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Author Topic: Falklands War suggested reading  (Read 2458 times)

Offline italwars

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Re: Falklands War suggested reading
« Reply #15 on: January 10, 2019, 11:47:48 PM »
Thanks for your suggestions..i'll take into accounts what you said...
I know the moving history of the Guardsman experience and his struggle trough some videos..i 'll certainly buy his book
i've also recently  seen Illuminados por el fuego ...well it's certainly a sensible fiction...maybe a low budget moovie but we are talking of something very near and dramatic so i cannot expect an Hollywood type moovie of course..
While i find "an ungentleman act" that you probably also saw..quite dry 

Offline Arrigo

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Re: Falklands War suggested reading
« Reply #16 on: January 11, 2019, 12:33:48 PM »
As van der Bjil is concerned, I have not read his Falklands one, but I read the one on the Confrontation and it is excellent, plenty of gaming ideas and good maps.

Julian and Mike had always been very forthcoming with information, like how the beachhead ended up in San Carlos. We even gamed the campaign several year ago. Back in time also Admiral Woodward was quite helpful, even if got the impression he was more concerned in running his carrier force rather than in the whole operation. On the plus side he was an Harpoon player back in time! He also wrote the introduction to one of the edition.  As Mike point's out in his book, the command situation was quite muddled. Bascially no one had even addressed the possibility of real conflict until the last second. When Julian took over 3rd Brigade he was told my the minister to not worry about landings, because he would have been administratively moved to Denmark in case of war. I think the only one with some real landing experience at the time was Nick Vaux, because he was a platoon commander in Suez back in 56...



"Put Grant straight in"

for pretty tanks and troops: http://forwardhq.blogspot.com

Offline Shipka

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Re: Falklands War suggested reading
« Reply #17 on: January 24, 2019, 06:52:00 PM »
There are a couple of good books on both 2 and 3 Para

Two Para - Falklands: The Battalion at War

Falklands Gunner: A Day-by-Day Personal Account of the Royal Artillery in the Falklands War

With 3 Para to the Falklands

Green-Eyed Boys: 3 Para and the Battle for Mount Longdon

« Last Edit: January 24, 2019, 06:58:55 PM by Shipka »

Offline italwars

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Re: Falklands War suggested reading
« Reply #18 on: January 26, 2019, 06:35:18 PM »
Thanks for all those interesting commments/reviews...in the meanwhile i’ve already ordered and read J. Thompson “no picnic” very good and i really like his style of writing including humour..ordered and began to read Atkins and also ordered and waiting for Van der Bijl.. tempted also by Vaux and by the big “After the Battle” volume..among the suggestion also “not mentioned in the dispatches” and “green eyed boys”puzzle me..they had been described as controversial...the mentioned British author that used quite a few Argentinian source would be also interesting..while for the Argentinian side i’m tackling Joffre’s memoirs but it seem to be not an easy and cheap task to order from Argentina. I find also a pair of books on SAS activities in South Atlantic but could they be useful and reliable? I suspect that UK ‘s special forces missions still are and remain “top secret”
« Last Edit: January 26, 2019, 06:41:32 PM by italwars »

Offline 6milPhil

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Re: Falklands War suggested reading
« Reply #19 on: January 26, 2019, 07:10:01 PM »
But it is just me... other people considers Hastings a sort of divine writer...  lol

No it's not just you, it's me too. ;)

Offline italwars

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Re: Falklands War suggested reading
« Reply #20 on: January 26, 2019, 07:28:17 PM »
Ok 6 Mil i ll trust both yours and Arrigo’s comments..of which i use to appreciate his usual “outside voices”..and , even if very cheap and easy to find, il avoid to buy also Hasting’s book  ;)

Offline Arrigo

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Re: Falklands War suggested reading
« Reply #21 on: January 26, 2019, 08:00:59 PM »
No it's not just you, it's me too. ;)

glad to not be alone.

I have not read Nick Vaux's book, but I had a mail ecchange with him  for an online article I wrote back in time, and he was a first rate chap. 

Book on SAS are a mixed bag, some, I have been told, are good, some are fiction. When dealing with special forces there is always an element of  trust you have to grant to the author, because a lot of what he is writing is not readily available. On the other hand there are two issues:

one, if he is a reliable author, why he is talking about classified stuff? Especially if he is a former operator... either he has been cleared (okay good source) or he is making it up... including his credentials (see the discussions on McNab, or on Captain Shelby Stanton for another army and another war).

two, parochial views. Very often there is a massive bias toward the 'my unit is the best' approach. every error is made by the big wigs, the conventionals, or someone else... I found few authors capable to resist the hagiography approach when dealing with special units. Blowing accomplishments out of proportion and always telling us that if given free rein the specials would have done even better.

For my thesis I have done plenty of research on MACV SOG in Laos. Even after 40 years the official sources (there is a lot og good stuff on it in MACV yearly command histories) are heavily redacted. Especially on detail like insertion method and contacts' detail. On the other hand the official material if a treasure trove on the effort to make a picture of enemy movements in Laos and to improve interdiction operations. On the other hand, popular histories, including the ones written by former members, are short on the big picture (and often biased), and rich on details... that are redacted on the official documents. That was 67-73, think about 1982...  lol  o_o