces under Nguyen Binh attacked throughout Cochinchina in 1950, French reaction was quick and brutal. Foreign Legion paratroops, riverine forces, air craft, and battalions of the dreaded Moroccans carried the fight to the Viet Minh, By later in 1950, Nguyen Binh was defeated.
The French and their confederates won the war in Cochinchina in 1950. By the end of the next year. . . the Viet Minh were in dire straits.
Targeted operations and pacification worked. The French blockaded the Bassac River and severed rice supplies to the east of Cochinchina. Enemy forces starved. Thousands fled the Viet Minh areas for the security and economic opportunity of Saigon and other cities and towns. The defeat of the Communists was complete. Their nationalist allies deserted them. In early 1951, they were forced to disband their regiments and Nguyen Binh was recalled to Tonkin. He died in Cambodia en route.
This was the origin of an independent Republic of South Vietnam. According to Waddell:
Had France lost both northern and southern portions of the country, the American war for South Vietnam might not have occurred at all.
That was a very interesting post MR9. How the world may have been a very different place now if in fact: "Had France lost both northern and southern portions of the country, the American war for South Vietnam might not have occurred at all."
From In the Year of the Tiger: The War for Cochinchina, 1945–1951 by William M. Waddell III.Cochinchina contains two regions connected to the natural history of the Mekong. The “old” delta is about 2,700 square miles. It is known now as the Plain of Reeds. Over time this delta silted up and the river found another route to the sea. Lack of drainage has turned it into a brackish swamp full of sulfides. The “old” delta has long been a sanctuary for bandits and it was for the Viet Minh. The French called it the métropole rouge. It was a good hideout, but not a valuable source of supplies.
The “new” delta is much larger and richer. In the late 19th century, the French carried out a massive program of canal building and channelization throughout the area. This effort improved transport and allowed unhusked rice easy access to mills and markets in Saigon. More importantly, it opened large swaths of the “new” delta to rice farming. Land under cultivation quadrupled under the French and rice exports rose thirty-fold. Cochinchina is perfect for rice production. In Tonkin, in contrast, rice farming was labor intensive and required double-cropping to meet even local demand. A rice crop there consumed two hundred man-days of labor. In the “new delta” a single crop took only 70 man-days and produced enough for export. Colonialism has some benefits.
The key to French military success in Cochinchina was in splitting the Viet Minh into two bodies – one in each delta area and then relentlessly pressuring the Viet Minh and the local population. Per Waddell:
This was not, to be sure, a campaign for “hearts and minds,” but rather a cold-blooded attempt to make life unlivable in Viet Minh stretches of the country.
It was warfare with an economic element. It worked in the short term.
Manray9 wrote: "In Tonkin, in contrast, rice farming was labor intensive and required double-cropping to meet even local demand. A rice crop there consumed two hundred man-days of labor. In the “new delta” a single crop took only 70 man-days and produced enough for export...."That's a pretty amazing improvement.
Another very interesting post MR9 and it reminded me that I have this book that may cover some of the French operations along the Mekong:
The French Navy in Indochina: Riverine and Coastal Forces, 1945-54 by Charles W. Koburger Jr.
'Aussie Rick' wrote: "Another very interesting post MR9 and it reminded me that I have this book that may cover some of the French operations along the Mekong:[bookcover:The French Navy in Indochina: Riverine and Coas..."
The French riverine forces, known as Divisions Navales d'Assaut, usually abbreviated to Dinassaut, figure prominently in Waddell's account. They proved successful in Cochinchina.
That would have to have been crazy duty.
From William Waddell's In the Year of the Tiger: The War for Cochinchina, 1945–1951.Why was France successful in thwarting the Viet Minh in Cochinchina? The Viet Minh were trapped in the ideological orthodoxy of Maoist warfare. According to Mao, revolutionary struggle must pass through three phases: 1. The organization, consolidation, and protection of secure base areas. Training, propaganda, and indoctrination are the key. Military actions are limited. 2. Direct action increases with sabotage, terrorism, and guerilla attacks on weak or isolated police and military elements. Capturing material is important. This period should bring expansion of the revolutionaries’ safe areas. 3. Decisive action to annihilate the enemy through conventional warfare. French intel understood the contours of this approach and realized the Viet Minh was “an organization bent upon defeating its foe. . . in a great offensive to drive out the French and crush their puppet regime.”
Waddell wrote;
From almost the outset then Nguyen Binh’s focus was not on terrorism or guerilla action in and of themselves, but was devoted to building his (main force) regiments. It was an ideological commitment to the Maoist three-phase revolutionary war paradigm, entirely incongruous with the situation and material constraints of the southern Viet Minh.
In short, the strategy pursued . . . was exactly as that of their northern counterparts, despite significant differences that should have militated against it. The situation in Tonkin was far more hospitable to the Viet Minh’s anticolonial struggle.
What worked for Mao in China and Giap in Tonkin didn’t go off so easily in Cochinchina. The Vietnamese were inclined to rush through the Maoist process to reach the third phase. In the south, however, the French could bring artillery, aircraft, professional units, riverine forces, and local auxiliaries to take on the Viet Minh. Viet Minh base areas were not as secure and crossing the border into China for training and refitting wasn’t an option. Nevertheless they pursued third phase preparations. They undertook a third phase effort then, also during the Tet Offensive of 1968, again in 1972, and (finally) with success in 1975.
I am really enjoy your posts MR9. I will have to try and get around to reading my copy some time soon!
From William Waddell's In the Year of the Tiger: The War for Cochinchina, 1945–1951.At the end of 1949 the French turned over security police and civil police functions to the Bao Dai government. It proved unwise. Bao Dai appointed the moderate nationalist Phan Long as prime minister. The new PM named a humanist lawyer to take of the security police. I chuckled at this excerpt:
The new security chief released prisoners in droves, forbade the use of torture to extract information from suspects, and ordered the police disarmed, as a sign of commitment to peace and unity. It was the kind of timeless stupidity of which only the very smart are capable.
The Communists responded with labor strife and the dispatch of assassination teams into Saigon armed with blacklists of “reactionaries.” Military posts were harassed and both French and Vietnamese officials were gunned down in the streets. Grenade attacks “multiplied to staggering excess.” The security forces lost their network of informers and Communists infiltrated the police. “Fear of Communist retribution held sway over the streets and tightened up otherwise loose lips.”
Within a year Bao Dai brought in the hard-nosed Nguyen Van Tam. He was a staunch anti-Communist – the Viet Minh had killed two of his sons and thereby made an inveterate enemy. Among the many steps he instituted to restore order was the creation of his own assassination squads. He sent them out on the streets, not to arrest the Communists, but “to knife them in alleys pour encourager les autres.”
Life in South Vietnam got a whole lot uglier. This is around the time described in Graham Greene's excellent The Quiet American.
I did the same on reading this bit MR9; "The new security chief released prisoners in droves, forbade the use of torture to extract information from suspects, and ordered the police disarmed, as a sign of commitment to peace and unity. It was the kind of timeless stupidity of which only the very smart are capable."
Nguyen Van Tam had a more violent but pragmatic response - He sent them out on the streets, not to arrest the Communists, but “to knife them in alleys pour encourager les autres.”
'Aussie Rick' wrote: "I did the same on reading this bit MR9; "The new security chief released prisoners in droves, forbade the use of torture to extract information from suspects, and ordered the police disarmed, as ..."
Rarely is unilateral disarmament effective.
In the Year of the Tiger sounds like a good read. Hackworth complained that the US Army wasn't reading books and reports by the French about jungle war and tactics that the 101st ABN and the Marines were taught were not effective to fight guerilla war. I just wanted to say that one of Hornfischer's books that he was working on prior to his untimely death is being published. I preordered it on Audible.
I've got a copy on pre-order as well SW! :)
If this page is for post 1945 conflicts (and the Cold War is a big part of it), I can highly recommend Helena Merriman's book "Tunnel 29". For me it was the best non-fiction book in 2021.Meanwhile I also read "The Tunnels" by Greg Mitchell, but I prefer the one by Merriman. It was even more compelling.
With an uncle and grandparents living in former East Germany, I visited the GDR every year between 1960 and 1988 and can tell that Merriman did an outstanding job researching.
R.e. Sweetwilliam's comment above, one of the French war reports to which Colonel Hackworth was referring is A Translation From The French: Lessons Of The War In Indochina, Volume 2, ably translated by the late Colonel Victor J. Croizat (USMC, Ret.) when he was working for the RAND Corporation. You can download a free PDF from the RAND Corporation website. I put a link to the RAND site on the book page when I created it, but apparently some asshole has removed it. Rivka's chekisty revoked my librarian privileges a few months ago over some ridiculous nonsense, so I can't simply fix that, but here is the link: (https://www.rand.org/pubs/research_me...). I highly recommend his books also; Journey Among Warriors: The Memoirs of a Marine is one of the best memoirs I've ever read, and The Brown Water Navy: The River and Coastal War in Indo-China and Vietnam, 1948-1972 is good as well...
Having wrapped up my Malayan campaign theme read, is time to start on one of my personal themes for the year, reading around the 40th anniversary of the Falklands War. And I'm starting at the start, with Mike Norman's The Falklands War There and Back Again: The Story of Naval Party 8901. If you can find it, there's an excellent drama based on the Argentine occasion, 'An Ungentlemanly Act' starting Bob Peck as Norman.
I will have to look around for a book on the Falklands War to read now you have reminded me Jonny!
The Falklands War There and Back Again: The Story of Naval Party 8901; Naval Party 8901 shipped out from Monivideo fire the Falklands; on the voyage, they were 'buzzed' by an Argentine C-130, which received a 'traditional' greeting:On that same day, we experienced our first hint of trouble. An Argentinian Hercules appeared in the sky above us. The plane circled round the ship several times and then flew right over the deck, so low that we could see the pilot’s face. The captain and I waved from the bridge, the engineering officer tried to fix up a hose to squirt at him and my Marines were ‘waving’ in their own inimitable fashion– ‘mooning’ (forming up in a circle and showing their bare behinds) from the rear of the ship.
And with the Argentine invasion imminent, preparations were both off the cuff and of typical Bootneck proportion:
Bill Curtis, a Canadian living in the Falklands, also arrived at the Brook, volunteering to disable the LADE directional beacon south of Airport Road. Back home, he had worked in airport electronics and he asked for a couple of Marines to help him break into the beacon, so that he could shift its radio beam by twenty degrees. Bill’s ingenious plan envisioned that an Argentine Hercules packed with troops would then be directed past the Islands and into the deep Atlantic. It seemed a little over- elaborate but worth a try– and I gave him use of a Land Rover and a couple of my men. But when Curtis broke into the installation he was confronted with a bewildering array of boxes and wires. So he adopted a simpler approach: he took a sledgehammer to it.
At Moody Brook, my men were returning from their assignments. There was now a rush for the Armoury: rocket launchers, rifles, grenades and as much ammunition as a Marine could carry. ‘We were told to help ourselves to whatever we wanted’, said Marine Ray Bloye. ‘I took 300 rounds in bandoliers, 40 rounds in tracer, two high explosive grenades, two phosphorus grenades and machine gun ammo. I mixed up my rounds with tracer.’ ‘We gathered up a huge amount’, Corporal Nick Williams recalled. ‘We all knew that there was not going to be any re- supply. We would stand and fight with what we had.’ The Naval Hydrographers were issued with Sterling submachine guns and taught how to load a magazine of 9mm ammunition. ‘One of my clearest recollections was of the Mess that evening’, said DSM Bill Muir. ‘Sergeant Shepherd, our weapons instructor, was demonstrating to the Royal Navy personnel how to operate and fire a sub- machine gun. It was the first time that they had ever handled the weapon. The others, ready and waiting for our final orders, were quietly playing cards.’
'Aussie Rick' wrote: "I will have to look around for a book on the Falklands War to read now you have reminded me Jonny!"As a general history I really enjoyed:
Simon Jenkins is particularly good on the political and diplomatic background to the war. Even though the book is now close to 40 years old it holds up well.
Two other excellent books on the Falklands that I read in the last year or so are:
by the guy who commanded D Squadron SAS and
by the same author as Vulcan 607, about the extra Harrier squadron that was raised during the war.
Would love to hear any other suggestions from the group!
Like you I really enjoyed Max Hastings book on the Falklands. Another two favourites are these books by Martin Middlebrook:
Operation Corporate: The Story of the Falklands War, 1982 by Martin Middlebrook
The Fight For The 'Malvinas': The Argentine Forces In The Falklands War by Martin Middlebrook
I started with Brian Hanrahan's 'I Counted Them All Out And I Counted Them All Back': The Battle For The Falklands (way back,my first real military history, I would only have been 11 when I stole it off my dad); then came the somewhat irreverent but otherwise marvellous Don't Cry for Me, Sergeant-Major.
Jonny wrote: "I started with Brian Hanrahan's 'I Counted Them All Out And I Counted Them All Back': The Battle For The Falklands (way back,my first real military history, I would only have been 11..."Nice selections Jonny. I like the look of "Don't cry for me..."
Nooilforpacifists wrote: "On Vietnam, I always recommend https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1... The Crouching Beast , by Frank Boccia.I have no idea whether my antiquated HTML 1 will work here—hard on an iPhone to a..."
When I was in the army, I was assigned to the 3/187 Inf - there were some good pictures of the battle in the Bn HQ along with a photo of LTC Honeycut, the Bn Cdr during the battle.
I'm trying to buy a used copy of the Crouching Beast and I cannot find anything less than $28. Funny thing, over the past few years I have been buying used books from Amazon, Abe, Thrift Books, on the cheap. I just priced out Lundstrum's The First Team and Blair's Silent Victory. I couldn't find a copy of either for less than 5X what I paid for 5 years ago. I bought several copies for between 5-10$. What is going on?
Sweetwilliam wrote: "I'm trying to buy a used copy of the Crouching Beast and I cannot find anything less than $28. Funny thing, over the past few years I have been buying used books from Amazon, Abe, Thrift Books, on ..."Blair's "Silent Victory" is very expansive for a second hand HB edition, especially with postage to Australia!
Sweetwilliam wrote: "I'm trying to buy a used copy of the Crouching Beast and I cannot find anything less than $28. Funny thing, over the past few years I have been buying used books from Amazon, Abe, Thrift Books, on ..."Recently I donated my copy of Crouching Beast to the public library. It was a victin of the periodic culling.
happy wrote: "Nooilforpacifists wrote: "On Vietnam, I always recommend https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1... The Crouching Beast , by Frank Boccia.I have no idea whether my antiquated HTML 1 will work h..."
Thanks for your service, 3rd Batt "Rakkasan's".
happy wrote: "Nooilforpacifists wrote: "On Vietnam, I always recommend https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1... The Crouching Beast , by Frank Boccia.I have no idea whether my antiquated HTML 1 will work h..."
I was in both 2 and 3/502, right next door
Have any of you seen this (https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe...)?Shotguns & broomhandle Mausers against an enormous modern military force- and it's not even a schnellfeuer, not even 9mm, just the ancient 7.63mm police/commercial version. My wife heard a story last night, also on BBC, that the people of Kyiv are making Molotov cocktails on a production-line basis... Fucking Molotov cocktails. She commented that it reminded her of the Spanish Civil War, and if we were twenty years younger she'd be sorely tempted to do something. Keep in mind here that, as far as I know, my wife has read maybe three books in her entire life that could be construed in any way as politico-military history. In other words, this is somewhat out of character for her.
Another news story I saw this morning was about a large group of U.N. delegates standing with a Ukrainian flag in front of a large tapestry of Picasso's 'Guernica'...
As some of you will no doubt remember, I was pretty disgusted by the behavior of the U.S. Government last August. This is considerably worse, and the charge of both moral & physical (and perhaps more pointedly financial) cowardice applies to several governments in Europe as well.
We in this group, of all people, have good reason to understand that WWII as it happened would have been unlikely if the world had not turned it's face away and stood aside wringing its collective hands for years while Spain, Abyssinia & China burned, and continued with the same insanity even after Hitler's troops took Austria & the Sudetenland, quickly followed by the rest of Czechoslovakia during 1938-39. The Second World War was inevitable then. Remember what happened next? Nazi Germany & Soviet Russia brutally divided Poland between them, and as the remainder of the so-called civilised world finally began to wake up to their collective peril, Soviet Russia quickly conquered Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia and tried to conquer Finland.
We all know this story.
It is now, once again, looking very much like we are all well and truly fucked.
Mark my words- if Russia is allowed to completely over-run and occupy Ukraine, it will not end there. My guess is that there will then be an "incursion" (probably Belarusian forces, Russian forces from Belarus or both) into one of the Baltic republics, and if that is not severely & immediately punished, it will be another green light for Putin. Keep your eyes also on Königsberg (I don't remember what the Russians call it now off the top of my head)...
Roughly three days ago, Vladimir Putin openly threatened the world with nuclear war if he is not given a free hand in Ukraine. Apparently, I was the only one who noticed that right away, because it took nearly 48 hours for the news media to comment. I am still waiting for the U.S. and other governments of what used to be the "free world" to respond. I wish I didn't need to say this- appeasement will not save us from another world war, but it's damned likely to make one inevitable.
During the "Cold War", all of us in the Detroit area (like many others around the world in similar circumstances) understood that we were going to be among the first to die in the event of a nuclear exchange. Everything in Michigan worth a missile strike was right here, and there was no way to get out of the target area in 30 minutes. If someone had told me on the night of my 19th birthday, as I drunkenly listened to Berliners celebrating the demise of the wall on the static-filled signal of the Hamburg short-wave station, that the possibility of nuclear war would be a concern more than thirty years later, I probably would not have believed it. We are fortunate enough to have a very tough old house- it would make a damned fine combat position in the event of attack by redneck white supremacists with AR-15s and such. However, we are less than ten miles away from the Detroit Arsenal, which was the primary Main Battle Tank production line in the U.S. for many years and still is home to two large U.S. Army commands (MBT production was moved 130 miles down I-75 to Lima, Ohio in 1996), and maybe ten blocks from the General Motors Poletown factory complex, which for obvious reasons would be a likely strategic target. I don't think my house is likely to survive an ICBM strike ten blocks away. I'm going to make a wild guess that there are a whole lot of other people in various parts of the world who also are having the unpleasant experience of clearing the cobwebs out of thought patterns that have not seen much use since the late 1980s, i.e. calculating chances in worst-case scenarios. I would also be willing to bet that if anyone is left in Finland who knows where the Asekätkijäveljet stashed weapons, they are making preparations to access them, just in case...
Also, how is the PRC going to take advantage of this unholy mess? Two-front war, anyone? Watch the South China Sea during the coming months...
Scary times indeed Laim! NATO has moved it Response Force (NRF) forward to those areas adjacent to Ukraine. In Australia we are keenly aware of China and its possible actions in the region.
Peter Caddick-Adams (@miltaryhistori) is well worth a follow on Twitter if you haven't already, his analysis over the last few days has been fantastic
Interesting comments, Liam. Thanks for the point-out Chris. I will seek Caddick-Adams' discussions on other platforms--Twit is too much a sewer to join.
Thanx gentlemen, I do try to be interesting, or at least not too boring! Chris, thank you for the heads up- I'm going to follow Mike's example and look somewhere other than Twitter (for reasons that are no doubt obvious- imagine how much trouble I could get into on Twitter).
Rick, as usual you hit the nail square on the head- I suspect meeting-rooms in Canberra are booked solid right about now, with Defence Staff dusting off and updating contingency plans. One of the more bizarre aspects of this entire situation is that the study of the Second World War just got a whole lot more relevant.
I'm almost ashamed that the thought occurred to me at all, but I've been thinking for some time that extant urban warfare studies were becoming quite outdated, aside from the specific context of the Middle East, and the latter is not particularly relevant with regard to Europe, the Americas, Australia or large parts of Asia for that matter. I suspect some new ones will be written in the near future...
And finally, I am immeasurably proud to note that my lovely & brilliant wife's comment in reference to the International Brigades the other night was apparently dead on- it was reported a few minutes ago that the Ukrainian government has authorised the formation of a "Foreign Legion"!!!
Manray9 wrote: "Sweetwilliam wrote: "I'm trying to buy a used copy of the Crouching Beast and I cannot find anything less than $28. Funny thing, over the past few years I have been buying used books from Amazon, A..."I just ordered a copy at Barnes and Noble for $35 and $5 shipping. It is a print on demand book.
BTW: What are the best comprehensive books on the Vietnam War? Can anyone make a recommendation?
Liam wrote: "Have any of you seen this (https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe...)?We in this group, of all people, have good reason to understand that WWII as it happened would have been unlikely if the world had not turned it's face away and stood aside wringing its collective hands for years while Spain, Abyssinia & China burned, and continued with the same insanity even after Hitler's troops took Austria & the Sudetenland, quickly followed by the rest of Czechoslovakia during 1938-39. The Second World War was inevitable then. Remember what happened next? Nazi Germany & Soviet Russia brutally divided Poland between them, and as the remainder of the so-called civilized world finally began to wake up to their collective peril, Soviet Russia quickly conquered Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia and tried to conquer Finland."
Yep. This is spot on. I'm glad to see the EU come together. I'm glad to see the EU and United States and other countries promise weapons. Just one question: How the hell do we get them there?
Can't we send drones and say that the Ukrainians are flying them and take out that stalled convoy? Can't we quickly set up a Flying Tigers made up of volunteers to provide air cover and take out that damn convoy? Short of that should we not stop buying Russian oil and drill our own here in the United States? Send a message, even if it is partially symbolic, that we are going to expedite the Keystone Pipeline and that the United States intends to become a net exporter of energy once again. We should supply Germany with liquid natural gas. Jennifer Granholm says our natual gas is cleaner than the Russian's anyway. If John Kerry wants to see climate change just wait for the nuclear winter.
I am from Germany, but immigrated to the US in 2002. Yesterday I called my 93 year old mother in Braunschweig, Germany, whose first words were: "We are in war." Even though the Ukraine is thousands of kilometers away from her. But she's convinced it's only a matter of time when the war in the Ukraine will reach the other countries in Europe.My mother experienced WW II as a 15 year old girl while fleeing with her parents from Poland to West Germany in January 1945. Her father had a weak heart and died in Thuringia in March 1945, before they reached West Germany.
Her brother fought as a Polish soldier in WW II and got killed.
I keep wondering day after day WHY is nobody doing something about Putin?
They caught Osama Bin Laden, they caught Saddam Hussein, why can't they catch Putin and bring him in front of the War Crimes Tribunal in Den Haag???
What are they waiting for?
How many more poor Ukrainians have to die, before the West steps in to save them?
Chrissie
Because Putin has nuclear weapons. By the way, I understand Iran is as little as 6 months away from having a nuclear weapon. I am bracing for Xi to take Taiwan.
Sweetwilliam wrote: "What are the best comprehensive books on the Vietnam War? Can anyone make a recommendation?"It's funny you ask this question because this has also crossed my mind, as well.
I posed this question to my co-worker, a Cold War scholar whose expertise is Kennedy and Johnson foreign policy. He is writing a book on JFK and Vietnam. I will be happy to share his suggestions when I hear back.
I look forward to the group's suggestions, too!
I own:
by John Prados
by Max HastingsI personally recommend these books that cover the lead up to the war:
by Fredrik Logevall
by Brian VanDeMark
Christine wrote: "I am from Germany, but immigrated to the US in 2002. Yesterday I called my 93 year old mother in Braunschweig, Germany, whose first words were: "We are in war." Even though the Ukraine is thousands..."Like him or not Putin is a legitimate head of state. Bin Laden was a criminal terrorist. That's a major distinction under international law. Secondly, confrontation between NATO and Russia could mean World War III. I don't believe too many in the U.S. are willing to die for Ukraine. The West should do everything within its power to help Ukraine -- short of war. It's a Ukrainian fight, not one for Americans, Brits, Germans or others.
We are going to keep a running commentary as he get more information on the Ghost of Kievhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vWQl3...
Bryan wrote: "Sweetwilliam wrote: "What are the best comprehensive books on the Vietnam War? Can anyone make a recommendation?"It's funny you ask this question because this has also crossed my mind, as well.
..."
Thank you Bryan
Max Hastings in in the lead thus far.
Just bought this book at my local, independent bookstore:
Rising Tide
I am looking forward to reading this book next month (April 2022).
Book summary from Goodreads
For devotees of the submarine espionage stories in Blind Man's Bluff, Rising Tide tells the Soviet/Russian side of the most secretive operations of the Cold War. For the first time, seven Soviet admirals, along with leading naval historian Dr. Gary Weir, reveal the successful spying missions, the technological breakthroughs, the confrontations with U.S. forces, and the undersea disasters that killed many hundreds of sailors.With decades of experience on submarines or commanding submarine fleets, these seven senior admirals, many highly decorated, give us the inside stories. They detail the undersea successes such as the blockade of the U.S. submarine base in Bangor, Washington, and the innovative surveillance techniques they developed to trail the U.S. Sixth fleet in the Mediterranean. They reveal the development of the first nuclear submarines, profiling Dr. Peregudov, the father of the Soviet nuclear submarine and the internecine battles among Soviet bureaucrats that led to the deaths of many Russian sailors. And they give first hand accounts of deadly confrontations, such as the sinking of K-219, off Bermuda and the collision of USS Taurog and the Soviet K-108, including unpublished photos of the incident's aftermath. Rising Tide also reveals the many catastrophes and the occasional heroic rescues, and answers many questions surrounding the sensational loss of the Kursk, the most advanced vessel in the Russian fleet.Covering submarines from the first advanced diesel subs in the 1950s to the Kursk in 2000, with the authority only senior naval officials could deliver, Rising Tide is the complete story of the Soviet side of the gripping, secret life of the submariners in the Cold War.
Moderators - If this is not the correct place to post this, please let me know & my apologies in advance.
No problems at all BA. I have a copy of this book that I am yet to read so I hope its a good account.
'Aussie Rick' wrote: "No problems at all BA. I have a copy of this book that I am yet to read so I hope its a good account."Thank you! I'll post here again once I start reading it. I recently joined this group and have already found a lot of cool books to read. Much appreciated!
THE WORLD WAR TWO GROUP
Books mentioned in this topic
The Angel of Dien Bien Phu: The Lone French Woman at the Decisive Battle for Vietnam (other topics)The Korean War: 1945-1954 (other topics)
Korea: War Without End (other topics)
The Vietnam War: A Military History (other topics)
The Angel of Dien Bien Phu: The Lone French Woman at the Decisive Battle for Vietnam (other topics)
More...
Authors mentioned in this topic
Allan Reed Millett (other topics)Allan Reed Millett (other topics)
Richard Dannatt (other topics)
Geoffrey Wawro (other topics)
David W. Cameron (other topics)
More...
I'll be keen to hear what you think MR9.