Posted on 11/09/2013 1:06:18 PM PST by frankenMonkey
The story of the delaying action fought by a few US army divisions against the German offensive of the winter of 1944-45, commonly known as The Battle of the Bulge.
This delaying action, involving the 4th Division, 28th Division, 9th Division, and 687th FABN, among others, is what bought time for the 101st Division and elements of the 10th Armored division to make it to Bastogne to hold the crossroads there.
If I recall correctly the 28th Division, which was the Pennsylvania National Guard, was "destroyed in action" in this action. Survivors would have been assigned to whatever unit picked them up, I suppose.
(Also, more recently, "Alamo in the Ardennes", I don't recall the author, addresses the same delaying action, and further documents 687th FABN C battery, defending their position from an armored attack with direct fire against panther tanks.)
You got out at the right time.... google leidos.
ABQ operation is on life support... a couple of weeks ago I was the only guy on the first floor. In 20 years they’ll find Renzo and I hiding in the lab like Hiroo Onooda on Guam.
If that’s the case we will have to order Tony to go out there and relieve you two of command. Sad to hear that the compound has gotten that empty.
Richard Taylor ‘Destruction and Reconstruction’, also one of the most elegant memories ever penned by an American. Son of General and President Zach Taylor, Richard Taylor ended up commanding a large part of CSA forces in the Trans-Mississippi in 1864-65.
Dr. Wyeth's ‘Life of Forrest’ also re-issued as ‘That Devil Forrest’ gives a comprehensive picture of that formidable characters military operations. Jourdan and Pryor's ‘Campaign's of Lt. General Nathan B. Forrest is virtually Forrest's own account fleshed out by the very able staff officer Thomas Pryor.
Andrew Nelson Lytle”s ‘Bedford Forrest and His Critter Company’ represents a personal meditation on Forrest as the defender of Confederate west Tennessee and north Mississippi. Forrest's command in those areas in 1862-63 and even more in 1864 addresses how with limited resources a commander can confront often successfully much greater forces. To save a lot of confusion, also get a copy of Mark Boatner’s ‘Civil War Dictionary’. Boatner was a professional soldier from a military family who summarized an enormous amount of information and distilled it into one 1000 page volume. Get the hardback version if you can as you will use this book a lot in any study of the ‘American Conflict’.
Ah. That of course is a bit more difficult because of the timeline. A lot of the historical work in the post 9-11 world has a very distinct political ax to grind in them. Let me throw out a couple real quick and then I’ll dig through my bag of tricks for some that are better suited for what you are looking for.
Fiasco - Thomas Ricks. This book does have some relevant research tied to it, but it also has, as the title suggests, a clearly defined agenda. This book is also what I would call “too near” history. Ricks wrote this book before the surge and the history draws conclusions before the conflict is even over. This is still something you can use as a teaching tool as to what fallacies exist in “popular” histories as well as writing histories too soon.
Sandstorm - Geoffrey Wawro. The first half of this book is a pretty well done history of the American involvement in the Middle East dating back to Balfour Declaration. Unfortunately when it gets to the more recent history it falls apart. From 9/11 on it become more of a Bush bashing writing rather than a good history.
Operation Anaconda - Lester Grau and Dodge Billingsly. All in all this is not a bad book. It examines the operation in the Shar-i Kot Valley and it does examine several of the things that just went wrong during Operation ANACONDA. Still has a bit of a left slant, but not nearly as much as the last two books I listed.
Crusade - Rick Atkinson. Atkinson does a real good job and does a lot of research for his books. The Liberation Triology is a testament to that. This book looks at the Persian Gulf War and utilizes extensive interview materials in the process.
Jayhawk! - Stephan Alan Bourque. This was actually issued from the Government Printing Office, and is an official history of the VII Corp in Desert Storm.
Iron Soldiers - Tom Carhart. This one covers the First Armored Division and their eventual showdown with the Iraqi Republican Guard during Desert Storm.
Like I said. I’ll dig around some more.
Coug.
This Time We Win: Revisiting the Tet Offensive — gets the story right.
“A Better War” - Lewis Sorley
Here’s some more books that I think will fit your criteria.
Desert Storm: A Forgotten War - Alberto Bin, Richard Hill, Archer Jones
Desert Storm at Sea: What the Navy Really Did - Marvin Pokrant
Blitzkrieg to Desert Storm: The Evolution of Operational Warfare - Robert Citino
Warrior’s Rage: The Great Tank Battle of 73 Easting - Douglas Macgregor
Air War in the Persian Gulf - Williamson Murray
100 Missions North - Kenneth Bell
Why Vietnam Matters: An Eyewitness Account of Lessons not Learned - Rufus Phillips
Vietnam, the Necessary War: A Reinterpretation of America’s Most Disastrous Military Conflict - Michael Lind
At the Heart of Terror: Islam, Jihadists, and America’s War on Terrorism - Monte Palmer and Princess Palmer
IRAQ WAR: A Military History - Williamson Murray and Robert Scales
One Bullet Away: The Making of a Marine Officer - Nathaniel Fick
Operation Dark Heart: Spycraft and Special Ops on the Frontlines of Afghanistan — and the Path to Victory - Anthony Shaffer
You should see some good contrast here. Hope this is helpful.
Old thread on this:
http://web.archive.org/web/20080103055324/http://www.freerepublic.com/forum/a3b6dc7786a95.htm
http://www.amazon.com/This-Kind-War-Fiftieth-Anniversary/dp/1574883348
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:BookSources/1574881612
This Kind of War: The Classic Korean War History - Fiftieth Anniversary Edition Paperback
by T.R. Fehrenbach
The definitive account
Brian McAllister Linn’s “The Philippine War 1899-1902”
Whittaker Chambers’ 1952 autobiography “Witness” deals with the WWII - Cold War era and should be read by all Americans.
The Supreme Commander by Stephen Ambrose. About Ike during the war.
Also Samuel Eliot Morrison’s multi volume history of US Naval Operations during WWII
7 Roads to Hell - My favorites are first person accounts and this one is riveting. Of course Audie Murphy’s book is required.
Deathtraps - A tank mechanic’s take on the consequences on armored tactics and on the psyches of the tankers, of the decision to field many light tanks to fight the German behemoths.
A Fine Night for Tanks - An interesting account of Operation Totalize I. The Brits couldn’t get past the German A/T guns and decided to just drive past them at night and hope for the best.
the first full narrative account of the Battle off Samar, which author James D. Hornfischer calls the greatest upset in the history of naval warfare.
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