Yes I know it is a real shock to some folks like my Old School Teachers that I can read. But nonetheless I do when I find time.
Anyways one of the men that I look up to is a man that most Americans and a lot of Brits don’t know about. Bill Slim, the man who rebuilt a savagely mauled Army that barely escaped the Japs in Burma. Who then took it back and almost completely destroyed the Occupying Jap Army.
This book though does not deal with this subject. Instead it deals with a lot of interesting characters and events in a very humorous manner that happened during his earlier military career.
For example when he was involved in a punitive campaign with the Pathans on the NW Frontier. When on horse back and carrying a flag to signal his beloved Ghurka Troops to withdraw. He had the flag wrap around his head all the while under fire.
Or how he got his butt chewed out for smuggling Australian beer from Haifa to his Troops in Iraq. When his very unofficial & unauthorised Beer Convoy ran his bosses car and him into a ditch.
Anyways if you like a good war story or two. Then you might want to get your hand on a copy of this really amusing book. Oh yeah before I forget his other book Defeat into Victory. Is another great Generals Book to read! Grumpy
Category: Interesting stuff
Or President Theodore Roosevelt’s Place of Retreat
By the by, If you are near his place in Oyster Bay New York. I most highly recommend that you go & see his home. As it is well worth the effort! Grumpy
The following was kindly provided by Captain T.W. Forrest of the D.C. Army National Guard.
Suggestions for
Professional Officer Development Readings
Gen. George S. Patton, Jr.
As soldiers it is our duty to continue are professional development by reading. General George S. Patton, Jr. (1885-1945), was known for his study and reading of military history.
In 1952, his widow, Beatrice Patton, provided a list of his favorite books for an issue of Armor magazine (Patton, Beatrice Ayer, “A Soldier’s Reading,” Armor 61 (November-December 1952, pp. 10-11). I provide it to you for your professional development:
- Maxims of Frederick the Great
- Maxims of Napoleon, and all the authoritative military biographies of Napoleon
- Commentaries, Julius Caesar
- Treatises by von Treitchke, and von Clausewitz
- Memoirs of General the Baron de Marbot, and de Fezansec, a colonel under Napoleon
- Fifteen Decisive Battles of the World, Creasy
- Charles XII of Sweden, Klingspor
- The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (Vols 1, 2, 3) (Vols 4, 5, 6), Gibbon
- Strategicon, Marcus and Spaulding
- The Prince, Machiavelli
- The Crowd, Le Bon
- A History of the Art of War in the Middle Ages, Oman
- The Influence of Sea Power Upon History,, Mahan
- Stonewall Jackson, Henderson
- Memoirs of U. S. Grant, and those of McClellan
- Battles and Leaders of the Civil War, R. E. Lee, and Lee’s Lieutenants, Freeman
- Years of Victory and Years of Endurance, Bryant
- Gallipoli, Hamilton
- Thucydides’ Military History of Greece
- Memoirs of Ludendorff, von Hindenburg and Foch
- Genghis Khan, Alexander, Lamb
- Alexander, Weigall
- The Home Book of Verse
- Anything by Winston Churchill
- Kipling, complete
- Anything by Liddle Hart
- Anything by J. F. C. Fuller, especially ‘Generalship: Its Diseases and Their Cure’
She also explained that during WW II, Patton read about the areas in which he fought and for an understanding of tactics. For example:
- The Normans in Sicily, Knight
- The Greatest Norman Conquest, Osborne
- The History of the Norman Conquest of England, five volumes by Freeman
- Caesar’s Gallic War
- Infantry Attacks, Rommel
For further study in the importance of professional reading and how it can shape a soldier I recommend the following:
- Dietrich, Steve E. “The Professional Reading of General George S. Patton, Jr.” Journal of Military History 53 (October 1989)
- Nye, Roger H., The Patton Mind: The Professional Development of an Extraordinary Leader. Garden City, N.Y.: Avery Publishing Group, Inc., 1993.
- _____, “Whence Patton’s Military Genius?” Parameters 21 (Winter 1991-92), pp. 60-73.
Left to right: Charles Duke (Apollo 16), Buzz Aldrin (Apollo 11), Walter Cunningham (Apollo 7), Al Worden (Apollo 15), Rusty Schweickart (Apollo 9), Harrison Schmitt (Apollo 17), Michael Collins (Apollo 11), Fred Haise (Apollo 13)
We really dropped the Ball on Space Exploration!