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Rory

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Rory’s Bookshelves

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Rory is Currently Reading

Rory is currently reading

Desert Armour: Tank Warfare in North Africa: Beda Fomm to Operation Crusader, 1940–41

by Robert Forczyk

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read in August 2025

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(page 58 of 336)
"Preliminary discussion of tank development, British vs German. Radios key in German, plus they developed to meet needs for peer to peer, armoured vehicles for different tasks. British shaped by limited budget, focus on light tanks and armoured cars for fighting lightly armed colonial uprisings." — Aug 09, 2025 12:58PM

Aug 09, 2025 12:58PM

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Summer Thunder: A Battlefield Guide to the Artillery at Gettysburg

by Matt Spruill

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Aug 05, 2025 09:38PM

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Bagration 1944: The Great Soviet Offensive

by Prit Buttar

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Rory said: " About 10% into the book. I recently moved near the Gettysburg battlefield, like Bagration a major battle in a brutal war. Gettysburg has a major movie, based on a novel that centered on a handful of characters. Many of thousand histories written on t About 10% into the book. I recently moved near the Gettysburg battlefield, like Bagration a major battle in a brutal war. Gettysburg has a major movie, based on a novel that centered on a handful of characters. Many of thousand histories written on the battle, despite close to 200,000 soldiers involved, center on just handful of key figures. The battle was less than 30 square miles, most of the action occurring over just 3 days. And most histories of the battle have only very brief overview of the 2 years of prior fighting, usually picking up from battle of Chancellorsville.
Battles on the Eastern Front of WWII, however, ranged over hundreds of miles. In the English speaking world, much of the Eastern Front events beyond Moscow/Stalingrad/Kursk/Berlin were shrouded in mystery and what was covered usually painted with hyperbole for over 50 years, until the Cold War ended in the 1990's. John Erickson and his wife, and Earl Ziemke were perhaps THE only English-writing historians showing the Russian side until David Glantz and others after him gained access to the Soviet Archives.
As a result, Bagration has rarely been covered, overshadowed by Normandy and the Western Front. Moreover any book on Bagration is handicapped with a good portion of the book having to provide a much longer overview as Western audiences not only are not as familiar with the Eastern Front but also a brief history of the Baltic States. This book doesn't simply pick up the narrative after Kursk. No, the author is obligated to cover and explain the setting in much more detail than say required with a book on Gettysburg.
Nevertheless, his first chapter, state of the army, goes beyond the usual "recap" of the war to also cover albeit briefly some of the handicaps that the German army of 1944 faces--like lack of fuel, inability to tow artillery quickly in retreat from a breakthrough, and lack of Luftwaffe. To be honest, whole books could be devoted these handicaps as many lessons to be learned here that could be applied even today. ...more "

Mar 15, 2025 09:20PM · see review

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Rory’s Quotes

“I would rather be the hammer than the anvil”
― Erwin Rommel

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“People in the real world envy footballers. It is a fabulous life with rewards they can only dream of stuck in offices and factories doing jobs they hate.”
― P.J. Davitt

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