Blog Archives
sThe French Foreign Legion is a military outfit with a lot of history around it and some legend. I can remember seeing movies about the FFL growing up. The one I remember best is the 1966 remake of Beau Geste starring Dean Stockwell, Doug McClure, Telly Savalas, and Leslie Nielsen. I read pulp writer Wyatt […]
I have a fascination with the U.S. Army between WW1 and WW2. I return to Brian McAllister Linn’s Guardians of Empire periodically. One of my favorite histories of the U.S. Army in WW2 is Geoffrey Perret’s There’s a War to be Won. That book covers the interwar period and development of things like the 105 […]
One of Robert E. Howard’s epic historical poems is “An Echo From the Iron Harp.” The poem gained some wide exposure as “The Gold and the Grey” included by Glenn Lord in The Book of Robert E. Howard (Zebra Books) in 1976. According to the Howardworks website, Glenn gave the poem the title as “The […]
A few weeks back, I mentioned Victor Davis Hanson’s The Second World Wars at the end of my review of Stalin’s War. One of the local library branches has it and I have since read it. The Second World Wars is from 2017 and is 653 pages including the index. The subtitle is “How the […]
I have read a lot of World War 2 history. Recently, I have been researching the armies of the 1930s of Italy, France, Japan, and the Soviet Union. The reason: writer Robert E. Howard made a prediction of inevitable wars to H. P. Lovecraft in a letter from January 1932. I have seen predictions within […]
An area of interest of mine is the story of members of the U.S. military that escaped the Japanese in 1942 in the Philippines and became guerrillas. We Remained by Russell Volckmann is the fourth first person account I have read. I have also read two first hand accounts of being prisoners (including Gen. Wainwright’s […]
The Old China Hands by Charles G. Finney. I picked up this paperback probably 5 or 6 years ago at Windy City Pulp & Paperback Show. Finney (1905-1984) is best known for writing The Circus of Dr. Lao (1935). You may have seen the 1963 movie with Tony Randall and Barbara Eden. The novel was […]
I am always up for a good military history: John Keegan’s The First World War, Correlli Barnett’s Britain and Her Army, Ivan Musicant’s The Banana Wars, Douglas Porch’s The French Foreign Legion, Brian McAllister Linn’s Guardians of Empire, and D. J. Goodspeed’s The German Wars 1914-1945. John MacManus’ Fire and Fortitude: The U.S. Army in […]
World War II saw the introduction of various elite light infantry troops: paratroopers, British Commandos, U.S. Army Rangers, Marine Raiders, Fallschirmjager, Special Naval Landing Forces etc. One unit that was unknown until recently was the Alamo Scouts. I first read of the Alamo Scouts in Hampton Sides’ Ghost Soldiers. They are mentioned being with the […]