Great book!

[JCON]

Just finished Jeff Shaara's book on Teddy Roosevelt. Excellent read on a fascinating man who did so much for our nation! I highly recommend it to you! Have you read anything good lately?

[Beekster]

Now you've done it, Joe...behold the monster you have just unleashed:


Author Samuel was a German boy enthralled with watching the Berlin Airlift as an impoverished survivor of WW2. His family emigrated to the US, and he became a USAF pilot who flew some of these missions. These overflights of the Soviet Union were classified until just two decades ago and still little known. This is their story, told by the participants.



This big Schiffer title is an excellent reference on the topic, with hundreds of photos and information on the organization & tactics used to fight wildfires. Written about fifteen years ago in the wake of the FAA grounding the old piston-powered aircraft in 2004, it is most valuable for historic aircraft and has little coverage of the more modern jets in use.




Another obscure corner of history here, the story of the 5th Massachusetts Colored Cavalry Regiment in the Civil War. A good addition to the body of work on the African-American units during the Civil War.


A fairly recent treatment of this famous WW1 amphibious raid on the Belgian coast, convincingly argues that the raid was a greater success than is generally recognized.



History of a single parachute battalion of British 6th Airborne Division on D-Day and the weeks following. This unit like all the other airborne forces was spread from heck to breakfast and was forced to accomplish its mission objectives as best it could with scattered detachments.




Another excellent volume from Canada's pre-eminent popular historian of the Canadian Army in WW2. I have all but one of his works in my library, and the other one is on the list to acquire soon. His books have a few minor errors regarding equipment, but this doesn't detract from the compelling story of Canadian operations. In this case, the clearing of the Channel ports in the wake of the breakout from Normandy. I heartily recommend all of his works to anyone with an interest in Canada's contribution to liberating Europe.

[JCON]

Excellent books indeed Beekster! I love good history books as well. Just finished General Robert E. Lee's letters a week ago... his life through letters he had written to many!

The next is about the founding fathers of Seattle... a fun read indeed!

Another good one is about the Allied Occupation after WWII:

This is a book that was really hard to put down and talks about some areas you don't hear much about:

The last one here is also very riveting about the ladies who became code breakers!  I highly recommend it as well!

[Beekster]

Excellent choices, Joe!

[Beekster]

Forgot this one:


Excellent account of the early rocket-powered experimental aircraft programs, including a lot on the X-15 and the weird lifting bodies...including that crash we are all so familiar with because of its use in the opening credits of The Six Million Dollar Man TV show in the seventies.

[JCON]

Fun book indeed! My Grandfather worked at Lockheed and McDonald Douglas in Palmdale and when I was a young teen he took me to work a few times! He let me sit in the cockpit of an XB-70 Valkyrie! Also got to see the X-15 up close and personal! Later in life I was able to see a few of the Space Shuttles too!

[Beekster]

Jan 18, 2024 17:56:18 GMT -6 JCON said:

Fun book indeed! My Grandfather worked at Lockheed and McDonald Douglas in Palmdale and when I was a young teen he took me to work a few times! He let me sit in the cockpit of an XB-70 Valkyrie! Also got to see the X-15 up close and personal! Later in life I was able to see a few of the Space Shuttles too!

You did get to see some really fun stuff, Joe!  One of my grandfathers built Liberty ships in Portland, but they were long gone (and so were the shipyards) before I was born.  I have taken the Boeing plant tour in Everett, which is really impressive.  The 747 was still in mass production when I toured, and it's mind-boggling to see half a dozen of them lined up like angle-parked cars in a single assembly hall and realize that there's still room for more.

[JCON]

Jan 18, 2024 18:25:39 GMT -6 Beekster said:

Jan 18, 2024 17:56:18 GMT -6 JCON said:

Fun book indeed! My Grandfather worked at Lockheed and McDonald Douglas in Palmdale and when I was a young teen he took me to work a few times! He let me sit in the cockpit of an XB-70 Valkyrie! Also got to see the X-15 up close and personal! Later in life I was able to see a few of the Space Shuttles too!

You did get to see some really fun stuff, Joe!  One of my grandfathers built Liberty ships in Portland, but they were long gone (and so were the shipyards) before I was born.  I have taken the Boeing plant tour in Everett, which is really impressive.  The 747 was still in mass production when I toured, and it's mind-boggling to see half a dozen of them lined up like angle-parked cars in a single assembly hall and realize that there's still room for more.

That is cool about your grandpa!  There is a Liberty ship in Kodiak Alaska Harbor that they turned into a fish cannery!  The old harbor master told us about it on a dinner cruise we took with him and his wife when my daughter and fam lived there!  You can still see the ship on the Harbor side!


SS Albert M. Boe – The last Liberty ship built, sold to private ownership in 1964 and renamed Star of Kodiak. Used as a fish cannery ship. She is currently landlocked but remains the headquarters of Trident Seafoods in Kodiak, Alaska.  en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SS_Albert_M._Boe

There are only three others left in the world!  


SS John W. Brown – operational and in use as a museum ship in Baltimore Harbor, Maryland

SS Jeremiah O'Brien – operational and in use as a museum ship, docked at Pier 35, San Francisco, California

SS Arthur M. Huddell – transferred to Greece in 2008 and renamed Hellas Liberty. Restored for use as a maritime museum in Piraeus harbor, Greece.

[Beekster]

I have toured the only seaworthy Liberty ship in San Francisco, the Jeremiah O'Brian. I got lucky; it was the Friday before Fleet Week and the ship was boing to sail around the bay with veterans and notables aboard. So when I got to the engine room, the volunteer black gang was busy getting the boilers lit off in preparation for the next day's cruise.

I know a bit about fish ships. A buddy of mine was operations manager for the F/T Valiant, now long since scrapped. I went up to Dutch Harbor with him in December of 1990 and helped the crew switch out some stuff to convert the ship from processing pollack fillets to processing roe, the season for which was just a couple of weeks away. Dutch Harbor in December is something else...about five hours of daylight, always cold, windy and snowing. Well, almost always. When the skies clear and the sun comes out the Aleutians are stunningly beautiful. That year one of the volcanoes up the chain went off and sent ash high into the skies. I got out on the last flight to Anchorage before the airspace was shut down, a little six-seat light twin...Beech Baron or something similar. Very cool flight because I could see out the front of the airplane, which you never do on a big commercial jet.

My, we've digressed a bit from books, haven't we?

[JCON]

Just a wee bit but I don't mind! Fun post and fun history!!!

[JED]

Great books and family history. I recommend any book by Damien Lewis ( not the English actor) well researched

[gator]

The last book I read was Torpedoes In The Gulf. It covered German U-boat operations in the Gulf of Mexico during WWII. I highly recommend it.

[JCON]

That sounds great Kenny! Jed I'll have to check him out! Thanks!

[JED]

These are my two latest ones. I’m over half way through the one on the right. Sadly one of the characters in the book died last week, the last survived from group .

[JCON]

Will definitely look for them!