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WWI Required Reading

DarkStar11DarkStar11 Member Posts: 1,557 ✭✭✭
edited April 2002 in General Discussion
I'm interested in brushing up my knowledge of WWI. Can anyone reccomend any good reads?

Also, does anyone know of any books dealing specifically with Archangel?

Thanks.....



DarkStar11"Now is the test of the boomerangtossed in the night of redeeming"

Edited by - DarkStar11 on 04/14/2002 21:07:35
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Comments

  • gruntledgruntled Member Posts: 8,218 ✭✭
    edited November -1
    A fascinating subject is the Q ships. They caused the Germans to adopt
    unrestricted submarine warfare which eventually led to our involvement in the war.
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  • Gordian BladeGordian Blade Member Posts: 1,202 ✭✭✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    If you want to know how everything started sliding down the slippery slope, try The Guns of August by Barbara Tuchman. On the Archangel intervention, I don't have a whole book to recommend.
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  • beachmaster73beachmaster73 Member Posts: 3,011 ✭✭
    edited November -1
    DarkStar.....I'd recommend "The First World War" by John Keegan. It is an authoratative history of both the military actions as well as political events which had an effect of the conduct of the war. Keegan is an historian without peer; and is book is a bit of a slog now and then....but it does cover the war like no other single volume I've read. Keegan also has some other excellent works of history out there that are equally informative and a little more readable. Beach
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  • IconoclastIconoclast Member Posts: 10,515 ✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    Dark, I know there is at least one good book devoted to our Arkangel incursion; I read it many years ago, but cannot advise title or author. The cover had a photo of the troops landing, as I recall.
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  • steve45steve45 Member Posts: 2,940 ✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    A Rifleman Went to War by H.W. Mcbride. This book concentrates on sniping and machine gunning in WWI.
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  • bhayes420bhayes420 Member Posts: 1,314 ✭✭✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    "All Quiet on the Western Front" Fiction, but a great read about German soldiers in WW1.
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  • wipalawipala Member Posts: 11,067
    edited November -1
    http://www.lib.byu.edu/~rdh/wwi/1918/archangl.html
    Try here and follow it back
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  • BullzeyeBullzeye Member Posts: 3,560
    edited November -1
    WWI was a fascinating period.

    You had old ideas about how to conduct war butting up against the new technologies of poison gas, aircraft, and machine guns.

    The result: chaos. And stalemate after stalemate.

    I've read both Keegan's book on WWI and All Quiet on the Western Front. Gives you good perspective on the period.

    A fine cigar gladdens the soul."Remember, there are only two: The Quick, and the Dead"
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  • jonkjonk Member Posts: 10,121
    edited November -1
    I haven't read it yet, but I recently picked up a book called "When Hell froze over" dealing with the US intervention in the USSR after the war, by E.M. Halliday.

    "...hit your enemy in the belly, and kick him when he is down, and boil his prisoners in oil- if you take any- and torture his women and children. Then people will keep clear of you..." -Admiral of the Fleet Lord Fisher, speaking at the Hague Peace Conf
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  • v35v35 Member Posts: 12,710 ✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    Bought Vols 30-32 of the Encycl. Brittannica 1920 ed. covering The Great War, on the net. It tells you which trench Lance Cpl Smythe scratched his * in and when. There's just so much fine detail it puts you to sleep; like reading the dictiony.
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  • DarkStar11DarkStar11 Member Posts: 1,557 ✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    Thanks everyone . . .
    I ordered Keegan's "The First World War" and Halliday's "When Hell Froze Over".

    Thanks for the link Wipala....




    DarkStar11"Now is the test of the boomerangtossed in the night of redeeming"
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  • boeboeboeboe Member Posts: 3,331
    edited November -1
    Years of the Sky Kings, by Whitehouse. It's about WWI fighter pilots and has been said to have prompted many young men to become fighter pilots in WWII. It's a very interesting book. Whitehouse himself was one of the Red Baron's "kills" and he details that account, as well as the stories of the many, many aces of WWI on both sides.

    I read it when I was a kid in the 1960's and never forgot it. A few months ago I did a search for it in the used section of some on-line bookstores and it is available. Facinating reading.

    To err is human, to moo is bovine.
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  • boeboeboeboe Member Posts: 3,331
    edited November -1
    quote:
    Years of the Sky Kings, by Whitehouse. It's about WWI fighter pilots and has been said to have prompted many young men to become fighter pilots in WWII. It's a very interesting book. Whitehouse himself was one of the Red Baron's "kills" and he details that account, as well as the fighting careers of the many, many aces of WWI on both sides.

    I read it when I was a kid in the 1960's and never forgot it. A few months ago I did a search for it in the used section of some on-line bookstores and it is available. Facinating reading.

    To err is human, to moo is bovine.


    To err is human, to moo is bovine.
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  • DarkStar11DarkStar11 Member Posts: 1,557 ✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    Hey boe-boe...

    The Red Baron and WWI air warfare in general are both very interesting. "The end of wartime chivalry", despite the mustard gas?

    My Step-Grandfather was a boy in Germany during WWI. He used to tell stories of how the women in his village would bake bread and make soup for POWs, and that the POWs were treated with respect. He got out before WWII, but most of his family stayed behind. I wish I had been older and had access to a tape recorder while he was alive.

    His sister was a German nurse during WWII, and was caught in Stalingrad in '42 -- and one of the few that managed to escape. She walked from Stalingrad to Berlin barefoot, in the middle of winter. Wish I had a recording of her memories, too.

    I did manage to record a conversation I had with my great-grandmother, born in 1900, about her childhood and witnessing the invention of the things many of us take for granted. I guess that story should go in the "most prized possesion" post......

    DarkStar11"Now is the test of the boomerangtossed in the night of redeeming"

    Edited by - DarkStar11 on 04/19/2002 01:19:50
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