"The Blood Crows".. a review..

In summary, "a triumphant return to form"! 😀

Just finished the latest Simon Scarrow, which features the imortal duo Cato and Macro, this time in a return to 'normal' army life after the last few books where they have served mostly in a political surrounding int he midst of the power struggles surroiuidng the meperor in Rome...  for me it was a very welcome return... the [political shennanigans were beginning to tiore slightly, but here we have Scarrow at his best depicting life on the Roman frontier for the average Roman Legionary...

Cato, now promoted Prefect (effectively third in command of a Legion), has been given command of a remote frontier fort (somewhere on the Welsh border I think) garrisoned by a cohort of the II Augusta, and an auxilia of Thracian cavalry (which he has personal command of). Macro, promoted to senior Centurion has been given command of the cohort.

Not surprisingly, not all is as straight forward as they like - arriving in London we find that the much boasted of "conquest of Britain" is actually far from complete, and Caractacus [clicky] (who they met in previous books, the last time they were in Britain) is still on the loose and still fomenting trouble amongst the remaining free tribes who haven't submitted to Rome's rule. In addition, they find that the current commander of the fort they have been given command of has been killed in slightly suspicious circumstances, and that there are dark rumours about the behaviour of his second in command who has taken control of the fort, and who has trained the auxilia of Thracian's (known as the Blood Crows) in particular to high levels of discipline and may have overstepped the mark in taking total war to the local population...

Against this background, Cato and Macro march north, hearing more and more stories and rumours of Quertus the centurion commanding the fort, until they finally arrive at the fort to discover the truth... and also Caractacus...

A cracker - well recommended - 9 out of 10.

==============================================

Bit quiet round here at the moment, but only because duck like, all is movement below the surface..  DG is down this weekend so i am working up the scenario for the second game in the Annexation of Chiraz campaign....  again I ma having to go off piste for this, as the scenario as described, while being eminently worthy, is not what you'd call a game...  more will become clear..

..and the rason DG is down??  One word....  "Warfare"!!

The Desolation of Smaug

Out on 13th December... can't wait!

"To Lose a Battle - France 1940".. a review

Oh my, this was a cracker...

This was recommended some time ago now by Tim Gow in a post on his interest in the WWII France 1940 campaign [clicky] and having similar interests (I have a smallish France 1940 skirmish level project, which as a result of this book I'm thinking I might expand slightly to include British, and or Belgian troops!) I immediately 'hot footed' it to Amazon to get myself a copy... (by the way, I have just checked and there are still second hand paper copies for about a fiver, and the Kindle version is also only a fiver at the moment)

So what do you get?? A simply huge book, and in reality the third book in a trilogy but which stands on its own about the performance of the French army in one of the the decisive campaigns of WWII.

In the book the author makes the theory that the events in France in 1940 could be traced to a number of basic causes...  Firstly, to the Franco-Prussian War (which was the subject of the first book), secondly, more significantly to WWI and specifically the Battle of Verdun (second book), and thirdly, to the almost anarchic political situation that existed in France from the end of WWI to the eve of WWII.

680 pages later and I have to say there was a slight sense of relief at having finished..  not because the book wasn't good (far from it), but because the almost endless series of failures in the French army, and the way it was handled, was slightly depressing...

So what was the issue....??  No single issue (as is usually the case) more a combination of many factors..

Incompetent politicians with their own political back yards to protect, and no thought of the greater good as they bickered and argued their way into captivity - with right, left (the Popular Front has a lot to answer for in the eventual failure - especially after Stalin signed his pact with Hitler) and centre all at each others throats.

Industrial unrest - poor wages (politicians siding with owners, or workers) meant factories worked far less efficiently than anywhere else in Europe and especially Germany...  incidences of sabotage were known, new equipment arrived at the front too slowly

Aged and elderly French generals still haunted by the spectre of Verdun where almost an entire French generation died (Horne makes the point that at he start of WWII, Germany had more men of military age available than France did which quite surprised me) and with an almost psychotic desire not to lead their armies into the same situation a second time. Understandably as a result, with few exceptions French army morale was poor - their colonial troops (from North Africa) were not so well equipped but fought better...

Poor strategy - The psychological crutch of the Maginot Line (in itself a bastard son of Verdun) deflected resources from where they could be better used.... and the Maginot line wasn't extended to the Channel as it would have meant offending Belgium who was an ally - their early  (and understandable) decision to surrender left a huge hole just waiting for 5 Panzer Divisions to fill!

Poor tactics - WWI mindsets were no match for Blitzkrieg - the French commanders simply reacted too slowly - again and again they planned their WWI style offensives only to find that their jumping off point was already 20 miles behind the new German front lines, and the German had already overrun the French troops and captured them unprepared... (some of) the French tanks were better overall, but refuelling/rearming/maintenance was poor and they were used WWI style in small numbers to support infantry attacks..

So what of the Germans??  A very balanced view - undoubtedly their tactics were revolutionary and HUGELY successful, but Horne describes how surprised and worried the German high command were by the unexpected successes they experienced in Poland and Holland, and how those were magnified by the sheer speed of the success in France. They couldn't understand why the attack had worked so well, and so fast, and were constantly worried (rightly) about attacks to the flanks of the advance that (largely) didn't materialise for the reasons given above...

Horne also makes the point that only a very small percentage of the German army at this time was mechanised/motorised - as fast as the Panzers moved  (and Rommel advanced 200 hundred miles in 10 days!) they had to wait every now and again for the infantry to catch up (and they were walking!)

...and so we find ourselves at Dunkirk which Horne doesn't go into great detail on (as this is a book about the French army rather than the BEF) but has some interesting thoughts on...  he's no conspiracy theorist (thank goodness!) and puts the successful embarkation of the BEF and a significant number of the French army (my emphasis), down to the fact that Hitler gave the job to the Luftwaffe who were kept grounded by poor weather, and the concerns raised by the British counter attack at Arras (the Matilda's continued to worry the Germans until the end of the campaign, even though by the time of Dunkirk unknown to the Germans the British were down to just one!)

Superb book, ten out of ten and thanks Tim!

A to Z Blogger Book Survey

Prompted by an excellent book list related post on Legatus's blog [clicky], which in turn was prompted by interesting posts at the The Laughing Ferret [clicky] and the Too Much Free Time [clicky] blogs, and as a life long book lover, I felt inspired to put finger to keyboard to document my favourites... don't hold back..  have a go yourselves.... 😀

• Author you've read the most books from: 

Difficult this one as I'm one of those kinds of people who once they've found a good book, immediately try to source all the others by the same author..

Bernard Cornwell has written over 50 books (somewhat surprisingly, I had no idea it was so many!), and I've read every one  (even Stonehenge 😏). Unlike most people though, I came to Cornwell via the thrillers he wrote rather, than his historical fiction...  though I did of course move on to Sharpe...  if you've not tried them, I recommend the thrillers...  very good...

Picture courtesy Amazon - in all cases,
by the way, in the following I've tried to find the cover of the book version I own..

But the answer for me, after much thought, is Enid Blyton.. As a child I was a voracious reader, so I read all the Famous Five (21 books), Secret Seven  (15 books), the Adventure series  (8 books), the Five Find-Outers (15 books), St Clares (for shame! 9 books), Mallory Towers (6 books)  etcetcetc. Did anyone know that in her life time she wrote 762 books!

• Best sequel ever:

Lord of the Rings....  the Hobbit was good, but as a sequel Lord of the Rings takes some beating... I wonder if it actually counts as a "sequel"??

• Currently reading: 

 
Recommended by Tim Gow of Megablitz fame - unputdownable - highly recommended..  PS. Also huge... it's taking some time...!

• Drink of choice whilst reading:

Real ale - preferably a golden, hoppy, IPA style..  I am particularly enamoured at the moment of Fullers "Wild River" brewed with the new style American hops..

• E-reader or physical book:

Both - each have their strength and their weaknesses...  E reader (I have a Kindle) for when I'm travelling or need quick access to a novel (usually the next book in a series!), hard copy for reference books ie. basically anything with illustrations or maps as they just don't translate to Kindle...  I was one of those "oh I could never own a  Kindle" type of people until I bought one for the current Mrs Steve the Wargamer one Christmas and was completely won over...

• Fictional character you would probably have dated in high school: 

The young Steve the Wargamer was a callow spotty youth with poor skin, a retiring manner, and attending an all boys school - it was unlikely that anyone would have dated  (yuck) "gone out" with him...  but he would have secretly been enamoured of Emily (in David Copperfield) before turning his attentions over to Cathy (in Wuthering Heights.. but  only because she looked like Kate Bush.. )

• Glad you gave this book a chance: 

Crime fiction is not a favourite but I tried this on the suggestion of the current Mrs Steve the Wargamer and was very pleased I did...  Peter James writes some very good, nasty criminals...  recommended...

• Hidden book gem: 

A couple of books really...  I'll start with this one though.. those of you who've followed the blog for some time will know that I also have a penchant for yachts, and this is without a doubt one of the best yacht racing based thrillers I've ever read....

Next.. I found this one in a charity shop somewhere, I'd never heard of the author, was purely attracted by the cover so picked it up - glad I did! Very much recommended if you're into late Roman period military novels...

• Important moment in your book life: 

Discovering Ronald Welch [clicky] (and Don Featherstone) at my local library as a 12 year old set me off on a wargaming hobby that has lasted over 40 years to date..

...while Arthur Ransome, who I discovered at exactly the same time, did the same in an entirely different direction...!

• Just finished: 

Biography of Captain Eric Melrose "Winkle" Brown a British Royal Navy Fleet Air Arm pilot and later test pilot who has flown more types of aircraft than anyone else in history (487 different aircraft types) he also holds the world record for aircraft carrier landings (2,407!) - a fascinating read but in the end little more than a (very) long list of planes... 6/10 (more if you're interested in air combat/wargaming)

• Kind of book you won't read: 

Chicklit, romcoms, Mills and Boon, self help books, medical journals, Economics text books (which accounts for the 2.2 😏), biographies/autobiographies, (usually) anything that qualifies for Booker/Orange Literature prize...  an endless list showing nothing but my narrow mindedness... 😀

• Longest book you've read:

 That's easy - I read "War and Peace" this year [clicky]!

• Major book hangover because of disappointing endings: 

Simply couldn't finish it, it was so bad...  and that after virtually devoured the first two Chronicles...

• Number of bookcases you own: 

Four, plus a share in one the current Mrs Steve the Wargamer uses...

• One book you've read multiple times: 

Impossible to answer - I re-read books all the time...  Sam Llewellyn, the Desmond Lowden book, the Cornwell thrillers, and at one period (teenage - lot of time on my hands) I read Lord of the Rings every year for about 5 or 6 years...books for me are like good friends, why wouldn't you want to re-visit them??

• Preferred place to read: 

In the garage, sat in my big old, wooden, garden arm chair... radio on, light, beer, cigar... it doesn't get any better - but it's a bit cold in the winter...

• Quote that inspires you/gives you all the feels from a book you've read: 

Can't think of one...

• Reading regret: 

Spending so much time trying to like the "Wheel of Time" books - sorry, I know other people love them, I found them over long and formulaic...

• Series you started and need to finish: 

I am driven so I tend to finish all series I start - I guess it might be nice to finish off Game of Thrones but I'm in no rush.. too much other stuff to read...

• Three of your all-time favourite books: 

Lord of the Rings...   'natch... but I don't think I could come up with another two as there are simply so many..

• Unapologetic fanboy for: 

Ransome, Welch, Featherstone...  apologetic fanboy for Scarrow, Cornwell  (they can be a little formulaic at times)

• Very excited for this release: 

There's a new Scarrow out (which I have on the reading pile), a new Cornwell out (ditto) and a new Iggulden out (not got it yet) good times....

...but not half as exciting as the news that Sam Llewellyn [clicky] has a new book in preparation.... 👍

Last book, but a new one is on the way!

• Worst bookish habit: 

Reviewing them on my blog... 😏  ...but I suppose bending over the corner of the page to mark my place

• X marks the spot - Start at the top left of your bookshelf and pick the 27th book: 

• Your latest book purchase: 

• Zzz snatcher book (the last book that kept you up waaay too late):

Donald Featherstone Obituary

From The Times on Saturday (19th) - click to enlarge..