Current Reading - August 2019

I just finished The Siege of Tsingtau: The German-Japanese War 1914 by Charles Stephenson. The author goes far beyond just the siege or even the fighting between the Germans and the Japanese, going back to the late 19th Century to discuss naval strengths, political objectives and a whole bunch more of the UK, Germany, Japan, China and the US. He notes in his introduction that it is not intended to be an academic book, but it is not an easy read narrative history either. Still, it is very informative and if you have an interest in the period it covers a subject not often discussed in many WWI histories.

Just finished Blitzed. A fascinating account of Hitler being cranked on speedballs and all kinds of weird animal matter. The meth use among the average Nazi soldier was covered briefly.

Finished an excellent The Terror Before Trafalgar: Nelson, Napoleon and the Secret War by Tom Pocock.

Finished The Mediterranean Air War: Airpower and Allied Victory in World War II (B), which while very informative about the contributions of the RAF to winning the war in North Africa at a certain level seems less than convincing in regards to the author's understanding of that war. The author was a career staff officer in the USAF and recent commentary on the relevance of independent air power seems to have irritated him into writing this book; Ehlers definitely has axes to grind, even if I tend to agree with his focus and conclusions. There's a tight monograph about the air war in North Africa struggling to get out of what purports to be a wider study.