I'd appreciate any recommendations from Veeky Forums for books about wars that relatively obscure to the majority of people. Examples:
The Russo-Japanese War
The Boer War
The Winter War (Finland v. USSR)
The fall of France in WWII
Any other conflict the mention of which would cause the average person to look mildly confused.
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russo japanese war
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boer wars
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fall of france
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pic related for winter war
>The fall of France in WWII
Strange Defeat and Strange Victory. Strange Defeat was written by a French soldier during the occupation, making it an interesting window in the time from somebody who was there, and who also didn't know with any certainty that France would ever be free of German control.
Strange Victory is a "spiritual sequel" to the Strange Defeat, written by a military historian with the help of German documents that the writer of Strange Defeat would never have had access to. The book seems to take the position that Hitler was much more attuned to military matters than he is often given credit for.
Highly recommended. There's much more to the war than Yi Sun-sin memeing the Japanese navy out of existence.
In particular, the international and domestic politics of the situation were in equal measure fascinating and hilarious.
-Pretty much every single diplomat tasked to translate or carry a message to the other side lied about the contents of their message to make it more palatable to the recipient. The daimyo of Tsushima, who acted as go-betweens for Hideyoshi and the Koreans.
-The Chinese (eventually) honored their commitment to their Korean tributaries, but Chinese soldiers were know to indiscriminately slaughter civilians to rack up kills for that sweet bonus money (paid per skull), and the Chinese commanders expected deference from the Koreans.
-The Japanese won almost all of the battles but didn't know how to occupy foreign territory
-The Koreans nominally had a well organized army with more than 50,000 professional soldiers, but could never field more than 10,000 men in battle because most of their army was literally made of paper, with tens of thousands of soldiers on the book but not in uniform, and generals who were basically reject civil servants.
-But they did have a guerrilla leader with a magic bulletproof cloak soaked in the period blood of virgins.
Forgot pic. The Imjin War is tragically underrated.
Also Hideyoshi was an absolute madman who thought he could conquer not just Korea and China, but all Asia clear to India.
>magic bulletproof cloak soaked in the period blood of virgins
Jesus. Fucking gooks. I'm gonna check if this book exists in my native language, that's for sure.
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The Conquest of Ainu Lands: Ecology and Culture in Japanese Expansion 1590–1800
Guerilla Days in Ireland: Tom Barry's Autobiography
Also I can't recommend reading on Shakushain's War enough. It's truly a unique and fascinating conflict that captures the imagination.
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Also, I just finished the Introduction of this, The Mexican War by Jack Bauer.
So far I'm enthralled by it and would like to prematurely recommend it as well. Such an important yet forgotten war in my Nation's history.
Bump, and thanks to everyone for these recommendations!
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"History in Three Keys" by Paul Cohen is an interesting look at the Boxer Rebellion
The White War by Mark Thompson, great book about the Italian front in WW1, Italian motivations, futurism, all sorts of great information about the war.
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What are some good medieval works? I've been making my way through the Icelandic Sagas, read quite a bit of those, hit up the song of roland, the nibelungenlied, The Knight in the Panther's Skin, most of Russia's medieval literature, touched on some anglo-saxon stuff, Digenes Akritas, the Daredevils of Sassoun. What else is good?
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Bumo
Not lesser-known in the least and especially not to a board like Veeky Forums but you're doing yourself a disservice by not reading this. A lot of shit can happen in 30 years: dramatic reversals of fortune, endless Christian slaughter of other Christians, the works. It was just a very unpleasant experience and other year-ed wars don't have shit on it
anything by Norman Davies on anything Polish
severely underrated
Bought this on Audible, it does a good job explaining the situation mostly military centered but it's an alright ride, especially if you are dipping your feet into the Progressive era.
>lesser known wars
>ww2
What did he mean by this?
Some fronts or perspectives aren't as widely discussed.
Things like Jap coup in Vietnam 1945, Battle of Madagascar Franco-Thai conflict are good examples.
(Didn't name drop these to seem smart, i really need info on these events.)
Im reading about the russo japanese war RN. here are all the books ive gotten so far. I've read Human Bullets and am currently reading through The Japan-Russia war by Sydney Taylor, Going back to the Osprey books to get a picture of vehicles or major battles. Can anyone recommend anything else?
BTW Sydney Taylor's book, as rich as it is with information, Im skeptical of some of the events. Such as the supposed charge of a Ninth division brigade which ended with "General commanding the second (brigade) fired upon and exterminated. I cant find any sources of such a thing happening outside this book, but id be glad to change my tune if someone could back this claim up.
There's one passage from this book that years later I've never been able to forget.
"Were you daughter not so niggardly with her virginity she would not have been raped."
like fuck man they're literally your own countrymen
Grudges get worse the more you know eachother.
Call me a total scrub, but does anyone have any recommendations on reading about the Korean War? I'd really like to know more about it since my battalion (2EN BN, U.S. Army) had to burn its colors before being overrun after agreeing to be the rear guard for several other battalions. Several survivors come to the ceremony each year that we have, and I'd really like to get read up on it so I can truly understand what those guys went through. I just don't know where to start.
>we had a special meal in the chow hall after the ceremony and I got to sit across from one of the survivors
>he sighs and separates his country style steak from the rice and notices me watching curiously
>mfw he says quietly, "When you have to pick maggots and mouse shit out of clumps of rice for a while, you tend to not like it so much after."
Referring to the time they spent in a POW camp, of course.
william stuek, rethinking the korean war: a new strategic and diplomatic history
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ctrl f korean war
here as well and theres a lot more books and articles on specific battles and actions. see pic related
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final pic
this looks interesting too
The 30 years war was Europe's Syrian war. Assad is the Emperor and ISIS the protestants (specifically the calvinists).
The Korean war by Max Hastings is a good place to start.
It includes a good deal of political history, like when the 10th landed on incheon in 1945 and the cold war in asia. You'll get a good sense of perspectives from British, American, Chinese and UN grunts who served. (NK perspective somewhat lacking for obvious reasons)
There is a chapter dedicated to POW's in Chinese care and how they coped, from getting captured to starving to getting high. And the opposite in a chapter dedicated to the disasterus Geoje-do POW camp.
A large portion of the book is about firefights, and almost always from the grunt or civilians point of view, so not much tactics and overhead maps are discussed if you were hoping for that.
Can't remember how much was written on Ch'ongch'on and your battalion though.
A good starting point for "The Forgotten War" for me was This Kind of War by T. R. Fahrenbach
Thanks guys, I appreciate it.
The Battle for the Hague by Bronger and the Boer War by Bossenbroek. The first one is a very detailed account, clearly written by a former soldier. Can be a little dry at times but offers a whole new perspective on the invasion of France and the Low Countries in 1940.
Second one describes the Boer War from the perspective of a Dutch-turned-South-African Diplomat, Winston Churchill and a Boer commando. Very exciting read.
is it just excerpts from each guy? or does he collect all the sources and write his own narrative from the perspective of each guy?
>Any of those
>lesser-known history
pop history cunts need to fuck off
I'd say its a mix really. The book is divided into 3 parts, one for each person. Bossenbroek constantly switches between the bigger picture and the situation of the person on the ground to show the implications of actions made higher up. For instance shortage of everything on the Boer side at the end of the war, and the burning of Boer farms. There is also a very detailed account of Churchills escape from imprisonment.
Read some Väinö Linna if youre interested in the finnish civil war, the winterwar and the continuation war.
They most likely have english translations, but im not entirely sure.
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