November 2016 reading

So far it's been mostly nuts-and-bolts reading: 42cm 'Big Bertha' and German Siege Artillery of World War I (A), Boeing B-17 Fortress in RAF Coastal Command Service (A) and The Samurai Invasion of Korea 1592-98 (A). All good stuff but pretty straight forward, though the first was especially enlightening in terms of dealing with the organizational and performance issues of these legendary guns in actual service.

Just finished Dead Wake which was excellent, but, even better, I'm currently enthralled with Double Cross The True Story of the D-Day Spies.

Finished a very interesting (but dated) Death of the USS Thresher by Norman Polmar.

Finished a very good 1914: The Days of Hope by Lyn Macdonald.

To wrap up the month there's At All Costs: How a Crippled Ship and Two American Merchant Mariners Turned the Tide of World War II (C) and The Jutland Scandal (B). The former is an account of Operational Pedestal, which while having some interesting (even uplifting) personal stories to relate, is hamstrung by some ham-fisted writing, while the second brings together a pair of Interwar critiques of the battle (and which mostly excoriate Adm. David Beatty).