Books by ex Squaddies

jim wrote:

My God shelldrake, what on earth are you doing up at 0530 hrs?

It was 0730hrs where I am, Jim. Have a look at my location.

Gordon. wrote:

Googling Max Hastings.....

That was all a long time ago, Gordon - no need to bring it up again!!

try Amazon, might get a better bargain there.

Just about to order this one.I`m told it`s very good

I have almost completed my memoirs, working title is "I was Barnes Wallis' Batman".

Put me down for a freebie pse..Or would you like me to write the foreword?

Will do Gordon, I've got another Ex Gunner to write the foreward - Douglas Bader.

You would be better off with his dug.he had forelegs

Good thinking Gordon, remind me of his dogs name again?

His dog was called Nigger,which was quite acceptable in bygone days.Still is acceptable as a name (by some) but not as a description...
Now how do i get out of this mine field????

Walk around with your hands over your ears, whilst stamping both feet in a forward direction.

I`m sure you will leave the mine field one way or another.

Very helpful Mal.That`s just what i`ll do..

brum wrote:

I found a book by Max Hastings called "All Hell Let Loose".

Max covers the whole of WW2 in one volume, it would take a writer of his stature to manage that !

He don't mess about, Max, he just tells it like it was. It looks like being a good book !

Ref. my PM Cartav/ Brum........ And info. on previous MH book, "Armageddon"
I'm part way through......... He might just be telling WW2 D-Day to Berlin as it was but, up to halfway through, he's praised the Yanks and believes the Brits were a pretty incompetent lot. Even the paras as a unit, and not just the top brass at Arnhem, come in for some stick. And if we'd lost, a fair number of our lot could have been tried at something like the equivalent as Nuremburg for battlefield atrocities, and the RAF Typhoon pilots didn't think it too much wrong to shoot up civilian refugee columns. The Wehrmacht comes out of it pretty well though. Just about the best army in the world apparently. On the plus side, the Krauts thought our Gunners were good at their trade!

Is that how it was ? Maybe, but that's a hell of a lot different from anything I've been conditioned to believe.

Don`t forget, history is written by the victors, so one side of the story is pretty much over looked or ignored.
I`m sure both sides did things they shouldn`t have, but there was a war on, it changes things.

I have just finished "Tenko (TheTrue Story)" I knew the Nipponese were bad little barstewards but this book was a real eye opener...

Me and Thirteen Tanks: Tales of a Freelance Coldwar Spy. By Peter McDonagh, he of BFBS fame, highly recommended and available from Amazon.

OK, I'm still here you lot.... One or two have climbed the promotion ladder since my last intelligent contribution......Subject of books, though. I seem to recall a project was in hand to put together something as a record of BAOR.......must be a year or two back since I sent off one or two pics which seemed to be worthy of inclusion in any erudite tome....... Did it ever go to print, or was it scorned by publishers ?

Yes, you at the back ! Wake up !!! There was life in Germany before berets are shrunken to a fascinator style, no two alike, & cap badges are displayed above left ear 'oles/.. And that multi terrain stuff looks like a house painter's overalls on which he wiped his brush. HRUMPH !
Bring back uniformity, red tunics, brass buttons & pipe clayed webbingn !
And why have Tescos stopped selling bratwurst ?

Steady on, before we know it Ginger Jim will be on here bemoaning the demise of 37 pattern webbing and ammunition boots!

>>Cartav wrote :  I seem to recall a project was in hand to put together something
    as a record of BAOR.......must be a year or two back since I sent off one or two
    pics which seemed to be worthy of inclusion in any erudite tome....... Did it ever
    go to print, or was it scorned by publishers ? <<

HQ BAOR and the White House still existed then - the tasked civil servant went when the org dissolved.

Since then two plans -
1)  somewhere in Normandy Barracks Sennelager is a "Legacy Historian" reputedly (or allegedly) a former SLO who had been responsible for the closure of Haig Barracks Hohne, and tasked to gather the remnants of knowledge (I shall enquire for his details) Hugh Pierson
2)  Paderborn Stadt have designs on the real-estate about to be released, AND have delved in to the History of the British in Westfalen to produce an Exhibition (Ausstellung) in the Am Abdinghof Council Buildings in the town  (from memory the parking there is iffy at best), recording the impacts and interactions between the  population and the military: Dr. Bettina Blum

Link here:  https://www.paderborner-konversion.de/briten-westfalen/ausstellung

anyone considering devloping a project / purchase of  barracks:

https://www.paderborner-konversion.de/standorte

and

There is more:

Legacy Officer is Hugh Pierson
While stories and photographs are welcome to be sent electronically, submissions and memorabilia can also be sent through the post to:

Legacy and Projects Officer, HQ BFG, Catterick Barracks, BFPO 40.

Contacts/Links:

http://www.sixth-sense.de/dont-throw-it-show-it/

To submit your stories visit: www.bfgnet.de/legacy-project or visit the BFGnet Facebook page.

Pborn4 wrote:

and

There is more:

Legacy Officer is Hugh Pierson
While stories and photographs are welcome to be sent electronically, submissions and memorabilia can also be sent through the post to:

Legacy and Projects Officer, HQ BFG, Catterick Barracks, BFPO 40.

Contacts/Links:

http://www.sixth-sense.de/dont-throw-it-show-it/

To submit your stories visit: www.bfgnet.de/legacy-project or visit the BFGnet Facebook page.

Hugh Pierson has vanished - but some of the memorabiia he collected seems to have been incorporated in a book produced as:  British Forces in Germany: The Lived Experience by Dr Peter Johnston - Head of Collections Research and Academic Access at the National Army Museum. (Now listed with the RAF Museum 6/21)

Legacy Projects officer no longer exists, unless he is hiding-out in the new German Police /Police Dog School - where Catterick Barracks used to be.

Sixth Sense has gone - theír archives may well be in the National Army Museum in Chelsea (though
many newspapers were recycled as packing in MFO boxes, as firelighters or fish and chip wrappers).

(Larry was the Fish and Chip man at Sennelager, (a NAAFI Contractor) who, as with NAAFI Vans and the Church Army Newspapers, sweeties and rolls truck (in the same way as Wolfgang* the Wurst man up north with a franchise from the Bundeswehr running  Bergen/Hohne NATO Ranges):
[b]ALL[b] all got copies of the daily Range allocation programme, (Range Pink on Bw sites), Dry Training Plan, Bivouac allocations,  and exercise routine (and rail flats loading times) to make sure the needs of a soldier's "extra Messing" whilst out camping were all met)   *Wolfgang of blue van fame.
so none of them shot out of the ground like mushrooms - they all made their living and paid off their franchises.

I also have published a book.
See info below

/Users/lenpayne/Documents/ MACAULEY/Promises - Flyer.jpeg

This gets you there as well:

https://www.austinmacauley.com/author/payne-len

Read some good, read some bad and read some until about page 20 then hoofed it in the bin. Loads of former soldiers have attempted to get their careers into print and some have been quite successful. Others not so much, mainly due to the fact that they are only repeating tales that they hope that most readers will connect with (being veterans themselves) and who will part with their cash.

One waste of ink and paper which fell into the bin on purpose was written by a former guardsman come former policeman come police 'advisor'. Dull didn't quite describe it, but it received a few rave reviews on Amazon, most likely by friends and former colleagues. I can't even remember the title, it was so bad. There are some good ones out there but you have to delve through some crap to find them.

I've just finished reading a book called 'One of the Few' about an RAF pilot called Ted Shipman who served in WW2 and continued his career post war. The book was written by his son. An interesting read. That led me on to 'Blood, Sweat and Courage' which covers one of Ted's former units 41 Sqn RAF between 1939 and 1942, by Steve Brew. A good read so far. One striking issue which catches you, are the ages of some of those pilots who died in combat and through accident.

I'll be getting a book, " Don't Cry For Me Sgt. Major". From a friend over your way in the U.K. Looking forward to it, as is supposed to be a good read. So many good books out there in the U.K. on military life and very unavailable here in Canada. I have Navel & Military press e-mailing me. And I do break down and purchase some of their books. But so many like the book I'm getting are out of print and silly prices being asked on Amazon, etc. Thank goodness for the generosity of U.K. vets willing to share. Nothing better than a good read on a subject we are familiar with, a good coffee and snack to accompany it. BUT!! our library system here does sneak the odd book from abroad. U.K., German, Russian, Yank.