No comments about Invisible Hero: Patrick R. Cleburne.

1 comments about General John Sedgwick: The Story of a Union Corps Commander.

1. Mr. Winslow's scholarship in this diary of General John Sedgwick's day to day thoughts, words, and actions during the Civil War is second to none. As he points out, there is very little in print about this soldier, who was second in the hierarchy of command for Union forces, and who several times during the war was their acting commander. He was a West Pointer, extremely capable, and remarkably non-political in a time of enormous political intrigue. He was born and raised in Cornwall, Connecticut, one of the most attractive landscapes on Earth, and was on the verge of retiring there when the war broke out. No one would have criticized him for retiring, as he had distinguished himself in the Mexican Wars and had long planned a retirement. Much of what Mr. Winslow presents is derived from original documents, including war dispatches and General Sedgwick's letters to his sister. The dialog is very credible, and the descriptions of the action are both clear and thorough. Not surprisingly, since this is an accurate view of war, the descriptions of the inaction are thoroughly detailed, too. The boredom, discomforts and snafus are interwoven, just as they are in life. Mr. Winslow's editors were remiss, however, in the omission of maps, diagrams, and photos. As good as the descriptions are, there is no way the reader can visualize the action when we don't know where we are or why the terrain was material factor. And why only one photo, when only three or four more would give the reader a sense of the principal characters? This is an excellent book for Civil War buffs who are missing the thread provided by General Sedgwick's Sixth Corps, which was involved in most of the war's major engagements. I also recommend it to former students of Sedgwick Middle School, in West Hartford, CT, who might wonder for whom our school was named. No review would be complete without mentioning Sedgwick's last words before being shot dead at Spotsylvania, "They couldn't hit an elephant at this distance."

5 comments about Accidental Journey: A Cambridge intern's memory of World War II.

1. Witty, sardonic, and keenly observant, Mark Leyton (Lowenstein) offers the reader a singular and unexpected POV on being a Jewish refugee, a British soldier, and a (sort of) postwar intelligence operative.
   At times this reads like a Royal Tanker version of M*A*S*H or a non-ficiton Catch-22, and one laughs out loud at frequent intervals,but it stands apart from those works for the Cambridge-honed humor and the profound pathos that marks him in both his person and his circumstance. Often it is a testimony...(get ready for the cliche)to the endurance of the human spirit in very dispiriting cicumstances. I agree with the comment that it peters out in the last few pages, but this signifies the truthfulness of the narrative. He is remembering more than storytelling. I couldn't put it down.



2. A remarkable story from a man who had all the reason in the world to be angry but chose not to be. Removed from Cambridge and interned as a resident alien, despite being a German Jew, he is eventually released and joins the Pioneer Corps and the British Army. He becomes a tank commander fighting in Normandy, the Battle of the Bulge and on in to Germany, but harbors no personal anger against the Germans who are trying to kill him. In fact, he is highly complimentary of their martial skills. This is no ordinary memoir. It is written by a man who clearly loves history, who recognized the importance of what he was doing, but kept his humanity and sense of humor. It was a terrific read.



3. This has to be one of the most original memoirs of WWII that I've come across. Lynton's prose is striking, balancing sarcasm and acidity effortlessly with the horrible events that he witnessed and participated in, and some of the most comical moments of a lifetime. It's a wild and wooly ride, and this is another one I could not put down. Highly recommended!



4. I found this book by accident at a book sale. It turned out to be an extraordinary memoire of WW II as experienced by a university student at Cambridge University who happened to be a German Jew by birth. He was thus, by dint of extraordinary stupidity on the part of the British War Office, rounded up as an enemy alien and after many moves within Great Britain, ultimately shipped off to Canada, along with other young male civilians from Axis countries (Hungary, Austria, e.g.) who happened to be studying or living in England, lumped together with German prisoners of war.
   
   What is so special about this account is its breadth -from the misguided enemy alien roundup, the eventual release and subsequent involvement in the British war effort as a tank officer, to his account of the final days of war in Germany and his subsequent post-war involvement as an Intelligence office. The author presents extraordinarly insightful accounts of the war experience and the workings of the military on both sides of the conflict He has provided us with a unique first-hand view of the Second World War in the European theater, from its start to its finish. I do not believe there is another account like it. I plan to send a copy to my brother-in-law who, as a 15-year-old Viennese refugee in England suffered the same fate of internment , and to my friends who fought in the war with the Dutch and British. While telling a story of historical importance, the author has also managed to outdo Evelyn Waugh in satire and irony, and to equal him in grace.
   
   I rated this as 4-1/2 stars, the half point taken off for occasional passages of tedium in the middle of the book which, in the end, do not significantly detract from an overall rating of splendid.
   
   Nora Avins Klein, M. D.



5. I really enjoyed this book. The author has a great gift in recognizing irony when he see's it, and a very sharp wit. It was very different than the many other WWII biographies I have read. The situations and circumstances Lynton found himself in during those years are almost unbelievable.
   At times his casual, dry approach towards what would seem like a tramatic or dramatic event is puzzling, although he does state on a couple occasions that many of those circumstance have been covered in so many other books that he didn't feel the need to go into depth with them.
   His description about what it was like to be an "alien" (German Jew) in Great Britain was interesting, and very ironic that he couldn't become a British citizen, but was good enough to serve in their military.
   The chapters about his time in the secret service was fascinating, with a lot of insight on what everyday life was like for civilians and servicemen in post-war Europe.
   The book is filled with amazing twists and turns, and even humor in the way he sarcastically explains a situation.
   Even though the ending was a little weak (reason for 4 not 5 stars) I would still highly recommend this book and had a hard time putting it down.

1 comments about Lancaster Target.

1. What can I say, awesome, captivating, fantastic. We owe a debt to Jack Currie for recording this terrifying part of history. We also owe a debt to Goodall publishing and Airdata for still printing it !....

No comments about Combat Infantryman Badge.

1 comments about Inman's War: A Soldier's Story of Life in a Colored Battalion in WWII.

1. Author Jeffrey Copeland (head of the Dept. of English Language and Literature, University of Northern Iowa) presents Inman's War: A Soldier's Story Of Life In A Colored Battalion In WW II, a narrative biography of an African-American who served in the American military prior to its integration under Harry S Truman. Drawn from one hundred and fifty letters written by Inman Perkins to his fiancee and later wife, Inman's War offers an intensely personal look at individual valor and suffering, and allows lay readers and historians alike to appreciate the contribution of "colored battalions" not only to the war effort, but to the improved egalitarianism of American culture. Highly recommended reading.

5 comments about Eugene Bullard: Black Expatriate in Jazz-Age Paris.

1. Eugene Bullard- Black Expatriate in Jazz Age Paris
   
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   Eugene Bullard was born in Columbus, Georgia, the son of a former slave, on October 9, 1895. By the time he was twelve years old he had run away from the plantation his family sharecropped, stowing away on a ship bound for Europe. Historian Craig Lloyd, professor emeritus at Columbus State University does a masterful job of explaining the era and circumstances in which Bullard was born and takes the reader along for his journey. Arriving first in England, the young boy is amazed to discover the color of his skin does not define his place in the world. He became a minstrel show performer, and much to his delight Eugene learns that in Europe, unlike the South, when the music ends he is welcome to live where and how he chooses.
   
   So begins Craig Lloyds brilliant biography of one of histories most enigmatic figures. While many early aviation enthusiasts might be able to recall that the Lafayette Escadrille squadron of American pilots who flew for France included a young African American, few would be able to tell the full tale in as vivid a detail. By his late teens Eugene Bullard has formed ties with a community of expatriate African Americans who have discovered a place with little of the prejudice found at home. He is befriended by a well known boxer called the Dixie Kid, another expat, and taught to box. Winning many of his bouts he relocates to Paris and is a well known figure when the First World War erupts in 1914.
   
   By then Bullard has grown into as a man determined to live on his own terms. He is fluent in a couple of languages, and while he seldom starts a brawl he never backs away from one either if insulted. Bullard immediately joins the Foreign Legion and after training is thrown into the caldron of trench warfare. A machine gunner, he is wounded twice at Verdun. On convalescent leave a French officer recommends him for aviation training. Bullard passes through the difficult course and makes fast friends with several American pilots, including future ace Ted Parsons. But Eugene Bullards flying career however is shortlived. He flies only twenty combat missions for his adopted homeland before encountering the same Jim Crow ear racism he tried to leave behind.
   
   Dr. Edmund Gros, one of the key organizers of the Lafayette Flying Corps has been given the task of vetting French serving American pilots as they are merged into the US Air Service. Lloyd's account tells of Dr. Gros' behind the scenes blocking of Bullard's transfer, and how the 'patriotic' American doctor gave false testimony against Bullard to French officials that described the 22 year old pilot as a undisciplined assailant and a person of poor character. Gros letters recommended he be returned to the trenches and Bullard never flew again. Gros' prejudice against a young man he met only a handful of times is explained by Professor Lloyd as he describes newly arrived American officers aghast people of color welcomed in France and white French women freely dancing and drinking with African American men.
   
   When the Lafayette Flying Corps reunion groups snubbed him for several years after the war, his flying became point of pride for him, but Eugene Bullard's life postwar was even more fascinating than his flying days. He married, had children and ran a series of night clubs in Paris that introduced jazz to post war Paris. When American musicians traveled to France, Eugene Bullard was someone they turned to for both his language fluency and his understanding of French society. When Germany invaded in 1940 the 45 year old Bullard rushed to rejoin his old unit and after being wounded again, made a harrowing escape to America, settling down in New York.
   
   Never one to shy away from a struggle against injustice, in his latter years Eugene Bullard became involved in the early civil rights movement. He also finally enjoyed some recognition for his unique place in early aviation. More than just a footnote in history, Eugene Bullard's story is about an individuals daily battle for respect and freedom. Craig Lloyd's compelling biography of this true individual and the time he lived in, reminds the reader that sometimes that struggle is life itself.



2. A must read for any aviation buff who's ever wondered if there was a black pilot in WWI, and how he lived that life is truly an extraordinary saga.



3. This book gives you the opportunity to get a feeling of what your life may have been like living in the Jim Crow era of Georgia. My name is Bullard and I am a white genealogist. Eugene Bullard was the son of ex-slaves that were owned by a family named Bullard.
   
   It is fabulous to see a black person rise out of impossible circumstances to become an expatriate combat pilot in the French Air Force during World War I. Jazz and Blues is what I listen to every day and the Jazz story in this book is very interesting to me.



4. Eugene Bullard was an African American man who was born in 1895 in Columbus, Georgia, and lived a really fascinating live. After leaving the U.S. in 1912 to escape the existing suffocating racist oppression, he stayed first in Britain, and then settled in France where he lived as a boxer, entertainer, jazz drummer, was a war hero in the trenches in Verdun, and become the first African American combat pilot in 1917 (in French service: the U.S. would allow black combat pilots only in 1941...). After the war, like so many other African Americans, he remained in Europe. He become a well known entrepeneur in the Parisian night club life during the 20s and 30s. At the German invasion in 1940, and after a brief stint in the French army, he went back to the U.S. where he died in New York in 1961. Revered in France as a national hero during is life, and completely unknown in his country until more than twenty years after his death, the life of this extraordinary man has in this book a much deserved homage and, probably, its definitive biography.



5. A very well documented biography on a genuine American and French hero. Unfortunately he was born during the Jim Crow era in the south (even though the constitution which was written over 100 years before his birth mentions "all men are created equal", this did not include any non-caucasian's or women, did it? Did not use the word minority since it denotes less than some majority, there are more non-caucasian's in the world anyway and what is really meant by that word is just that, non-caucasian. I find it odd that the USA was founded by European descendants like the English, French and even though the country prided itself on it's progresive nature, it did not include equality, even though Europe itself did not practice racial discrimination). He was born the seventh child of a large family and his father always had a premonition of a very distinguished future for him and let it be known to him when he was young. Talks about his travel through the south after he left home and was told early by his father of a country (France) where all men are truly free. This had a profound effect on him because he eventually made it to France via England first.

   He began his livelyhood as a theatre performer and boxer; two opposing and similar avocations. He joined the military and became the first Black American and Black Frenchman aviator and was awarded medals for his bravery, dedication and skills. Very well liked, he had a contagious personality and started working at a famous Paris club later in life and eventually became a club owner himself. He met the famous of the day like Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington, Langston Hughes, Bricktop and many others. This biography also got me interested in Jazz age Paris to request both autobiographies of Hughes and Bricktop.

   Slowly (too slowly) more is being known about this man and his acomplishments and contributions to the human race.

   You won't be able to put it down. Jack Johnson's autobiography "In the Ring and Out" is another good bio of that era too.

5 comments about War of Numbers: An Intelligence Memoir.

1. Can you imagine how difficult it is for an Intelligence Professional to maintain his or her integrity? At every juncture, the suits, the E-Ring Horse-Holders, do their best to discredit your advice. No matter that you and your associates down at the worker-bee level are correct and have provided irrefutable proof of your analysis.
   
   No, the suits will always fight to bring you down. Remember: They are political and you are not.
   
   When the Analyst loses Integrity and Goes Political, then the process of honest intelligence production ceases. The War of Numbers shows so many who took the dishonest road.
   
   This book precisely demonstrates how, even while being pummeled by the suits, Mr Adams remains true to the Intelligence Analysis Profession.
   
   RIP Sam, we miss you and need you.



2. This book is one of the most illuminating "lessons learned" biographical studies that is absolutely essential in the current conflict we face in Iraq and the war on terrorism.



3. The world of real intelligence gathering and analyzation is still somewhat of a mystery to the general public. Thousands of movies and books have been made and written concerning this eminently interesting field, but they are often grandising or unrealistic. War of Numbers presents the Cold War CIA as it was and the intelligence community as it is. While it is much less glamorous than the popular culture would have us believe, it has its own intricacies that far outweigh anything Hollywood could muster in terms of interest. Sam Adams lived and breathed analysis as a young CIA officer fresh out of Harvard and thrown into the high intensity world of the cold war spy battle. He was your classic early 60's spook, a man of high prestige and old money with a dynamite education. Unleashed on communist insurrections around the world, Adams and men like him were to bring an enlightened face to a fierce struggle in the third world. Adams took to the task well, providing balanced opinions and using old fashioned organizational skills to detail various liberation groups around the world. However, this good work and the sterling career it gave rise to quickly ran into the mass of national miscalculation known as the Vietnam War.
   
   Adams started out as a low level analyst, searching through a morass of long forgotten reports concerning the minutiae of the revolt in the Congo. However, his work gained attention at the highest level because of its specificity and detail. One of the best parts of this book is Adam's amazing specificity concerning the very detailed processes through which raw intelligence data would go through. Although CIA specialists were often as clueless on low level situations as their civilian bosses, they managed, through hours and hours in the archives, to piece together some sort of cogent observation. If you want to know the nuts and bolts behind intelligence, this is an amazing eye opener. Adams slowly climbs the ladder of the agency, until he latches on a "hot" area of national security study, the Viet Cong insurgency in Vietnam. To the shock of Adams, the information on the VC was woefully inadequate, especially in comparison to the massive role the group would have on American policy for the next decade. Adams follows his own curiosity, a valuable freedom allowed to him by a relatively effective intelligence agency. This freedom would slip away with the war years, as politics and military prognostication would end any hope Adams and people like him had of accurate conflict understanding.
   
   Adams travels to Vietnam, and rapidly begins to realize the extent of the rebellion. He began to understand that the VC was a multi-tiered national force that far exceeded the number estimates set down by the US military and the government of South Vietnam. Much of the book is the battle Adams fights over the force estimates that the US government, estimates that he finds to be woefully inadequate. He goes over, in painful detail, the lengths that the military command, under the direct supervision of General Westmoreland's intelligence section, would go to in order to "fit" the VC estimates into political convenient numbers. To do this, the command would just edit out vast strata of VC units, such as support troops and militia formations. This was maddening to Adams and other in the CIA, who fought their hearts out to get past the official red tape. This struggle eventually cost many of them their careers, as memos got squashed and into the hands of the wrong people. It was political manipulation of intelligence in its most grotesque form, and Adams details it in all its painful reality.
   
   War on Numbers is a very ground level account of how the American public along with large swaths of the government was misled during the Vietnam War. It is so valuable because it points out the both the successes and failures of the CIA at the time, a duality often ignored in the oppressively negative accounts we are usually treated to. It is a shame that Mr. Adams died, as parts of his unfinished work would have given a much better overall view of the situation. The only failing of the book is its incessant attention to detail, which, unless one is a student of some interest in the subject fails to really captivate. Also, I wanted to learn more about Adam's himself, it's almost like the book is an autobiography without him really being in it. You can tell the book is incomplete, but what it does deliver it does so very well. A must read for anyone interested in intelligence and its place in the Vietnam conflict.



4. War of Numbers is an essential book for intelligence analysts as well as students of the Vietnam War. Adams provides key insight to strategic policy failure. In order to fully appreciate Adam's contribution to the intelligence history of Vietnam, it is important to understand that wars are fought by nations in the pursuit of interests and that for Americans, the decision to go to war should address seven considerations: Problem Identification, Interests Assessment, Objective Identification (including End State Assessment), Strategic Self Appraisal, National Power Assessments of The Enemy, Strategy Development, and the Identification of Gaps between Policy and Means.
   Adam's book addresses errors in the National Power Assessment phase which had a negative cascading effect in subsequent decision making. Flawed enemy strength calculations contributed to flawed strategy development which contributed to a gap between policy and means. When Adams identified the flaw, the Johnson Administration was too heavily committed to a war of attrition to tolerate public exposure of the gaps between policy and means. Strategically, telling the truth about the numbers of enemy forces would have required larger commitments of U.S. forces increasing the strain on public support for the war. The strength of Johnson's political will and McNamara's quantitative analysis approach to war deeply affected the way the Military Assistance Command, Vietnam, counted the enemy (called, Order of Battle).
   MACV kept three sets of books; The first set of OB was the official version sent to Washington. The second set belonged to the OB Analysts themselves, and the third set was a blend of the first two. The first set was an undercount to keep official Washington placated; the second set was the honest count but did not go anywhere, and the third set went to Westmoreland who kept it close hold.
   Adams contribution to the intelligence discipline is his description of how he found the flaw in OB accounting and the political correctness that resisted him within the intelligence community. The key to his breakthrough was to have actually gone to Vietnam, worked the Order of Battle issues on the ground, understand the enemy from "the enemy's" perspective and then double check how U.S. reporting of enemy strength matched that of how the enemy was reporting his own strength. This is when Adams discovered that MACV was undercounting troop strength. He performed a validity and reliability check on MACV and found their procedures and results wanting. The technique he used is described in detail and serves as a lesson learned for today's OB analysts.
   The second lesson is how Adams' persistence caused a rift between the CIA and MACV over the integrity of the OB counting. The CIA is evenhandedly portrayed in the book. Individual analysts who looked at the numbers invariably sided with Adams; those in responsive political positions and vulnerable to the political influence of the Johnson-McNamara Administration behave in the subtle manner normally associated with behind the scene politics. Adams illustrates how assessments were watered down, reports delayed, egos clashed in the briefing rooms, and all of the suppressive efforts were brought to bear to keep him muffled and how he countered them. Basically, his operating principle was that the truth should be allowed to surface and he describes how he created those opportunities; back channel copies of reports; boot leg copies of reports, analyst to analyst contacts (CIA to DIA, for example), as well as maintaining contact with the honest brokers at MACV.
   This is an important book for students of Intelligence Analysis. It serves as a guide on how to double check the validity and reliability of Order of Battle data; it gives insight to how politics heavily filtered ground truth under the Johnson Administration, and it lets the world see that the CIA wasn't evil incarnate. Like every other agency in Washington, it simply surrendered to political pressure from the White House.



5. Adams' book is not so much a book about Vietnam as a chronical of what happens when intelligence units and agencies report what the commanders WANT to hear. The CIA and J2 of MACV in Adams' book become pawns in the politics of Vietnam. They ignored facts and basic tenents of intelligence reporting. The agencies feared reaction to the facts and its possible effect on public sentiment to US involvement. Because of that they purposely, according to Adams, reported and knowingly maintained false information.

   Even more disturbing are Adams' insights into the CIA of the middle and late Sixties. Though deeply entrenched in war in Vietnam, they seemed to take an overall cavalier approach to the mission. Adams notes after Tet-1968 there were "considerably less than 6" CIA agent handlers in Vietnam who spoke vietnamese. These same case officers received a grand total of 2 hours orientation on Vietnam and their enemy prior to assignment.

   This book is a MUST read for intelligence personnel, policy makers and anyone who wants to learn how, the hard way, not to run an intelligence organization.

2 comments about Sea Wolf of the Confederacy: The Daring Civil War Raids of Naval Lt. Charles W. Read.

1. Charles W. Read was an inept student, he graduated last in his class at Annapolis in 1860 just before he re-signed his commission in the US Navy. What he showed (just like US Grant and a lot of other military minds) was that some people do best by doing, not studying. Having lost his steam ram in a battle on the Mississippi River near Vicksburg. He is called to work on a "Raider" out of Mobile Bay.
   
   Once on the open ocean "Florida" sailed into the Caribbean where they attacked Union commerce and merchant marine. Taking a captured ship "Tacony" with one howitzer and some fake (Quaker) wood guns, Read proceeds to damage over twenty ships on his way up to Portland Maine where they are caught but only after they steal a US Revenue Cutter and blow it up. The story is a lot like that of the "Shenandoah" which had two books about it published in 2005; more interesting from an historical point of view but not that thrilling. (How exciting can it be to read about the capture and burning of fishing Schooners?)



2. Although a life-long Civil War buff I had never heard of this attempt by a young Confederate Naval officer to take the war to the seas off New England. Lt. Charles A. Read had previously served on the ironclad "Arkansas" and the commerce raider "Florida" and had seen a lot of hard fighting - which he seemed to relish. In February, of 1863, the "Florida" captured a Union merchant vessel and Read was given permission to take over and convert this captured ship into another commerce raider. Read promptly sailed to the North and with only one small cannon on board began to wreak havoc on the New England fishing industry. The Northern states then began beseeching Washington for more protection - threatening to divert resources from the bloackade of Southern ports. Shipping insurance rates started rising, too.
   
   Shaw skillfully interweaves the two sides of the story - the motives and actions of the protagonist, Read, and his antagonist, Union Secretary of Navy Gideon Welles. The author may have a Northern bias but it does not ruin the story. There are many good accounts of Civil War naval actions - we can add this one to the list.

5 comments about Through These Eyes: A World War II Eighth Air Force Combat Diary.

1. A riveting book. The author tells the story of a young man from small town America, thrown into the most dangerous job in the military. He reminisces about growing up in a small town and then his journey into the Mighty 8th Air Corp. It is definitely a can't put down book.



2. An excellent memoir that shares the difficulties of what life was like during the Great Depression and the affect that it had on millions of adolescents in the United States during the 1930's. Sgt. Hutchinson then describes the traumatic experiences for these young men in the air war in Europe and the R and R in London, England. This book is a must read for the young people of today to gain an appreciation for the accomplishments of the "Greatest Generation."



3. What a great way to educate yourself on the daily life of a WWII veteran. This is a very interesting book! I was riveted with the terrific details and stories. It is amazing that our grandfathers and fathers did such amazing things at such a young age. We truly owe them our respect and admiration. After reading this book, it is easy to see why this generation is called "The Greatest Generation".



4. The history, story-telling and detail are fantastic in this new account of WWII. Highly recommended for all ages and interests. I couldn't put it down! Great gift to yourself or others! Easy reading and highly entertaining! Don't miss this one!



5. What a great book! As an aviation fanatic, it was interesting to read about the technical aspects of the "Flying Fortress" from a first hand point of view. The physical rigors of fighting the Germans at 25,000 feet in 40 below conditions and on oxygen for many hours lets one know the sacrifices the air crews made. I also enjoyed reading about what it was like to grow up in the depression. The discipline the young people learned at an early age shows why they are indeed the "Greatest Generation"