Mac McCormick III > Recent Status Updates

"The dead of Agincourt were not the first, nor yet the last, to find an anonymous corner in the graveyard of Europe which is the Somme." What a chilling sentence.

What an example of Unity of Command; the English had it, the French absolutely did not. The English truly were in a situation where they should have been defeated, but leadership made the difference.

Fascinating book on a subject I've never read on before (except briefly in school).

This is a tedious read. Not only that, I frequently feel like I'm being talked down to by the author. I'm putting it down for now and I'm not sure if I'll pick it back up or not.

As I read on, I'm bombarded less by numbers and figures and there is more explanation and reasoning. His argument is becoming more clear and I'm warming to it.

So far not an easy read; the emphasis is on production/labor/economic figures and it's been quite dry. Other than as labor, he seems to dismiss the human element in warfare. So far I'm skeptical of his argument.

The first book in Toll's Pacific trilogy focused on how and what the US & Japan learned early in the war. This second book points out the issues both had with interservice rivalry.

Good to see a mention, even though it was brief, of the Navy service squadrons under Admiral William Calhoun. Having read "Beans, Bullets, and Black Oil" by Admiral Carter, it is obvious that the U.S. war on the Pacific wouldn't have succeeded without the service squadrons' monumental logistics efforts.